Bhutan Day 1- Hike to the Tiger's Nest

4AM is NOT a normal time for a flight... but this was the time we had to fly out of Bangkok for Bhutan... 4am flight means getting to the airport at 2am... leaving the room at 1:30am. So when I dont got to bed until midnight (early night for me) a 4am flight was an interesting start to the trip.

K2! We could see it from the plane as we were getting close to Bhutan! 

We arrived into Paro, Bhutan at 6am to a nice sunny morning! So even though we had minimal sleep the night before, we collectively decided that we would take advantage of the sunny weather and hike up to the Tigers Nest!  

The Tiger's Nest is a monastery on the edge of a very very steep cliff on the top of a very high mountain!  We are the Morris family so this really should not come as much of a surprise but yes we hiked the 2.5h up to the top with only 1.5h of sleep and at a very high altitude! But we survived and wow it was stunning!

on the trail with all the prayer flags behind me

You can see the Tiger's Nest on the cliff behind us. 

The prayers on a flag. 

On our way down we stopped for tea and biscuits! (you can see the Tiger's Nest in the distance behind us! Beautiful view!)

see STEEP cliff!

We were lucky and we just happened to be in Paro during the one festival a year!  Everyone was walking around in their traditional clothing!  Made the streets very colourful!  We stopped by a market that was set up just for the festival.  It was so colourful! Both with what they were selling and with what they were wearing!

Far left is Chencho our guide. 

far left is Karma our driver and between mum and I is Chencho our guide. 

Weaving. 

After the market we drove to Timphu where we were spending our first night.  Timphu is the capital and is connected to Paro by the one highway that crosses through the centre of the country.  We also went to a zoo where we saw the Bhutanese national animal the Takin which is a very strange looking animal!

Bangkok with my parents :)

 First stop: Chatuchuk Market, the weekend market in Bangkok.  Of course mum loved it and was overwhelmed by how much there was!  We even found the pet squirrel section! I cant get over how they sell squirrels!

After roaming around the market for awhile we decided to go to Vimanmek Palace (dad was getting antsy).  Vimanmek Palace is entirely made out of teak and is the largest weekend building in the world!  It was built by the king after his time in europe (he was the first king to go to school outside of Thailand).

Mum and I outside Vimanek Palace. 

Behind Vimanek Palace we found all these VW vans! 

Dad and I in front of Anantasamakhom Palace, beside Vimenek Palace.  The grounds were huge, lots of beautiful gardens.

Also in the grounds was a zoo! Dunsit Zoo!

I had to add this picture in.  I find it so trippy on overnight bus trips passing these busses with all the bright coloured lights! I feel like I'm in some asain movie!

While we were walking we came accross a Wat with next to no tourists!  There were monks everywhere and we even saw a boy getting his hair cut in a ceremony to start his monkhood. 

Then that night as I was walking to show my parents Chula we walked by the free Muai Thai fight at MBK!

Lost in the city of Bangkok

I am sad to say that for how long I have lived in Bangkok I have not explored as much as I should have so I have now vowed to take every opportunity I get to explore various areas of the city!

View from our new room on the 29th floor! (only floor above us is the penthouse for the owner)

 I no longer have class on Thursday or Friday... well Thursday was almost write off this week after our going away party for Sebastian, although I did find an amazing place for hangover food!  George and I had a perfect afternoon of bagels and Haagen Daas icecream! We also discovered a really nice area just past Central world with a very very high end shopping mall!

Amber, Sophie, me, Marvin

Antoine, Sebastian, Marie

Nico, George, Me

The next day I woke up early and started my day roaming around Lumpini Park.

This park reminds me somewhat of Central Park in NY, really only because it is a big park in the middle of a huge city.  This park has paths for running, food stalls, beautiful gazebos, and parks... where apparently I am too old to play in! NOT KIDDING!  I was kicked off the swing set for being too old! I was SO UPSET!

I did have a nice time wandering around the trails, walking past the lakes and looking at the sculptures.  The sculpture on the top (fat running woman) is called "Women in the next Decade"... havnt decided what I think of the name...

After using the self timer a Thai guy called to me "photo photo, I take photo" and proceeded to take a grand total of 9 pictures of me in various poses all in this area... dont worry I wont bore you with the pictures but I sure felt like I was the centre of attention for a solid 5min there!

So as I was roaming all alone in the park, I see out of the corner of my eye a large object crawling towards me from the stream... I glance over and my first thought is "alligator?!" but not it is just a MASSIVE lizard! (well it is probably something different but I only know the general term lizard so sorry for the nontechnical term here)

How would you feel if this thing was crawling right for you!?

After my adventures in Lumpini Park I roamed around Central World, the high end mall just past Central world and one other area that I have no idea what it is called! Found a cute French cafe for lunch and roamed around the fancy area of Bangkok! Sorry no pictures... I'm not really one to take pictures of stores... but i'm sure you can imagine!

Now for a break from my explorations in Bangkok here are some pictures of my old and new room!

Old bedroom... you can see the pool creeping out from under the balcony

Our living area... and Amber studying at our table (old room)

Kitchen of our old room

View from our old room!

And now my new room.... The room with the wonderful view on the 20th floor! We moved in with two girls from Singapore, business exchange students! 

Amber and my new bedroom

Our new huge living room... You can see the lights from the city out the window

Our new kitchen and part of the living area

Mum and Dad arrived on the Saturday so Saturday I spent doing homework... Sunday I explored the city with them but dont have the pictures so I will skip to Monday...

Monday I decided I wanted to roam around China Town.... my roam turned into me getting lost as I was trying to get away from some guy who was being a little too friendly... I think he wanted money to tour me around maybe?  But while I was lost I did find some beautiful Shrines and a market! and I did find China Town after enough wondering!

I started at Wat Traimit aka Temple of the Golden Bhudda

And there is the massive golden Bhudda!

One of the shrines I found.

Finally after lots of roaming I found the main streets of China town!

I was so happy/amazed to find roasted chestnuts! Brought back good memories from Christmas roaming the streets on Robson... I might not have a winter this year but I can still enjoy my roasted chestnuts! 

The HUGE market I roamed in for a long time before finally going home.

Outside of another shrine I found near the market.