| In the summer 2001 I visited Bangkok.
I met a friend on ICQ ½ a year before, and decided to pay her a visit on my way to a wedding in Manila, Philippines. I didn't expect so much attention from her, but every day, she came to my hotel to guide me around on Bangkok and the suburbs, willing to tell lots of info about the nice and exciting things we saw.
She even took me to her hometown, Pang Tru and we stayed in her parents house for a night. Form there to River Kwai; it's only a ten minutes drive. One of her relatives had taken the day off, just to derive me around in her parent's car. I was very happy, cause this gave me the opportunity to see more of the land around village. Especially Wat Koa Noi and a Chinese cemetery were nice to see and of course the famous bridge at river Kwai.
I had a great time there, and I'm very glad I met Lalana cause she showed me more about the Thai culture and traditions, that I ever would be able to learn by my self on such short time.
If you have plans to go Asia, I strongly recommend Thailand, cause people there generally are very nice and helpful. Accommodation is like the food, cheap and good.
The capital city of Thailand, is not known by the name Bangkok to Thai people, the actual name in Thai is Krungthepmahanakorn Amornrattanakosin Mahintra Ayuthaya Mahadilokpob Noparat Rajataniburirom Udomrajanivej Mahasatharn Amornpimarn Awatarnsatis Sakatadtiya Wisanukamprasit, (164 letters), which is interestingly enough registered in the Guiness Book of Records as the city with the longest name! But fortunately for us it is abbreviated for daily use to Krungthep, or Krungthep Mahanakorn, meaning City of Angels. As for the word Bangkok, this was derived from Bang Kork, and refers to the original site, which is only a very small part of what is today called Bangkok by westerners.
|