Sunday, August 3, 2008

From a distance it can be deceiving

Let me start by giving some reasons why I love seeing movies here in Thailand.
1. It only costs $4
2. I can get a drink and popcorn in collectible plastic containers (in my case Wall E) plus some sort of surprise (I got a watch) for $3, the same price as a small drink in the states, and it was carmel popcorn, amazing.
3. The seats are HUGE, there is so much leg space (except at the IMAX) and I can put my feet up (generally because there arn't a lot of people at english language movies)

One thing that sucks about movies here though is there's no guarantee that the movie you want to see will be released here. Like right now we have Batman, The Mummy and Journey to the Center of the Earth. I'm sure there are so many more movies out now. If "Mamma Mia" isn't released here I'm going to be so disappointed.

After getting pedicures ($4) and eating delicious American Food (I had a bagel and cream cheese and chicken nuggets) on friday night we went to see "Journey to the Center of the Earth" at Rattinathibet (one of the malls close to school). That is the movie experience that prompted me to write about why I love movies in Thailand. The movie itself was OK. It could have been better. The version we saw was 3-D, except we didn't have 3-D glasses so some of the effect was lost.

On Saturday it felt SOOOOO SOOOOO good to sleep in. I miss sleep so much!!!! Then when I woke up I just lazed around and watched Survivor for a couple hours. It was so great. Then in the afternoon Bridget, Sarah, Anna and I caught the river taxi to Wat Arun. I've been wanting to go there since I got to Bangkok. It's an old temple "ruin" in Bangkok that you can see for miles. It reminds me a lot of the pagodas in Burma, except not gold. That's how I got my title too (of this blog I mean). From a distance the wat looks gray, but up close it's really decorated with multi-colored glass and plates. It's so beautiful. And one of the coolest things about the Wat is that you can climb it. Actually it's quite scary too. The first set isn't so bad, then the second set gets steeper, kind of like the Great Wall of China, then the third step is crazy steep. If there hadn't been a railing I don't know if I could have done it. The view was gorgeous from the top. I think that's the highest I've been since I got here. It really let us get our bearings as to where everything is that we can see from the ground. Afterwards we came back to Nontaburi, got Dairy Queen, and made a Big C trip. Our Tuk Tuk driver was absolutely CRAZY!!! He was speeding down the street. I thought we would flip for sure.

I hope everyones had a good weekend at home. I always hate this time on sunday night when I know in just a few hours I have to work again. The upside is time here seems to fly by so maybe I'll get lucky this week :)

Here are some pics from Wat Arun




2 comments:

jaredstorer said...

I think Wat Arun is definitely a place Carmen & I will want to visit. You're pic's are great!

dave said...

Cool pictures Manda! I am sooo envious going to Katmandu wow maybe someday we can go there though mom wouldn't want to ,too much walking!
Do you have hiking boots here that we could send to you? or maybe we could pick-up a cheap pair to send in case they don't fit no big deal. Oh yea,we sold the house sunday!prayers were answered.BYE DLD.