19 April 2013
Exploring Bangkok during Songkran, Thailand’s new year celebration, meant wandering the streets during a nationwide water fight. Without a doubt, the past week was one of my favorites thus far traveling—people of all ages, locals and foreigners together, just playing on the streets. I also reconnected with Raquel, an old college friend who is herself traveling. I’m always amazed to be a world apart yet still find friends from home; joining them in water fights along random Bangkok streets made for a better a reunion.
Certainly, a visit to Bangkok would be incomplete without trekking to one of its many temples. Having missed Wat Arun, Temple of the Dawn, last time we were in town, we took this opportunity to climb its many steps and look across the skyline.
I enjoyed Bangkok far more this visit than when starting last fall. Perhaps knowing a place, being familiar with the streets and its culture, really does make it more accessible. Maybe it’s simply that the entire city was in a festive mood. But part of me wonders how much of it is how I myself have changed.