I think the most prominent landmark that I’ve seen within Bangkok is the Grand Palace, but it seems like I saw that so long ago since that was the first weekend I got here. It’s also hard for me to pinpoint my favorite landmark or museum in Bangkok when honestly I’ve spent most weekends in other regions of Thailand. Since the time I’ve been in Salaya (where I’m actually living) I’ve only spent two weekends here, the rest have been traveling about seeing new parts.
If I’m considering all of Thailand, my most favorite landmark and museum was by far the White Palace located in Chiang Rai, a very northern part of Thailand. I believe it was built fairly recently, but it immediately became a very popular tourist and local attraction. It’s a beautiful white temple that was designed to look crystal-like when the sun reflects off of it. It’s position right next to road and seems oddly located, however it’s not random for temples to be in random places of Thailand. There are more temples than you can imagine here, so you start to get used to seeing them it almost feels as if they’re not there anymore. But the abundance of temples aside, the White Temple was the most beautiful one and my most favorite one I had yet to see, and let me tell you had seen my fair share of temples at that point.
Most of the places I’ve seen in Thailand were done with a small group of friends and we figured out how to navigate and travel to each place. The school doesn’t arrange any field trips for us, but I do know an ecology class here takes you to a beautiful national park called Khao Yai. So if you’re reading this, want to study abroad in Thailand, and would want a free trip while you’re here sign up for this class! Just kidding.
Besides traveling on my own, the program I came here with (CISabroad) plans trips for us as well. They took us to the Grand Palace, Ayutthaya, Mangroves and Floating Market, Chiang Mai, and Koh Chang. It’s so nice that they do this because all the places I listed are things I wanted to do on my own, but without the added stress of having to plan it on my own. Everything is taken care of by CIS including transportations and meals for the time we spend there. I’m definitely grateful that I came to Mahidol University through an abroad program.
