Royal Thai Christmas Party

After being in Thailand for less than twenty four hours, on December 24th at 7pm, my family and I went to our ancestor, Prince Rangsits large house/ mansion/ palace/ cottage (depending on who you’re talking to) for a Christmas part with the Rangsit branch of the family. It was a lot of meeting new people, but it was clear we were all related. A woman who was introduced as my cousin looked exactly like my dads sister, Cat. Her name was Dimpy, she was the daughter of Vippy, and she had three children. The eldest was three years older than me and he goes to the University of Washington.

Most of the family spoke English because they all attended international schools in Bangkok and went to college in either the UK or the states.

Carter and I played Bananagrams with our “cousins” (everyone there was introduced as either a cousin or an aunt/uncle) and it was a really fun experience. They taught us some Thai and we taught them crazy English words. Like Dodecahedron.

We just went to lunch and I had a coke because I needed caffine so I could survive math during D block without passing out, but this was a mistake because now I feel like my blood is vibrating and the sugar high is not going to last for all of D block so now I guess I’ll just be sad.

The two days after we went to the Christmas party, we left for Cambodia. It was a one hour flight from the airport in Bangkok to the airport in Siem Reap. When we arrived we got in a tuk tuk that the hotel sent. After checking in, we decided that even though it felt like a million degrees out, we would go see Angkor Wat. It was 2pm, so not many other people were there, and it was so cool. It’s a giant temple and crazy detailed. Most of the surfaces are intricately carved and it’s really hard to believe that it was built in one king’s lifetime. It’s also super unregulated, so you’re free to walk through the temples at your own pace, seeing what you want to see, touching and climbing wherever and whatever you want.

I don’t think that’s what it’s going to be like much longer, because the temples are similar to Machu Pichu in the sense that they are old, made of stone, and an increasingly more popular tourist destination. So I’m really happy that I was able to go when I was.

After touring the grandest of all the temples, the next days we saw some that weren’t really as cool. But each of them had something unique that set them apart. My other two favorites were Angkor Tom which had a ton of faces carved into all the pillars, and another temple I can’t remember the name of that had trees growing on/in it.

In the evenings we would walk to some of the many night markets that were just a few blocks from our hotel. The people there would low key accost you and stalk you in order to try and get you to buy something. But everything there was pretty cheap, and you could bargain all the prices down. I bought two shirts for five dollars.

They also sell a ton of “designer” merch for like $10. Things like “Supreme” slides, or a “Gucci” wallet can be bought for less than twenty dollars. That is of course because it is all faked, and if you look hard enough, you can spot the differences in the logos. It was kind of weird to see though. And now you know that if you have a friend who recently went to Asia, their new Supreme sweatshirt is probably a fake that they got for fifteen dollars.

Another super great thing about Cambodia is the traffic patterns and laws. And when I say “great” I mean terrifying and chaotic. See, they have traffic laws, like drive on the right side of the road, and at stop signs you stop. But these “laws” are treated more like “friendly suggestions that don’t actually mean anything”.

For example, it is quite common to see a family of six and their chicken sharing one moped. And driving on the wrong side of the road is expected. And stop signs are ignored. And I felt like I might die at any minute, because the only way to drive there is to expect everyone to drive in front of you. Really the only rule is “get where you’re going as fast as possible and try not to hit anyone else”

super fun and not at all scary