I have a lot to blog about today, since I haven't written in a bit, so I'm going to split it into two separate entries! This one is about the sightseeing day I had last weekend.

Me and another model from my agency went out sightseeing with a makeup artist from here. She took us all around and explained what everything was so it was really good! We started at the temple of the Golden Mountain. When we first got there, we bought these little packages that had a sheet of gold paper, a red piece of cloth with thai designs on it, holy water and 2 white string bracelets. With the gold paper, you write your name, birthday and time of birth (if you know that) and you take it with you to the top of the "mountain". Once you get up to the top you go on your knees and pray to the buddha for what you wish for, holding the paper, then you put it in this large pot. Once they have enough of these sheets collected they melt them together and make a gold buddha out of them! With the red cloth that came in the package, you are supposed to put it in your wallet and take it with you everywhere, it it supposed to bring good luck, good fortune and keep you safe. The white string bracelets you are supposed to wear one, and give one to someone else. They are meant for protection from accidents of any sort. The holy water you keep to use on yourself any time. Walking up to the top of the temple, there are 300 or so steps, but small ones, so it wasn't to energy consuming! As you go up, there was a spot where it was just flat, with about 10 large bells in a row and then a huge gong at the end. You are supposed to ring every bell in a row, then hit the gong 3 times. This is so everyone knows your name (this is what I understood from the lady that took us..).  Once we got to the top we stayed up there for a bit and looked over Bangkok from above! Near the top, right before you get to the very top, there is an indoor area with buddha laying down and a flame in the front, with a box with sand in it. You take a lotus flower and a bundle with two sticks and a small sheet of gold. You put the flower in the vase next to the sand, then you take the gold sheet out, hold the two sticks in your hand, light them in the flame and then go on your knees and pray to the buddha, then put the sticks in the sand. After, you take the gold sheet and put it wherever you want on the buddha. Around the corner from this, there is a row with 7 buddhas, one for every day of the week. Next to it is a smaller buddha, with a cup and a bunch of sticks inside that are numbered. You sit infront of the buddha and shake the cup until one of the sticks fall out, whichever stick falls out first, you take the number and you go look on the wall where the fortunes are. You read the fortune with the number of the stick that fell out. My fortune was not so awesome.. I'll put a picture of it below! If you get a bad fortune, you go to the 7 buddhas and you put the number of coins in the slot corresponding to the day of the week that you were born. This is supposed to bring you good luck and then you try the fortune sticks again!

After the Golden Mount, we went to Wat In, which is a temple with a very large standing gold buddha. We went inside a prayer room here, where there is a wax figure of a famous buddha, and everyone sits around him and prays. There is a thai prayer that is recorded and played over and over in the room, and all the thai people recite it, then leave. We didn't stay there very long, then we moved on to our next location.

From Wat In, we walked to the Rama 8 bridge, which is a suspension bridge crossing the Chao Phraya River. We walked across it, to the other side and sat in this area to rest for a little bit. In this area there was a skateboard park, which I have never seen in Bangkok! I don't even think I have seen anyone skateboard before in Bangkok! There was also dance classes going on! They blasted the music really loud and anyone that wanted to join could, so we joined in for a bit! It was quite a large fail, but it was so funny! The old thai ladies were showing us up for sure.. After resting for a bit we took a taxi to Khao San Road.

At Khao San Road, we walked around for a bit, then sat down and ate. I had green curry with chicken and it was sooo good. This is one of my favorite thai dishes, but it is so spicy! My face was so hot with the curry and then the heat from outside, I was dying, but couldn't stop eating it because it was so good!! After eating we all went our separate ways and went home, we were all pretty wiped out from walking all day in the heat!

My unfortunate fortune...