New Year's in Bangkok

After Christmas we drove down to Bangkok to celebrate the New Year.  It was an eight hour drive from Chiang Mai.  We stayed at one of our company guest houses which was close to all the malls and restaurants.  Since traffic can be horrible in Bangkok, we took the skytrain and public buses.  Isaac loves trains and he rode plenty of them while we were in Bangkok.

Hanging out the window of the Bus to give a traffic report

Our first day in Bangkok we visited the Grand Palace which has been the official residence of the Kings of Siam since 1782.

Where is Jake the Pirate?

We spent a lot of our time at the malls in Bangkok.  They are a destination in themselves.  We even went to our first Ikea.

They had our favorite...cake batter with strawberries!
We really need Cold Stone in Chiang Mai!

New Year's eve we went to Hard Rock for dinner and then to Central World Mall for the countdown.  This is compared to Times Square being one of the largest celebrations in Southeast Asia.  There were a few hundred thousand other people at this location for the countdown and fireworks.  Luckily we were within walking distance of the guesthouse or I don't know how we would have made it back.