Day 1: IT Square

Fun Fact: "Bangkok" in Thai is Krung Thep (กรุงเทพ), which is something like 'city of angels'. However, that's just a short name for it.

Bangkok's full name is: กรุงเทพมหานคร อมรรัตนโกสินทร์ มหินทรายุธยามหาดิลก ภพนพรัตน์ ราชธานีบุรีรมย์ อุดมราชนิเวศน์ มหาสถาน อมรพิมาน อวตารสถิต สักกะทัตติยะ วิษณุกรรมประสิทธิ์.

Spoken, it sounds like: 'Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit'.

Or, in English: "The city of angels, the great city, the residence of the Emerald Buddha, the impregnable city (of Ayutthaya) of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarn."




This is the longest name for a place in the world. 'Bangkok' fits more nicely on a mailing envelope, though.

Source

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In my last entry I linked to two albums (Thai 1 and 2) on Facebook that are open to everyone to see. As I write this there are now five Thai albums and several videos. These cover the first weekend with something like 200+ pics.

Day 1: Having arrived at 12am Saturday, the rest of the day was reserved for recovery. I didn't end up suffering from jet lag as by the end of a 30 hour journey I wasn't sure when or where I was anyway. We met for breakfast at 8 am (provided daily at the accommodations) and discussed plans for the week. The breakfast is sort of Thai, with the occasional rice soup or exotic fruit, but more American styled. Our advisor told us that Thai breakfasts are much different.

At 11 am we met the ThaiROP students from MIT, essentially on the same schedule as us and also delayed from 10 weeks down to 2 weeks by the civil unrest. From there we met some of the graduate students that a few of us would be working with. We went to IT Square Mall which is a five minute walk down the street. I don't have too many pictures of IT Square yet since we go there all the time. It'll take a lot to capture all the sites and sounds of IT Square which, combined with CRI campus, forms the whole of our fishbowl-like awareness of this huge city. We bought a wide variety of exotic fruits and tried them out. I didn't particularly think they were too strong in flavor but they did provide new tastes and textures that you don't find in the West. The rest of the day was spent resting and exploring IT Square a second time.