My friend and I have decided to splash out a bit for a four star hotel in Bangkok in an attempt to recover from nearly breaking ourselves over the course of the Olympics. At least two events per day, crappy venue food, 50 cent beer and awesome parties each night means that we both really need to look after ourselves for the next few days.
I’m sitting in a hotel in Bangkok now called the Windsor Suite or something like that. The staff are great, breakfast is amazing and for around $50 per night for the room, it’s not going to kill the budget. Internet isn’t free though and at 600 baht per day, it’s actually pretty expensive. Plus there’s no desk or decent table so I’m sitting on the floor propped on a pillow and doing my work on a chair. Not ideal but I’ve got so much work to do that I’ll have to adapt.
The Olympics were fantastic. I had a great time and will post more about it over on my travel blog Wanderstruck but in the meantime here are a few of my favourite things about The Games.
- Volunteers – The volunteers were unreal. I have never seen people be that friendly before in my life and it was great. They all seemed to be having a blast as well and it showed.
- Spectators – Chinese people attending the Games were super friendly too and it was easy to get them cheering for your team or to get them to cheer along with you for China. Wearing China gear to events was a hit and we’d often have to spend an hour leaving an event due to all the photos people wanted with us. They taught us songs, gave us presents, and left us both with a great impression of Chinese people. Fans from other countries were great too and we discovered early on that cheering with a group of fans sitting nearby is a fun way to get into a sport if Canada or Australia weren’t competing.
- Venues – All of the venues were great and except for the occasional long line for the toilet or food stalls, everything went smoothly. It was great to get to see inside the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube. Those were both highlights. The Olympic Green could have been a bit more green and a bit less concrete but overall it was a cool place to spend the day. Except for the terrible food.
- Events – My friend and I have been planning this trip for over a year and as a result had lots of tickets to lots of different sporting events. She wanted mainly swimming, I wanted more random things and it turned out well for me. We only got one swimming ticket and filled the rest of our time with things like weightlifting (very fun), handball (awesome sport), wrestling (made some friends from Khazakstan) and other sports that don’t really get publicity any other time of the year. Got to see Canada win gold at rowing too which was pretty cool.
- Parties – I had two friends in town who used to be my roommates in London and we did our best to live up to those crazy days. The bars were rocking every night and everyone I met were in great moods and having a total blast. I’m not sure I want to see beer again anytime soon though.
So I’m a huge fan of the Beijing Olympics but Im glad it’s over… for four years until London at least. Actually, I think the Vancouver 2010 Olympics might be making their way onto my agenda too. I’ve got a week in Bangkok with my friends and then they’ll all be heading back to reality and I think I’ll be off to Burma for some low key travels for a month. I’ve got a couple days of work to cram in in the meantime although that rooftop pool is seeming pretty tempting at the moment.
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