Day 14 Seeing the Bangkok Sights

This morning we slept through our 8:00am alarm and rushed to get ready for the Temples/Palace before it was too hot.  We tried to catch a Tuk Tuk down the road and encountered our first Bangkok scam artist; a driver who enthusiastically (and convincingly) told us that the monks were using the Palace until 11am so he recommended taking us to some other attractions for only 10 baht until the palace re-opened to the public.  

Upon further inquiry he told us that he would have to stop at the tourist info so he could get reimbursed for gasoline as well as stop at a gem shop for us to have a look.  My brain finally woke up and I whispered to Ty that we either had to get out of the Tuk Tuk or haggle harder, that is exactly what "Lonely Planet Thailand" had warned of.  Ty managed to get us a ride to the palace for 80 baht ($3.50USD) and when we got there the Palace was definitely NOT closed to the public.

We paid our entrance fee and melted around the grounds in our "temple outfits", for me black jeans and a sweater over my tanktop and for Ty jeans and a T-shirt.  

Phimanchaisri Gate is the entrance to the Grand Palace...which has been the residence of Kings in Thailand since 1782! 

Sweaty.

Me and Phra Si Ratana Chedi, a 19th-century stupa built in Sri Lankan style enshrining ashes of the Buddha

Replica of Angkor Wat

the back side of the Temple of Emerald Buddha

Ornate detail on the walls of the Temple of the Emerald Buddha

Five-headed dragon foot at the entrance!

Confucius Statue

Palace Guard Procession

I can only imagine these are the shoes of Palace workers...but why only two colors?

Hidden garden that's under construction

We were dying in the 95 degree weather and so were thrilled to get into the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles, which had air-conditioning and a very interesting visual display on how to make silk from worms! 

Ministry of Defense 

Patrol

After getting lost trying to get to another set of temples (or Wat's) we got hot-hungry grouchy and grabbed a snack at 7-11 so we could start the walk back towards our hotel in better spirits.  We found lunch at a place called Mango and were surprised to find it was only noon...we had to have beer with our Thai food/breakfast/lunch, we were that drained!

Back at the hotel we showered and pumped the air conditioning, promising ourselves we would have to find better temple outfits at the market later!

Instead of going the market we decided we hadn't quite got enough of the Wat's...we walked down to the river and hopped on a series of ferry boats to get across to Wat Arun, all light up but closed for the night.  There were at least 12 cats wandering the premises and there was a big school of fish chumming right beside the dock.

Wat Arun, named after the Indian god of dawn (Aruna)

Day 13 Bangkok, Thailand!

On our first day in Bangkok (after a late arrival last night at 2am China time) we woke up at 10:30 am and by then it was already too hot (90 degrees) to go to the Palace and other sights that require you to wear long pants and shirts that cover your shoulders/arms.

We found a cute breakfast spot and I had Phat Thai and Ty had curry vegetables with rice.  It cost about $10USD for the meal, which also included a sickeningly sweet green soda and a large Singha beer.  

Trying to acclimate to the hot, muggy weather (it was overcast most of the day) we saw a pavilion, walked along the river, checked out an old fort, made it to the Palace grounds and were absolutely wiped.

Long Tail Boat

We hopped into a tuk-tuk/cab and zoomed back to the hotel, where we changed some money into the local baht, purchased a large container of water and snacks and tried to get beer but were denied as from 2-5 pm convenience stores can't sell alcohol.

Tyler braved the heat after 5pm and got us some extra large beers, which we enjoyed on the rooftop of our hotel, watching a smoggy sunset take place.  There was also a hot tub up there but I had a hard time comprehending when I would use it as even at 6pm it was still 82 degrees.  

Tipsy, we headed across the street from our hotel to a spot recommended by Lonely Planet, May Kaidee's Vegetarian Thai restaurant.  I wondered if we had made the right choice when we saw that most of the other patrons had the same travel book.  

We ordered a Massaman curry and a Green curry with rice and were actually pretty disappointed at how long the food took and how small the portions were compared to other places.  The Massaman curry unfortunately wasn't anything to write home about (our local place Thai Flavor does it phenomenally well) and Ty's dish was about the same.  Thankfully the notoriety of this restaurant hasn't inflated the prices as our meal was still pretty cheap at 190 baht (approx $6USD) including a water and a Diet-Coke.

Next we wandered south, to the famed Khao San Road, where the boozing/pretty boys/markets are supposedly happening any day of the week.  Ty had been lamenting his lack of tank tops in the hot weather (you heard it here first!) so we stopped into a department store and he found a $5USD tank top to wear...little did we know that in minutes we would be surrounded by hundreds of tank tops with hilarious Engrish sayings for less than $3USD each!  

There were also fake Ray-bans ($3 USD), lady-boys, scorpions and grasshoppers to eat (10 baht for a photo), food carts cooking up phat thai in minutes, and tons of bars and hawkers encouraging you to try their shisha and cocktails.  We ran the gauntlet a few times to get the lay of the land and chose an Irish pub Mulligans for our first drink (a mojito that was actually good!) and then checked out an upstairs bar called Roof, that had amazing live music.  It was one Thai musician playing guitar and singing and the other guy playing a drum (it looked like a box...?) and their tunes ranged from U2 to Eagle Eye Cherry to Bob Marley.  It was an awesome vibe so we stayed there for the next hour until we got tired and after grabbing a chocolate dipped cone from McD's we headed for home!

Roof Bar!