Our goals in Bangkok was to eat as much as possible, take a bunch of different kinds of transportation and go to as many temples and markets as possible. Mission accomplished!
We took the Skytrain from the airport to downtown Bangkok, then grabbed a tuk tuk to take us to our very posh hotel. It seemed the only way to show up there! That day we had also been on a very wet speed boat ride to get to the airport from Koh Kood, so since we were already covered in dry sea salt and peeling sunburn, why not add a little city dirt on top of it! Besides that riding in tuk tuks are a blast and I kinda want to get one!
We took almost no time hitting the streets to get our bearings and start eating. That night we headed to Sukhumvit Soi 38, an area know for street food and did not disappoint! I could have eaten there all week! Being a vegetarian there would be incredibly hard. Options were mostly fish and pork, pork wrapped in pork, or pork topped with pork, so guess what we had for dinner-pork, oh and some duck! I could eat like this every night-a little bit of one dish here, at little bit of something else there with beers along the way.
The next morning, after a ridiculously amazing breakfast at the hotel-with options that included lamb ratatouille, sushi, chocolate croissants, and bacon-we were off to check out a few of the temples in Bangkok. The first stop was the Grand Palace. The Grand Palace is a huge complex of gorgeous royal buildings and temples. When you first walk into the courtyard, you're greeted by a statue of the Hermit Doctor-Keith had to take a picture!
Encircling part of the palace is a gallery wall painted with an enormous mural of the Ramakien, Thailand's nation epic story. The detail of the mural is amazing, even if we didn't really understand the story-a lot of people die and are beheaded that was obvious! Some of the monsters even kind of remind me of BJ, right after he bites me for no reason...
I was memorized by all the beautiful, colorful, incredibly detailed tile work. It was everywhere and so stunning it was hard to take in all at one time-so I took a million pictures of everything, as usual! Click on the Flickr stream for more pics-no way I could post them all here!
After spending a few hours at the Grand Palace it was time to grab some lunch. There was a market right in front of the Palace, so we stopped there and had our first Pad Thai of the trip! It was delicious, of course, and Keith's was full of fresh squid. I know we could never make anything this good at home!
Next stop was Wat Pho. It wasn't half as crowded as the Grand Palace, but still incredibly beautiful. The main attraction is the Reclining Buddha, which is 46 meters long and 15 meters hight. It represents Buddha about to enter parinirvana-during his last illness.
Hundreds of Buddha images (statues) that had been restored were on display in multiple galleries throughout the complex. I don't know if it was the lack of crowds or all the Buddhas, but Wat Pho was a very peaceful place to spend time.
Wat Arun is in the process of being renovated, but is still open, and Lonely Planet is incorrect when it says it is not possible to walk up to the top of the temple-it is and we did!
There were people actively working to restore the temple while we were there and it was obvious how far they had gotten and how much work was still left to do. The bright white spire in the front is almost finished, while the darker one in the back (the one we get to climb up!) is far from finished.
After climbing up the main spire and walking around a bit, we got to see just how blackened the tiles were up close. It will be stunning when all the spires are finished.
Also, a top the temple, we got to see great views of Bangkok. Wat Arun is on the other side of the river from both where we stayed and where all the other temples we went to are. Looking over the river you see the tops of Wat Pho with city behind it.
And just how did we get around to all these temples and palaces? By boat! We took a ferry down the Chao Phraya River to the Grand Palace, walked to Wat Pho, then took another boat across the river to Wat Arun. There are very few bridges across the river, so it's not just tourists on the boat going across the river and the ride only cost 3 baht (or about 10 cents).
Since we didn't have enough quiet enough of temples, we decided to watch the sunset over Wat Arun from a rooftop bar. Changs are great everywhere!
The next day we spent almost all day Sunday at the Chatuchak weekend market. It was such a fun place to get lost, eat snacks, buy random things, pretty much the perfect last full day in Bangkok. Oh! And they had puppies, and kittens there, you couldn't really pet them...but you could sneak a little in!
That evening we took advantage of the free 'cocktails and canapes' offered our hotel. We both wish we had taken advantage of this all the nights we were there!! We sat outside on the 32nd floor looking out a Bangkok, eating appetizers, and magically our wine glasses were never empty-I'm amazed we made it to dinner.
We made reservations at a fancy restaurant for 9:30 that night and we were looking at a map trying to figure out where we are going over drinks. We were approached by a concierge, who got us a better map, helped us figure out where we were actually going and helped us make plans for the our half a day we had the next day-I could get used to this!
I could write a whole post about our fancy dinner at the Issaya Siamese Club. We gorged ourselves on the chefs tasting menu-a three course meal of classic Thai food with a modern twist. Delicious, amazing, beautiful....words don't really describe it! We had planned on going out after this fancy dinner to experience some Bangkok night life, but wow, we just couldn't make it! When did we get so old...granted our dinner didn't end until after midnight.
Monday we had to fly home, but we didn't have to be at the airport until 3pm, so we had time to check a few more things out! The concierge recommended checking out the Jim Thompson House. This was a great last place to visit. Jim Thompson was an American business man credited for revitalizing the Thai silk industry in the 1950s and 60s. We've all seen Thai silks that he designed-well all of us who have seen The King and I at least 10 times! His house is beautiful and our tour guide was so cute and funny BUT they just skim right over the most interesting part of the story! In 1967 at the age of 61, Jim Thompson disappeared Malaysia, never to be found-Did he plan his own disappearance? Did the CIA (whom he had pissed off) disappear him? There is no speculation on the tour what so ever!
I've always known that in Asian astrology that I was born in the year of the Goat, but at the Jim Thompson house they have an astrology section in their book store. If only I had always known my horoscope, maybe it wouldn't have taken so long to get where we are now...damn it was spot on!
As we walked back to the hotel with just a couple hours left, we knew what we had to do-eat as much as possible. So on the walk back, there was fresh guava juice, jack fruit, fried balls of chicken on a stick, fried pork, and an asian veggie dish I have no idea what it was, but Keith ate it anyway!
With our bellies full, we got to the airport and slowly but surely got home in one piece. Now, we're getting back into the old routines-Keith is busy working in the hospital and I am stalking the goats and sheep out in the pasture, trying to figure who was successfully breed and snuggling puppies, of course!
It's nice to be home, but I think Keith and I could have just kept traveling. While this option is impossible, maybe someday it won't be. We had such a great time in Thailand and could have spent so much more time there-I would recommend going to just about anyone!
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