Exploring Bangkok

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We woke early and ate breakfast in the hotel restaurant then walked down the road towards the Grand Palace. We walked past a few temples and statues where we stopped to take photos but slowly made our way to the Grand Palace. We ended up passing the Grand Palace because the entrance was on the other side and instead went to Wat Pho to check out the famous reclining Buddha. But on the way we were stopped by this guy who seemed friendly, he told us the Grand Palace was closed and opening later this afternoon because it was Buddha Day in Bangkok today. He suggested that we instead go see these other temples and on the way check out this ‘great’ shopping area he knew of. He also said he can get us a tuk-tuk, do all this then return us here later, all for only 20B. But what he didn’t realise is that we’d heard of people doing this and were used to touts bothering us so we listened to him to get as much useful information as we could then just turned and walked away.

We went inside Wat Pho and had a brief look around the structures and temples around the grounds. We wandered around looking for the room with the reclining Buddha and realised it was right where we came in. We took our shoes off and went inside to find a massive, massive golden Buddha lying on its side. It only barely squeezed into the room it was huge. As we walked around the Buddha we tried to take some decent photos but there was no way that we’d get it all in one shot. Afterwards we got our shoes, left Wat Pho and walked around to the entrance to the Grand Palace. We paid to get in and as soon as we stepped foot inside its walls we were amazed by the beautiful buildings around the temple grounds. We were shocked at the incredible detail that has gone into these buildings, you could get right up close and still see tiny tiles all arranged in patterns. We spend some time going in temples, taking a few photos then moving to the next one but each time the detail was amazing.

There were lots of paintings around the grounds which were also incredibly detailed and told stories of the history of the Grand Palace. We continued to look around and came to the temple of the emerald Buddha. There were plenty of people taking there shoes off and trying to get inside, because this was the most scared place in Thailand, there was no photo taking in here. We took our shoes off and entered the temple, it was difficult to find a space to sit there were so many people. Everyone was here to see this tiny emerald Buddha who sat atop a massive throne of gold. After we left the temple we exited the Grand Palace and headed to the pier to catch a boat down to a popular shopping area known as MBK. We walked to the pier but didn’t really know where to get a ticket. We went to an information desk where the woman was trying to persuade us to take a private canal tour. We insisted we didn’t want to and asked her how much to get to the boat stop we needed, she said 600B, it was really hard not to just laugh. As we walked away she told us tickets are 20B on the boat, wow someone being honest for a change.

We took the boat down the river and got off at our stop. We took an elevated train which stopped just outside a few shopping malls. It was on this train when we realised just how massive this city was, it went forever, I never knew how big Bangkok really is. When we arrived at the station we first went to a shopping mall called Siam Paragon and got some food from the giant food court. We had a brief look around but it was a very upmarket shopping mall so we decided to make for MBK to check it out. MBK was great, there were so many stores, hundreds and hundreds of stores set out in market style formation all inside with air-conditioning. We spent the rest of the day here browsing through the mass of shops then eventually made our way back over to Siam Paragon for some food. We looked around but finally decided on Italian food again which was ok but nothing amazing. Afterwards we thought we’d head up to the cinemas to check out what was showing and we ended up seeing the new Indiana Jones movie which was quite good. After the movie we went looking for a taxi home but had trouble getting one for 100B. Eventually after walking around 20 minutes we found one for 150B, which was good enough at this time. Soon after we arrived back at our hotel and went to sleep.

Accommodation:
Boonsiri Place

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Photos

Bangkok
The beautiful Grand Palace in Bangkok

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The enormous reclining Budda in Wat Pho, Bangkok. It barely fits in this room.

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The detail of the paintings and even the buildings themselves was unbelievable

Bangkok
The detail on the temple buildings was incredible

Bangkok
Impressive temple grounds in the Grand Palace

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Another impressive temple in the Grand Palace

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A huge building in the Grand Palace with small thai garden area out the front