Royal Palace and Wats

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Had a great time going to the Royal Palace and 2 different wats(Buddhist temples) yesterday. The Royal Place was an absolutely beautiful place. At the wats I saw the famous Emerald Buddha and the huge Reclining Buddha. All these tourist sites were busy since yesterday was a national holiday here.



Will, Noi, and I then had lunch at an open air restaurant right on the river. Food was great. The Thais eat their meals family style and use their spoon to put food in your mouth and the fork to push your food onto the spoon. Takes some getting used to. Another thing is that rice is very important food source here. The Thais put a spoonful of soup onto the rice and eat that and repeat the process. At least for me this takes a longtime but makes the meal leisurely.



They then took me back to Will's family home. I should say room. Very basic. It made me feel lucky to be an Amercian. Her mother and father were very nice but spoke no ENGLISH. Some of the neighbors came to the house to see the farang(westerner) that was visiting the neighborhood. There were a lot of Muslums in the area and I saw 2 mosques walking to Will's home which is very close to my hotel. Quite an interesting experience to say the least.



I met some nice people last night in the hot tub. Two young women from Wales just got back from Koh Samui and told me about a nice place there. I just send an email to the resort to see if there is any space available. Then I have to make travel reservations. Who said vacations were easy!



I added some pics from yesterday.



That's it for now.

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Photos

Fish in Chao Phraya
Noi bought some bread to feed the fish in the river right next to our table.

Comments

[Bangkokian]

Your blog is entertaining and gives a balanced perspective you have on Thailand. Anyway, please do not let us down by saying that the Thais, being generally poorer, make you feel lucky to be an American. There are Thais who live in very basic houses, Thais who live in luxurious villas or condos and Thais who live in something in between. I think this is just like in the US. The only difference is that USA has a larger proportion of middle class population than Thailand does. If you have a good friend who is less well to do, I trust you would not say in the public ( this website is a public place) that his inferior living condition make you feel lucky to belong to a richer family. Equal relationships cannot be formed upon that type of belief/feeling. In fact, Thailand, though far from being rich, is not a dirt poor country. With its population of 60 million, the country's GDP ranks around 18th in the world. It stands around 93th among over 230 countries in the world in terms of GDP per capita. This is roughly the same as Brazil, somewhat better than Turkey and well ahead of China and India. Welcome to Thailand! Travel safe and have a great time.