Advertisement
Published: August 12th 2008
Back in Bangkok for the final time before returning home...after the tranquility of the islands we'd forgotten about the strange aromas, bustling streets, noisy street sellers and crazy roads which are impossible to cross!!
We set off to visit the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew Temple. Knowing to enter such places you have to have shoulders and knees covered we were well prepared (Matt wearing long shorts below the knee and me taking a scarf to cover up shoulders when necessary). How wrong we were!! After finally pushing our way through the people selling postcards/pictures/fans/anything else you can think of we entered the main gates only to be growled at by a guard "no short pant, no short pant, no scarf, no scarf" whilst ushering us and many other people into a dressing room!! We came out equipped with some rather fetching shiny, nylon, green LONG pants for Matt and an oversized man's shirt for me - both items very good at keeping the heat in - just what you need in 30 degrees heat! We had a look round taking lots of photos in our new attire and were very impressed with a gold and crystal shrine filling
one of the rooms. Matt was taking a photo when an another angry looking guard approached and started manically tapping his arm, which he ignored thinking it was me!!! After successfully taking said photo Matt turned round to proudly show me the photo to be confronted by the guard's furious face shouting madly "no photo, no photo!!" and gesturing wildly at the camera - he made us delete the photo, watching as we did it to make sure!! We made a hasty retreat...
We've chosen quite possibly the busiest time to come to Bangkok as today is the Queen's birthday and a public holiday for many Thai's who all descend on Bangkok! That means the pavements are covered with food carts selling pork fat balls, lots of fish, fried everything including ice cream and fruit (people set these carts up wherever there is a tiny space!), crowds of people funnelling through tiny gaps covered in plastic to fend off the rain (keeping the heat and smells in!) and dodgy men trying to sell suits!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.09s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0382s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
