Bangkok, Thailand: Part 2

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Temples, tuk tuks and markets sums up my time spent in Bangkok. My reaction to Bangkok completely surprised me. I'm usually a traveller that loves adventures in big cities. However, Bangkok just didn't impress me as much as I expected. I think I was turned off initially from the constant feeling that everyone was out to hustle me. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed my time there! There's no doubt that I was dazzeled by the gold and glamour of the Grand Palace and Wat Pho, excited by the out-of-control tuk tuks, and marveled by the Floating Market.

Wat Phra Kaeo (a.k.a. Temple of the Emerald Buddha) shares grounds with the Grand Palace. Wat Phra Kaeo is considered the single most important Buddhist monument in Thailand. It was built in 1784 to house the most important Buddha image....the Emerald Buddha. The Grand Palace is where the royal family has lived since 1946. The glitz of the buildings was incredible. I walked around in awe of the buildings' decorations. Our choice of days to visit the Grand Palace and Wat Pho could have been better. The sun was excruciatingly hot that day. I had to buy a paper umbrella to protect myself from the sun. The street vendors were going crazy selling those parasols to tourists like me that didn't want to burn!

We were kind of "templed out" after exploring so many in Chaing Mai.....but there were a few on our list in Bangkok that we didn't want to miss. Wat Pho is the home of the Reclining Buddha. This Buddha is 46 metres long and 15 metres tall. We saw so many other Buddha statues while touring around also. I added a picture of the Great Standing Buddha. This one we found by mistake, by taking a wrong turn. We just walked around a street corner and bam, there was this huge, gold statue! Check out the size of his feet! (p.s. everything in Thailand is gold!)

Bangkok is well known for misleading tuk tuk drivers. They will come up with endless excuses of why you can't visit the places that you want to...."It's a holiday. Only munks allowed today. You have to be Thai to enter there. The King is sick"....and they will always have a list of other places they can take you to instead. "Do you want to go shopping? I know a great silver shop, or a tailor that will make you a suit!" Beware! Most of them have an ulterior motive! We learned that a lot of the time, if tuk tuk drivers take you to certain destinations they will receive free gas coupons. After Iona and I learned the tricks of the trade, we used our new found knowledge to the best of our advantage. We negotiated with a driver to take us everywhere we wanted to go in a day,for free, if we successfully got him two gas coupons! It worked out perfectly! While we were in one free tuktuk ride, our chatty driver got a phone call informing him that his request to be sponsored to work in Italy had been granted....yeah for him! He was so happy he shouted out 'I sponsor you dinner tonight!' Haha.

I noticed that there are images of the Thai King all over Thailand, especially in Bangkok. The Thai people love their King. Tony (the Chiang Mai tourguide) told me that Thai people especially love and respect this King because he was once fairly poor, and personally understands the financial struggles of many people. We experienced a truly eery moment, when the police cleared the streets for the King to pass through. All of a sudden, everyone stopped moving, stood away from the street curbs and there were no cars to be seen. A typically packed Bangkok intersection was clear on all sides, and no one was moving. It was quiet and spooky. An entourage of cars eventually cruised through, and then everything was instantly back to normal.

In the evenings we went to the hub of backpacker activity: Khao San Road. Khao San Road is the backpacker hangout of Bangkok. It's essentially the "it" place for nightlife, and a fantastic place to people watch. There is a constant stream of people walking up and down the road....shopping, wandering, drinking, whatever you feel like. During the day it's an active street market as well. We met some interesting people, and even ran into people we knew from Japan...small world.

Our last days in Bangkok we took a trip to the Floating Market and the NBK mall. The NBK is a seven story shopping mall, that you can bargain in!! It was a little overwhelming for me, as an avid shopper! The Floating Market was over an hour drive from Bangkok. It's the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, which actually serves as a market unlike others that are staged just for tourists. The men and women (mostly women) paddle their boats called sampan around the canals, selling fruit, spices, flowers, sweets and souvenirs. I went crazy with buying fruit, because it was so delicious and perfect! and CHEAP compared to the way over-priced fruit in Japan! (Have I told you that it costs over a dollar to buy an apple here?!?!)

After all the hustle and bustle of the big city, we going to the beach. Next stop Phuket. To the south we go!

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