Sticky rice and even stickier travelers

Bangkok (population 6 million) is big, hot, humid, crowded and fast paced. Let me start by saying the Thai food is awesome (except maybe for the fried chicken knuckles, that was a tactical error). We have been eating our way through this city and loving every minute of it (a huge Thai lunch for two = less than $10). Second, after roughing it a little in the backpacker hostels of NZ and Australia we are living in high style here. Our hotel (the beautiful Pathumwan Princess) costs just a little more than our hostel in Sydney did and it is 4 star. Amazing. (Dad, we took your advice, no cheap Thai hostels for us.)

Day 1 - We saw the sights. We visited Wat Pho (Temple of the Reclining Buddha) first. It features the largest reclining Buddha in Thailand (check out the size of that head!) and is the oldest and largest temple in Bangkok (from the 16th century). The Buddha reclined in this fashion as he passed into final nirvana. The Buddha is covered in gold leaf and ornamented with mother-of-pearl inlay. In another one of the temples surrounding Wat Pho there was a fortune teller who showed us how to shake a round container full of numbered sticks until just 1 fell out. Then you read the fortune that corresponds to that number. Mine said among other things "legal case will not be favorable" (woops, don't tell my new employer) but that there was luck coming my way and that everything would turn out alright. Garron's said "the forthcoming child will be a girl" and he decided he must have pulled the wrong number. Obviously he should have gotten Lucky 7.

Next we went to the grounds of the Grand Palace, former home of the Thai royal family. Now it is just used for ceremonies such as coronations. You can't actually go into the Palace but the grounds around it contain tons of little temples and other attractions including a scaled down stone model of Angkor Wat (temples we will visit in Cambodia in a few days). A taste of things to come!

Also on the grounds of the Grand Palace is Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha). The little Buddha (actually made of jasper) had a long journey to its current home. It was originally in northern Thailand and as it was being brought to Bangkok at the request of the King it was intercepted by Lao forces who took it to Luang Prabang and later to Vientiane before the Thais recaptured it and brought it to its current home.

After exploring the beautiful ancient Thai sights we decided to balance out all of that culture with some more modern entertainment. We went cosmic bowling in the HUGE 8 story mall complex attached to our hotel.

Day 2 - Today we went first to Jim Thompson's house. Very nice tour and interesting American man who revitalized the Thai silk industry. Then for the next 5 or 6 hours we shopped till we dropped. We went to the massive Weekend Market where you can get everything from knock-off pumas to house wares to purses to puppies (which was kind of sad) plus any kind of street food your heart might desire. It was hot and crowded and we were both dripping with sweat by the end (and happily toting bags and bags of new acquisitions). Tonight we're planning to have dinner and then go to a nightclub called Bed Supperclub which we've heard from many sources is the place to go (and it's managed by a Wharton alum). Tomorrow we fly out to Siem Reap.

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Part of trip: Summer Travels 2006

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