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Entrance to the Grand Palace
Straight away hit with the massive temples.Flight earlyish this morning around 10:30 so we caught the airport bus, very comfy as well mind you and arrived to find our plane delayed!
We were flying Air Asia which I guess is notorious for delays, very cheap however so could not complain too much. We arrived to BKK and immediately hit problems as Ania was not able to get a visa. Not good really as we were told she could get this on arrival. Anyway we managed to get a 15 day visa, our plans might have to change as we were intending on a month in Thailand!
Got a taxi to our guesthose and nowdays they are pretty safe in BKK. They don't really have a chance to rip you off as there is now a taxi stand setup with a thai person who gives you a reciept, talks to the driver and if any problems you have the paperwork to complain. Not how it was when I last visited about 5 years back! We stayed at the Roof View Place which was in a great location, just 15 minutes walk from the Grand Palace and about 10 minutes to Khao San Road and tourist areas.
BKK though is still pretty tough to get around when you compare it to the likes of HK and Singapore, basically whenever we went out we had to consider taking a taxi as there is no Metro that covers the whole city (or any particulary useful locations) or buses that one would want to take. Walking around you constantly get harrassed from Tuk Tuk drivers but that is the joy of the place, they all want business 😊
Had a good curry out, prices are still reasonable though the £ has fallen considerably since about 2005 and is now only worth like 1/2 has much. Bit of a shocker, beer costs £1 from a shop, double from the restaurant.
Day 72
As it was pretty much our only full day in BKK we had a bit to do, it was a georgous day with amazing blue skies and no smog. Unbelieveable as you never get that here. We headed to the Grand Palace and ignored all the Tuk Tuk drivers telling us it was either closed or we were wearing the wrong clothes (common scam so they can take you to their jewellery shops!). Got there and
yes it was open but pretty empty. Actually come to think of it most of BKK was quiet, Khao San road was dead with hardly any tourists yesterday as well. I am guessing it is down to the protests last month though this seems to be well and truly over and safe enough for tourists to travel.
Anyway got some great pictures as we wandered around in the heat. The GP served as the official residence of the Kings of Thailand from the 18th century onwards and is pretty impressive. There are some serious amounts of gold used here with no expense spared.
The main thing to see here is the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. Now you would be expecting some huge Buddha in this temple right, well wrong! The Buddha in here is just 66cms tall and made out of Jade and is pretty impressive. Another interesting fact I read was that the Thai King is the only one allowed to touch the buddha, and 3 times a year the cloak on the Buddha is changed (for the 3 seasons, dry, cold and wet). This is supposed to give good fortune for each season!
The rest
Empty Palace
Fantastic buildings and temples without any people! of the palace is also really impressive, check out the pictures.
From here it was so hot we took some time out in some cafes before heading to Pantip Plaza and MBK for a spot of shopping. These are massive complexes of shops. MBK has everything from clothes to fast food to cinemas as well as the seemingly compulsory floor or 2 of mobile phones. Pantip was full of computer gear so got some cheap stuff for our laptop and then got dragged around by a Tuk Tuk driver (we were tired) to a load of shops. It is one way to score free transport at least, basically the tuk tuk drivers get paid to take you to these shops so not hard to wangle a cheap ride if you have a lot of time. Went to two suit shops and politely declined to buy anything before we finally got to the night market. (The suits were really cheap though, like £40 for a tailored suit so next time)
Night market was not all that good or maybe it was out of season not sure. Headed back to the Guesthouse finally after this, got stuck in traffic (BKK
Entrance to the Emerald of the Green Buddha
Got to be seen (all 66cms of him!) No photos allowed inside unfortunatley. is soo bad for traffic) as took us like an hour to get back by taxi.
Day 73
Had the night tain this evening so had time to kill. We visit the Golden Mount in the morning which is a temple on a hill overlooking BKK. Pretty nice and easy walk as well. (and free more or less!)
Got back to the Guesthouse and took a taxi to the train station for our 19:30 departure. The trains were actually pretty cool, very different from any previous ones we had taken. The carriages again have no doors but compartments if you can call them that are limited to 2 people. Comfy seats fold into beds and we had our own curtain as well! Unfortunately we had the train with Aircon so by the middle of the night it felt like we were in Siberia again, very cold. Would recommend taking the fan trains which are cheaper.
Looking forward to relaxing finally in Southern Thailand!
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Mike T
non-member comment
Haha, might want to pop into one of those clothing shops ;]