Bangkok 9th-12th December

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Markets, Pollution and Mopeds

We arrived safely in Bangkok on Monday evening. Tuesday we joined the tourist trail, heading straight for the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew. We took the advice of the sign outside the Grand Palace 'Don't trust Wily Strangers' and scooted past all the touts outside. The Grand Palace complex was indeed grand! The tiny (in comparison) Emerald Buddah was housed in an enormous gold laden building guarded by a miriad of mythical beasts. The surrounding buildings were decorated with millions of tiny mosaic pieces. After the Grand Palace we wandered along to Wat Po, slightly less spectacular but no less laden with Gold. There was many enormous gold buddahs in various positions in their own individual temples. The largest of them all being the 46m long reclining buddah. We then went to China Town which was an assault on the senses, mainly the nose. The streets were packed with market stalls and people bustly about. The mopeds and taxis squeezing through the narrow stalls and streets weaving through the people came as quite a surprise! We escaped China town to take a boat ride back along the river to Banglamphu were Toby got his hair cut and we went out to Khao San road to grab a beer.
Wednesday: We moved hotels to cheaper accomodation down the road then headed off in a tuk tuk to Siam Square. The tuk tuk then promptly broke down so we had to walk the rest of the way! There were lots of shops and market stalls but Bangkok is a lot more expensive than I thought it was going to be. We caught the sky train to the park and had snooze under a tree by the lake. We then took off to the Night Bizarre, an enormous complex of over 300 shops and market stalls. And as if we hadn't been to enough markets already, we then went to the Night Market after a lovely Green Thai curry!
Thursday: Checked out of our hotel and are heading off to the airport to catch a flight to Phnom Pehn (bit of a cop-out to fly but we needed proof of onward travel to get our visas!).

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Photos

Toby in Bangkok
Me in tuktuk!