Bangkok, Day 2

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An early-ish start (though not compared to the day before!), as we were out of the hotel at 9am to catch the Skytrain to Saphin Taksim station, right on the banks of the Chao Phraya River. From there, we planned on taking the Chao Phraya Express boat to the Grand Palace...but fair to say, that was definitely easier said than done! On our arrival at the boat station, we found crowds and crowds of people (mainly tourists), all of whom seemed very confused about where to stand, how to queue etc. So we sought out a man who seemed to work on the boats and asked him what we needed to do, only to be told that the boat we wanted didn’t exist and we definitely wouldn’t get any boat that day to Rajinee, which was the stop we wanted! Hmmm. With all the people waiting though, we knew that there must be a boat going somewhere at some point, so we decided to hang around and see what happened. Finally, an express boat DID arrive (hmmmph!) and while it wasn’t the most comfortable half hour of my life (basically everyone on the platform dove onto the boat when it arrived, leading to quite the crush on board-worked out well though, as the ticket guy wasn’t able to move around to ask us for our fare!), it finally got us to the Rajinee stop (double hmmph). When we disembarked, we had a great view of Wat Arun Temple, so we stopped for a look, before exploring some decent tourist tat stalls around the boat pier. We resisted pretty well, buying only some Muay Thai shorts for John’s brother Tom (which we bought in large, even though he’s very skinny-and they were still FAR too small when he tried them on!), before finally heading to the Grand Palace.

The most important point to get across about this day is that it was hot. As in, crazy, can-barely-breathe hot. And a trip to the Grand Palace requires that you be pretty much completely covered up: no sandals, no sleeveless tops, no skirts etc. You can buy clothes there to cover yourself up with, but not realising just how stifling the weather was going to be, we’d chosen to start the day with jeans, cardigans and trainers...and by this point, we were already regretting that decision! Not much we could do but complain though, so we picked up some water and were ready to go inside...and I have to say, the Palace was worth it. It was pretty spectacular. The architecture is amazing, and it’s the kind of place where you really need more than just two eyes, as you want to be able to look at everything at the same time. There is so much detail, so much colour, and it’s all incredibly beautiful. The only bad part was the fast that there were about a thousand other tourists there, which made it really difficult to see everything without other people getting in the way! We just did a self-guided tour, and while it would have been nice to have had a proper tour and learnt more about the history of the place, and Thai culture in general, I honestly think I would have died of heat exhaustion judging by the slow pace that the tours were going at. As long as I got to see everything, that would have to do! The focal point of the trip is The Temple of the Emerald Buddha, which is a dazzling place, with a very Thai style. The temple is a very sacred place, so you have to follow general rules, such as not pointing your feet towards the Buddha...there was also a strange combination of people praying and then tourists like us just gawping around. The Emerald Buddha itself is also very tiny, and quite hard to see, but all in all, it felt like quite a mystical place. We ultimately spent about two hours exploring the whole complex, which I think is probably the least amount of time you can get away with if you really want to be able to appreciate the Grand Palace fully (though for 350 Baht, I would say you definitely get your money’s worth no matter how long you spend there). It would have been great to have had more time, but we had a lot more to see that day, so begrudgingly had to leave!

As we walked out of the palace, we weren’t entirely sure which direction we were supposed to be heading in, so we had a bit of a wander to try and figure out our bearings. On the way around, we passed a lot of tuk-tuks and another giant photo of the Queen, before finally finding ourselves around the Ministry of Defence building. We took a few photos, and were just having a look around, when suddenly John remembered an important memo we’d gotten when we checked into the hotel about not spending any time around government buildings on weekends...ummm, ooops! There didn’t seem to be anything going on, but better to be safe than sorry lol, so we jumped into the nearest tuk-tuk and sped off towards Sampeng Lane. This journey was a lot more fun than the previous nights, given that it was dry and the roads were a lot clearer, and we got to see a good bit of the city while we were driving around, so it was very fun  After about 15-20 minutes, we arrived at Sampeng Lane, which is one of the craziest places I have ever been in my life! We were dropped off at an interior part of the market, and it was so insanely crowded and hot, with motorbikes ramming through the crowds, and people pushing huge carts which there was absolutely no room for! We spent about twenty minutes walking through, and about fifteen of those were just diving to the side as a large machine came trundling towards us! It was all worth it when we made the discovery of one of my new favourite places though: Madame Toast. Madame Toast is a toast cafe right in the middle of the market, and basically they do toast with anything. It was frigging awesome. We sat at the counter and had a strawberry & banana smoothie, along with toast smothered in strawberry jam (yeah, we kept it simple) eaten with a fork. Yep, you can call me weird, but I just loved it. When we were done there, we were pretty exhausted with Sampeng Lane (the section we explored was mainly just fabrics and shoes, with nothing of much interest to us), so we decided to leave and have a general mosey around Chinatown instead. Of course, with us, that’s easier said than done, as within about five minutes we found ourselves completely lost! We were in the midst of a really quiet street, with a few shops (and some seriously messed-up pavements, which the shopowners themselves were trying to fix), but mostly I think it was a residential area. We kept walking, thinking we’d run into somewhere busier soon enough, but eventually just found ourselves at a giant roundabout, leading to a rather busy expressway. NOT what we wanted! So we had no option but to turn back, walk past all the shopowners again (who were probably quite amused by our obvious confusion) and start all over again! And don’t forget, while all this was going on, we’re in a severely humid city with ridiculous layers of clothes on! I will say one thing though: despite being lost in an obviously non-touristy part of the city, we were never unnerved or worried for our safety. We felt so comfortable in Bangkok, we could have gone anywhere and wouldn’t have cared. It was great! 😊 Anyway, eventually, we got ourselves back to Yaowarat Road, which was one of my absolute favourite parts of the whole city (and possibly the whole holiday!). Again, it was really busy, really intense, with fruit stalls taking up every inch of pavement, and a hell of a lot of shops selling gold jewellery, which blinded you from every direction...but it was fascinating. I could have walked around there all day long, just taking everything in. There were shops full of insane food (jars full of seahorses and the like!), and honestly, it felt more authentic and insane than Hong Kong did. By a long way, it is the best Chinatown I have ever been to. Eventually though, John had to drag me away as we had restaurant reservations that night, and were rapidly running out of time to get back to the hotel and get ready! So we turned onto Rama IV, one of the main throughways in Bangkok, but with absolutely nothing of any interest to mention (at least not in the part we headed down) before getting to the Bangkok Railway Station and collapsing onto the metro.

Not surprisingly, we were already exhausted after a long, busy day, but we had one more trip out to take before we got to hit our beds, and that was to the Blue Elephant restaurant, to experience some real Thai food (we’re not the most adventurous when it comes to culinary matters, so had never tried it before!). The skytrain took us straight to the restaurant, and we had a lovely greeting there, before being given the best table in the restaurant-right at the front, next to the window, and quite secluded 😊 The restaurant had quite a romantic vibe anyway, but our table made it even nicer. As I was wearing a blue dress, and we were eating at the Blue Elephant, I decided to continue the theme with a blue Mai Thai, which was possibly a very bad idea as it was insanely strong...how I didn’t end up staggering out of there, I’ll never know! It seems unlikely that I’ve finally learnt to handle alcohol, so maybe it just tasted a lot stronger than it was, lol. Anyway, as for food, we were given a complimentary fruit cocktails and three starters to taste (salad, a weird prawn concoction and a shot of chicken soup), which was all quite nice, and then we decided to go with the Royal Thai Symphony Banquet, as we had absolutely no clue what we would like from the main menu! The starters were mostly really good (chicken satay and dumplings always go down well), though we weren’t so keen on the mains. I don’t really know why, as it all sounded tasty enough (wrapped sea bass, beef curry, prawn noodles and more), but we just weren’t too fussed by it. As for our dessert of exotic thai fruits, it was just tasteless! I’d been so looking forward to our night out, and we still had a really nice time, but the food just let it down a little bit. Shame. The restaurant was lovely though, and the staff were great. On the way out, they presented us with a menu of what we ordered, and also gave me a lovely flower, so that was quite sweet! I would probably recommend it just for the atmosphere-plus it is always possible that we’re just ridiculously fussy when it comes to food 😉 It was about 11pm by the time we got back to the hotel, and unsurprisingly, we fell straight into bed!

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