oriental walk

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Woken this morning by the Muezzin's call at 5am. Who needs sleep anyway. By the time I've got the shower figured out and got myself sorted it's time to hit the buffet. And a substantial one it was. Just the thing to set a bloke up for a long day's sight seeing. Headed for the Grand Palace and hadn't gone more than 500m when I saw a couple of young guys looking lost and staring at a cellphone, so looking my authoritarian best I said "Grand Palace", they responded in the affirmative so I pointed out a large sign with an arrow on it that said Grand Palace 800m, so Lance from Beijing, Kaliong from Jakarta and I teamed up for the day to take in the sights. After a couple of hours taking in the magnificence of the Grand Palace, Temple of the Emerald Buddha,which is not actually made from emerald but from green jade, good old pounamu, we decided to have a look at Watt Arun which necessitated a boat ride over the river. We were offered a 1 hour tour in a Longtail boat at 2000bht each but Kaliong brought his bargaining skills to the fore and secured a 'student discount' so we ended up paying 1500bht for the 3 of us. With an automotive engine stuck on the back the Longtail boats are not that well balanced and sit low in the water. They may run well when they get up on the plane but don't do too well at crawl speed in the choppy waters of the canals. Suffice it to say that Kaliong was soon reaching for the life jacket. The trip was well worth the money and afforded a rather intimate view into the lives of the people in the pole houses alongside the canals. Wat Arun was also worth a look with all its gilded splendour. Back on dry land the young fellas congratulated themselves on having lived to tell the tale and we headed for Watt Pho which houses a massive reclining Buddha. By this time I'm ready to do a bit of reclining myself so we wandered back towards our hotels making one last stop at the mint to see a surprisingly interesting exhibition about the history of money in Thailand and how it developed. Got to the hotel garden bar a bare 2 minutes before the heavens opened and sat with a beer watching people scurrying about in the downpour. Very therapeutic. Spent the evening taking in the sights and sounds of khao san rd, what a crazy place.

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