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Published: April 4th 2008
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Wat Phra Kaew
glass mosaic. don't really know what's supposed to be called. We flew from Phuket to Bangkok and got there just before rush hours. I was kind of prepared that it could be bad. Surprisingly from Suvannabhum airport to our hotel, on Rajchadumnern road which is on the other side of town, took only about 50 minutes by taxi. It was nice that the expressway was seamlessly connected with the airport. I had a hard time telling when we left the airport road.
I took Doug, Sharon, and aunt Lynn to Bang Lampoo to try street food for dinner. It was about 15-20 minute walk from our hotel, Old Bangkok Inn. I was getting disappointed while walking to the Bang Lampoo because most street vendors and restaurants on the way were wrapping up their business for the day. We realized that a civilization laid ahead when we turned the corner and saw a lot of people and food stalls. We had "Kao Mun Kai", rice cooked with chicken fat seasoned and topped with boiled chicken. It came with a small bowl of chicken broth....Yummy. We strolled around a bit more. Sharon got pinenapple as a dessert. Doug got himself a big bowl of green curry soup which the heat really satisfied
his taste bud. And I, of course, got me "kao new tua dum" or sticky rice and black beans in coconut milk...ummmm... satisfied.
The next day, we started by heading to Wat Phra Kaew(The Emerald Buddha) and The Grand Palace first. There were tons of people there. We waited about 5 minutes before the gate was opened even though it was 20 minutes passed the time that it was supposed to open. As we were walking in, we were approached by a tour guide. I wasn't sure if she was part of the temple or private tour guide trying to sell stuff so I asked to verify. I was surprised and later on very frustrated with her attitude so we walked on further inside. We finally got a live tour guide with help from the temple personnel. He was very friendly but I had to try to stay away when he pronounced the "th" sound because I might get wet. Let's just say... it was very enunciated. If you prefer an audio guide, it was also available.
We spent about an hour also here and started to get tired with the crowd. So we headed over to Wat
Wat Phra Keaw
The guardians Pho (wat means temple). It was a complete change of atmosphere. Wat Pho was not crowded but relaxing, and peaceful. Many of us agreed that we liked it better here. We leisurely strolled in the temple, visited different chapels, or just sat down to rest our tired feet. If you want to have your feet/body massaged, it's all right here. We didn't stop by to take a look though because I misunderstood that it was different temple that has a massage.
It was definitely hot and humid and I was probably the only one who still had an appetite to eat real food. The rest of us was just "ice cream, water, more ice cream, and more ice cream please...coconut ice cream"
We wrapped up at Wat Pho in early afternoon, some of us just wanted to go back to their hotels and crashed in an air-conditioned room. But not I, Heather, Alx, and Ian(of course, he really couldn't say no) so we walked back to the way we came, passed Ta Pra Jun, got more ice cream before cutting through Thammasat University my college, stopped by to look at Chao Phraya river on the deck outside Economic
Wat Phra Kaew
Pat's reflection on a piece of glass mosaic. Faculty building. I was surprised that this area hasn't changed much from 6-7 years ago at least when I last saw it. A lot of food vendors which is always good. Then we continued on Ta Pra Arthit road and before we knew it we got to a separating point because Heather and Alx's hotel was just right across the bridge from Bang Lampoo intersection. I...walked about 15 more minutes to our hotel.
Our family dinner today was at Narai Hotel, Silom road in business and financial district. This road in the old days, used to have a large number of birds standing on the power lines everywhere. You would be told to watch out for bird waste from the sky. In the past several years, it has been cleaner and the birds seem to have migrated to somewhere else or what..I don't know for certain. Our dinner today was buffet with variety types of food; Thai, Japanese, Chinese, and western food. It was quite good but I really had so little to eat while everyone was there. After an hours or so of catching up with my family I realized I was still hungry. So after everyone left,
I had an opportunity to slowly eat and enjoyed my food.
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Heather Kilpatrick
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Wow!
Great Photos! Just fantastic!