Bangkok, Thailand
We learned our lesson and made our way out of the hotel extremely early this morning, It’s not comfortable by any means, but the heat doesn’t get really bad until about 9:30ish am.
Our first stop was the Grand Palace. Most of the activities on the palace grounds are outside or inside old buildings without AC, so we wanted to be poised to go inside as soon as everything opened.
We called an Uber and the Uber driver (I guess not wanting to deal with traffic of the tons of children’s school groups being let out) insisted we get out at a corner near the Palace gates. Which we did. Only to discover this was not the right entrance and we would have to walk all the way around the Palace – through masses of school children. It took us over 30 minutes to walk to the right gate and by that time the crowds and heat were getting bad and we had pretty much squandered our early morning jump start on a pointless walk.
The Grand Palace grounds were quite impressive. Tiled spires, entire buildings made of gold and gems, and a really cool military weapons exhibit tucked away under the palace building (which you could not enter).
The real sight to see, however, was the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (or Wat Phra Kaew). It is the most sacred Buddhist sight in Thailand. It is a symbol of protection for the country and is dated back to the 14th century – though it has been in its current display within the palace walls since 1782. The Buddha is carved from a single piece of Jade. Only the king is allowed to touch the Emerald Buddah and he does so three times a year during seasonal change ceremonies in order to change the Buddha’s clothes. He was wearing his winter cloak when we visited – so we really didn’t get a full view of his body, only his green face.
After that, we walked over to Wat Pho – the temple containing the largest reclining Buddha in the world. Now, we’ve seen the biggest sitting and the biggest reclining Buddha’s in the world. This Buddha is made of gold and is displayed inside a temple. You walk barefoot down a corridor to view the Buddha. Honestly, the display is not user friendly because the statue is so large and the hallway so narrow you can only view potions of it at a time. The statue and the temple around it were built in 1832 and it represents the Buddha obtaining Nirvana.
The complex of Wat Pho is much larger than just the reclining Buddha and is known for having the highest number of Buddha images of any temple in Thailand. It is one of the oldest temple complexes in the country and pre-dates the city of Bangkok – though the actual date it was built is unknown.
After viewing this temple site, we took a local ferry across the river. The ferry was rickety and the planks leading up to it were wooden and gave way easily. It was little bit scary, but the ride was short. Once across the River, we did a little shopping at some of the street vendor stalls near the Wat Arun we visited yesterday.
When we finished, it was just before noon and we were exhausted from the heat. So, we called an Uber. The Uber app said 4 minutes away.
Then 8.
Then 12.
Then 4 again.
We waited about 45 minutes and still no car – but it kept updating its location as close by and there were no other drivers anywhere near by so we just kept waiting. We were too far out to reach a sky train station.
The nearest ferry port (a 20-25 minute walk away) didn’t sell tickets. And the three taxis I flagged all refused to take us back to the hotel because it was too far away. The Uber continued to update its location. We canceled and rebooked and got the same driver again.
Eventually, the Uber came almost and hour and a half late and we had to cross a huge 6 lane busy street without a crosswalk (which was probably the most dangerous thing we’ve done while traveling) to get to him. All in all the entire ordeal of getting back to the hotel took an entire afternoon and stressed us the heck out.
Obviously, the only cure for this was a massage. Massages here are beyond cheap and there is a little store front boutique massage place near our hotel. I decided to walk down for quick, air-conditioned, massage pick me up. A 45 minutes foot massage was less than $10 USD. I could (and, obviously, did) add a 15 minute hand, shoulder and neck massage for a few more dollars.
It was the best hour of my vacation. My masseuse was a tiny little lady but she had the grip of the hulk. It was a chair massage but at one point she had me sit on her stool and she climbed in my lap and popped my back in places I didn’t even know could be popped. It wasn’t a gentle massage (and I had some light bruising on my ankle), but I felt amazing afterward.
With both of us feeling refreshed (Josh dozed off in the room while I was gone), we headed out for a late lunch. We both agreed we were ready for break from the authentic Asian food we’d been having since we got here and found an Italian place nearby. I had squid ink spaghetti – which I have been wanting to try for ages but it is so hard to find and so expensive when you. Not here, our whole entire meal was around $16 USD.
The squid ink spaghetti was in a light parmesan olive oil sauce mixed with black squid ink and served with steamed squid on top. The ink didn’t change the flavor of the food as far as I could tell. It was messy though and stained my hands and turned my mouth, teeth and tonge completely black. Josh was visibly grossed out and did not want me to smile at him (hahaha). I am so glad I got to try it, but definitely would not order again. Too messy and I was completely unfit to go anywhere but back to the hotel to brush my teeth (which I did and it looked like the bubonic plague was being washed down the sink).
We winded down the evening with a few drinks at the hotel, which hosted a live band playing classic American songs like Tom Petty and Matchbox Twenty.
Comments