Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Today was our third full day in Bangkok, so we decided to actually do some touristy things for once! We caught a taxi to The Grand Palace (after the first taxi driver we asked didn't seem to know where it was!) and read the strict regulations about what you could and couldn't wear. Dave and Chris were OK as they had worn long trousers, but I thought my shorts weren't long enough so queued up to hire a sarang which you can do for free. But when I got to the front of the queue the woman said I was ok as I was - phew! I didn't really want to put more clothes on in this 40° heat! We then bought our tickets to go inside and also hired audio guides to find out what everything was meant to be! Finally, we were on our way into the temple area of the palace, using our map to guide us around the huge area of very decorative temples, murals and statues.
The level of detail was amazing and there was gold and jewels everywhere. The main temple was the temple of the emerald Buddha, with an emerald-coloured Buddha statue sat on top of a mountain of gold (you couldn't take photos so you'll have to google it!). This Buddha was discovered over 2000 years ago in India, and was thought to be made of emerald, hence the name, but is actually jadeite. The most interesting thing I learned form the audio guide was that this Buddha has 3 sets of intricate silver robes - one for each season; winter, summer and rainy! And these robes are changed 3 times a year by the King himself! What a high maintenance little Buddha!
After a look around the palace building next to the temple area, we decided to go and look for somewhere to eat as we hadn't eaten all day and were all starving! We ended up walking around for about half an hour searching for somewhere with air con, before we found a nice café / restaurant next to the river. Chris treated us to lunch which we all enjoyed. We had planned to go to another temple in the afternoon but were all a bit tired out, so we caught the river taxi back towards the area where our hotel is. There was another shopping centre there so we had a look around but weren't very impressed - it was mostly antiques and lots of Buddha statues!
Back at the hotel we relaxed for a few hours before getting a taxi to Khao San Road again. It took us a while to get a taxi as drivers either wouldn't take us there (don't know why!) or refused to put the meter on, wanting us to pay way over the odds! We got there in the end and ate some food at a cheap restaurant in the middle of the action. We'd read about a rooftop bar called 'Gazebo' which is also featured in the 'Top 100 bars in the world' booklet we've got. We found it surprisingly easily and had a few drinks there while watching the live band.
We went back to the hotel at a reasonable hour, after another taxi ordeal…the first driver wanted to charge us 500 Baht (it's usually 50 on the meter), to which we just laughed at him and walked off. And then when we did find one, who seemed very edgy as I don't think he was meant to pick up people where he did, he started driving off even though Dave had one leg in and one out of the taxi, causing him to have to hop along for a few metres! It made us laugh on the journey back, but he was lucky to escape unharmed! These taxi drivers get crazier every day…
- comments