April 6  Bangkok Final Day

Note: Some of the pictures appear upside down on the previews.  They appear upright on the admin page and even when you click on them, but for some reason upside down during the preview.  Not sure what is going on, sorry about that.

I finally brought out the better camera today. This doesn’t automatically mean better pictures since it is still me taking them, but hopefully you enjoy some of the scenery a bit more. Today was a busy day. We were a bit slow waking up (*coughsistercough*) but we made our way out by 10. Today was the only full day my sister was going to have in Bangkok so we tried seeing as much as we could. Palace, tuk tuks, MBK (again; I love this place), temples & more temples (you’ll see), Thai suit (ok this one was more for me), Chinatown, and some local cuisine. We were warned by our hosts that the temples had a dress code and good thing they did because it was strictly enforced. We had to wear pants to get into the buddha rooms. Let me remind you it is 100 degree weather with 75+% humidity. Luckily, yours truly had the super dork outfit ready to roll. Did I mention these were convertible pants? Shorts were one simple zip away. I’m like a rock star of the dork world.

Palace and Temple of the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew): We started off by getting her a rabbit card to make use of the skytrain a bit easier. I can’t be seen with a paper user. We took the sky train to the Siam exit and from there went back down to get a taxi for the rest of the way to the palace. There isn’t a direct route via train. The cab ride took us about 15 minutes (6 kilometers) and the fare was 80 baht ($2.50 in US dollars). How can they afford these rates with the gas prices? The temple was insane and I would think this is a must visit if you come to Bangkok and are a fan of architecture. Heck even if you’re not. I won’t bore you with descriptions, I’ll just let you look at the pictures. However, I will throw out a few random notes:
1. Guys have to wear pants for the temples (I feel like I need to repeat this dress code stuff).
2. The emerald buddha room allows girls with pants to go in, but the second buddha temple room required the ladies wear a long dress or skirt. The guy was having a field day kicking ladies out.
3. You can rent pants/dress/skirt at a shop outside, but the line was pretty massive.
4. There is a shop that sells beverages and ice cream inside the grounds, but it is pricey (ice cream was almost 5 or 6 dollars). Who are we kidding, its 100 degrees out, you’re going to buy some regardless. Be ware of the coconut waters, the ones we received were warm and disgusting. Maybe buy one first to check if its cold…this might be a good rule anywhere…warm coconut water is not tasty.
5. There is a small museum (free) at the grounds as well with a bit of history on the area. It is decent but you don’t need much more than 20 minutes for this place. I wasn’t too impressed, neatest thing I saw was the different dress attire for the emerald buddha for the three seasons (rainy, cool, warm). I believe this is where they keep the two sets that the buddha is not wearing.
6. Be ready to take your shoes off a lot! No holy socks or shoes that take forever to tie up unless you have no shame.

All in all, we spent nearly two hours here. We walked through a bit slow and I think two hours is more than enough for this place.
From here, we caught a tuk-tuk (these are the 3-wheeled trikes) to take us to another popular temple on the other side of the river. There were quite a few hanging out by the exit ready to pounce on unassuming tourists like ourselves. One driver saw us as we exited, saw the look of “we need a ride somewhere” on our faces and waved us over. We hopped on before negotiating a deal which instantly gave him the advantage. We tell him where we need to go and ask how much, to which he replied 300 baht! We just paid 80 baht for a similar trip to get here in a cab with Air Conditioning!
I replied, “300?!? How about 200?”
He replies, “Ahh, no 300, it is far and I have to drive to the other side of the river. 300 is good for you and good for me!”
He had shit eating smirk on his face as he finished his statement.
This guys is good. I had no reply; Dammit! Off we went.
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Wat Arun: This temple was pretty neat, but there was a lot of construction going on. Just look at the pictures. Much less tourists here so it was a LOT easier to walk around and see things. Not quite as exciting but still neat to see.

From here we caught another tuk tuk. We were hungry and asked him to take us towards another temple (I told you we saw way too many temples) but asked him for a restaurant around there. He charges us 150 baht. He takes us towards the temple, drives off the main strip, and drops us off in an alley, where he points to a restaurant on the side of the river. This is really an odd spot for a restaurant, BUT it is on the river; that’s pretty cool. We walk in and we stick out like sore thumbs. This place is a dive, but they do have a guy playing guitar in the corner; this is pretty cool (he actually ended up playing a lot of English songs for us). They seat us and a gentleman in his 50s or 60s (I don’t know if he was the owner or what he was) comes over and chats it up with us while giving orders to the staff in between our conversations. He said he loved Americans and loved that they come to see his culture. He hasn’t been to the US but would love to go. He yells at the guitar guy to play Hotel California for us. This host was too nice almost to the point where it was almost creepy, not a bad creepy, but a too clingy too fast creepy. Even after we ordered and were eating he still kept talking to us. He also started booking a riverboat ride for us after we told him we didn’t think we had time for it; he was still very polite when we asked him to cancel it. He also offered to be our tour guide the following day but we were flying out. Yeah a lil’ too nice. The service didn’t miss a beat at least. After food, he sent us to a dock where we could catch a boat to cross, but we missed it and didn’t see another one coming after waiting for a few mins so we went back towards the road and hailed a cab. We were going to need to catch one on the other side anyways. Plus some AC for 10-15 minutes is always nice.

Cab Note: Cabs with the meter seem to be the cheaper way to go to get around (if you care about that). MAKE SURE THEY TURN THE METER ON. Sometimes they will just tell you a flat rate. Its not a huge deal (a few bucks difference), but the meter will always be cheaper. You can ask them for the meter. ALSO, like I just mentioned, cabs are great for air conditioned breaks from the 100 degree weather. Each cab has their AC at full blast, its great!

Chinatown: The cab dropped us off at Chinatown and the fee was 100 baht. Chinatown was massive and jam packed. Basically a world within a world, similar to the Chinatowns in every other major city, except I’ve never seen them this packed and I’ve never seen a bunch of hardware shops. Basically a home depot split up into multiple tiny chinatown shops, including tools such as table saws. Also, bikes and traffic seem to drive through some of the walking areas. There will be sections where you are walking in a group like packed sardines.

Suit Place: We took a cab from Chinatown to the MBK (in Siam) but as soon as we got off, a lady noticed us looking at a map to figure out where we were going, and she began talking to us about where we wanted to go and our trip. Everyone seems to want to talk to us today for some reason. I actually don’t mind it since you get to find out about a lot of other random things you wouldn’t otherwise and you get some good stories from them. It’s not like we were in a hurry anyways. Her husband then shows up and proceeds to take over the conversation. His English is actually very clear; apparently he is a teacher. He talks to us for almost 15 minutes. He recommends that we go check out the best suit place in Bangkok, called IFC. “All the Thai go here for their suits.” This feels almost like he’s a salesperson for them, but I was kind of interested in this, so why not. I do wonder if they get some referral fee. He offers to get us a tuk tuk to take us there (try saying that real fast five times) and says, “I’ll get you the Thai price. 20 baht.” What the heck!? We paid 300 and 150 baht each for the last two tuk tuks! This really does feel set up. Too late, we’re already in the tuk tuk heading towards IFC. The tuk tuk pulls up to the suit place and there are people waiting to open the doors for you at the top of the steps. You walk in and the place is massive. There are walls of fabric everywhere with more rooms with more walls of fabric behind those walls. Like a Costco version of Men’s Wearhouse, Thai style. The sales guys are all waiting and one of them grabs us pulls us into the one of the sides rooms and goes over the suit styles with us. Yes they do call you “my friend” salesman style. “I’ll give you a good deal, my friend.” He offers me a package of 1 suit (jacket and pants), 3 shirts, and 1 tie. He gives me a price but the professional atmosphere of this shop made me think that I couldn’t negotiate (silly me). They take my measurements and we start looking at material and pick out fabrics for the suit and each of the three shirts. He then says he will give me a deal for the vest to get a full 3 piece. He gives me the price but I’m not sold so he drops the price. Dammit, I should have negotiated the suit as well; I suck at this game. Oh well, three piece purchased. We make arrangements to come back at the end of the trip to pick it up. We walk out and our tuk-tuk guy was waiting for us all this time, ready to take us back to the MBK! Top notch service.

We wandered around the MBK, but my sister didn’t seem impressed. I think she was getting tired by this point. It was approaching 8pm. We decide to have some ramen (her choice) at the same place as yesterday (I did like it) and finally ended up back at my buddy’s place a bit after 10pm. It was a long day. We were both sunburned, but not for lack of trying to apply sunblock. Every time you apply sunblock in 100 degree, 75% humidity, it instantly dissolves in your sweat and the sunblock on your forehead makes its way to your eyes. That burns too! Even if you applied it when you were dry, as soon as you walk outdoors, instant sweat. Still a great day. Tomorrow, we leave for Chiang Mai.

Cheers!

Here is a map of our run throughout the day.

Sites and trip