Our first night in Bangkok we found ourselves being led down Khao San Road (backpackers haven) by a little Thai person, and by little person I mean about 3 feet tall. It was Friday night, we arrived around noon to Ed's house, got a nap in and had our first Thai meal on the street (noodle soup, fried chicken and a fruit shake). We then continued on to the other side of the city (Bangkok is freaking huge, high rises sprawled as far as the eye can see) to Khao San Road, a large nightlife area. That's where we met our little friend along with several other ladies trying to hawk hats, gum and wooden frogs. Because of our jet lag, several buckets of booze and our inability for our body to tell what time it really was, we stayed out all night. Saturday we slept.
Sunday we did the tourist dance and saw tons of sights in the old part of town called Ko Ratanakosin. We saw the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew which is home to the Emerald Buddha with a super speedy tour guide who knew the actual name of Bangkok; it's 15 long and difficult words. The Emerald Buddha stands only 60cm tall and has three different outfits for the wet, dry and hot seasons. It's a pretty cute factoid and Amanda's favorite part.
After some street food (delicious!) we went to Wat Pho which houses the second largest Buddha in the world and has really beautiful Mother of Pearl inlay on his feet. It also has 394 other guilded statues of Buddha! While we were there tons of monks were getting ready for a festival in the many wats and some traditional Thai music playing in the background, so we felt surrounded by culture Finally we crossed the Chao Praya, the river going through Bangkok to see Wat Arun. There we climbed up steep stairs to overlook the city.Monday we set out for the Indonesian Embassy, the Golden Mount and Chinatown. We were caught in a pretty nasty rain storm and met some interesting tuk tuk drivers in a house converted restaurant. We wandered, got lost and got lost some more. After choking on fumes and avoiding scams to buy nice suits we decided to call it a day.
Tomorrow we will leave Bangkok to set off for Phetchaburi and Hau Hin. Sawadtee!
