We had a brief stop of only two nights in Bangkok which I found was enough. Bangkok is such a huge, incredibly busy city which made it seem quite impersonal compared to other cities we’ve visited. Despite this initial impression, we did enjoy our one full day there though – seeing the mains sights and exploring markets and the river.

Catching a taxi to the grand Wat Pho was strange, a couple of drivers refused to take us – unsure why. Wat Pho is a huge temple complex next to the Grand Palace. It’s famous for having the largest reclining Bhudda, and being the first place in Thailand for public education. The reclining Buddha was huge, 46m long and 15 m high, it seemed to only just fit in the building. The grounds are 8 hectares big, but we visited only a bit of the northern part where there are lots of colourful and beautiful temples. Scott loved the architecture and took just ‘a few photos’. We actually bumped into a consultant I worked for in Invercargill, so that was a cool surprise!
Although the Grand Palace was just across the road, the tourist entrance was all the way on the other side, so we thought we would catch a ferry up the river to get there. However the ferry port was so disorganised and chaotic, and no one could tell us which ferry to catch or how much etc, so after about 15 mins of faffing around we just walked there instead! This was a good idea; I found some really nice thai pattern fabric, and we ended up eating lunch in a small Thai restaurant down an alley way. We also passed through the Amulet market, which consisted of hundred of small stalls squeezed onto the footpath, all selling some sort of collectible item, whether it be medals, watches, small Buddhas etc. There was so much stuff, it was incredible!
The Grand Palace was a bit pricier than the LP stated so initially we weren’t sure whether to go or not. We decided to just do it since we were there and it seemed so impressive (and popular). Inside we saw intricate Thai paintings along the inside wall with touches of gold leaf throughout. The Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kew) is one of the main attractions, which is cloaked in specific robes by the king depending on the season. The grounds are 94.5 hectares with more than 100 buildings. We saw many amazing temples, as well as the throne room and weaponry vault. We only had two hours so didn’t have time to see the other half of the grounds, which would have justified the high ticket price. By now we were in desperate need of a cold beer and AC, so followed the LP to the nearest drinking hole which was 30 min walk away. We found ourselves on the famous Khao San road, home of the backpackers, increased food prices and rowdy pubs! I won’t admit what we had for dinner but it filled a gap! Khao San road had a particularly greasy feel to it, with most people trying to sell you everything without a hint of a smile or hello and often bordering on being rude – we’ve long learnt to ignore these people.

I did however buy a pair of fake Haviana’s off a friendly and smiling jandel seller. It’s a good feeling to negotiate prices with a smiling person and not someone who rolls their eyes all the time! Khao San road was fill of tourists and stalls selling tourist clothes, with fortune tellers in the middle of the street and dodgey looking men who were closely watching people as they walked by. We quickly found the office for our bus we were catching the next day and checked in, then gapped it out of there. Unfortunately we were ages away from the MRT so had to catch a cab. Unfortunately the driver ‘misheard’ us when we told him our destination (despite showing him about three times on the map) and 40 minutes laters (terrible traffic) we ended up in a completely different suburb. We jumped out of the cab at the traffic lights and luckily we were right next to the MRT so was home in 10 min. Lesson learnt – next time take the cab to the nearest MRT!

We went straight to bed as was getting up at 4.30am to catch our bus/ferry to Koh Tao Island – bring it on!!!