After 27 hours of travel, I arrived safely in Bangkok. My cab driver had the inside of his car papered in money from countries all over the world. No US Dollars because you can easily spend those here in Thailand.
I'm staying at The Peninsula. Here's a picture of my room and of the view from my room.
After meeting up with Trevor and Angela at the hotel, we had a quick tour of the famous temples in Bangkok. There are over 400 temples in Bangkok with the most famous being those at the Grand Palace and Wat Arun.
The Grand Palace is a huge complex of buildings on the river serving as the residence of the Kings of Siam and later Thailand until 1925. Since transitioning to a constitutional monarchy, the King no longer lives at The Grand Palace but still uses it for formal events.
The buildings are great examples of Thai architecture showing influence from the Hindus, the Buddhists, the Chinese and the European colonial era.
After touring The Grand Palace, we took a long-boat ride on the river and canal system of Bangkok. Why do I schedule boat rides? I hate boat rides. I find them interesting for approximately 10 minutes and then it is just more of the same. Boring. Oh look... people fishing and buildings that have flooded and more boats. This one was particularly bad because I think we had the slowest boat in Southeast Asia. Everyone passed. Even the boat loaded with Buddhist monks left us in the dust.
The boat ride ended at Wat Arun, arguably the most beautiful temple in all of Thailand.
After dinner, we toured the Asiatique market. The market is best described as a mix of trinket booths, restaurants, artsy shops and a shopping mall complete with food court from Anywhere, U.S.A.
Seen at the market: Fish foot massage tanks. Can anyone say "deadly flesh eating bacteria infection?"
How's the weather? Hot and humid as expected.
I am officially exhausted and can barely finish this blog post. Tomorrow, I expect to enjoy a swim in the hotel pool and have a leisurely morning before flying to Laos in the afternoon.
I'm staying at The Peninsula. Here's a picture of my room and of the view from my room.
After meeting up with Trevor and Angela at the hotel, we had a quick tour of the famous temples in Bangkok. There are over 400 temples in Bangkok with the most famous being those at the Grand Palace and Wat Arun.
The Grand Palace is a huge complex of buildings on the river serving as the residence of the Kings of Siam and later Thailand until 1925. Since transitioning to a constitutional monarchy, the King no longer lives at The Grand Palace but still uses it for formal events.
The buildings are great examples of Thai architecture showing influence from the Hindus, the Buddhists, the Chinese and the European colonial era.
After touring The Grand Palace, we took a long-boat ride on the river and canal system of Bangkok. Why do I schedule boat rides? I hate boat rides. I find them interesting for approximately 10 minutes and then it is just more of the same. Boring. Oh look... people fishing and buildings that have flooded and more boats. This one was particularly bad because I think we had the slowest boat in Southeast Asia. Everyone passed. Even the boat loaded with Buddhist monks left us in the dust.
The boat ride ended at Wat Arun, arguably the most beautiful temple in all of Thailand.
After dinner, we toured the Asiatique market. The market is best described as a mix of trinket booths, restaurants, artsy shops and a shopping mall complete with food court from Anywhere, U.S.A.
Seen at the market: Fish foot massage tanks. Can anyone say "deadly flesh eating bacteria infection?"
How's the weather? Hot and humid as expected.
I am officially exhausted and can barely finish this blog post. Tomorrow, I expect to enjoy a swim in the hotel pool and have a leisurely morning before flying to Laos in the afternoon.
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