August 15, 2012

& on to Bangkok we go!

Now I don't want to come off as a negative nancy here, but... there's no easy way to say this is there? I didn't quite like Bangkok. At times I may or may not have uttered the words "I hate this place" or "urg I can't wait to leave" but I digress. A few things affected these negatory feelings from within - the weather for one. It was dreadful. Rain, clouds, more rain & even thunder. Terrific. Second was the SCAMS. If you ever head over to Thailand's capital city, just be prepared for scammy scam scams when it involved anything&everything tuk tuk related.
Putting this sadness/sourness aside, I actually loved seeing the gorgeous temples (touristy of me I know, but whateva) + eating some delicious noms + walking through some craycray markets. The Grand Palace, Wat Pho & Wat Arun are the 3 main temples that are MUST SEE in Thailand. I can go on&on about the descriptions+things to see, but photographs will take care of that. One warning (again) though - don't listen to ANYONE outside the palace or the other temples. People approached us (one in a fake police uniform for goodness sake) telling us the temples were closed for prayer/thai only/the day and to come w them to another temple then some jewlery/textile warehouse outlet. Trust you-me, THEY ARE ALL OPEN. Anywhoo, one other special tip... for the BEST thai ice tea I've ever had EVER - its right outside Wat Arun in this little park-like area where there is a small food+beverage booth. The woman made us the mouth watering concoction that I am still salivating over.

entrance to the ferry

cruising the Chao Phraya River

what have we stumbled upon here?

cooking up some fresh pad thai

Grand Palace







Wat Pho - reclining Buddha

behind the reclining (slash relaxing) Buddha, there are about 100 (I think, may be totally wrong) bowls as shown above where people drop coins of some sort in each and everyone...so while you're there you just hear constant "tings, pings" *this is coin noises*... thought you'd might like to knooooowww



one of my favorite pics of the trip

Wat Arun