Bangkok

Location: Bangkok, Thailand

We arrived in Bangkok at around 4pm local time, 1 hour ahead of China. We took a shuttle bus from the airport to the hotel, which was located in the Silom district-and just as we were getting out of the bus, we got something that we hadn't really had on the trip before. Rain. Lots of rain. This here is the beginning of monsoon season in Southeast Asia, and it decided to pick the moment we got off the bus to start. We had some trouble finding our hotel in this, and got completely drenched as a result. When we found the hotel, the Trinity Silom, I decided that it was the best hotel we've stayed in so far. I mean, after all, it had a roof.

After we dried out a little, we ventured into the neighborhood. We walked over to the Patpong District, which has a market set up in the middle of it at night. There were plenty of people walking around (mostly tourists), and some pretty good deals to be had. The stuff was pretty similar to what we found in China, with one notable exception: the elephant featured more frequently in the art, crafts, and shirts. The elephant is the national animal of Thailand; picture people riding them around during the days of Siam.

Patpong's most famous reputation is more sinister; it is the red-light district of Thailand. It definitely shows. Go-go bars line the streets, and pushy salesmen try to entice you into coming in to the bars. They all have the same card showing the different "shows" you can see; I won't go into the details, because even if I wanted to explain what the shows were, I wouldn't know how. These places were definitely very seedy, so we steered clear. I also declined to take any pictures of the bars, because a) It doesn't make for interesting photography, and b) I don't like being beaten by bouncers. Here is a picture of the market though:

We had dinner at a nice Japanese restaurant in the area, which had a great deal. 400 Thai Baht (~13 dollars) for all you can eat sushi made fresh right in front of you. It was really good sushi, perhaps the best we had on the trip so far. After this, we walked around some more, and then headed in.

On Wednesday morning, we headed out to go see some of the temples and palaces of Bangkok. We took a taxi over to the historical area. As soon as we got out, we were met by a random Thai man, who told us that the temple wasn't open until 1pm. He took our map and said that if we wanted to see the Marble Temple instead, he could take us there. Luckily, we had read about such scams, and were seasoned pros by this point. We forcefully said "no thank you" and walked away. This is a common scam in Thailand-telling tourists that either the sites are closed, or that they are only open to Thai citizens-the goal being to get you to pay for a guide or go to souvenir shops.

Our first stop was the Wat Po, a massive temple complex. The architecture of the temple was amazing; large, ornate spires rising high into the sky. The level of detail on the spires is truly impressive, and must have taken a very long time to do:

In the main temple of Wat Po, is the Reclining Buddha. This pose of Buddha is very common in Southeast Asia, and this particular one was huge-too big to really fit into one photograph. The whole body of Buddha is shown, down to the soles of the feet, which are also ornately designed (shown in the third picture below):

After walking through Wat Po, we crossed the street, and walked into the Grand Palace. This was also very impressive, with three main spires, one carved, one covered with golden tiles, and the third designed to look like Angkor Wat. In addition, there is another temple here, that houses a very famous Emerald Buddha. Actually made out of pure jade, it was supposedly created in India, discovered up near Chiang Rai centuries ago, captured by the Laotians, before being recaptured by the Thais in the 18th century and brought to Bangkok. There were no pictures allowed inside the shrine, but I managed to take one from outside. The whole complex was very beautiful, with more of the spires around, and large statues of warriors:

After this, we went over to have lunch in the Bang Lampoo district. We took a Tuk Tuk over there. A Tuk Tuk is like a taxi; it's a moped with a wheeled cart attached to the back:

Defintely a fun way to get around the city.

We then walked around the area, and bought some DVDs. I also bought some rambutan. This is a local fruit, which is kind of like a lychee, only larger, and with more spines. Here's a picture of the rambutan:

To eat one, you break open the shell, and squeeze the fruit into your mouth. The shell is a little difficult to crack, but with a little effort, you can get it. When I asked the salesman what it cost, he said 20 baht, which is about 60 cents. I figured it would be 20 baht for maybe 1 or 2 rambutans, but instead, he produced a plastic bag and filled it with about 40! I could only get Ben to eat 1, I ate the other 39 over the next few hours.

One interesting thing about Thailand is the "welcome" hand gesture. Thais will welcome you or bid you goodbye with their hands clasped in front of them, fingers touching their chin, and do a slight bow. Here's a picture of Ronald McDonald getting into the act.

After this, we headed in for an early night. The following morning, we woke up at 5:30 am, to catch a tour bus to the Floating Markets of Damnoen Saduak...