Temples, Temples and MORE Temples!

Oh what a glorious night sleep I had. I had ALMOST forgotten what it felt like to go to bed in a room with AC, a soft bed and a blanket that actually covered my body! When the alarm went off at 6:30am I did NOT want to get up. But, I got myself in the shower, dressed and the three of us were off to breakfast!

Breakfast was delicious! I had ALSO almost forgotten how much I missed hotel breakfast buffets. My stomach didn’t forget though as it was READY for action (and this was noted by Lorna AND my mom although I didn’t think I ate THAT much).

We were ready in the hotel lobby at 7:30am to meet our guide for the day, Nook! I had recommended we get a guide because I have found them SO useful while traveling. Traveling in Asia is enough work it itself and trying to navigate sightseeing WITHOUT getting ripped off is almost impossible. SO I find it well worth the money to have a guide to do all the tough work!

We took a taxi to Wat Pho, the temple of the Reclining Buddha. We walked around the grounds for a bit before entering the Temple and honestly it was really cool. It was a HUGE Buddha and he was lying down on his side (hence the name). It was just VERY different from anything I had seen so I think we liked that.

Our next stop was a massage! There was a massage training school on the grounds so we stopped for a well needed break! We each got a 30 minute massage and it wasn’t the BEST I have had but Lorna and my Mom liked it. They do a lot more “pressure” points than anything else, but the one place I enjoy that (my upper back) she didn’t really do! Anyway I think we were all ready to fall asleep and it was a great way to start the morning!

When then took a tuk-tuk to our next stop, the Grand Palace! However, I think I like the tuk-tuk’s in Cambodia better (imagine that..something I enjoyed in Cambodia) but it was fun to take a ride! We arrived at the Grand Palace and this is when I was VERY glad we had a guide! There are so many people around trying to scam you and we would have had NO idea what to look at and what we were looking at!

Since we were all wearing capris we had to bring long pants and change before we entered the Temple. However, I thought as long as we were covering our knees we would be ok and we saw plenty of tourists in capris, but we were TRULY respecting the Temple (and sweating a lot) by wearing pants!

The main thing to see at the Grand Palace is Wat Phra Kaew, which houses the Emerald Buddha and is considered the most important temple in Thailand. The actual Buddha was small and not that impressive, but the Temple was beautiful. We also saw a replica of Angkor Wat (please! I had just seen the REAL thing! Ha) which made me laugh! We were very hot and tired at that point, so we made our way to the exit AND to change our pants. I appreciate capris a LOT more after wearing jeans for an hour!

We then made our way to the river to take a boat ride. I wouldn’t say it was beautiful (very city like and industrial) but we went to this place where we could feed fish bread so that was kinda of cool!

On our way back we stopped at Wat Arun, Temple of the Dawn. It was very beautiful AND we even got our exercise by walking to the top! These stairs were SO steep! LUCKILY nobody tripped or died and it was a beautiful view from the top!

We were very hungry by that point so Nook took us to one of her favorite places for lunch. She picked it because it was a local Thai place that ALSO had AC! Can’t beat that! Lorna got fried spring rolls, mom got some soup and I got some meat and rice that was SO SPICY! Ugh it was painful! I knew I was in trouble when I could see the chill peppers! It was really good minus the spiciness. I had to chase it was a granola bar to stop myself from chocking. Oh man I was NOT use to that food! But we were really happy to have Nook there to order for us and to show us some local cuisine.

We then made our way to 7-11 so I could get a sim card for my phone. And MAN I am glad she was there! I would have been SO lost trying to do it on my own! She was going to buy one brand but then switched to another because they had a great promotion for international calls (perfect!) but then she had to dial all these numbers but finally..it worked! Woo hoo!

By that time it was mid afternoon and we were exhausted. We had seen pretty much everything we had wanted to see so we were happy with calling it a day. We took a water taxi back to the sky train (we were all about different modes of transportation today!) The water taxi was one of the boats you read about in the newspaper. You would see our pictures, people saying how beautiful and wonderful we were and they can’t believe we died on a capsized ferry boat in Thailand. LUCKILY, we lived to tell about it!

We then took the skytrain (which is just an elevated subway) back to our hotel. My mom did an EXCELLENT job (although that should come as no surprise) finding a hotel with a GREAT location as we can walk to everything!

We took about an hour to rest and shower as both were well needed! Then, we set off for our adventures for the night. I wanted to find a place that I could get film developed from my old school camera in Cambodia. The first place we found (Fuji) didn’t really speak too much English. Long story short (after going back and forth with the prices) it didn’t sound like they could have it done in time so I thanked them and left.

We then decided, instead of being TOO full for ice cream, we would START with ice cream (this was my mom’s idea..can’t you see why I love her so much?) so we made a well needed DQ stop before finding another camera place. As I opened my bag to show him the film, I hadn’t even gotten past, “Hello, I am ..” when he burst out laughing (no joke) and said he didn’t do film. How embarrassing! SHEEESH! I decided I would give up and try again in Phuket!

We then walked around the MASSIVE mall and ended up at a place for dinner called The Pizza Company. So American I know, but I had read the people who live in Bangkok love it and it was actually very good! Although, we could tell Lorna had jetlag as I don’t think she spoke ONE word at dinner!

On the way back to the hotel we walked through MBK (this stands for some LONG Thai word) which is the MASSIVE mall with over 2,500 stalls. It is less fancy than the other malls (we could actually afford these stores) and we enjoyed walking round for a bit!

We were all exhausted..so we headed back to the hotel for a good night sleep!

Hugs and kisses from lots of Temples!