Monday and Tuesday in Bangkok!
Later on, Rama IV built a small chedi housing a Buddha relic on top of the mud and brick mound. The chedi was rebuilt again towards the end of the 19th century by his son Rama V when the Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, made a gift of a Buddha re
lic excavated from the town where Buddha was believed to have been born. The concrete cap was built during WW II to keep the artificial hill from eroding further.
MONDAY:
As Rach mentioned, we were unable to go to the beach on Monday so we decided to go to a floating market a bit outsid
e the city. The place is exactly what it sounds like - they have a canal where boats float down (some with thais or tourists, some retail boats selling hats, souvenirs, and other articles, and some boats even had food!) and you can stop your boat at anytime to barter for a good deal on something you want.
The canal was also lined with shops so you could walk around and look at all sorts of thai arts and crafts. We ended up getting a few things, but I think our favorite purchase of the day was coconut ice cream served in a small coconut. There were big chunks of coconut shavings in it and on an extremely hot day it was quite a treat! In general, we decided that adding coconut (more specifically coconut cream) to anything makes it taste amazing. I think I could just drink coconut cream and be happy!
Speaking of coconut, on the way to the market we stopped at a sugar factory. Well...that is what they called it but it was really just a bunch of people in a medium-sized tent boiling and mixing and whatnot. I guess when I thought of "factory" I was assuming (assuming was a bad idea to begin with!) that it would be a large, metallic, sterile building full of workers in long white over sized jackets and masks over their mouths). But that definitely wasn't the case. It was interesting to see how they make sugar from coconut flowers. We got to taste some and it was quite delicious.
After we returned to Bangkok, it was off to see some of the city's rich Buddhist history. Our first stop was Wat Po.
Here is a little about Wat Po:
As Rach mentioned, we were unable to go to the beach on Monday so we decided to go to a floating market a bit outsid
e the city. The place is exactly what it sounds like - they have a canal where boats float down (some with thais or tourists, some retail boats selling hats, souvenirs, and other articles, and some boats even had food!) and you can stop your boat at anytime to barter for a good deal on something you want.The canal was also lined with shops so you could walk around and look at all sorts of thai arts and crafts. We ended up getting a few things, but I think our favorite purchase of the day was coconut ice cream served in a small coconut. There were big chunks of coconut shavings in it and on an extremely hot day it was quite a treat! In general, we decided that adding coconut (more specifically coconut cream) to anything makes it taste amazing. I think I could just drink coconut cream and be happy!
Speaking of coconut, on the way to the market we stopped at a sugar factory. Well...that is what they called it but it was really just a bunch of people in a medium-sized tent boiling and mixing and whatnot. I guess when I thought of "factory" I was assuming (assuming was a bad idea to begin with!) that it would be a large, metallic, sterile building full of workers in long white over sized jackets and masks over their mouths). But that definitely wasn't the case. It was interesting to see how they make sugar from coconut flowers. We got to taste some and it was quite delicious.
After we returned to Bangkok, it was off to see some of the city's rich Buddhist history. Our first stop was Wat Po.
Here is a little about Wat Po:
Wat Pho (วัดโพธิ์)is mainly famous for the huge Reclining Buddha statue it houses. At 20acres large, it is the largest Wat in Bangkok, and is technically the oldest too, as it was built around 200 years before Bangkok became Thailand's capital. However, today the Wat bears virtually no resemblance to that originally constructed, as it was almost entirely rebuilt by Rama I when the capital was moved to Bangkok. It holds the dual honors of having both Thailand's largest reclining Buddha image and the most number of Buddha images in Thailand.
The highly impressive gold plated reclining Buddha is 46 meters long and 15
meters high, and is designed to illustrate the passing of the Buddha into nirvana. The feet and the eyes are engraved with mother-of-pearl decoration, and the feet also show the 108 auspicious characteristics of the true Buddha.
The highly impressive gold plated reclining Buddha is 46 meters long and 15
meters high, and is designed to illustrate the passing of the Buddha into nirvana. The feet and the eyes are engraved with mother-of-pearl decoration, and the feet also show the 108 auspicious characteristics of the true Buddha.The reclining Buddha is massive and quite beautiful! Since it is enclosed in the building so tightly, its virtually impossible to get a full shot of it.
After Wat Po, we went down by the river to take a ferry boat to the other side to see another wat, Wat Arun วัดอรุ
ณ which is also known as the "Temple of Dawn." This wat was both our favorites, as it towers over the river bank and gives great views of the city. The stairs were very steep but worth the climb!
After Wat Arun, we wandered around the city a bit and ran across a huge flower market. There were tons of people with little stalls making flower bracelets, necklaces, statues and other things with all parts of the flower. Even though it wasn't on our "to see" list, I'm happy we ran across it!
Pretty exhausted from the long day, we got some delicious food before we headed back to the hostel to pack our things and get to sleep. I had shrimp with chili and basil, and Rach had fried rice with veggies and chicken. Also with almost every meal we had fruit shakes, which were basically fresh fruit (coconut, mango, papaya, watermelon, pineapple, banana, etc) blended together with ice. They were very delicious and perfect for the hot and muggy weather!
TUESDAY:
Tuesday was the first day of our trip where we slept past 6:30am! We got to "sleep in" until around 8 and took advantage of our free breakfast at our hostel. On the agenda were the Grand Palace which is host to the Emerald Buddha, The Golden Mount and the Giant Swing.
The Grand Palace พระบรมมหาราชวัง was quite overwhelming! It is a complex of buildings and served as the official residence of the Thai Royalty since the 18th century. They strictly enforce dress codes here and women are not allowed to be sleeve-less or show any ankle. It was basically torture to wear full-length pants and a sleeved shirt since it was incredibly hot, so we brought shorts and tank tops to change into after our temple exploring. After the Grand Palace we tuk-tuked it over to the Golden Mount.
ณ which is also known as the "Temple of Dawn." This wat was both our favorites, as it towers over the river bank and gives great views of the city. The stairs were very steep but worth the climb!After Wat Arun, we wandered around the city a bit and ran across a huge flower market. There were tons of people with little stalls making flower bracelets, necklaces, statues and other things with all parts of the flower. Even though it wasn't on our "to see" list, I'm happy we ran across it!
Pretty exhausted from the long day, we got some delicious food before we headed back to the hostel to pack our things and get to sleep. I had shrimp with chili and basil, and Rach had fried rice with veggies and chicken. Also with almost every meal we had fruit shakes, which were basically fresh fruit (coconut, mango, papaya, watermelon, pineapple, banana, etc) blended together with ice. They were very delicious and perfect for the hot and muggy weather!
TUESDAY:
Tuesday was the first day of our trip where we slept past 6:30am! We got to "sleep in" until around 8 and took advantage of our free breakfast at our hostel. On the agenda were the Grand Palace which is host to the Emerald Buddha, The Golden Mount and the Giant Swing.
The Grand Palace พระบรมมหาราชวัง was quite overwhelming! It is a complex of buildings and served as the official residence of the Thai Royalty since the 18th century. They strictly enforce dress codes here and women are not allowed to be sleeve-less or show any ankle. It was basically torture to wear full-length pants and a sleeved shirt since it was incredibly hot, so we brought shorts and tank tops to change into after our temple exploring. After the Grand Palace we tuk-tuked it over to the Golden Mount.
Here is some info on the Golden Mount:
It was started by King Rama III early in the 19th century, who wanted to build a large chedi on the site to mark the entrance to the city. However, the soft marshy ground could not support such a large structure and it collapsed before it was completed.Later on, Rama IV built a small chedi housing a Buddha relic on top of the mud and brick mound. The chedi was rebuilt again towards the end of the 19th century by his son Rama V when the Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, made a gift of a Buddha re
lic excavated from the town where Buddha was believed to have been born. The concrete cap was built during WW II to keep the artificial hill from eroding further.We were able to get some good city-scape pictures from the Golden Mount as well. After the Golden Mount we went over to see what is called the "Giant Swing." It was pretty cool to see, but no action really in or around it so we quickly moved on back to the area near our hostel.
Since we had been on our feet for about 4 days straight, we decided to treat ourselves to a foot massage since they are so cheap (around $3 for an hour). We ended up getting a half hour foot massage and it was just what we needed to get out of the hot weather (they had AC in the massage place) and rejuvenate ourselves.
While walking down the street Rach and I got offered "buy 1 get 1 free" wedding dresses. Gotta love that!
It was finally time to head to the airport to catch our flight to Chiang Mai. We got a bus to the airport around 6, since it takes about an hour or so and our flight was supposed to leave around 8:40. We get to the airport and look on the big board to find out where we were supposed to check in, and noticed that our flight number was not on it. Clearly, this had to be a mistake. We were light-hearted and joking about how we probably missed it, or it got cancelled or some other event that seemed just as unrealistic.
To see if my paperwork had any helpful information, I pulled it out of my awesome around-the-neck passport holder I always wear when I travel (Rach thinks I'm a nerd :P ). I scanned down the paper for the flight and noticed the departure time read 19:15 (7:15pm). It was currently about 7:30pm....ummm whoops! I read it again, and to make sure I wasn't just reading it wrong/going crazy I gave it to Rachel. "Please, PLEASE tell me this doesn't say 19:15." Then I started laughing.
"Omg Meg!" and with that I knew we had officially missed our flight. Even though we are both experienced travelers (myself having doing a lot of independent traveling through Europe when I studied abroad), this had never happened to either of us. I couldn't help but keep laughing as we made our way over to the check in area to see what was going to happen next. Missed our flight. Are you serious?!
The lady at the counter looked at our terribly folded and worn piece of paper with the flight #'s on it, found our flight to Chiang Mai and went "ooof." Not exactly what you want to hear. Expecting to stay overnight at the airport, or pay a huge fee, or whatever else airlines usually do in these cases, we both were waiting in suspense to see what our consequence would be for not re-checking our flight time.
Thankfully, Thai airlines is AWESOME and the lady simply put us on the next flight out. Took less than 5 minutes to sort it out and the only thing lost in the entire experience was a few hours of sleep (since we would be getting into Chiang Mai a bit later than expected). I told Rachel I felt like it was too good to be true, too easy. I am supposed to be learning a lesson from this! Although I suppose the "oh crap our airplane is probably at 30,000ft while we are sitting down here like suckers" was good enough to make sure we ALWAYS triple, no, quadruple check flight times from now on!
And with that - we were on our way to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand!
Since we had been on our feet for about 4 days straight, we decided to treat ourselves to a foot massage since they are so cheap (around $3 for an hour). We ended up getting a half hour foot massage and it was just what we needed to get out of the hot weather (they had AC in the massage place) and rejuvenate ourselves.
While walking down the street Rach and I got offered "buy 1 get 1 free" wedding dresses. Gotta love that!
It was finally time to head to the airport to catch our flight to Chiang Mai. We got a bus to the airport around 6, since it takes about an hour or so and our flight was supposed to leave around 8:40. We get to the airport and look on the big board to find out where we were supposed to check in, and noticed that our flight number was not on it. Clearly, this had to be a mistake. We were light-hearted and joking about how we probably missed it, or it got cancelled or some other event that seemed just as unrealistic.
To see if my paperwork had any helpful information, I pulled it out of my awesome around-the-neck passport holder I always wear when I travel (Rach thinks I'm a nerd :P ). I scanned down the paper for the flight and noticed the departure time read 19:15 (7:15pm). It was currently about 7:30pm....ummm whoops! I read it again, and to make sure I wasn't just reading it wrong/going crazy I gave it to Rachel. "Please, PLEASE tell me this doesn't say 19:15." Then I started laughing.
"Omg Meg!" and with that I knew we had officially missed our flight. Even though we are both experienced travelers (myself having doing a lot of independent traveling through Europe when I studied abroad), this had never happened to either of us. I couldn't help but keep laughing as we made our way over to the check in area to see what was going to happen next. Missed our flight. Are you serious?!
The lady at the counter looked at our terribly folded and worn piece of paper with the flight #'s on it, found our flight to Chiang Mai and went "ooof." Not exactly what you want to hear. Expecting to stay overnight at the airport, or pay a huge fee, or whatever else airlines usually do in these cases, we both were waiting in suspense to see what our consequence would be for not re-checking our flight time.
Thankfully, Thai airlines is AWESOME and the lady simply put us on the next flight out. Took less than 5 minutes to sort it out and the only thing lost in the entire experience was a few hours of sleep (since we would be getting into Chiang Mai a bit later than expected). I told Rachel I felt like it was too good to be true, too easy. I am supposed to be learning a lesson from this! Although I suppose the "oh crap our airplane is probably at 30,000ft while we are sitting down here like suckers" was good enough to make sure we ALWAYS triple, no, quadruple check flight times from now on!
And with that - we were on our way to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand!
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