What a day!

 We slept from 0200 until 0700 and awoke refreshed.

Breakfast was at the hotel restaurant and was very good.

I had mentioned to Caro on the way to the historical Center that YouTubers who live here suggest that we be careful taking Tuk-Tuks as they could rip you off.

We got the metro to The Grand Palace only to be informed by a museum guide that due to today being a special day the place wouldn’t be open until about 1 PM. 

He suggested we take a Tuk-tuk and so we did (ha-ha). The driver gave us a good ride, stopping at several spots that are high lites in the area. We saw the first of many temples today with him. In fact we saw so much today I can’t remember all the names.

 It turns out that the government allows 10 special days at the beginning of the year for people to purchase jewelry from wholesalers. Today was the last day. We decided to have a look at some of the sapphires and ruby jewelry that is mined and produced in Thailand. Many of these precious stones are sold all over the world. I ended up buying Caro her birthday and Christmas gift bracelet and she bought earrings. Both items are beautiful.

When the tuk-tuk tour was completed we knew we needed to get money. After several ATM’s wouldn’t work for us we started getting worried. We found an ATM associated with Bangkok Bank that would give us money from credit cards so we used both ATB and Brim and got some. I don’t know why I couldn’t use my debit card. Very frustrating as credit card money advances are expensive.

We went to Wat Pho for a tour. We got a guide to give us a 45 minute tour.

This Buddha is covered in gold leaf. This was one of MANY in this temple complex.

Reclining Buddha.

Forgot the name of this one. Has serpents around his head.

By now it was about 2 PM and it was hot. We were both tired and thirsty so had decided to forget the Grand Palace grounds and leave them for tomorrow, however on our way out of Wat Pho we met our guide from earlier (after our time with him we had waited to see a temple that was very busy and thus became something to visit after our guided tour). Our guide said we had lots of time to visit the Grand Palace so we ‘sucked it up” and walked the half kilometre or so around to the entrance of this HUGE palace grounds.

Caro had had to purchase a skirt before going into one of the first temple sites this morning (as per decorum) and at the Grand Palace I had to purchase pants to go over my cut-offs or I wouldn’t be allowed in. Naturally there is a brisk sale of both men’s and women’s covering available right on site as there were many in the same boat as us.

OMG-what a site. Caro, myself and several thousand of our closest  friends more than hour in sticky heat walking around an AMAZING site (including a beautiful memorial from the king of Siam we know from the story The King and I with Yul Brennen). This palace grounds in simply breath taking.

I stopped taking photos. I could have had a hundred or more. Every time you turned around there was another magnificent well kept up old building that, together, showcase what we consider traditional Thai architectural style.

About 4 PM we left the palace grounds and while walking back to the metro (probably close to a kilometre) we stopped at a very busy restaurant with each of us choosing a different plate of food and sharing. We were both famished as we hadn’t eaten anything since 0830.

Our hotel is right on the edge of China town and there are HUNDREDS of street food vendors nearby. I suspect tomorrow night we will be exploring these streets and crunching down on various types of meats.