Bangkok: Asia's Venice

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We woke up this morning less than eagerly after yesterday's marathon of sightseeing.  Nonetheless, we bounded out of bed with about 10 minutes to spare before the buffet ended.  Phew!

After breakfast, Kris was feeling pretty woozy and flu-like, so we decided to plan a less intense itinerary for the day. We had heard about taking a tour of the klongs -- the canals that flow in and out of the Chao Phayra River -- so we went back to the pier near our hotel and made a deal with a lady there. We were quickly ushered into a long, narrow, covered (hooray) boat with a big diesel engine. We had the boat entirely to ourselves.  After a bit of navigation down the main river, our boat cut down into one of the canals. Once inside the canal, we had a beautiful ride around the snakelike waterway. Lining the river is row after row of houses, built on stilts, right into the river. We could see right into some people's houses at some points, and we saw many people just hanging out on their back balconies.  I had a great time waving to nearly everyone we passed and most people waved back and almost everyone smiled at me.  Thai people are SO NICE!  That's one new lesson: a smile and a wave are universal.

 The tour lasted exactly an hour, ending at another Bangkok sight to see -- the Temple of Dawn, or Wat Arun. This temple is very beautiful and majestic. It is decorated entirely of cracked Chinese pottery -- that's my idea of recycling!! Kris got some great pictures of the pottery designs.  Unfortunately, the outside of the temple is extremely touristy, with vendors selling very overpriced souvenirs.  After walking around and some much-needed potty breaks, it was close to 3PM and we still wanted to see the Grand Palace, which closes at 3:30. When we tried to take a boat across the river (the easiest route), we were told that it would be 100 baht EACH -- a complete rip-off!! In a huff about the bad pricing, we decided to find a cheap tuk-tuk to take us to the palace.

After being laughed at by one driver (still don't know why), we finally found a driver willing to take us there (for 50 baht none the less). The traffic was terrible, by far the worst we have ever seen and the drive seemed to be taking a really long time. When the driver finally stopped, we were in Chinatown, and the driver kept pointing to a hotel: the Grand Princess!  hahaha.... talk about language difficulties. I felt kinda bad for the guy because he worked really hard for his measly 50 baht, but we finally arrived at the Grand Palace and it was nearly 4PM -- too late. Seeing that the Palace was closed, we decided to go on a walk in search of a meal.  After nearly 30 mins of walking  in the baking sun, we still hadn't found a good restaurant, but we soon stumbled upon this great market on this main road.  The schools had seemingly just let out, because there were school children everywhere.  All of the street vendors were selling kid-friendly food, like chicken nuggets and hot dogs.  The market was really cool and we eventually had to stop at a bakery and sample some good eats.  I tried out my "hello", "thank you" and "goodbye" in thai -- making a lot of people smile and laugh  :)

As the street ended, so did the market, so I again pulled out our map to find out where we were.  A nice old Thai man came up to us and started asking us where we were from and we tried to get his advice on where we were.  Soon enough (doesn't take long!) a helpful tuk-tuk arrived, trying to get our business.  This driver spoke great English, so we joked with him and tried to get him to take us very far for pretty cheap.  We wanted to go see another temple, but it was already quite late and we were feeling especially sun-stroaky after walking through miles of outdoor markets (can you say sweaty?), so we decided to hire him to take us to a nice air conditioned restaurant we had spied earlier this week.

The restaurant initially had caught our eye because of the A/C, and also because it looked very upscale, but the prices were still reasonable.  Once inside, we were happy to be out of the elements and quickly ordered some curry and pad thai (what else?).  The food was pretty good, but the service was rotten -- Kris at one point said that our waiter was in a different planet -- very different from what is typically incredibly-attentive service by the other restauranteurs in the area.  We still had a filling meal with dessert for 230 baht each (less than $6 CDN).

After dinner, Kris was really feeling tired, so we walked back to the hotel through Khosan Road, which was a zoo as usual.  At the hotel, Kris got cozy in bed and Liz and I left her to come to an internet cafe.  As we prepared to leave about 5 mins ago, we looked out the window to see a torrential downpour, so we put a few more baht in the coin-operated computer and decided to finish this blog! 

Tomorrow, we head to Pattaya, and we are anxiously awaiting the first dip in the pool after the heat (and stench) of Bangkok.  Till then!!