Oh the glitz!

It seemed to take forever to get to Bangkok given that it is only a couple of countries away. I left the hotel in HCMC before 9 am and it was nearly 5pm when I got to my room in Bangkok.

Immigration took forever in Vietnam. It seems that the Vietnamese didn't want to join the queues for Vietnamese passport holders, they wanted to join everyone else's queues. So that increased the length of time for everyone because their paper work is different and the people were having to swap between the two. I also managed to get a queue with a woman with six kids all of whom had to have their own paperwork and get held up so that the woman behind the desk could see them and check that they matched (as if you can tell!).

I finally got through to find that the departure tax that I'd dutifully saved didn't have to be paid after all, so had to exchange my excess dong at the ridiculously poor exchange rate in the departure lounges. After that there was nothing to do but wander aimlessly for a couple of hours waiting for the plane. They don't sell anything in the airport except for alcohol and cigarettes and make up (all in Asian colours), so it gets boring very quickly.

The flight over was quick and easy but then it again seemed to take forever to get anywhere once we got to Bangkok. I don't think it helped that we had to walk what seemed like twice the length of the airport to reach immigration. There again the queues were long, though at least they moved faster than the ones in Vietnam and the Thais did seem to join the right queue.

Getting my bag was easy but then I had to try and find the bus to the city. They don't have useful things in Asia like information desks so you just have to wander looking at signs until you find something that looks like what you want. I got some cash at the ATM and then started looking for a bus sign. I did find one but it pointed me in the wrong direction so again I walked the full length of the airport carrying all my bags to get there. The bus then took about an hour to get into the city. On the way in there was an almighty thunderstorm and bucketing rain. I'm not sure how the driver could see out of the windscreen. Thankfully the rain stopped before I had to get off.

I then had a bit of trouble with being booked into a different hotel to the one that I thought I was. Must have been a mistake when I was booking online. Turns out that I was in the nicer of the two hotels which was a bonus, usually it's the other way around. After checking in and having to give up half my money in a key deposit, I decided to go for a quick walk and see the famous Khao San road. It's an interesting place and not as long as I thought that it would be. If you want to get a tattoo, body piercing, your hair braided or some form of cheap clothing, it is the place to go. Otherwise, just have a quick look and get out of there. Thankfully the people in the stalls don't harass you too much but it's hot and crowded and really not that nice. I looked for the famous second hand book shops that get talked about and really couldn't find any that were that good. The prices were higher than most places in Vietnam and the range wasn't really any better, they just had more copies of some of the books. I wish that I'd bought more in Hanoi now, because Love Planet has a much better range even if they are a bit more expensive. I grabbed a quick bite to eat and then headed back to the hotel to get some sleep. Unfortunately, as I mentioned in my review, the man across the road with the microphone had other ideas, he was so loud that you could hear him clearly through earplugs. Thankfully, I was very tired and fell asleep anyway.

The next day I thought that I'd go and see the Grand Palace and Emerald Buddha as these are supposedly the highlights of Bangkok. I set off on foot, after being harassed by the taxi and tuktuk guys out the front of the hotel. Crossing the road in Bangkok is much easier than in HCMC. There are traffic lights that are actually obeyed by the majority of the traffic and there are more cars and less bikes. There are even pedestrian crossings that have meaning rather than being useless road decorations. There was only one street that I had trouble at because it didn't have lights and rarely had gaps big enough to get across all four lanes of traffic. It seems that you just need to be patient there.

Once across the major set of roads, it was easy to get to the palace by walking down the side of the park. I wouldn't have guessed that it is a park though because it is currently covered in temporary buildings for some Buddhist festival that is on at the moment. Buddhist lent starts tomorrow so they are getting ready for the final hurrah before this. Here a woman conned me into buying some corn to feed the pigeons (they look very healthy here), which supposedly buys you bonus points with the Buddha. I don't know why he likes pigeons so much.

The Palace is easy to find. The spires are visible from a long distance away and you just need to follow the crowds. I was there only 30 minutes after it opened and it was already filling up with people. One thing to note if you are going there is they are really strict on the dress code to get in. They don't allow see through anything, shorts, three quarter length pants, short skirts, sleeveless tops, low cut tops or tight clothes. And unlike many other places in Asia, this is enforced, so make sure that you either wear something or take something appropriate. I think that you can hire a long skirt to wear from the palace if you need too but I'm not sure how much they are.

Once inside the external wall, you need to keep going to get to the ticket box. The ticket box near the wall is for the dance show that is on several times a day not for the palace. Tickets are 250 baht but are definitely worth it. I started with the Monastery of the Emerald Buddha. It's very Istanbul meets Liberace. They have managed to outglitz, glitz. There are casinos in Las Vegas that look minimalist in comparison to this temple. I didn't know that you could make a gold lame covering for a whole temple. Or statues, or the roof of another building. I'm glad that it wasn't too sunny on the day that I was there because you could possibly go blind.

The entire complex is surrounded by a hall that has a Buddhist story painted on the inside. It is also gilded and is quite extraordinary. They are currently working on restoring it because the Thais like the Vietnamese aren't good with 'Don't Touch' signs. It tells some sort of dramatic story about a warrior prince and a girl and some really large monkeys that eat people. I think that it would help if I knew the story.

There are a series of temples within the complex and you can't go into most of them. They are only opened for special ceremonies. Two of the largest are used only for the funerals of the royal family. They are actually really beautiful and I would have loved to see the inside because they are tiled completely on the outside with floral tiles that are just gorgeous (and a lot less glitzy). There are great statues everywhere in the complex, glittering monkeys and mythical beasts, giants with swords and cross expressions, and some very lifelike elephants.

The Emerald Buddha is in a separate temple that is also currently being renovated. You can still go inside and see the buddha but most of the outside is covered with scaffolding and tarpaulins. You can't take photos inside but you can get pictures of the altar from outside of the doors. The inside is the glitziest altar that I've ever seen. It is a huge stack of Buddhas and other statues all covered in gold. The emerald Buddha itself is not actually made of emerald but jade. They just made a mistake when they first took the stucco off it. He is currently wearing clothing from his hot weather collection. He has a collection of clothes for the different times of the year which get changed every few months in a special ceremony. There were two men dusting the altar while I was there. Now that would be a bummer of a job!

The inside of the temple is wonderful in itself. The walls are painted with another mural story which again involves lots of mythical creatures and some sort of battle.

I then headed off to the Grand Palace. Unfortunately, some of the buildings were closed because of a special occasion. The ones that you could go into were spectacular though. There are two large temple like buildings that are used by the royal family for coronations and funerals. They are both painted on the inside with multiple pictures of Buddha that almost look like wallpaper. The coronation hall has a giant golden boat inside that has a statue of Buddha in it for special occasions. In front of this is the throne that the King uses. It's also large and you guessed it, gold. The funeral hall is more subdued but still fairly covered in gold. The bodies lie in state here for up to 100 days. I hope they are good at embalming because it is very hot here and Grandma could be not good by day 100.

The relic museum is definitely worth a visit and is included in the ticket for the Palace. It's not huge but has a interesting collection of jewelry and clothes and coins from the royal families over time. There are the clothes from the coronations and special religious ceremonies. There is a jacket that is completely made from gold, it must weigh a ton. There is a hat that goes with it that is one of those ones that has a spike on the top. You wouldn't want to get off balance because you'd go over straight away.

I then went to try and see the Reclining Buddha but unfortunately it was closed because of the Buddhist festival, so  I walked back to the hotel instead. After lunch it started to rain so I decided that I'd had enough looking at temples and had a sleep instead. I had an easy afternoon repacking my bag and getting ready to head onto China.

The next morning I just got up and went to the airport and said goodbye to Thailand. I didn't get to see much, but I was impressed by what I did see and think that I'll put Thailand on my 'to do again' list.