We spent two lovely nights in Bangkok. After our post-train nap we spent the afternoon shopping at a nearby shopping mall, and then at the enormous and hot weekend market. The market was really intense- so much heat, and yelling, and bargaining. We actually left with fewer souvenirs than planned because we simply couldn’t take it. We headed back to the hotel for a swim and had Mai Tais and Pupus at Trader Vic’s for dinner.
For our second day in Bangkok I wanted to see the sights. We slept in longer than we meant- I blame the train… But grabbed a taxi to the grand palace. We were expecting it to be full of tourists but it was far worse than expected. It was full sun that day and there were thousands of tourists already at the palace- all carrying umbrellas. It was a sea of umbrellas… We also discovered that we weren’t dressed appropriately- we thought our shorts were long enough.. Rather than buy pants from the conveniently located pants hawkers on the sidewalk only to fight through a sea of umbrellas and risk our eyes being poked out at every turn we decided to bail.
We wandered down the street and found a small market- picked up some water and continues along the river to Wat Pho. It was blissfully less crowded and we didn’t need pants. Wat Pho is famous for their enormous reclining Buddah. We wandered around for a long time enjoying the shady spots and occasional breezes. By the time we were leaving it was getting very crowded- I guess it was the second stop on everyone else’s itinerary that day.
After Wat Pho we wanted to see Little India. On the way we serendipitously ended up passing through the flower market. It was beautiful- and undoubtedly the best smelling part of Bangkok.
Roses above, orchids below.
Little India was a bit of a disappointment however, as it was just hundreds of fabric shops. I love fabric more than the average person but I couldn’t appreciate it- there were just too many stalls, too much polyester, and more sparkles than your average drag queen would wear!
We once again headed back to the hotel for a swim. Then had the best dinner we are in Thailand at a little place Charlie’s friend Jim had recommended. We had an early flight the next day so decided to call it a night.
Crab curry!
