Bangkok, Thailand
Bangkok is pretty cool with some great things to see. It is very hot and humid and crowded. There is a lot going on and lots of traffic so we took the Skytrain mostly everywhere and tuk-tuks for short distances. the boys love taking the tuk-tuks, they thought they were awesome. While they were cool, all the fumes are spewing all around so it’s not too easy to breathe! We headed down to the Chao Phraya river to start our day and took a boat up to the temples. The first place was the grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The Grand Palace was the residence for the King of Siam and is now used for official events and Royal ceremonies. The complex is huge, were barely got through a few buildings in a few hours! The other main attraction in the complex is the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The temple is spectacular! As with all temples you have to take off your shoes and cover up. People wear crazy patterned pants that you can buy right outside all the temples and for women they have skirts. Or they will give you drab wraps to put around yourself to walk around. Plus you have to cover your shoulders and take off any hats. I was so hot in my very light cardigan! Our next stop was Wat Pho which has the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. The Temple has the largest collection of Buddhas is in all of Thailand. The complex is also home to traditional Thai massage, the school that trains all the masseuses in Thailand. A one hour Thai massage is about $10, and it IS respectable!! No funny business. We all got massages and the boys even got Fish Spa pedicures! They loved having the fish nibble their feet-they couldn’t stop laughing. Jeff and I had no interest at all. The night market was a fun adventure. Rows and rows of different stalls selling everything and nice stuff too not junk. We could have spent two days there but our stomachs were growling and the food offerings smelled amazing! We all just ordered different things and all shared-look at the pictures for the descriptions of each item. Wow was it good! Then we got an amazing storm-everyone battened down the hatches and the wind was bending the palm trees back and forth and rain pouring down. The boys were so happy to see heavy rain that they kept going out and standing in it. They also can’t get used to the fact that there isn’t a drought here. They keep reminding us the not run the water too long! But they like how I’m not rushing them in the shower 🙂 While we had a nice time in Bangkok, I probably wouldn’t come back here just for Bangkok, maybe as a layover. It is a little dirty and run down but has many charms, great food, beautiful temples and from what I hear, a raucous night life! It was great to visit once and the people were very friendly and loved the kids but two days was enough. We are looking forward to going to Northern Thailand next.
