One Night in Bangkok

Well, actually two nights, but the first night didn't count. So here we are in Bangkok and we woke up with that overwhelming feeling of what do we do now?  We went downstairs to the hotel lobby and solicited the advice of a really kind concierge. He told us to walk out of the hotel about 20 meters and to go and get on the metro. We knew our stop, where to get off and then we were going to go to the Grand Palace. One of Bangkok's most famous tourist attractions. Well, after going only 10 meters, a man on a Tuk Tuk, a little motorized bike with a kind of rikshaw seat on the back stopped us and asked where we were going.   I mean look how cute this thing is, who wouldn't want to try it?

This is a self-portrait on the Tuk Tuk

Now, even though the tour books all said don't listen to anyone that approaches you like that, he seemed nice and what great pictures it would make, so for 20B each (about 65 cents) we hopped on for a ride to the public ferry that we were going to take to the Grand Palace. When in the   tuk tuk, our driver kept advising us to see the floating market, which was only on the weekend. We kept telling him know, but he was very persistant. We said no, that we just wanted to go to the ferry. Well, I guess we figured out why all the books tell you not to accept offers. We got dropped of in an alley in Bangkok with a small little dock and a private boat. By the time we said wait, this is not where we want to go, the tuk tuk was gone and we realized that we had been had. Defeated, we politely declined the boat ride and turned around to walk down this god-forsaken alley, filled with garbage where people were cooking unidentifiable food on the street. I am not sure who the heck would ever go there to eat. We tried to make our way as quickly as possible to the main street. Of course, we didn't have any idea where we were and since none of us read Thai, we couldn't read a street sign to help us. No iPhone to find our way, so we looked right and looked left and just started walking aimlessly. Finally we decided the only way out of this mess was to hire a cab and just pray that he would take us where we wanted to go. We flagged down a cab and thankfully, he was an honest person. He took us to the Grand Palace and pointed the way to the entrance.

It was at this point that I figured out we must have a big sucker sign slapped on our back! We started walking, following the crowd, trying to find the entrance. A man came up to us and offered his services. He told us the temple was closed because the monks were sleeping and pointed to a few shutters. He said he had a idea of what we could do until it opened. We hesitated a minute, but having already been had less than an hour before, we decided not to trust him. We kept walking and asked someone else where the entrance was. This guy also told us the palace was closed until the afternoon but he could show us a bunch of free temples until then. Hummm, 2 people in one place with a similar story. Luckily we just kept walking but could not figure out where the heck the entrance to the grand palace was. Not to mention, the heat was a little overwhelming. We wandered and wandered until finally we saw a little trailer with a Rotary Club logo on it and we figured we might actually get a straight story. Well, surprise, surprise, the Grand Palace was not closed, and we found out where the gate was. We walked in and once again, that lost feeling hit us- a lady came up to us and asked if we wanted a guide. By this time we were so suspicious, of everyone, we said no. We just kept looking around- where do we buy our tickets? Where do we go? Feeling hopeless, we asked the guard and he recommended getting a guide. Sheepishly, we walked back to the lady who had approached us going in and hired her for about $7.00 per person. We were sure we had been had again, but what else could we do. She actually turned out to be great and we were very thankful that we found her or else we would have had not idea what we were seeing. The temple was very beautiful and ornate and thanks to our guide, we actually learned something about the significance of it all.

Grand Palace- former palace of Thai king and Queen

Guard at the palace- please ignore stupid hat! (mine)

So, we were feeling pretty good about the whole situation. We got back to the gate, bid farewell to our guide and asked where we could eat. Well, in Bangkok, for some reason, that is not really an easy answer. She just happened to have a friend who would take us to his boat, show us all around the temples and drop us off at the Reclining Buddah temple. Sounds good right? So of course, not having learned our lesson, we agreed. He took us through a market to buy lunch. We just couldn't do it. I know, I know, everyone says you have to eat the street food in Thailand but it was too hard to actually do it. So we asked him to stop at 7-Eleven and we got a bag of Plain lays potato chips and 3 bottles of water. So that was our first meal in thailand. Pretty exciting huh and to think we travelled 20 hours to get that. We went to the boat and we took a tour of the canal. We saw a few temples and lots of poverty. There were some crocodile looking things all over. As we were going around we wondered what the heck we were doing. The thought that we might never get a straight story in Thailand crossed my mind. So we did our time on the boat, got off and actually made it to the reclining Buddah- pretty impressive I must say. We then decided to get to familiar ground so we got a cab and asked to get taken to a mall MBK mall in Bangkok- after all, I know how to navigate malls and malls have food so that would be a great idea. We got a really nice cab driver again, and I don't think we got taken, but who knows. We went to a mall with 2000 stores, 7 stories! A huge sigh of relief - yes, a mall. We found an international food court and had some Thai food and then, we went shopping. I was in heaven, so much to see- seven stories. To my dismay, my travel buddies were fading and I panicked, please don't rip me from this Mecca of shopping before I see everything. Thankfully, they found a place to get foot massages. "Can you actually kill an hour?" they foolishly asked. No problem I replied and I was free at last to shop. It was really fun. After that, we were pretty beat. We took a cab back to the hotel and collapsed into bed. A pretty adventurous day overall. I really like Bangkok, and I wished we had just a little more time to see it. It was really exciting and vibrant with lots of motor scooters, pink cabs, tuk tuks, street food and energy. Maybe someday, I will be back.