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Bangkok
Entry 4 of 7 | show all | print this entry |
Our second full day in Bangkok and with the festivities of the King's 80th Birthday behind us, we decided that today was the day to see all the popular tourist attractions - most around the Grand Palace. So off on the ferry again this morning. From Si Phraya (N) to Tha Tien (N8) all for 13BHT each. So cheap and so easy.
When we got off the ferry, we were again beriended by (what we later discovered to be a) another tout. He looked official and (in uniform) and seemed to come out of the palace grounds staff entrance, but as we were to later discover he also lied through his teeth to try and get us into a tuk-tuk to other places. He told us that the palace was closed until 2:00pm for westerners because it was the day after the King's birthday. Anyway Grand Palace aside, we could not go into Wat Pho (the temple of the reclining buddha) because we didn't think we were appropriately dressed. So we got back on the ferry, back to the hotel and got changed into long pants and closed toe shoes.
Outside the Sheraton, we found the loveliest tuk-tuk driver and agree to get him to take us around to all the sights the rogue tout (at the grand palace) had highlighted for us. He toook us to The Golden Mount - a buddist temple towering above Bangkok with great views over the city, and then back to Wat Pho before we set him free with double the agreed price. He was the first honest tuk-tuk driver we met that did not want to stop here and there to earn a commission.
The grounds of Wat Pho were beautiful with many a temple and stupa inside the grounds. Once inside we also realised that many a tourist was wearing shorts, singlets and thongs. Oh well - at least we were being respectful westerners. The highlight at Wat Pho was massive reclining buddha. Quite breathtaking.
Then we walked the same road to the Grand Palace as the tout that approached us earlier in the day said that 2:00 - 4:00pm for westerners. Funny though as other touts kept telling us, the Grand Palace closed at 3:00pm and of course it was 3:15pm. Frustrated as we were, we kept walking to the front of the palace to see the open gardens across the raod when we saw the rouge tout again. He quickly dodged us when I gave him a few expletives for lying to us earlier. Needless to say, the lying had continued as when we got to the front gates that Grand Palace was still open. Although we could not get into the Great Hall, we could see most of what was normaly open to the public and the grounds were incredible. Imacculate. Gargouls, statues, stupas, temples and manicured gardens. Pretty good considering the King doesn't even live there anymore. It is just used to ceremonial purposes.
So after a long day being given the run around, it was time for a swim, so we headed back to the Sheraton, and snuck in for a quick swim before we had to head off to the train.
Much to our amazement, we got a cab to the train station and were in plenty of time for our overnight journey to Suri Thani and then bus to Krabi. We settle into the atmosphere of our 1st class sleeper and with a few beers didn't have too much trouble drifting off to sleep once the beds were setup.
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