Is the title of this post too obvious? Oh well.
We finally made it to Bangkok. The city has been on our "must-see" list since we arrived 11 months ago. We only had a quick weekend but we will be back!
We started off with some delicious Thai food at a restaurant near our hotel. You will sense a theme in this post - my son is developing his father's photogenic gifts.
After lunch we made our way to the river for a cruise/river bus to the Grand Palace and Wat Pho. Here are some shots from the river.
Here is a riverview pic of the Grand Palace.
Because of our compressed schedule, we arrived at Grand Palace with only minutes to spare before the doors closed. Unfortunately somebody thought the rules didn't apply to him and didn't have proper coverage for his knees. Fortunately there were some locals nearby to provide a pair of understated pants to match the gravitas of the Grand Palace:
The Grand Place did not disappoint. It is a massive complex that is the royal and spirtual home of Thailand. The primary tourist area is the Wat Phra Kaeo, which is an amazing Buddhist temple.
The largest building in the temple houses the Emerald Buddha, which the guidebooks say is the holiest image in Thailand. It is so holy that we weren't able to get any good pictures of the Buddha or the room housing it. Paul Eli obviously was upset by this.
This impressive building is called the Chakri Maha Prasat, now used for hosting state functions. It actually is a combination of western and Thai architecture.
Next stop on Bangkok's Greatest Hits - the Wat Pho and the reclining Buddha. Somebody appears to be choking my son.
The reclining Buddha is a 100+ foot long plaster statue depicting Buddha entering Nirvana. Things are looking up for him so he is understandably chill.
This is a picture of reclining Buddha in panorama view.
Unfortunately, we were kind of late and didn't give the Wat Pho the respect it deserved. This wat is less formal and acts more like a university, teaching traditional medicine and massage. It would have been nice for Chandra to have a half-day of massage at the Institute.
Instead, she had to settle for Miss Puke back near our hotel.
After all of that culture, we (Chandra) needed to get our (her) shopping on. We went to the Chatuchak Weekend Market, which is an amazing sprawl of an outdoor market. This market and the night Market in Chiang Mai are two of our most memorable shopping experiences.
Great shopping options, great food options.
We finally stopped for food at a Muslim Thai food stall. Cheap and delicious.
Our final stop in Bangkok was the Asiatique "night market". It was more of a tourist/western mall-type thing, but still a pretty boat ride on the river and some nice food for dinner. We decided to go for the London Eye type ferris wheel attraction.
Difficult to capture the views with the camera but wanted to capture my beautiful family.
Signing off for now. One last piece of advice: DO NOT TRUST WILY STRANGERS
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