Bangkok: Palace and Napkins

On Sunday we woke up early and headed for the Grand Palace, but in long pants this time. Again we took the water taxi and felt a bit like pros explaining how it worked to the next round of foreigners. While waiting for the taxi, we fed the fish, which literally filled every inch of the river below us.

Arriving at the palace, we were taken by its over-the-top design. Oppulent buildings fill every bit of space within the walls and each building is covered in intricate gold inlay, paintings, and tiling. It was amazing to see and gratifying to finally be someplace younger than America (Bangkok is only 200 years old). Also inside the palace is the Emerald Buddha (actually solid jade), but very impressive. The buddha has apparently been taken from country to country as the result of different wars which we found ironic given the peaceful religion. We moved quickly through the sites as it was over 90 degrees and we we're in long pants!



Out of the palace, we detached our convertible pant legs (we love gear) and proceeded to Wat Pho, home to the Reclining Buddha. The buddha is absolutely massive (150 ft long) and it's mother-of-pearl feet are the most impressive part with intricate designs telling various buddhist stories.



Since we'd come in under budget the previous day, and had been sacrificing meals to see more sites, we treated ourselves to a feast at The Mandarin Oriental for all of $30! It was a great feeling to dine with napkins and air conditioning!

Sunday night we headed off on a 13 hour (ended up being 16!) overnight train to Chaing Mai eager to see some country side and get out of the city.



Bangkok was the craziest city either of us had ever seen. We walked a lot, sweated more, got Wat fatique, started tuk-tuk arguements, cringed at markets, and loved it. That being said, we're happy to be in the country now.

As always, to see more pictures click on any of the above pictures to navigate to our complete online album.