Bangkok Day 1

7/8/2011
Bangkok Day 1

We decided to go explore the touristy parts of Bangkok today.  So, we got up at a decent time, grabbed some coffee and a pastry on our way down.  We took a taxi-boat that runs along one of the canals that runs toward the center of the city.  The boat lines run both ways and literally fly through the canals, spraying water all over the place.  We had to hold up tarps on the sides of the boat to keep us from getting sprayed.  And the water was an unsightly brown color, so nobody really wanted to get splashed.  Anyway, it was way cheaper than a taxi-car and was quite the experience, so we enjoyed it. :)

A boat pulling out of the station (it is much more intense in person...)

The view from inside...

Our first stop after getting off the taxi-boat was the Golden Mount.  This is a large Buddhist temple built on a hill.  The top is a gold dome with a brilliant gold spire at the top, which explains the name the "golden mount".  We walked up and got some good pictures of the tops of the buildings in the area. :)  We then walked over toward the "Independence Monument" and snapped a few photos.

The Golden Mount

The view from atop the Golden Mount

The ornate mosaic decoration on the top of one of the temple buildings

Independence Monument

After that, we walked to the national museum, mostly because I wanted to learn more about Bangkok and Thailand.  So, we spent a good two hours there.  It was really interesting.  Way back in the day, Bangkok wasn't the main city in the area.  A city to the north called Atthalya (or something like that) was the main city.  But with different rulers and conquerors over the years, one of the rulers began using Bangkok as a military base.  He used the natural waterways as protection.  Then another ruler ended up making Bangkok his "capitol" city and built the palace where it is today.  So, the history was interesting, at least to me. :)  No pictures inside, but I took a few of the exterior.
After the museum, we walked to the palace.  I didn't wear pants because it was like 95 degrees and sunny, so I couldn't go in (but I did wear shorts...).  Bridget wore her zip-away pants that turn into shorts and vice-versa, so she just zipped the legs back on and went in.  So, she took some pictures while I waited for her (in the shade, of course :)  ).  It was really nice inside of the palace area.  The king doesn't live there anymore; although he does have some events there.  Tourists can't go there during those times, for obvious reasons. :)

Palace shot 1

Palace shot 2

 After the palace, we went to another temple and saw the reclining Buddha (a popular tourist sight).  The temple was full of Buddhas everywhere.  And most of the buildings were covered with ornate mosiacs.  It was astounding how much time and effort it would take to do all of that work.  And the reclining Buddha was MASSIVE.  Most of the Buddhas weren't much more than double life-size.  But the reclining Buddha was at least 10x lifesize.  The top of the head was a good 40 ft from the ground and it was at least 100 ft long.  It was so big it is housed in its own building.  The scale is hard to get on a camera, but we took a few shots to try...

Massive Head

Shot down the body (the ceiling is at least 40 ft. high)

The feet

A shot the other way

After the reclining Buddha, we walked over to a park and rested.  It was getting hot and we had to figure out what to do next.  We were across the river from the Temple of the Dawn (Wat Arun is its official name), so we snapped some pictures.  It was another ferry ride away and we had spent awhile in the other temple, so we didn't go over.  After resting for a good half hour, we decided to head back towards our hostel and walk until we felt like getting a taxi.  So, we started walking.  About 45 minutes later, we stopped for an ice coffee and another rest.  This got us to the "Giant Swing".  Pretty clever name, I would say.  Unfortunately, swinging on it is illegal so its just a big frame sitting there.  But still photo-worthy in my book! :)

Wat Arun from across the river

Giant Swing

 From there we headed away from the city and toward the Victory Monument, which isn't too far from our hostel.  We arbitrarily decided on how much we would pay for a tuk-tuk ride to our destination, and, unfortunately for us, nobody would take us for that little, so we ended up walking almost the whole way.  We caught the metro for two stops to get us there quicker, since the sun was quickly setting by this point.  Which made for some cool pictures. :)

Sun reflecting off of building

Sun setting behind building

Victory Monument

But we eventually made it to the Victory Monument, just as the sun was setting.  There was a small market nearby, so we decided to grab some food there.

Dinner! (and a little sunburn on Bridget...)

While we were picking a table, we noticed some ominous clouds rolling in, so we picked a table underneath the metro line.  And just in time too.  It started drizzing at first, then it really started coming down.  We ate our chicken and waited for a break in the rain to get back on the metro.  Once we took the metro as far as we could, we started trying to find our hostel on foot.  We came from another direction last night, so we were trying to find it based on maps that didn't label much.  So, we ended up in a dead-end street when the downpour started again.  We could see people running towards us with big water drops hitting the puddled street behind them.  So, we ran to the nearest overhang and into the nearest restaurant.  Since we were taking up a table, we ordered some cokes and a bread appetizer (it was cheap). 

Snack

Once we finished our snack, the rain and let up, so we went back out and found our hostel. :)  Bridget was pretty tired by this point, so we headed to bed soon afterward...