Bangkok

Left for Changi airport straight from the Heerron. Arrived @ the airport an hour early for our 17:45 flight to Bangkok only to find it had been cancelled and replaced with a flight @ 19:10. Having plenty of time after check-in, we wandered to terminal 2 for dinner. We found an American ChiliÕs and after spending 10 minutes figuring out how to get into it (had to cross though immigration) we had a nice dinner of chicken nachos, buffalo wings, and a couple of beers.

Flight to Bangkok was uneventfull, Jill slept while Keith read. We arrived in Bangkok and began searching for a taxi. We were approached at least three times by people who appeared to be offering a helping hand, but really wanted to book us on tours or give us a taxi ride for over two times the metered taxi rate. We remembered reading in the travel guide about how it works and went to the metered taxi que. We got a taxi but the driver didnÕt understand us, and couldnÕt read the hotel confirmation in English. After stopping for directions twice it took us 2 hours to get to the hotel. By the time we got checked in it was around midnight and we were too worn out to tackle any of Bangkok so we went to bed.

Saturday morning we had a suprisingly wonderful buffet breakfast that was included in the room price. After that we jumped the hotel free shuttle to one of the local shopping malls, and from there got a taxi to the Grand Palace. The taxi driver here didnÕt understand us or read the English map, but thankfully the girl at the information desk at the mall translated for us.

At the Grand Palace we were approached by a guy offering a 45 minute guided tour for only 300 baht (about $7.50) but we decided to do it on our own. Keith had to borrow long pants at the gate, shorts are not allowed. Jill had on a loose dress that was barely down to the knee but that passed as acceptable. The Grand Palace was an amazing sight of glittering and gold and we saw the "Emerald Budda" which is rumored to be solid jade. The killer about the Grand Palace was the heat. It was extremely hot and sunny.

Click for larger view!

Keith in his borrowed pants in the Grand Palace

Jill in the Grand Palace

We left the Grand Palace for the Wat Pho just down the road. It had numerous golden buddaÕs and is the center for the school of Thai message. It also houses the impressive and massive reclining budda.

The reclining budda

Hot, sticky and ready for lunch we grabbed a tuk tuk for a ride to the River City shopping plaza which is close to the famed Oriental hotel. A tuk tuk is a three wheel taxi with a Japanese two stoke engine. ItÕs basically a small scooter with a small roof on top, of course non air conditioned and as we quickly discovered, you get extremely dirty and full of traffic exhaust riding in one. They are all non-metered so you have to negotiate the fair. It was a neat experience but we only chose to ride the tuk tuk once over a regular taxi.

Jill in the tuk tuk

We spotted a little cafˇ type restaurant for lunch and had spicy vermicelli salad with seafood, fried noodles, and green chicken curry. Then we enjoyed the air conditioned shopping mall and wandered through a couple floors.

We walked from River City to the Oriental in search of JillÕs stainless steal flatwear. We found three shops selling the ones we wanted and finally settled on the smaller one with the two nice ladies. She also had lower prices which required no bargaining. In addition to an entire set of flatwear with "loop" handles, we bought a pounded stainless steal serving bowl and small serving set. CanÕt wait to get it home and use it. Of course now I need another silverwear chest for all the stuff.

Exhausted we headed for our hotel for a couple hours of rest and a cold dip on the pool. The hotel made reservations at a nice restaurant for us and we enjoyed a Royal Thai meal. Royal Thai means what they used to serve the royalty, the recipes have only been available for a couple of decades. We had a crispy fish with chili paste, chili chicken with cashews, green vegetable with oyster sauce and of course white rice. From there we expolored the night market which is the red light district for Bangkok. It starts out as booths selling every type of copy good you can imagine, copy watches, t-shirts, purses, sunglasses. It then turns into bars and clubs with almost naked girls dancing on the bars. We didnÕt go in any club but could definitely see from the street. One club had the girls dressed in glowing green bikinis so you could really see them from outside.

Jill shopping in the Chatachuk market

Sunday we headed out to the Chatachuk market or weekend market. ItÕs like a huge flea market or bazaar type thing with so many booths you get lost. ItÕs only open on the weekends and they sell all kinds of food, antiques, cloths (old and used) and other misc. things. It was interesting but extremely hot. A good bargaining mouth is really needed here. We bought a couple things like a basket and a ceramic pitcher. After Chatachuck we needed a cool break so headed of Siam square which is the area where Hard Rock Cafˇ is. We ate a little fast food joint and then shopped in the World Trade Center and headed to the hotel to pick up or bags and head for home.