Bangkok in a hurry

With only 1 1/2 days in the big city and a twelve hour time difference to overcome, we tried to squeeze in as much as our tired bodies could handle.

Day 1:
Walked around Bangkok taking in the noisy, bustling city. Headed to Wat Phra Keaw and the Grand Palace. This houses the famous emerald Buddha (actually made of Jade) and the former residence of the Thai Monarch. The complex is an impressive matrix of large ornate buildings and statues. Unfortunately a thunderstorm soaked us to our core and cut the tour a bit short. When the rain finally let up we headed out to dinner at The Deck which was on the river and overlooked another famous temple - Wat Arun. After dinner we thought a Thai massage sounded like a good idea...it is now 2 days later and I am still sore from the experience. They use their whole bodies to stretch and contort your body in ways I didn't think possible. It was a poor decision to put our airplane stiff bodies through that. See the cartoon drawing - that is not pleasure on that man's face. Ankoor's massage was a little worse for the ware because his masseuse's limited English did not include the phrase, "stop you're killing me!" Although sore, I did feel considerably looser the next day and my posture had unwillingly improved.
At night we went to an open air bar and listened to some live Thai music mixed in with "I want to be a billionaire so frickin' bad" sung in a Thai accent. Our table was perched a top an unrealistically blue pool, so you could dangle your hot feet in the cool water. It was lovely.



Day 2:
We explored the last of the the big three temples of Bangkok. We decided that getting there by boat would be a better option than the long walk we had the day before. It was great. We got a whole new view of the city and the busy river that is toting tourists along with transporting huge amount of goods. Wat Arun was our first stop. This temple is one of the oldest temples and the former home of the Emerald Buddha. Now it is named after the Hindu God of the Dawn - Aruna. The temple houses many Buddhas and a large temple covered in mosaic tiles that you can climb to the top of. I recommend that if you are planning on getting a Thai massage and wanting to climb the ridiculously tall steps of Wat Arun, that you do the steps first and the massage after.
Wat Pho was our next stop. We got lost in a maze of seemingly identical square rooms with countless Buddha statues. There are 3 big Buddhas here - the sitting Buddha, the standing Buddha, and the famous reclining Buddha. We finally found the main attraction - and it was HUGE.
While walking we could not resist the fresh mangoes off the street, so we risked future illness and had some...worth it so far.
After this we had planned to head to Little India in Chinatown for some good Indian food, but Bangkok's rush hour had started and we needed to head off to the airport.

We arrived in Phuket last night at sunset. Our driver did not show up to pick us up, so we paid the steep taxi fee and headed to the hotel. The hotel upgraded our room and offered us a free ride back to the airport as compensation. Seems like a pretty good deal to me.

And now off for a Phuket adventure. Tomorrow is our big Kayak day and then we are planning on a day of snorkeling and touring the surrounding islands before heading off to our final destination in the north.