On our first day as tourists together my friend woke up before me and went on a breakfast run returning with some orange juice and biscuits to keep us going until we could find some proper food. Since I am not a very good human being until I have eaten this was a stroke of genius, it soon transpired she was exactly the same so we were very much on the same wavelength regarding the importance of regular feedings! We left early to go to the Royal Palace as my friend had been told that the earlier the better as it is a very popular place and I am so glad we listened. We were up and out by 8am and even then the express boat was very busy. We got off a stop early and though it meant a walk we did manage to avoid a lot of the crowd as it seemed the palace was the most popular destination. As we walked into the palace I was stunned by the opulent beauty of the place. There were people everywhere and we soon joined a crowded queue to enter the main palace grounds only to find that we should have purchased our tickets further back, oops. We did a reverse struggle through the crowd and purchased our tickets with surprising ease, not only that the crowd had died down a lot so getting back to the entrance was a lot easier than we expected. Once inside the palace I was struck by all the shininess, there were gold and glittery buildings everywhere. It was one of the most colourful places I have ever been and like the other few hundred people around us I immediately tried to capture some of it with my camera. I don’t know how they fared but I feel I failed. I was just so big and there were so many buildings and there were so many people everywhere! Even at 10am the temperature was heading past 30 degrees C so I was again thankful for our early start. We picked up one of the free guide pamphlets each and soon discovered they made great fans as well as having some interesting information contained within them.
Not to be deterred by the crowds or overwhelmed by the number of large buildings I started to concentrate my photography on the smaller details and statues. I was delighted to discover that my friend as well as being a happy subject was also a willing accomplice when it came to positioning Zack in (in)appropriate places. By 11am we had walked around and photographed everything we cared to and felt it was time to head off. Whilst we had planned to concentrate our efforts in separate areas each day to minimise transport costs we changed our minds for a few reasons. Next on our list for that area was Wat Pho, the temple of the reclining Buddha. Since it was a religious holiday the temple of the emerald Buddha had been closed to the public so we thought this might be the case for Wat Pho as well. We did consider looking but it was getting hotter and we felt we had seen enough elaborate buildings for one day. Instead returned to the lovely air-conditioned shopping centre I had visited the day before. On her last visit to Bangkok my friend had been there and been very impressed with the cars and variety of shops and food available. They have a Maserati
(or something similar) and a couple of Rolls Royce cars on one of the upper floors, as you do. Also she was keen to see a film in English as her only English speaking entertainment recently had been Masterchef Australia.
In the end we didn’t go to the cinema but we did manage to find some Indian food in the food court. It was mediocre and they did get my order wrong but it turned out what they brought me was better than what I asked for so I was happy enough and it was a change from the thinner Thai curry my friend was used to. At this point you can be forgiven for thinking we were the kind of foreigners who only eat ‘our’ kind of food. I can assure you this is not the case. My friend lived on Thai food and was enjoying a welcome change and I am always happy to eat whatever. I enjoyed the street food but was equally happy to try the Thai versions of more familiar food too.
The aircon was muchly appreciated as it always is in humid countries but there are only so many shops and food courts I can wander around and soon enough we decided it was time to head back to our hostel. There was a restaurant that had been recommended to my friend as being a bit expensive but with wonderful and traditional Thai street food, since it was raining we decided this was a good night to try it. We freshened up and with the help of google soon found it. It was exactly as advertised. We were sat at the bar as we hadn’t booked but it was a lovely little place and the food was indeed excellent as was the service. There was a mix-up wit h my drink but when I questioned them on it they immediately sorted it out with the bar tender doing the universal “Doh, I misread it guestures”. My only complaint was that the portions were quite small. I noticed that the people around us ordered a few dishes but we were too cheap to do that and decided one dish each and some rice would do us. All in all it was a lovely night out and a good end to our first day exploring and it is somewhere I would definitely go if I were in Bangkok at the end of my trip and looking for a last splash out meal before heading home.
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