I'm a little behind on my post, as we've been in Phuket for almost 24 hours, but i was enjoying my book too in the airport to want to write my post.
Bangkok is a little too big and we were there for a very long post. So I'm going to go to day-by-day with what we did and especially yummy that we ate.
Day 1 (4/13): We got to our hostel around midnight and crashed, nothing exciting to report.
Day 2 (4/14): After getting advice from the amazing lady at the front desk of our hostel, we took the Express Boat to Wat Pho , known for its large reclining buddha statue. It was beautiful, and in full Songkran (Thai Buddhist New Year) celebrations. I will not go to a fancy show in their gift-giveaway! We planned to hit the Royal Palace, but it was too crowded so we found a nice air-con cafe for lunch and then went back to our hostel. That evening we went out to the street of Songkran in the Khao San Road area. There were water guns, water buckets, hoses, and talc powder, plus huge crowds of people jostling about. It was definitely a fun adventure!
Day 3 (4/15): Using the advice we would have received on day 2, we took the boat to see the Temple of the Golden Buddha . This allowed us to then wander through Chinatown, browsing the markets and eventually stop for a delicious dim sum lunch. We got a tuk tuk to our next temple, the Golden Mount ( Wat Suket ). We were rewarded with 360 degrees views of the city after climbing 344 steps. From there we stumbled upon another temple before visiting Wat Suthat . Finding ourselves without a good way home, we took another tuk tuk. We wandered to the same Khao San Road area for dinner, this time avoiding the still well marked water fight area.
Day 4 (4/16): We were successful in taking the bus this morning, thanks again to the front desk lady. We went to Jim Thompson's house , an American who helped revitalize the Thai silk industry before disappearing soon after his 61st birthday. Then we visited MBK center , one of the very large shopping malls here. As tourists we received a free thai iced tea in the fancy food court! We got KFC, our orders dictated by my friend Soraya to ensure we got the true Thai KFC experience. Right next door is the Bangkok Arts & Culture Center, where we are a few galleries, one of the most beautiful one with art paying tribute to the recently deceased king. A short walk away was Caturday , the charming cat cafe I had researched. Kerry and Patrick indulged me for a while and watching all the kitties sleep. I really enjoyed it. Then we road the BTK, the very clean and efficient elevated rail system, is Lumpini Park.
Day 5 (4/17): A day trip to Ayutthaya, one of the historic capital cities of Siam. I'll write a separate post on this trip.
Day 6 (4/18): We slept in a bit, and then checked out our hostel early. Since it was a Tuesday and no longer Songkran, we decided to try the Royal Palace again. Even tho it was still crowded, it was much better than it was in the weekend. The Temple of the Emerald Buddha ( Wat Phra Kaew ), the outside of some of the Palace buildings, the Museum of Currency, and a Museum about the late queen. I really enjoyed all of it, especially the interactive part of The Queen's Museum where we learned about traditional dance. I was so glad that I found out the night before the free tours were given the day, so we were able to have our own private tour of the Temple and palace buildings! It definitely helped us understand the importance of everything we were taking pictures of, and made the 500 baht price tag seem more reasonable. After a quick lunch, we took a taxi to the airport and flew to Phuket.
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