Day 31: Bangkok, 34°🌞

Noisy, Steamy, Polluted & Brash, BUT Also Very Colourful & Vibrant!❤️

The title just about sums up my post today. It’s Saturday and people are out everywhere.

And what a toasty, humid day it was to be outside walking! We started our day by crossing over the the mall and having a quick breakfast snack at Tim Hortons. Don’t laugh! It was the only place that didn’t have industrial croissants and muffins, and besides, they have been very supportive of Canada’s position against Trump. That reminds me…

They had coffee for AM and they gave me hot water for the tea bag I’d brought with me. I always carry tea when travelling. Except for Cambodia, the tea here has actually been pretty good, and of course I’m bringing home some Malaysian tea.

Now suitably caffeinated, we walked underground to the metro station and after figuring out our destination and the correct direction, we proceeded to run down the Red Line four stations. Not a bad metro system here. From there we walked in the already daunting heat to the Grand Palace.

It seemed that we had chosen our first stop wisely, as confirmed by every tour bus in the city being there! We walked into the site with perhaps half the tourist population in Bangkok, and to make things worse I was told that my knee length shorts were not acceptable. Remember, they had been acceptable in every Buddhist temple, Muslim mosque (except one) and Hindu temple we’ve visited in the past 5 weeks. But not here. I had to purchase pants for 200 bhat ($8) which were heavy and extremely hot. Sigh. We didn’t even go in a temple on this site. Yes, I know I’m ranting.😂 This morning it was a real struggle to walk through the extensive grounds with so many tour groups and everyone wanting to take photos of themselves in front of everything. Oh my god! Mass tourism has really made things unbearable for the rest of us. Ok, I’ve finished ranting.😅 I’ll behave myself. I promise!

In spite of the crush of people the grounds were impressive. I worked hard to keep my photos fairly free of others. It wasn’t easily done, and I had to be nimble. Sometimes I deliberately ‘allow’ others in my photos to provide scale, but usually I try not to take photos with people posing or taking their own photos.

There are so many temple buildings that it’s easy to fall into the trap of photographing just them and missing all the beautiful details. I try to find a good balance.

Case in point, upper photo verses the next photo.

But the temple buildings are very attractive, and it’s easy to see why my camera is pulled to them!

The odd thing was that because it was so hot and there were just so many people that I learned very little about the Palace. Yes it was stunning, but it was really difficult to stop and look up this and that on my phone as I often do, and there were no posted signs that we could read. Ah, but it was a beautiful site. I think I already said that, right?

From here we left and took a stroll down to have our first glimpse of the river. We bumped into a small good market on the way and stopped for an ice cold drink. It was so freaking hot and humid!

It was pretty impressive, but rather than jump in for a cool swim we pushed on to see Wat Phra Si Rattana Satsadaram. The name meant nothing to us, except that it’s the home of the Reclining Gold Buddha who is humongous! You walk in one end of Wat Po where he reclines and walk out the other end. You have to carry your shoes because of the crowds there’s just no going back! It was a gong show but I have photos.🙃

My photos;

Finished with the temple tour, we decided to walk back to the river and catch a small ferry down stream to see a bit of Chinatown and in the process find lunch and a very cold beer.

Brilliant to be on the water and I stood right at the stern just above the river level.

Arriving in Chinatown we discovered some narrow streets with all sorts of activities. I sometimes remind myself that this goes on day after day while I’m sitting at home or off doing something else. It always re-enforces for me just how insignificant I am in the bigger picture.

AM found us a very good place for dim sum! And, they had the ice cold beer we were looking for!

After lunch and somewhat refreshed we decided to carry on through Chinatown and walk all the way back to our hotel.

We came upon a Chinese temple, so of course we had to investigate.😅

As we walked on we started to grin into groups of monks which led us onwards to their temple.

And then it was a straight forward walk home. We walked about 15km today which overall was a nice experience in spite of the heat and humidity. I had a cold shower before beginning this post and AM went down for a dip in the pool. Felt much better!

That’s it for today. No idea what we are going to do tomorrow, but I’m sure we will sort something out. Two more days to go.

Cheers!🍻

Geoff