Our day began super early with the sunrise. Our favourite time of the day, when the air is fresh & your full of enthusiasm & potential. The sun was warm on my face, as I watched it rise into the sky & illuminate the rooftops & sides of the buildings.
We walked 2 streets away from our hotel & waited at the bus station for bus number 25. We saw plenty of 29's & a couple of 25's, which didn't slow down or stop. Judging by the locals similar reactions to ours, each time a bus went past, I still felt like I was right & the bus's were going past for other reasons.
About 20 minutes after we first started waiting, a 25 bus finally pulled over! There was hardly anyone in it & we sat across the back seat, like the cool cats that we are.
The bus was a very scenic way to see the city & the first part of the ride went by with us gawking out the windows & pointing at things, mostly the very different & extravagant Thai architecture.
The second half of the journey was very interesting, to say the least & gifted Nat & Dom a local interaction that they probably wouldn't have got elsewhere. A presumably drunk, middle aged Thai man who sat in the chair in front of us & turned around for an enthusiastic chin wag. He didn't speak much English, not that it stopped him trying.
The conversation went in loops of pointing at Nat, yelling "beautiful" shaking Dom's hand & then yelling "happy happy happy"!
He did this once or twice with Tom & I, but was primarily focused on Dom. Every time Dom looked away or attempted to create some distance, the man would lean over & grab his knee.
It was all fairly friendly, if a little frustrating for Dom & a little amusing for the rest of us, until the man noticed Dom's wallet in his hand.
Then the man started asking for money & we had to tell him quite firmly "No". Thankfully, about 5 minutes after this we got off at our first stop.
The local bus ride was the equivalent of 0.80 AUD & a genuine experience. Every traveller has had their own experience with a drunk or crazy local, welcome to the club Nat & Dom!
Stop number 1 for today was The Grand Palace.
The Grand Palace is a huge complex (218,400 square metres) of extravagant buildings in the middle of Bangkok where the royal family lived from 1782 - 1925. As well as the king & the royal family, the royal government also lived within the complex walls. It is an absolute must for any traveller or tourist who goes to Bangkok.
The last stop of the day was to the royal barge museum inside the current navy barracks.
We were all gathered on the rooftop for breakfast before 7am, fuelling up for our big day. I have planned a lot in Bangkok & can't wait to get exploring. Even though I have been here before, it feels very unexplored & I hardly remember how I felt or what I saw all those years ago.
First on the agenda was catching a local bus. Tom & I love using the public transport systems in each country to travel. It's dirt cheap, often very convenient & gives you a much broader perspective of the streets you indirectly drive on. Not to mention the people you meet!
It was very easy to work out the appropriate bus route. I tried to confirm this with the locals at the Isanook reception desk, who were keen for us to use their private transfer service & not very helpful.
We left without their confirmation. I'm sure it's right & if it's not, the tuk tuk's are not expensive.
We left without their confirmation. I'm sure it's right & if it's not, the tuk tuk's are not expensive.
We walked 2 streets away from our hotel & waited at the bus station for bus number 25. We saw plenty of 29's & a couple of 25's, which didn't slow down or stop. Judging by the locals similar reactions to ours, each time a bus went past, I still felt like I was right & the bus's were going past for other reasons.
About 20 minutes after we first started waiting, a 25 bus finally pulled over! There was hardly anyone in it & we sat across the back seat, like the cool cats that we are.
The bus was a very scenic way to see the city & the first part of the ride went by with us gawking out the windows & pointing at things, mostly the very different & extravagant Thai architecture.
The second half of the journey was very interesting, to say the least & gifted Nat & Dom a local interaction that they probably wouldn't have got elsewhere. A presumably drunk, middle aged Thai man who sat in the chair in front of us & turned around for an enthusiastic chin wag. He didn't speak much English, not that it stopped him trying.
The conversation went in loops of pointing at Nat, yelling "beautiful" shaking Dom's hand & then yelling "happy happy happy"!
He did this once or twice with Tom & I, but was primarily focused on Dom. Every time Dom looked away or attempted to create some distance, the man would lean over & grab his knee.
It was all fairly friendly, if a little frustrating for Dom & a little amusing for the rest of us, until the man noticed Dom's wallet in his hand.
Then the man started asking for money & we had to tell him quite firmly "No". Thankfully, about 5 minutes after this we got off at our first stop.
The local bus ride was the equivalent of 0.80 AUD & a genuine experience. Every traveller has had their own experience with a drunk or crazy local, welcome to the club Nat & Dom!
Stop number 1 for today was The Grand Palace.
The Grand Palace is a huge complex (218,400 square metres) of extravagant buildings in the middle of Bangkok where the royal family lived from 1782 - 1925. As well as the king & the royal family, the royal government also lived within the complex walls. It is an absolute must for any traveller or tourist who goes to Bangkok.
It took us a little bit of walking around & asking for directions before we finally found the entrance. The palace is huge & the security is very strict with only 1 entrance. I had prepared the others, specifically Nat, about temple & palace etiquette & being conservative with clothing.
I also asked Tom to look up if there is any requirements for men to enter the royal palace. Tom assured me no, which is not uncommon for men. Unfortunately when we tried to enter, this was not the case. Both Tom & Dom had to buy long pants for 200 baht each & I had to buy a T-shirt because my shirt didn't have long enough sleeves & the scarf I had draped over my shoulders was ripped off my shoulders & I was told it wasn't good enough. I was furious & felt like it was a bloody rip off! The fact that I had to buy a shirt with longer sleeves, despite my scarf covering half my arms was just a huge money making scam.
There was only 1 shirt design available, that had a cartoon elephant in a tuk tuk.
I was grumpy for about 10 minutes, but couldn't stay grumpy for long while walking through the palace. Everything is so dazzling, magnificent & so intricate. You kinda don't know where to look at any point in time. Everything is so demanding, so bright & flashy. You forget it's a palace structure, it looks & feels more like a very vast temple complex.
We spent close to 2 hours here walking around & taking a million photos, before leaving the complex, close to the gate we entered through.
We were trying to find the emerald buddha but kept getting lost & confused by the signs. We think it might have been in one of the buildings that was shut for maintenance.
Oh well! We saw hundreds of Buddha's & I had a really special one planned after lunch.
Lunch was found in a small, restaurant that understood the word vegetarian & we all had a noodle/soup dish. It was delicious & cheap!
After this we walked around briefly looking for a bathroom & instead finding a glasses stand selling sun glasses for 50 baht. Nat & I both selected a nice pair each & Dom brought a white fedora style hat with Thailand written around the brim.
I also asked Tom to look up if there is any requirements for men to enter the royal palace. Tom assured me no, which is not uncommon for men. Unfortunately when we tried to enter, this was not the case. Both Tom & Dom had to buy long pants for 200 baht each & I had to buy a T-shirt because my shirt didn't have long enough sleeves & the scarf I had draped over my shoulders was ripped off my shoulders & I was told it wasn't good enough. I was furious & felt like it was a bloody rip off! The fact that I had to buy a shirt with longer sleeves, despite my scarf covering half my arms was just a huge money making scam.
There was only 1 shirt design available, that had a cartoon elephant in a tuk tuk.
I was grumpy for about 10 minutes, but couldn't stay grumpy for long while walking through the palace. Everything is so dazzling, magnificent & so intricate. You kinda don't know where to look at any point in time. Everything is so demanding, so bright & flashy. You forget it's a palace structure, it looks & feels more like a very vast temple complex.
We spent close to 2 hours here walking around & taking a million photos, before leaving the complex, close to the gate we entered through.
We were trying to find the emerald buddha but kept getting lost & confused by the signs. We think it might have been in one of the buildings that was shut for maintenance.
Oh well! We saw hundreds of Buddha's & I had a really special one planned after lunch.
Lunch was found in a small, restaurant that understood the word vegetarian & we all had a noodle/soup dish. It was delicious & cheap!
After this we walked around briefly looking for a bathroom & instead finding a glasses stand selling sun glasses for 50 baht. Nat & I both selected a nice pair each & Dom brought a white fedora style hat with Thailand written around the brim.
The next stop was a 15 minute walk from the Royal Palace. Wat Pho, a giant gold reclining buddha inside a temple. When I say giant, I actually mean GIANT! One of it's feet was taller than me.
Wat Pho or also known as Wat Phra Chetuphon is a 46 metre long reclining buddha, covered in gold leaf, inside a temple. Surrounding the big temple building is smaller ones with smaller buddhas, a garden and a much more peaceful atmosphere in comparison to the Grand Palace. After paying our respects to Wat Pho, we walked through the temple grounds & enquired about getting a massage, before realising how long the queue was!
On the other side of the river was Wat Arun.
A gorgeous pearly white temple glistening with mosaic tile work & with prang spires reaching towards the sky. I knew Nat would love the architecture & style of this & I was not wrong. Each temple is so different, complex & stunning in its own truly unique way. I'm so glad we got to see this with Nat & Dom.
Following this we walked towards the river & the pier where we would be able to get a ferry across to the other side of the Chao Phraya River. On the way Nat & I got fresh coconuts with coconut ice cream & nuts! Delish! The boys got a Chang beer, of course.
The ferry was something Dom wanted to do & luckily it was already in my plan. The river wasn't as dirty as I thought it would be & the ferry ride was over in less than 5 minutes. 
On the other side of the river was Wat Arun.
A gorgeous pearly white temple glistening with mosaic tile work & with prang spires reaching towards the sky. I knew Nat would love the architecture & style of this & I was not wrong. Each temple is so different, complex & stunning in its own truly unique way. I'm so glad we got to see this with Nat & Dom.
Wat Arun (Temple of dawn) gets its name from the Hindu god Aruna who is personified as the rising sun. The temple is known locally as Wat Chaeng & is arguably one of the most beautiful temples in Bangkok & not just because of its river side location. Wat Arun is a buddhist temple, but looks very different from any other buddhist temple that Tom & I have seen, both in colour and in design. It's one of the oldest Buddhist temple sites in Thailand & has extensive history.
A temple has sat in this very spot since the Ayutthaya Kingdom (1351 -1767), it has received many alterations, additions & renovations in it's time. The famous Prang style spires that we see now were added in the early 19th century. The most recent renovations took place between 2013 & 2017 & I'm very glad we were here in 2018 to appreciate it in all it's glory.
The main central Spire is said to represent Mount Meru, which is a symbol in Buddhist & Hindu cosmology.
Even though Wat Arun is a Buddhist temple, it sure does have many Hindu reference's. Which got me researching what the main similarities & differences are between the two.
Simply, they both have principles that believe in dharma, kharma, moksha, reincarnation & they both believe in the Lord Buddha, though they depict him differently.
They both have origins in India (though there is a lot of arguing between Nepal & India about the finer details of the Lord Buddha's origins & journey to reach nirvana).
The main differences between the 2 religions is that Buddhism rejects god's & goddess's, not believing in them. It also rejects a caste system & a priest system, instead believing in ones own journey towards enlightenment & nirvana.
Primarily, Buddhism isn't thought of as a religion, but a philosophy based on truth. Hinduism is a religion & if we're to believe the origins or Buddhism based on the Lord Buddha, he was born in India as a Hindu, but became a buddhist once he reached enlightenment & shed his Hindu origins.
While in the Grand Palace I noticed a few statues of Hindu god's (Ganesh & Brahman), despite it's temples being obviously Buddhist & 95% of Thailands population being Buddhist. There's a very simple reason for this. What is now known as Thailand, has been conquered and claimed by many kingdoms, a lot of which were Hindu. A good example of this is the Khmer Kingdom, the now modern day Cambodia. These kingdoms shaped the country & have deep roots, such as can be seen in the lingering statues & even the names of some of the cities.
The last stop of the day was to the royal barge museum inside the current navy barracks.
It was nearly a 4 km walk & after a disagreement with a tuk tuk driver, who wanted an extortionate amount of money! We all agreed to just walk. Exercise didn't hurt anyone & it's a good way to appreciate a city.
The museum was really fascinating & well worth the walk. We learnt a lot about the imperial army & got to appreciate the restored barges.
After we had finished with the museum, it was nearly 5pm & all of us were acknowledging sore feet! It was no wonder, later that night I checked my Samsung health app & by its calculations we had already walked 20 kilometres!
We finally hailed a taxi & agreed on a price to take us back to our accommodation. Once there we had a couple of hours to rest our feet, quench our thirst & freshen up.
It was time for round 2 at the night market. Only this time, we were considerably sober & hungry!
The museum was really fascinating & well worth the walk. We learnt a lot about the imperial army & got to appreciate the restored barges.
After we had finished with the museum, it was nearly 5pm & all of us were acknowledging sore feet! It was no wonder, later that night I checked my Samsung health app & by its calculations we had already walked 20 kilometres!
We finally hailed a taxi & agreed on a price to take us back to our accommodation. Once there we had a couple of hours to rest our feet, quench our thirst & freshen up.
It was time for round 2 at the night market. Only this time, we were considerably sober & hungry!
We got a tuk tuk across town tonight instead of a Grab. The tuk tuk's are cheaper & more fun.
It was all fun & games watching the driver maneuver through the Friday night traffic, tunes playing as loud as possible & then Dom, who was sitting next to me, burnt my leg with his cigarette. He then dropped the cigarette onto my lap, which then rolled underneath me & burnt my burnt me about 3 times on the bum before rolling onto the road.
At the time it was 110% not funny & I wanted to punch him, but now, remembering the situation, especially Tom & Nat's stunned & confused faces, as I jumped & flopped around like a fish out of water, screaming.... It's kinda funny!
Poor Nat & Tom had no idea what had happened or why I was behaving so eratically.
It took me the whole tuk tuk ride to get over it. I'm not sure what was hotter or redder, my burnt bum or my angry face! Hahaha
Once we arrived at the market, it was full on! It was 3x as busy as it had been the previous night. This is obviously how people in Thailand celebrate the weekend. A good ol' night market.
First on the agenda was food. Tom & I got split up from Nat & Dom along the way & ate at separate spots. We had some really fresh, tasty sushi with beer. I think we paid the equivalent of $4 AUD for 10 pieces of sushi!
After dinner we rejoined again only to split off into girls & boys. The boys went to a bar & the girls went shopping. We each picked up a few things & spent very minimal!
By 11pm, Nat & I had seen enough of the stalls & with some initial difficulty locating the boys, we left in a tuk tuk. My god, sleep has never be better or more deserved! Our legs & eyes received quite a work out today, that's for sure!
It was all fun & games watching the driver maneuver through the Friday night traffic, tunes playing as loud as possible & then Dom, who was sitting next to me, burnt my leg with his cigarette. He then dropped the cigarette onto my lap, which then rolled underneath me & burnt my burnt me about 3 times on the bum before rolling onto the road.
At the time it was 110% not funny & I wanted to punch him, but now, remembering the situation, especially Tom & Nat's stunned & confused faces, as I jumped & flopped around like a fish out of water, screaming.... It's kinda funny!
Poor Nat & Tom had no idea what had happened or why I was behaving so eratically.
It took me the whole tuk tuk ride to get over it. I'm not sure what was hotter or redder, my burnt bum or my angry face! Hahaha
Once we arrived at the market, it was full on! It was 3x as busy as it had been the previous night. This is obviously how people in Thailand celebrate the weekend. A good ol' night market.
After dinner we rejoined again only to split off into girls & boys. The boys went to a bar & the girls went shopping. We each picked up a few things & spent very minimal!
By 11pm, Nat & I had seen enough of the stalls & with some initial difficulty locating the boys, we left in a tuk tuk. My god, sleep has never be better or more deserved! Our legs & eyes received quite a work out today, that's for sure!
- Alli
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