Waking up for our first full day in Bangkok, we get ready and go down to the hotel lobby restaurant for breakfast. Another buffet style breakfast with a good selection of foods, some of which you probably wouldn’t find at a North American equivalent. After a plate of exotic fruits, some Thai stir fry and miso soup, I was good to head out to our next destination, being the royal palace.
It was about a 15-minute walk, but it felt longer with the sun beating down. After getting close, we were stopped for two different reasons; the palace wasn’t open yet, and you are also required to wear long pants. We opted not to do so, given the temperature, and waited for it to open. Instead, we took a tuktuk over to the pier where we were going to catch a ferry to go up the main river. This also did not happen, and instead, we took a smaller boat that was going to go through some of the smaller canals.
We got on board and started down some of the back alley canals. Passing through some of the poorer areas of the city, you can see houses along the canal that are barely being held up in contrast with the more luxurious buildings covered in ornamental decorations. We arrived at our first stop of the boat tour, being one of the floating markets in the city. Though not one of the larger markets, it’s still cool seeing a marker built on the water with bridges going over canals. After wandering around for a bit, we made our way back to the pier to catch our boat to the next stop.
After some more time through the canals, we dock at the aptly named “Big Buddha,” an enormous gold coloured Buddha statue measuring 34 meters from the ground. The surrounding temples were connected through hallways, with several monks praying in the side temples. With only 20 minutes to look around before our boat leaves again, we took some photos and went back to the boat. Finally, we come to our last stop at Wat Arun, a massive and elaborate temple along the river of Bangkok. We hopped on another boat to get back to the hotel and hop in the pool to cool off.
We decided to grab a bite at a nearby Indian restaurant, but not before having a drink at a restaurant in the same alley called Botanic Backyard. The restaurant and some of the people in the area were celebrating Songkran, the Thai new year, a day before it officially started, so I got a bucket sized drink based on the holiday while my dad enjoyed the happy hour beer deal. We finished our drinks and went over to the Indian restaurant named Curry and Kebabs, so fittingly, we ordered some kebabs to share, and we each got our own curry. On the way back, we decided to pick up some floral patterned shirts to wear during Songkran, as they were selling them all over for tomorrow. Finally, we nade it back to our hotel and went to sleep.
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