Today we brought new meaning to the phrase, “Sweating like a pig!" Don’t let the season “winter” fool you here in Bangkok. It might be winter but someone forgot to clue in the sun! I am so glad I get up in the morning and take a shower. Three minutes outside, no really just outside the front doors of the hotel and I am already sweating. It’s really okay because everyone else is, too; except the locals of course. You never see them perspiring. Cool as cucumbers. Absolutely amazing! New equation: Tourist=sweating pig!

Today was absolute tourist day. On the itinerary was all the wats one could stomach and a bit of Mauy Thai kickboxing to boot. Besides the train, the river boats are a great way to get around Bangkok. There are several ways you can go: the local ferry, which stops at every conceivable pier; the Tourist taxi, more expensive but only stops at the tourist piers; and then the water version of a tuk-tuk called the long boat. Yes, more haggling and they will eventually take you where you want to go. Today we opted for the Tourist boat and headed for the Grand Royal Palace complex.

The Grand Royal Palace: Oh, my God! Grand is just not the right word. I need my friend Kay Kehoe or Karen Owen to help me with the right adjective to really accurately describe this amazing, spectacular, breathtaking maze of temples (Wat) and small chapels (Viharn). If you wondered where all the gold in the world was housed, I believe it to be here. The mosaics and frescos on the the buildings rivaled those in most European Cathedrals. No shorts were allowed, men had to have long pants and women a dress or long pants. All had to have at least short sleeved tops. No tanks or halters to distract the monks from their daily prayers! Many places we had to take off our shoes out of respect. After walking around the complex in the heat, it was nice to take off our shoes and walk barefoot on the tile floors of the wats.

The statues of the warrior guards and foo dogs were enchanting. I fell in love with the many statues and wanted to bring several home with me but could not create enough of a distraction to allow Rich a run for it with a little foo dog of my choice. Not to mention since most of them were carved out of stone, they all probably weight a ton or more. So pictures will have to suffice. Jim keeps calling me a tourist because I am taking pictures of everything. But he has to remember, this is my first time and I am a tourist!

The Grand Royal Palace is surrounded by a wall of stunning murals that tell the story of Thailand. Different than the frescos of Europe, these murals were on a black background and painted with vivid colors of the rainbow and highlighted in gold...real gold. Once the royal residence of King Rama I (late 1700’s), now it is used for ceremonial functions and a goldmine for tourists’ Baht (money). The entrance fee was 200TB or roughly $6USD and there were hundreds of people there; tourists and Thai alike. Many Thai go there to pray and pay their respects to several statues. The most famous at this complex being the Royal Monastery of the Emerald Buddah, one of the most venerated sites in Thailand. Think the Mona Lisa and how big it is in reality. So is the Emerald Buddah. I thought I was going to have to get out my binoculars to see the statue and I almost created an international incident trying not to step in front of the hundreds praying on the floor. Very stressful for a buddist shrine of peace.

It was hard to leave the Grand Palace behind but there were more wats to visit and I was getting hungry. The sun had just about wiped me out and my blood sugar level was hitting the bitchy meter. I pulled out my nifty Bangkok tourist book to look for a restaurant but we couldn’t find the name of a street to save our lives. Right in front of us was a restaurant called the “Royal Navy” and off we went. From the outside it was nondescript and inside was no different but the food was to die for...okay, no dying but my taste buds were on over load. Happy me, bitchy no more!

The last wat of the day was Wat Pho and it took all day to get Rich to stop say, “What fo we goin’ there?” and all the jokes surrounding improper use of the Thai language. Let’s not even get started on him butchering the King’s name, HRH King Rama IX, by calling him Ramalamadingdong for the 60/70 rock song. Janie, Jim and I all agreed that we were not interested in seeing the inside of a Thai jail or any country’s jail for that matter! But back to the reason for going to the wat...the reclining buddah. Reclining at 150 feet long and covered in gold, this buddah was the mother of all buddahs! But this buddah was closed for the day because the queen was going to visit at 6 pm and so they were tiding up before her arrival. Too bad because from the windows this guy was humongous!

I was pretty beat from the long hours in the sun and the miles of walking we had done, so I opted to go back to the hotel and everyone agreed that their dogs were barkin’, too! We hopped the tourist ferry back to the hotels and made plans to meet up for a little thai boxing. I wasn’t that keen on going to watch people hit each other while the gallery placed bets on the outcome of the fight but Rich reminded me that I needed to do what other people in our tour wanted, too. You know, share and compromise?! Sometimes rather foreign words to me but hey, Jim really wanted to do this. It was kind of interesting and not as violent as I thought. There was this Thai band playing that really caught my attention. Mostly percussion and one guys was playing a shawm/chanter type instrument. They would improvise during the round and the music would get more feverish as the fight escalated.

I sure was glad when we all decided we had enough fighting for one night. Back on the train, home and I was asleep before my head hit the pillow. Tomorrow’s another day!

Link to todays photos

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