Feb. 3rd - Discovering Bangkok

Our Computer is not working, so we are now using the hotel's computer.  Hopefully we can get our little netbook back into action - everyone fingers crossed!!!

HELLO Bangkok.....

Tony thinking he's a fighter

View from our Hotel Room

 After fighting myself to fall asleep last night, I finally as able to and woke up around 9:30 am. Tony was already up for 2 hours, but he let me sleep in (thanks Honey!). We had breakfast at our hotel and discovered boiled rice. There was a station with various spices & pieces of meat to choose from, the hotel guy helped me make mine. I did shrimp, cilantro, garlic, coriander, & the boiled rice. Tony did shrimp, garlic, coriander, chili powder, chili paste, the boiled rice - his was spicy. We got other breakfast favorites as well:

After breakfast we took a hotel car ride to a pier, got on our own private boat on the Chao Phraya ("river of kings"). We weren't sure everything that was happening, because it happened so fast, but next thing we new we were in our own boat, had beers in our hand, got an hour ride on the river to the Wat Pho.

 The boat ride was incredible! We saw other boats, various hotels, peoples' homes, Traditional Thai stilt homes, a floating merchant, Wat Arun, Grand Palace, Big Buddas, cat fish, military boats, and other tourists. The river was pretty choppy, but a relaxing cruise all together.

Me getting on to the private boat

Huge Golden Buddha

River Slit Homes

Our driver dropped us off at a different pier, where we then had to pay a 20 baht pier charge (only $0.65). We walked through the pier and found ourselves in the middle of incredible smells - unbelievable foods were getting cooked all over (meats on sticks, noodle soups, curry, rice, fresh fruit). Tony bought his first street food - pork & chicken satay with a sauce in a bag. WOW - it was amazing!

Where Tony bought his 1st Street Food

I got myself ice cold coconut milk - SO YUMMY

We walked through the market and continued through even more people selling very random stuff (electric cords, tapes, phone chargers, stereos, belts, shoes, dolls, etc.), palm readers, & people selling these small charm-like thing that had Thai words in scripted and images of a Buddha. People were pretty intense looking at those through a mini magnify glass.

They were selling random stuff

Wat Arun behind us, on our walk to Wat Pho

 We finally got to the Wat Pho, one of the oldest temples in the capital, dating originally from the 16th century. It is famous for the reclining Buddha (150 foot long gold Buddha), center for traditional medicine where the traditional Thai massage was invented. Every time you enter in a Wat, you must take your shoes off & have your shoulders covered. In the Wat with the Reclining Buddha, there were all these bowls that people were putting coins into, so of course, I wanted to join in the tradition. What we found out was that there are exactly 108 bronze bowls in the corridor indicating the 108 auspicious characters of Buddha. People drop coins in these bowls as it is believed to bring good fortune, and to help the monks maintain the Wat. We saw monks walking around here as well as teaching school children. This place was HUGE, and so beautiful. It is nothing like we have ever seen. To try and describe to you all this amazing place would be too hard, but I'll try to show you some pictures that will hopefully capture what we experienced.

Near the Entrance of Wat Pho

Balancing the camera on a piece of wood!

Reclining Buddha

108 bronze bowls

Golden Buddha

School Kids listening to a Monk talk about the Wat & Buddha

We were now ready for some good street food lunch. We went back to that market area where we first were and decided to try a noodle dish. We found a place that had a few seats, so we ordered noodles with pork and noodles with chicken. They were both ok, not our favorite since we've been here, but still pretty good.

Noodles with Pork - not sure what the balls were???

Next was a taxi ride home, our very first encounter with Bangkok traffic. It took us about a half hour to get back to our hotel, and the people here drive crazy! The motorcycles/scooters are nuts, little kids riding between 2 adults on a motorcycle, a mom had an infant strapped to her on one, there are even motorcycle taxis where we have seen women sitting sideways weaving in and out of traffic - no thank you!!!

When we finally made it back to our hotel, we ran over to a grocery store/mall/food courts, it was strange, but got our selves 12 bottle waters for $1.35 & a few beers for our frig in our room. We then took a dip in our amazing pool that over looked all of Bangkok. It was freezing water so we didn't stay in too long. Then we got ready for our dinner reservations at Sirocco, at the Lebua Hotel on the 64th floor. We wanted to take a Tuk Tuk (auto rickshaw) ride to dinner, so we walked to a corner where we saw a bunch and flagged one down. We forgot to bring the exactly address (which I suggested to run back up stairs), but the guy ensured us he knew where we wanted to go. Well, after a 30 minute ride in the Tuk Tuk (which was super fun), he took us to the wrong place!

Us at first Happy about our 1st Tuk Tuk ride

We went into this hotel and explained to them where we wanted to go and the man wrote down something in Thai and told us it's the state tower. So, we then got into a regular cab and handed the piece of paper to the driver and we kept saying State Tower. After driving for 10 minutes and looking at the paper 10 times, he called someone and handed Tony the phone. Tony tried telling the person on the phone where we wanted to go, and FINALLY, after like 45 minutes we made it to the restaurant.

We made our way up to the 64th floor to have the woman tell us that their dress code says closed shoes (Tony was wearing his keens, that barely showed his feet, his gym shoes would have looked worst I think). She told us to go some where 5 minutes away and buy shoes for 200 baht ($6.46). I looked at the lady and said, listen, it just took us an hour and a half get here, we're hungry, and just want to eat. Some other girl came over and said, ok, next time please remember the dress code - hahaha Yep, next time!

Walking out on this "roof deck" was breath taking! It was seriously the most incredible sight every.

Walking down the outside stairs to Dinner

We sat down, had chairs pulled out for us, napkins placed on our laps, warm towels to clean our hands, everything was magical! We got a bottle of red wine from New Zealand and I got a seafood bisque soup. The service was wonderful, however, the food was not as impressive. But what Tony & I both said was that we weren't here to eat amazing food, but more experience this amazing view. For dinner I got the salmon & Tony for a beef tenderloin. We did LOVE our dessert, I got a passion fruit sherbet and Tony got cinnamon ice cream.

Dinner for 2

We then made our way to the bar area, which had a clear wall that allowed us to see straight down. It made our stomachs drop! We stayed there taking it all in for a few more drinks and then took a much shorter cab ride back to our hotel. We did get to talk to a few people that we called last night, SO FUN, and then fell right to sleep.

Tomorrow is another day we get to explore Bangkok! Till then - Good Bye = พบกันไหม่