Day 11 - Bangkok, Thailand

Our first morning in Bangkok, we awoke to the most amazing Thai breakfast at our hotel.

Pahd thai, curried rice, steamed cauliflower & mushrooms and dragonfruit and watermelon!

From our hotel, we walked about fifteen minutes over to the Grand Palace. At the last minute, we quickly slipped pants on over our shorts (covered shoulders and legs are required for entrance). Because it was already about 95 degrees with sweltering humidity, I could feel the little rivulets of sweat pouring down my arms and legs within minutes.

Because we were among the first people to enter the large complex, we manged to avoid the usual crowd and cover decent ground the first 30-45 minutes. From then on, however, we were packed like sweaty sardines. If one were to walk around at a leisurely pace, snapping pictures liberally...I'd say it would take you about 4 hours to see the entire grounds. The detail and intricacy of the buildings there are unparalleled in my opinion. And you shouldn't rush, since it runs $15 per person just to get in.

I think it was about $15 to get in, but we had to pony up another $3 for Ryan to burn some incense, and offer a candle and flowers at the temple entrance (he loves this).

I may have accidentally snapped a picture of these two thrones (the latter is shaped like a ship) in one temple.

I may also have accidentally taken a picture of the Emerald Buddha as well. You really cannot gauge the magnitude of how bejeweled the throne of the Emerald Buddha was (Wat Phra Kaew).

After three hours of sweating it out at the palace, we had to take a 30-45 minute break in heavenly Au Bon Pain (which was ice cold inside) sipping mango smoothies and nibbling on whole wheat chips until we felt human/alive again.  From there, we walked another 20 minutes over to Wat Phra Chetuphonto (more commonly referred to as Wat Po), or the Temple of the Reclining Buddha.

The walk between the Grand Palace and Wat Po is filled with vendors selling/trading amulets. Because we are classy art aficionados we just had to stop and buy a few things...two pairs of cheap sunglasses.

At Wat Po, it was only about $3 to get in, and much less crowded than the Grand Palace. It amazes me how few people make the trek down there from the Grand Palace to see this impressive gold statue...

Our lunch was a quick stop at a street cart for some amazing sliced fruit and pad thai before we took a cab over to the Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute/Red Cross Snake Farm.

The snake farm is one of only a tiny handful in the world. They actually raise and harvest snake venom there to create anti-venoms used around the world. The facility had gotten quite the upgrade since we were last there...with both an outdoor and indoor (AC!!!) serpentarium. We missed the 11am snake extraction show, but made sure to catch the 2pm snake demonstration.

Ryan was one of two kids who volunteered to hold a snake. They had previously brought out about a dozen small snakes, but when the kids went up...they hauled out this massive (harmless, or so they assured us) python and nearly gave Ryan a stroke when he saw it draped around his neck! He was a good sport!

We ended our long day back on Khao San Road, where Master Ryan selected a few more souvenirs. He's pictured below waiting for his custom handwoven bracelet...

He chose a pink bracelet with blue font that said, "I love Thailand."

This was our daily treat four days in a row btw...cold coconut ice cream, served in a coconut shell with freshly grated coconut all over it.

Some of us were too pooped to walk the 15 minutes back to our hotel, so we splurged on a way overpriced tuk tuk to take back the older women, the children and the required bodyguard to ensure their safety...