8-9 Jan: Bangkok
We arrived in Bangkok at 14:00 local time with 5 hours time
difference. We had managed to sleep quite a
lot in the plane so we
were feeling surprising
fresh. We got a taxi to
Rambuttri Village
Inn
which is situated in
a
lively district of the
city, bustling
with
street
vendors
selling T
hai food,
tuk-tuks,
taxis
and
pedestrians.
After a
dip
in the nice
pool on
the
guesthouse's
roof
we
went out to
discover the
surrounding
streets.
François
was
feeling adventurous and
got his
hair
cut in a
beauty
salon ! We got all our
laundry done, 8kgs of it for 190 Baht (less
than 4
Euros) !
At
that
price, no
question
of doing
hand washing as in Jordan
! We ate
in a Thai restaurant on
the street in the
evening. Very nice
green
and red
chicken
curry
washed down
with a
couple
of Thai beers,
plus
noodles with
chicken and
coke for the
kids,
all
for tidy sum
of a
400
Baht (8 Euros)
!
Gaelle familiarising herself with
chopsticks !
The next day, we managed to squeeze in quite a lot of sights: Wat
Phra
Kaew
and
the
Grand
Palace, a
longtail
boat
trip on
the
Chaopraya River
and
canals (where
we saw a
1.5 m lizard !), Wat
Arun and finally
Wat
Pho.
The
temples
(Wats)
are
magnificently
decorated
in
dazzling coloured
mosaics and gold
or
porcelain. The
Buddhas in
the
temples
are
stunning in particular
the
famous dressed green
Emerald Buddha in Wat
Phra Kaew and the 46m
long and 15m high
reclining Buddha in Wat
Arun. We took a couple
of tuk-tuks which amused
the girls, plus
everyone enjoyed
the
boat trip. We bought
lunch on the side of the
road - Thai noodle
soup
and chicken and
pork kebabs cooked in front
of
us and then squatted
a
table belonging to
another street
vendor
who kindly
let us sit down to eat. We
finished
our feast with
fresh pineapple and
water melon. All for
a
grand total of 190
Baht
! You can eat like
a
king in Thailand
for
next
to nothing !
Back
at the guesthouse, we
took a
dip in the pool
(except
for Francois who
has a sore
throat),
before going out
again to
explore the lively streets
of the Banglamphu
district.
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| Grand Palace |
Grand Palace |
Longtail boat
ride |
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