Our Taste of Thailand: Day 4: Bangkok Highlights

Jake and I were up super early on Monday morning (5 AM) to get ready for our day. We enjoyed breakfast and coffee at our hostel before being picked up by Ms. Oi at our hostel at 8 AM.

Ms. Oi from BKK Tours was amazing! She took us around Bangkok to see things I don't think we ever could have done on our own! I am really glad we hired BKK Tours to guide us to see the highlights of Bangkok. We met many other backpackers and flashpackers who were seeing the same sights on their own, but it took them often double or tripe the time it took us.

The day started by visiting The Grand Palace! This place is probably one of the most beautiful group of buildings I have ever seen (a close second to the Vatican). The complex consists of not only the royal residence and throne halls, but also a number of government offices as well as the renowned Temple of the Emerald Budda. The Royal family hasn't actually lived in the Royal Palace for many years (Kings 1-4 lived at the Grand Palace in Bangkok but have since moved on to another location in the North). The complex was built in 1782, yet still looks brand new compared to any other buildings. Workers are constantly cleaning and fixing the buildings. Many of the roofs are build of mosaic tiles and to keep them sparkling new, every tile is removed, polished and replaced by hand. The buildings literally glow in the sun! In the Grand Palace's 60 acres of land also lies the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. This is one of the most venerated sites in Thailand where people convene to pay respect to their Lord Buddha. The Emerald Buddha is actually not Emerald, it is made of Jade, which happens to be even more expensive. Although it sounds luxurious, this particular Buddha was actually pretty small, although it was adorned with gold accents and built upon incredibly beautiful monuments. The Emerald Buddha was first discovered in 1434 in Chiang Rai. At that time, the Buddha was covered in plaster and was thought to be quite ordinary. Later, however, the person who found the Buddha noticed that the plaster on the nose had flaked off, revealing the green stone underneath. The owner initially thought it was emerald, and thus the legend of the Emerald Buddha began.

From there we visited the giant reclining Buddha (Wat Poh). Before seeing the Buddha we played a game where we would shake a cup of sticks until a single stick fell out. Before shaking the cup, you were supposed to ask a question or make a wish. In my head I asked in how many years would Jake and I have our first child. I shook the cup and a stick with the number 7 fell out. Jake was up next and without knowing what each other asked or was thinking. He also shook out the number 7! Lol sorry to the future grandparents of our children - you might have to wait longer than the rolling 5 year plan! Next we learnt that we were each born on Monday, which meant our Buddha was the same Buddha as the king. We were shown our Buddha and we were able to place a gold leaf on either his head (to bring wisdom), his face (to bring beauty), or his heart (to bring love and kindness). Obviously we are both beautiful and bright people, so we both placed the gold leaf on our Buddha's heart to bring us even more love than we already have. Cheesy, I know! But also sooo cool! Among the many other ceremonial practices we were able to participate in was blessing each other with lotus flowers dipped in holy water.

Following these ceremonies, we saw the big reclining Buddha which is covered in gold leafs with feet decorated in mother of pearl. The reclining nature of the Buddha symbolizes nirvana. Also, it's long ears symbolize a long and happy life. Apparently, I also have long ears which many Thai's want! Haha glad it means I will have. Along and happy life if nothing else! I don't think Jake was feeling the symbolism of nirvana when he almost got pick-pocketed! Shout out to Lululemon for designing pants with secret zipper pockets in the pockets! Luckily Jake had all our money in the secret pocket and caught the pick-pocketer stealing nothing! Hehe

After seeing the Buddhas, we were taken across the river by boat to see Wat Arun, also known as the Temple of Dawn. We were able to climb the STEEP steps to see the beautiful view over the Chayo Phraya river. Thank you Body Pump for killing my thighs with hundreds of squats so these steps just felt like our warm up!

Next we were taken back across the river to the Navy Club for a delicious Thai lunch. We enjoyed my favourite: green coconut curry chicken, and some other delicious plates: dim sum, duck, and pork. Jake was proud, I (accidentally) ate 2 peppers! HOT HOT HOT. You can ask me how I accidentally ate them haha! For dessert, we enjoyed coconut ice cream sandwiches with sweet bread and sticky ride = delicious!!

After a nice lunch in the air conditioning, we were back in the sweaty mess of Bangkok to visit the flower and vegetable market. It seemed like we were the only tourists there, which was a really cool experience, especially since we felt safe with our guided tour by Ms Oi.

All the heat from travelling the streets of Bangkok meant we were able to finish our day trip with a long tail boat ride down the "Venice of the East", formally known as the Chao Phraya River. This was a refreshing ride down the canal. It was interesting to see many houses built on stilts along the river. Many of them were collapsing and then there were others that were brand new and swanky. We stopped to feed some crazy huge cat fish. The river is overpopulated by them since Thais buy them to donate to the river to ask for good luck and also since there is a bylaw which does not allow the catfish to be fished from the river.

After the refreshing long tail boat ride, our sweaty messes were taken back to Lub D Siam Square for around 4 PM. We "cleaned ourselves up" and chilled outside our hostel for an hour or two, while enjoying some cold Chang beers.

In the evening, we went back to Khoa San Road by tuk tuk. Note to self: discount tuks tuks should probably be avoided! Lucky to have made it off there alive lol!