FIRST STOP: Bangkok!

FIRST STOP: Bangkok!

The city view from our hotel - morning, noon, and night, and oh, boy, was the city even bigger than that!  Here are some more city views:

We took a water taxi to get to several of the places we wanted to go. Above is a taxi, and below is a photo of it coming toward us while we waited on the pier. We had to board really fast because they didn't wait long for customers to climb in before zooming off again.  

See the guy walking along the side of the taxi above? Not the pink shirt guy on the platform, the little one on the boat just hanging out on the side. He was the ticket taker. It was pretty cheap to ride, 10Baht, or around 30-35 cents.  After he took the tickets, he'd pull up the tarp around the sides.  I was totally disappointed the first time becuase I wanted to see where we were going, but then when it dropped again I had my mouth open and water splashed open and I vomited quickly realized the importance of those tarps on the sides!  My mouth remained tightly closed from then on. Well, on the water taxi anyway.  

Where should we go first? 

One of our destinations was the King's Palace. Yes, I know we just did the palace in Cambodia, but the palace in Thailand is apparently a must-see, so we did it.  Pretty amazing.  Though I wouldn't do it again.  Never seen so many tourists packed into one tight space in my whole life. You don't see that in the photos, because it was in those moments I was too afraid to take my hands off the kids and husband and snap a picture because I thought I might lose them in the crowd.  Here are some from the less crowded moments.

There were all sorts of creatures like this that reminded me of Narnia or something

The palace guard 

Buddha in Thailand is depicted as fatter than Buddha in Cambodia

That was from the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.  It was pretty neat, had all sorts of gold and silver treasures all around it. It's still a sacred Buddha and wat (temple) to the people, so many were worshipping  and no photos were allowed inside, so this is shot from outside with a zoom lens (that was allowed). He was up about 2 stories high, and is actually made of crystal jade I think we read, not emerald.  Still a sight to see!

More photos: 

Tuk Tuk aquarium with shark in seat (tuk tuks in Bangkok were much different than Cambodia )

Playing at the mall. On the ground.  Ew.

Thai people in the market

The sign behind him says "People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges."  He was some sort of palm reader or Tarot card reader or something.  I just don't see long hair on men in Cambodia much so I had to take a pic.

 And the kids.  They loved Thailand.  They were cute because they'd still say things like "thank you" and "hello" and "goodbye" in Khmer.  I wonder if they understand why that was wrong or are still wondering why I kept telling them not to do that?

cold water bottles to cool off

 NEXT STOP:  Chiang Mai...