Temples and Palace in Bangkok

Long and exhausting day.

We had a complimentary buffet dinner in the morning and then Nok, our private guide, came at 9am as planned.

We grabbed a taxi and went to the pier to get on one of the boats. The plan for today was to visit most of the temples including Wat Pho, Wat Ahrun and then Grand Palace. Depending of our level energies we were going to Chinatown.

Nok suggested to start at Wat Pho as most of the tourist buses go straight for the Grand Palace. The 25 minutes trip on the boat was quite nice. Wat Pho was a good introduction to Thai architecture, the number of temples and stupas was remarkable. There were plenty of golden images of Buddha including the massive reclining statue, one of the biggest in the world.

We then took a 1 hr boot cruise around Bangkok cannals to the West of Chao Phraya river, to appreciate a lifestyle that is quickly disappearing as modern highways are taking over. Interesting to see how the old Bangkok must have looked in the past.

Next in the agenda was Wat Ahrun or temple of Dawn. This temple was not that big compared to Wat Pho bug had one of the steepest stairs in the world, the last section was more like climbing up a ladder, my legs were all shaking when I came down.

We got across the river to the same pier that leads to Wat Pho and jumped in a tuk tuk to get to the Grand Palace, traffic was totally caothic at this point in time. We stopped for lunch in a (thanks god) airconditioned restaurant to try some real Thai cuisine and then went to buy some long pants to get into the Palace as shorts are not allowed, I got some colourful ones with elephants on them.

The Grand Palace was simply amazing, a procession of colours to delight the eyeball, the temples were really well preserved and beautifully decorated. As Nok anticipated there was less people than in the morning but the mercury was over 34 degrees.

We even got to see the royal family leaving the temple and then completed the marathonic visit to this big complex. Nok suggested continue to Chinatown or another temple but we were really tired, so we head back to the hotel instead. Traffic was just insane when we came back to the hotel so we did a combination of boat and tuk tuk.

Later in the night we went for a stroll to BMK to have dinner and to keep the missus happy.Read more