Bangkok: wild urban jungle

We arrived in Bangkok very late on Tuesday, August 5th. After queuing for a while to get a taxi, we set off towards our hotel. This might sound bizarre but it really reminded me of Mexico city: the traffic, the feel of the streets, there's just something very familiar about this place.
The traffic, even late at night was pretty crazy and even though we took the highway (second floor periférico) it took us over an hr to get to our hotel.
We are staying at a small hotel near a very busy st full of tailors and massage places (all kinds of massage with all sorts of people offering them). We got to our room pretty late and had to order mcdonalds as everything else was closed. The next morning, Alex woke up early so he and I ventured off to find food. Like in Ko Lanta, most places were closed so we headed back to the hotel where we met a very nice trans lady who led us to the hotel cafe. The neighborhood was out of a movie; it's as if you are watching parts of the hang over 2 in real life except no monkey.

For our first day adventure we headed out to the grand palace. We got a discount from the taxi for agreeing to take a detour and visit a jewelry shop. The germs were so beautiful but totally out of our budget.

When we got to the palace it was super full and the weather was extremely hot and humid. Poor Alex couldn't take it for very long so it was a big struggle as he wanted to run around but there were just too many people to let him do it. We stayed until the palace closed so the crowd thinned out and we were able to see at least some of the palace and the outside of the emerald Buddha temple (the most sacred temple in the country which requires you to wear pants, hence our funny elephant pants in the pics.

Just as we were leaving to find a bite to eat, it started to pour. We ended up finding shelter in an idyllic restaurant which had a beautiful view facing the river and the temple of dawn which helped save the day.Read more