older trip to Bangkok – October 6 and 7
Anne, Lauren, Ben, and I went to Bangkok for some ultra touristy sightseeing of palaces and temples and such. We left Hua Hin early in the morning and got to Bangkok around 10am. From Victory Monument we took the Chao Phraya Tourist Boat across the dirty river. We saw The Grand Palace and Wat Pra Kaeo (Temple of the Emerald Buddha). Before we got in, there were some dress code violations. Anne was wearing pants that showed part of her legs, so she had to change into a long skirt that was provided by the Palace for those guests who weren’t aware of how they’d have to dress. The women who stopped people at the entrance because of the dress codes were really bitchy and you could tell that they were fed up with people not following the rules. Visitors are also not allowed to wear sleeveless shirts or open-toed shoes.
The emerald Buddha was breathtaking. Amazing. We weren’t allowed to take pictures of it, though, so the image will just have to remain in my mind.
On the way from the Grand Palace to trying to find a guest house, we saw two very disturbing things. One – we were walking along a sidewalk, a public sidewalk, and there was a homeless woman sitting off to the side with a can in front of her. She seemed to be unaware of everything that was happening around her. Right before passing by her, she started to unzip and take down her pants. She put the can underneath her and went to the bathroom. Whether she went number 1 or 2, I don’t know. But it almost made me want to cry. The second disturbing thing we saw was a man bathing naked in the river. We were on a boat and he saw the boat full of people passing him, but he didn’t mind. He showed even more of himself, and had a big grin on his face.
So after seeing those 2 things, we took shelter at the Prasuri Guest House. It was super cheap. Our room had 2 huge beds and was clean. The mattresses were like rocks, though. We were so tired. Walking around Bangkok is exhausting and annoying. You have to hold on to your purse as tight as you can because of pickpocketers, there’s no room to breathe, tuk tuk drivers shouting at you. Oh I hate it. Once we settled in our room, we all went to McDonalds (McThai). And that was that.
I woke up early in the morning, went on the balcony, and watched below as a monk got offerings from people who lived on the street. We all ate breakfast and were headed to the Vimanmek Teakwood Mansion when a pushy tuk-tuk driver confronted us with a great deal. “10 baht I’ll take you wherever you want to go!” We tried to say no, because it was too good to be true, but he would NOT leave us alone. Would NOT. And none of us were confident enough to tell him to go the hell away. So after 5 minutes of bickering with him, we decided to take him up on his offer. He told us he’d take us to the mansion, and then where we wanted to go afterwards. He waited outside for 3 hours for us to get finished. And then we got scammed again. We came out of the park, and there he was. We told him we wanted to go to the Skytrain, because we wanted to leave. I was on the phone with Suzy while this was happening, but apparently, he had to take us around Bangkok in order for him to receive a “ticket” of some sort. It’s kind of like prostitution. If the driver didn’t return to his boss with so many tickets, he’d get in trouble or something. So he was mad when we told him we wanted to leave. He kept offering to take us places. We kept saying no. To make a long story short, Anne paid him 900 baht to leave us alone. That’s how much the gas in his tank cost. After giving him the money, we were going to get another form of transportation to the Skytrain. But first we wanted to eat. The driver told us he’d take us somewhere, and then to the Skytrain. The jerk took us to the most expensive place ever. One dish cost 300 baht. The 4 of us sat down, looked at the menu, got up, and left. That’s another scam that those tuk-tukers pull. They take you to a really really nice restaurant just so that they can get a percentage of your bill. It’s horrible. We left and I wanted to slap him. We ended up eating at this Japanese dining hall. I tried to order rice with vegetable in Thai, but they just looked at me like I was crazy. So I just had rice.
Anyway. The mansion, it’s located in a park-like area called The Dusit Group. We saw the Teakwood Mansion, The Ananda Samakhom Throne Hall (amazing), two of the King’s photo exhibits (he’s a self-taught photographer), the Royal Carriage Building, and the Royal Elephant National Museum.
We left and went to Nino’s big birthday bash.
Anne, Lauren, Ben, and I went to Bangkok for some ultra touristy sightseeing of palaces and temples and such. We left Hua Hin early in the morning and got to Bangkok around 10am. From Victory Monument we took the Chao Phraya Tourist Boat across the dirty river. We saw The Grand Palace and Wat Pra Kaeo (Temple of the Emerald Buddha). Before we got in, there were some dress code violations. Anne was wearing pants that showed part of her legs, so she had to change into a long skirt that was provided by the Palace for those guests who weren’t aware of how they’d have to dress. The women who stopped people at the entrance because of the dress codes were really bitchy and you could tell that they were fed up with people not following the rules. Visitors are also not allowed to wear sleeveless shirts or open-toed shoes.
The emerald Buddha was breathtaking. Amazing. We weren’t allowed to take pictures of it, though, so the image will just have to remain in my mind.
On the way from the Grand Palace to trying to find a guest house, we saw two very disturbing things. One – we were walking along a sidewalk, a public sidewalk, and there was a homeless woman sitting off to the side with a can in front of her. She seemed to be unaware of everything that was happening around her. Right before passing by her, she started to unzip and take down her pants. She put the can underneath her and went to the bathroom. Whether she went number 1 or 2, I don’t know. But it almost made me want to cry. The second disturbing thing we saw was a man bathing naked in the river. We were on a boat and he saw the boat full of people passing him, but he didn’t mind. He showed even more of himself, and had a big grin on his face.
So after seeing those 2 things, we took shelter at the Prasuri Guest House. It was super cheap. Our room had 2 huge beds and was clean. The mattresses were like rocks, though. We were so tired. Walking around Bangkok is exhausting and annoying. You have to hold on to your purse as tight as you can because of pickpocketers, there’s no room to breathe, tuk tuk drivers shouting at you. Oh I hate it. Once we settled in our room, we all went to McDonalds (McThai). And that was that.
I woke up early in the morning, went on the balcony, and watched below as a monk got offerings from people who lived on the street. We all ate breakfast and were headed to the Vimanmek Teakwood Mansion when a pushy tuk-tuk driver confronted us with a great deal. “10 baht I’ll take you wherever you want to go!” We tried to say no, because it was too good to be true, but he would NOT leave us alone. Would NOT. And none of us were confident enough to tell him to go the hell away. So after 5 minutes of bickering with him, we decided to take him up on his offer. He told us he’d take us to the mansion, and then where we wanted to go afterwards. He waited outside for 3 hours for us to get finished. And then we got scammed again. We came out of the park, and there he was. We told him we wanted to go to the Skytrain, because we wanted to leave. I was on the phone with Suzy while this was happening, but apparently, he had to take us around Bangkok in order for him to receive a “ticket” of some sort. It’s kind of like prostitution. If the driver didn’t return to his boss with so many tickets, he’d get in trouble or something. So he was mad when we told him we wanted to leave. He kept offering to take us places. We kept saying no. To make a long story short, Anne paid him 900 baht to leave us alone. That’s how much the gas in his tank cost. After giving him the money, we were going to get another form of transportation to the Skytrain. But first we wanted to eat. The driver told us he’d take us somewhere, and then to the Skytrain. The jerk took us to the most expensive place ever. One dish cost 300 baht. The 4 of us sat down, looked at the menu, got up, and left. That’s another scam that those tuk-tukers pull. They take you to a really really nice restaurant just so that they can get a percentage of your bill. It’s horrible. We left and I wanted to slap him. We ended up eating at this Japanese dining hall. I tried to order rice with vegetable in Thai, but they just looked at me like I was crazy. So I just had rice.
Anyway. The mansion, it’s located in a park-like area called The Dusit Group. We saw the Teakwood Mansion, The Ananda Samakhom Throne Hall (amazing), two of the King’s photo exhibits (he’s a self-taught photographer), the Royal Carriage Building, and the Royal Elephant National Museum.
We left and went to Nino’s big birthday bash.
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