We are a little sad to be leaving our home for the last 30+ days, but we’re excited to start our new adventure. We don’t have to leave until 9:30, so we’ve got tons of time to kill. We say goodbye to Florin – the best cabin steward ever!!! – and hang out in Club Fusion until our appointed time. Of course, we leave before our appointed time because it’s just taking too long!
Our driver was right outside –and so was Murray and Ro’s! They found our driver's sign and we found theirs. We said goodbye to them one last time, grabbed our luggage and hopped in the car. We had been warned about traffic, but on the way out of Laem Chebang, we flew. 120Km + all the way – took about an hour to get to the outskirts of the city, then it took an hour to hour and a half just to go a few Km to get to our hotel. Welcome to Bangkok!
Not a big deal –as I said, we were warned. But as we sat in traffic, I discovered the car was infested with ants! Lovely! Nowhere to go – so I just kept swatting at them for the remainder of the trip and almost broke my leg getting out at the end! Yikes!
We pull up to the Phranakorn Nornlen – and again – we’d been warned you could barely find it. The gate is down an alley way and hidden from the other alley we just drove down! Once inside the multi-color slats of the gate a whole new world opened up. We’re in the heart of old Bangkok – little city streets, tons of traffic, street food heaven – and inside these gates is a cool, quiet and lush respite. The garden area is beautiful with huge trees and palms, tables and chairs are set around a patio with a fabulous collection of antique toys, sodas, signs and phones. Eclectic is definitely the word!
We check in and have our welcome drink of papaya juice (or something that is really, really sweet!). the adorable girls at the front desk show us to our room on the 2nd floor and give us all shorts of good information about exploring the city. The room is precious. This hotel used to be a “cat house” in it’s early days, and had been closed for about 20 years before the current owners found it and renovated it 3 years ago. Now all the rooms are very sweetly decorated with recycled items (mirrors, shelves, etc.). the bed is on a platform, shower is in the corner of the bath – a rain shower head – and the sink is a round stone kilned bowl. Just adorable. Every night at 8 we get tea – every morning a macro-biotic breakfast. There’s a rooftop organic garden with great views – and the bottled water is free! Too nice!
We dump our stuff and off we go. Decide to head down to the grand palace first and maybe Wat Pho. We were going to walk, but the girls tell us to take the river boats instead – much better. Boy are we glad we listened to their advice. This city is big! Even in the old district. The boats are cheap as dirt (15b each way which is less than 50 cents US) and the walk to the pier fabulous! All along the road we pass street food vendors, little local shops and the big Thewet Flower market that lines the opposite side of the road from the pier. It’s really a great people watching place here.
Grab the local boat (orange flag) and cruise down the Chao Phraya river to our stop, all along the way watching the riverside slip by –with it’s mix of old decrepit hovels and Wats dotting the landscape (every where you turn there is a Wat – or temple – it’s incredible how many, and how grand they all are). We hop out at the Grand Palace stop (and hop is right – you better move fast our you’ll be watching your stop receding in the distance!), and head through a market (street food, bags, trinkets, you name it!) to get to the main street. After a wrong turn and a million Touts coming after us (touts are the guys trying to sell you taxi or tuk tuk rides – when in essence they just want to take you on tours or to jewelry shops –their bad – and they lie all the time – like telling you places are closed when they aren’t) we find the palace entrance. Only Ed can’t go in dressed in shorts! Ay yi yi!
So we have to “borrow” clothes for him! 100b deposit and he gets to wear these stretch elastic waste pants over his shorts. Trendy! I manage in my capris so I don’t need a sarong. Off we go following the hordes….but once inside….oh my gosh, this place is 
magnificent! Built in 1782 as the royal residence, the palace grounds now hold the throne halls and also government offices. The temples inside the grounds are astonishing – so much gold and ceramic tiles – ornate like nothing you’ve ever seen. And it’s huge! We spent an hour just wandering around with our mouths hanging open – every where we turned another opportunity to take more pictures. Just stunning.
As we were leaving we noticed an area that was cordoned off with no entry. A sign said “Lying in state” – found out later it was the King’s sister (who died in like January or something) still lying in state. Tons of people were flowing in to pay their respects still. They will have a cremation ceremony in November. Long time to be lying in state…..but….they love their royal family here!
Turned in Ed’s pants and headed to Wat Pho, the home of the reclining Buddha. By this time we were really feeling the heat. It’s brutal here – hot, humid – just ungodly – and it’s not even their summer! We wandered down the outside gates to the Wat, but decided to blow off visiting today and cool off somewhere. Found a great little café on the street and sat under a fan drinking beers. Turned out to be an excellent decision because not more than 10 minutes after we sat down, the skies opened up. A monsoon like you’ve never seen! It was amazing – thunder, lightening, basically flash flooding. We just sat there nice and dry, waiting for it to blow over.
Once we were safe, we headed back to the river boat and up to Thewet. Back at the hotel, we cooled off a bit, had another beer. this time, we went up to the 4th floor garden area where there
were great views of the Rama V bridge and a huge flat buddha statue. I’m kind of screwed with the wine here – doesn’t exist! I’ll be coming home with a beer belly the way I’m going. Of course Ed’s in heaven – 50 cent beers – and good too! Good enough for me to drink them!
So anyway – we decide to do the street food thing. First night out – go for it! The girls at the desk said their favorite street food stand was across the street with the best salted fish. So we said ok – we’re game! Thank heavens one of the girl’s there spoke English as we were the only non-Thai’s there. Didn’t have a clue what to do. They have all these tables set up on the sidewalk and little stools. Didn’t know if we ordered then sat, or what. We obviously looked confused enough, so she showed us to the table, then asked what we wanted. Yeah! Right! I got up and pointed –and we ended up with Salted fish – a big old fish stuffed with herbs and a thick salt crust, some sort of barbecued chicken, papaya salad and sticky rice. The lady cooking everything, who we called mama, came over and showed us how to get into the fish by peeling back the skin.
Have to tell you – it was one of the best meals we’ve had. So fresh and so good – along with 2 beers and a huge water – 240 b – or about 7.25 US. You want to talk about cheap? This place is it baby!
Back home – another 2 beers from the girls at the bar/café here – and up to the room to cool off and get ready for our next adventure….the Seafood party!!
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