Buddhas, Buddhas, and more Buddhas

Well, I made it. It took a very long time, but I finally arrived at my hotel around 1:30am. The hotel is interesting. Not as nice as it looked in the pictures, but still pretty nice considering it was about $40 a night. The lobby is CRAZY...you feel like you are in this strange little oasis in the middle of a huge city. Foliage, buddhas, a bar/restaurant, and a weird shaped pool. The bed is huge and super comfy although I think my body is out of whack so I only slept a few hours last night. I have had a very full day today, so I think I will be exhausted tonight and hopefully sleep like a baby.

My day started around 6:30am ish when I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep. I showered watched a lil' Thai tele and finally left the hotel around 8:30. I was armed with my map and my good sense of direction and headed out. I wasn't even sure what I was looking for, but knew I wanted to at least see the Grand Palace today. I saw a Thai guy looking at a map and I asked him which way to the Palace. He told me that it wasn't going to open until the afternoon becasue it was some Thai holiday today....bummer. But, as it turned out he gave me a whole list of places that I should see and told me to bargain with a Tuk Tuk driver and they would take me all the places for cheap. He was SOOOO right. 30 Baht = $1 got me 2 1/2 hours of Tuk Tuking all around the city. I saw the Golden Buddha, The marble Palace and two or three other palace/temple places. They were all so amazing and ornate. The interesting thing I started to notice was that I was the only white/westerner person at all these places. It was fascinating. Unlike China where all the Temples seemed to be more tourist sites, these places seemed to be real places of worship. Some spots almost made me feel uncomfortable like I was imposing on some rituals, but people were very friendly everywhere. I tell you Buddhism is a capitalist's dream. Everywhere there is a Buddha, there is a donation box and people putting money in it. I feel like want to wear a buddha costume and carry around a donation box. HAHA oops that's probably sacriligous to say that....forgive me Buddha.

I finally found out the catch to such a cheap Tuk Tuk...he brought me to all of these souvenir shops to buy stuff because he would get a cut. He didn't realize he was bringing the wrong girl to 3 different gem and jewelery shops. Needless to say I bought a magnet and a few postcards, I don't think Mr. Tuk Tuk was happy. When it was finally time to drop me at my last destination..The Grand Palace, he dropped me about a half mile away. Aside from the million degree heat and sweating through my shirt, it was a very interesting walk. I past through what seemed like a market or a NYC street fair, but it was actually a religious market of sorts. Each booth had different monks and religious things going on.

Finally to the Palace. It was magnificent in a sort of disneyesque (again my apologies to the buddha) kind of way. It almost seemed fake. These immaculate ornate buildings filled with statues and glass and marble work that is hard to explain. Even the Forbidden City in China couldn't hold a candle to this place. I was in awe. I was also one of the few westerners and definitely the only nerd who had the audio walking tour headset LOL. I learned a lot though haha. I walked back to my little Villa Cha Cha hotel and drank about a gallon of water and relaxed. It was hard to believe how much I had done in such a short. I had some lunch at the hotel YUMMY and then ventured back out to check out Kho San Road which is essentially the backpackers mecca. A mix between St. Marks Place and Haigh Ashbury back in the day. Lots of dirty hippies and people wanting to be dirty hippies...shockingly it wasn't my scene. So, now here I am talking to all of you.

Tomorrow I am going on a day tour to Ayutthaya - an amazing temple place about an hour outside the city. I wil be back in the afternoon and then I will head to the joining hotel for my tour. I'll try to blog along the way, but am not sure how often I will get the chance...

Before I go, just a few shout outs... Mom and Marshall - thanks for the Charmin travel TP's day 1 and it's already come in handy. Greg and DJ (I think) - thanks for telling me to bring socks to the temples...eww lots of bare feet. Lastly, thanks for the little kiosk guy on Khao San road who was playing the theme song to the show Dallas, it was the best laugh I had all day.