Bangkok day 3: "What do you mean it's Sunday?"

Our last day in Bangkok started with an early morning trip to the airport for our flight out. Apparently, we were so excited to get to Cambodia that we showed up a whole day early! After spending a few minutes trying fruitlessly to convince the man at the desk that, no, it was, in fact, Monday... I checked with a few other employees and found out that unfortunately, he was right, it was, in fact, Sunday.

We used this extra day to our advantage to see a few things we had originally missed out on. First stop, the National Museum, which boasts an impressive collection of old things. Call me Queen Midas but my personal favourites included the gold leaf patterned window shutters on the museum buildings and the massive gold boats which were being restored right before our eyes. The park across from the museum was decked out for the Queen's birthday two days later. The trees on the main streets were lined with gorgeous lights and her gold framed portrait was set up and adorned in locations all over the city.

In the evening we took a tuk tuk (haha! took a tuk tuk!) to a night market on the other end of town. This was a big spot for designer watches and Tiffany jewelry... but after being quoted a last price of over $100 on a fake Rolex, we were done for the night.

Bangkok Day 1

On our first day in Bangkok we ended up getting jet lag but in a good way. We were up at the crack of dawn and ready to start our adventure. First stop was Kaosan road which was about 2 blocks away from our hotel. It was busy with activity even early in the morning with fresh orange juice carts and plenty of stands selling DVD's and funny t-shirts. After that we wandered down to our first Wat (Buddhist temple). It was very beautiful decorated with gold-leaf and colored glass. The grounds were also immaculately kept. Our next stop was the Royal palace and the temple of the Emerald Buddha. If you ever have a chance to go to Bangkok this is a must see. The architecture and sculptures were absolutely stunning and we had a great tour guide who told us a lot about the symbolism and history of the site. Our tour guide was very helpful and showed us to the market by the river and got us a long boat tour through the canals. This was really neat because we got a chance to see the Thai people outside of the tourist context (thanks uncle Brian for the recommendation). The boat tour dropped us off at another river side market where there was a wide abundance of food including fresh mangoes and dried fish. We skipped on the fish but we had the amazing fresh mango's (sorry Kelsey for making your mouth water). Right next to the market was another Wat Pho which is famous for the giant reclining Buddha (probably about 40m long). The whole sculpture is covered in gold leaf and the feet are made of mother of pearl. After our visit we grabbed dinner at the river side market, the food here tastes amazing and you smell it everywhere you go. After a long day of walking we returned to our hotel, but just before we had a relaxing 30min foot massage, the perfect way to finish the day.