Sunday, April 16, 2017

Thailand - Day 6 Bangkok

Went for breakfast around 9 am. The hotel was okay. I selected it because of it’s proximity to the tallest tower in Bangkok, Baiyoke tower, which is also a hotel. I wanted to go to the deck on one of the nights we were there. So this hotel is one of the more affordable of the three hotels Baiyoke has.

The breakfast buffet was good. there was plenty to eat (continental and Thai) and drink. Enjoyed breakfast and then also the view from the top.
Then it was time to visit Lebua tower, the second tallest hotel of Bangkok. It is also the site where movie, Hangover Part III, was shot.  It was a little bit of a walk from the station but we got there.  Went up to the 63rd floor. The top floor opens only after 7 pm, so we will have to suffice with this level. That’s fine! The concierge there was nice enough to show us the deck and leave us to our photography. Oh my God! What a beautiful view of the city.  Could see miles of the crowded city. Really cool!! Saw the river, saw Asiatic – just beautiful to spend some time there.
After that it was time to see some temples.  Prachi, very smartly, got us the public ferry to the temples. 7 bhat vs 100 bhat (for the tourist taxi) is some difference!! It was a 20 min ride to the first temple, Wat Arun. It was a huge temple.  There was some maintenance going on, but otherwise it was easily accessible and a number of areas were open to visit. It took more than an hour to see. As we were walking to find the ferry, we crossed through some food and tourist shops. And then came another temple. Spent some time there also.

Walked back to the ferry and boarded to go to our next stop, Pra Vihara (the temple of lying Buddha). This temple is the biggest I have visited! It took over 2 hours to see the huge compound. First we paid respect to the lying Buddha and from there we went to see all the little temples around the campus. All were unique in their own ways and all beautiful. We had some good lunch also – vegetable noodles.
Then it was time to see if we could see the palace near the Pra Vihara. It was a long walk to the palace and by this time, we were just beat! It turns out the palace was closed as it was 6 pm now. It was quite a bummer since we had to walk all the way back to the ferry which is about a mile walk again.

Once we got on the ferry, it was time to see the flower market in the Yodpiman Riverwalk. They probably created the Riverwalk to have a nice entrance to the flower market. I think our timing was not very good. the flower market is the busiest at night, and of course its not possible to come at that time for us. But we still got an idea of how great it must be. Flowers were really cheap and plentiful. Sad that we did not need any. The Riverwalk itself was quite nice too.
Then it was time to move on the Asiatique. That is also accessible from the ferry. Now it is about 8 pm. Getting late and I am super tired from walking but not tired of touring. Asiatique is lit up like Diwali and crowded like a party place! There is a little area where there are rides and shows going on. The other side has the shops and restaurants. Of course we were not going to a restaurant.  I am all about street food! So we walked through the rides and got to where street food. And we had good stuffed parantha kind of dish. Mine was egg stuffed and Prachi’s was chocolate – both were tasty.
Then it was time to walk around. Again, there were a lot of shops. It was great to be in such a lively place. Then we got in the line to get the ferry to the metro. The ferry is free to the metro! Marketing strategy of Asiatique. From the metro we went to the Siam mall.  It was one of the most expensive and huge mall I have seen! Oh lord! Just the shoe section went on and on and on. The food courts were huge and had such a variety of foods and the ambience was just super. It seems that below the mall is a huge aquarium, sadly closed at this time of the day.
It was time to go back around 11 pm. Every time we walked back to our hotel, we saw this massage place and promised ourselves, tomorrow!

Today was extremely tiring, but really a great day.

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