Let’s Get Caught Up....Also BKK-Koh Samui
Reneta and I got to sleep early last night. After a really long day in the sun it wasn't hard to get to sleep. A lot has gone on in the last couple days. With a well rested mind its time to put it all down.
Friday started out fairly early. We decided to take a day out on the town on our own. We started by getting an all-day pass for the river taxi. It cost 130 Baht each, which is about $3.65. Each day we stay in Thailand I am astounded by how little everything costs. The river taxi was simple to understand and took us to a pier called the “Maharaja Pier”. This is where we got off the taxi to see the Grand Palace and Wat Pho.
The Grand palace was unbelievable. It is such a beautiful place. Each building has been constructed with ornate mosaic tiles and gold inlays. Walking around the temple grounds we were overcome by the incredibly hot sun beating down on us. Every once in a while the clouds would come and the wind would pick up. But those moments were few and far between. To get shelter from the sun for a few minutes we went into one of the temples. There are several temples that you can enter. One of them is the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. As we sat quietly in the temple we enjoyed the several fans they had running off to the side. While we sat there Reneta leaned over and asked “where is the temple of the Emerald Buddha? I actually didn't know where it was. That was until I looked up and proudly pointed out that we were sitting right in front of it. We both got a good laugh out of it. After walking around the temple grounds a little longer we decided to head out. I was getting overcome by the sun and heat. There were no stores on the palace grounds which meant no water to buy. It was at this time I learned the valuable lesson of always carrying water. We stopped at the first vendor we could find and bought 4 large bottles of water. I quickly drank two of them. I am certain that I was as close to heat stroke as I have ever been. It was not a good feeling. Instead of walking to Wat Pho we decided to get a Tuk Tuk. The breeze was such a relief. A 5 min ride and we were at Wat Pho.
There were two main attractions at Wat Pho. One of them is the Reclining Buddha. The other, at least to us, was the WatPo Thai Traditional Medical and Massage School. The reclining Buddha was cool to see. It was massive. It took up the expanse of the entire main temple. We also purchased coins to drop into steel pots along the backside of the statue. Each coin made a clink as it hit the side of the pot. There must have been a hundred of them. After we finished with the temple we headed over for a massage. The massage school offered student massages for around $12 for an hour. We each got one. It is best described as deep tissue. At times it hurt, at times it was relaxing. It ended with every bone in my neck and back being cracked. It was crazy but fun.
Friday night we met up with Ake. Ake is a Phd student that is friends with our friend Tim. He took us out for a night on the town. We went to one of his favorite Thai restaurants and had dinner. Then he took us to the Patpong night market. We did a little shopping. Several people aggressively tried to get us to a “ping pong show”. I asked Ake what the big deal is with ping pong. He laughed and informed me that “a ping pong show is where a woman on stage shoots a ping pong ball out of her vagina”. The hand gestures and motions were enough for a good laugh. Yep, apparently that is a thing. He dropped us off at the hotel and we hit the sack. We had to be up early for the next days adventure.
Saturday we took a 1.5 hour drive out to the Train market and Floating markets. Our tour guide was Mimi. On the drive out she discussed a lot about the Thai culture. More specifically the importance of school. She has two daughters she is trying to put through school. She discussed the struggle to get them educated but also how it elevates the family if they do. Income is heavily dependent on the level of schooling you get. It costs her 6000 baht per semester per child for college. That translates to about $168 each. To imagine struggling to put together $168 every six months to me is so foreign. But it just further shows the depths of poverty that exist in the world. She was a wonderful tour guide and made sure we were well informed and had a good time. The train markets was the first stop. It was so cool to see. See my previous post for a video of the train coming through. The smells of the market are ones I will never forget. Curries, vegetables, fruits and meats. It was all an assault on the senses. The fish though. A hot steamy day and fish sitting out at the market. You can only imagine. It was powerful. But I am glad we did it.
Last stop for the tour was the floating markets. We had a wonderful time buying fruit and souvenirs from the boat vendors. We also rode in canoe type boat and shopped around. After we were done we got lunch from what I can only describe as a floating Thai food truck. Reneta said it was pretty good. I was too hot to eat so I had a huge bottle of Chang beer for lunch.
We had a 2 hour ride home. Now the picture above doesn't look like much, but it is a salt farm. Miles and miles of salt farms. In the summer these fields are white as snow. Salt farmers bring in sea water and evaporate it leaving fields of salt. They then harvest and bag the salt for sale. I never thought about where salt comes from. This is one of the ways. It was neat to see this part of Thailand.
After we got back we went to a spa for a two hour massage. Reneta is convinced that the masseuse I had was a ladyboy. I don't think she was but I can't rule it out. Either way she did a good job. We finished the evening with dinner at the rooftop restaurant. We were sat between two tables of Chinese children who were acting like brats. It was not an enjoyable last meal in Bangkok. After that we headed back to the room to get some sleep.
Morning coffee up on our travel day.
We landed in Koh Samui and make it to our hotel. It is such a beautiful place. Its also more humid than Bangkok. But its worth the price for this view. Time to get a beer and relax.
