Grand Palace, Wat Arun and Wat Pho

The last two days have been extremely full with adventure, eating and exploring. Yesterday we (and what seemed like half of China) started off the very warm day at the Grand Palace. The palace was the official residence of the Kings of Thailand and is made up of numerous buildings, halls, pavilions set around open lawns and gardens.

the most holy Emerald (made of jade) Buddha

Next, we headed off to Wat Pho, which was just down the road (after grabbing a much needed fresh fruit juice, the stuff is everywhere and is amazing). This temple is famous for the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. Within each temple there are different shrines to Buddha for different things, business, love, mother nature, success, health, ect. For the Chinese New Year, high level monks were giving blessings to people, so to take advantage of the rare opportunity, Duane and I stood in line to receive a blessing which was pretty cool.

the famous Reclining Buddha

In this shrine room, monks were taking specific prayers from the people

After walking through an amazing food market and grabbing some killer grilled chicken, we took a water taxi across the Chao Phraya river to go see Wat Arun ("Temple of Dawn"; the first light of the morning reflects off the surface of the temple creating a pearly iridescence).

The temple as we crossed the river

Climbing up the STEEP steps of the temple

For our anniversary we went up to Sky bar and had dinner at Sirocco restaurant (the one featured in The Hangover Part II).

Sirocco

Today we walked over to the flower market down by the river.

After we went to the MBK which is a giant mall that sells anything and everything you can imagine. We got lost for hours just browsing and looking around. Also, it was a treat being in air conditioning for that long period of a time. Lastly, in our search for dinner, we bravely went to Kaosan Road, which made me so very thankful that I was not in my early 20's anymore. This area is backpacker/douche bag central that has an essence of Mexico on spring break, but has a fondness for Eric Clapton. Now don't get me wrong, I love me some Eric Clapton, but within 1/4 of a mile, I heard Layla 3 times being butchered by three different people. Additionally, we were approached twice to see a ping pong show (If you don't know what I am talking about, Google it, I'm sorry in advance), and were openly asked if we needed a fake ID, passport OR handicap placards. Yes, fake handicap hang tags, from any country I wanted! and only 800 baht! Needless to say, after some awesome papaya salad and green curry, we happily walked back to our quiet hotel 10 minutes away from this street. Off to Chiang Mai tomorrow!!

.... yup....

Things We Learned

1. Thai internet is regulated by the government 
2. Thai breakfast is normal Thai food
3. Scooters/motorcycles will. kill. you. if the tuk tuks don't get you first, because they are seriously bat shit crazy
4. It is normal for scooters to use the sidewalk and bike lanes for driving... even if going the wrong way
5. To cross the street you just have to walk, the cars/motorcycles/scooters/tuk tuks will (hopefully) dodge you, I like to call it the "walk and pray"
6. Driving lanes are merely a suggestion
7. The Thais REALLY like their king
8. My German is coming in very handy here (completely serious, mostly for ease dropping and talking to Duane to discuss prices)
9. Selling used remotes is totally a thing
10. There is no such thing as personal space
11. A yellow pomegranate exists
12. Fuck selfie sticks, they will ruin the world. Period.