Day 03, Saturday, 3/15/25, Bangkok

It is now Saturday morning. Friday didn’t exist. We got on the plane on Thursday. We got to our hotel Saturday morning! We get up around 9 AM after arriving at 2. Our hotel is named ‘Chillax’, an appropriate name for the start of vacation! We have a complimentary breakfast in the hotel. Today we will seek out the Grand Palace, supposedly a ten minute walk from our hotel. By 10 AM it is already 33C (92 degrees F) and over 80% humidity. Street food is being prepared already by food carts parked at the curbs. Welcome to Southeast Asia! But here we are in another beautiful place in the world that we have yet to explore!

Turns out the Grand Palace is a mere 10 minutes walk. Even taking the wrong turn through Bangkok University doesn’t prevent us from finding it easily. It’s a huge complex of gorgeous temples. The currency here is the Thai Baht. One USD equals 33.5 Baht. We pay the 500 Baht (approximately 15 USD) each to enter. I also pay 200 Baht for a set of loose cover up pants as I am told that my shorts that come well past my knees are still not sufficiently long enough.

The attention to detail in this Palace/Temple complex is astounding! We even get to see a Changing of the Guard! Bright colors and golden alters and artifacts galore! After satiating our cameras inside the Palace, we find our way to the river a few blocks away. There we ride a river taxi as far as it goes and back again. I marvel at the motors I see on the small riverboats. They are 4 cylinder, 6 cylinder and even what appears to be a V-8 with an almost horizontal shaft 15 feet long to the propeller! The driver moves a bar attached to the motor so the entire motor swings from side to side to steer the craft! Turns out the end of the line for the river taxi is our stop, only two blocks from our hotel, the Chillax, where that is just what we do!

We have done all this in 35C plus degrees (95F plus degrees F). So we are tired and go back to our hotel and take naps for a couple of hours. I comment that I don’t know which I like less, 35C or -35C (-33F) that we had in Finland. The 95F here says it ‘feels like’ 107 with humidity. Just like in Singapore last year, Durian, the despised fruit, is a bigger no-no than smoking cigarettes! We are going to have to experience this at some point.

After our naps, we head out to find drinks and dinner. We find a fun street behind the hotel called, ‘Soi Ram Buttri’, that is full of street shops. Here you can buy food, clothing and drinks. The street goes for more than a mile in a ‘U’ shape.

We get a street side table and order beer and wine at a place called, ‘My House’. Their IPAs are good (and cold!). Cars and bikes drive through but are respectful of pedestrians, not like Egypt or Morocco. Fun signs assault our senses and another thing stands out. Something I first saw in South America seems to be prevalent here also. The overhead street wires are just complex jumbles that look impossible to sort out. I’d hate to be an electrician that is hired to repair a problem!

Modern busses drive through the streets carrying tourist to and fro. This is definitely a tourist destination. A lot of broken English is spoken here, even by many locals that want your tourist dollars!

We head back towards the hotel and stop at a restaurant, Hemlock, that was recommended to us by the front desk. It’s been here for over 30 years. We order authentic Indian food that includes Curried Crocodile! Nothing like we anticipated! It’s fabulous!

Then we go back to the hotel for the night. I do go up to the top floor where the hotel pool is and snap off a night shot overlooking the city!

See you tomorrow!