Being a tourist: The Grand Palace and fish food

 

This last weekend Brittany and I ventured out of our area accompanied by a couple of friends. The day started around 10:30am with a 45 minute taxi ride to the Grand Palace. When we got there, the palace was closed for an hour for some reason, so we wandered through the outdoor market area set up across the street from the palace. This area is far more touristy than the area where we live. We had lunch in at a little restaurant/stand there and I had my first experience with sticky rice and mango (definitely worth noting – SO GOOD!!!). By the time we finished and headed back, the palace was open again. Although we were four very white girls, three of them speak Thai, so they were able to convince the ticket people to let us in for the Thai price (free)! I just stood there and smiled and nodded while they bargained and tried to prove their legitimacy. I’m pretty sure the guy knew I had no idea what was being said, but he let me through without paying anyway. There are some benefits to being young and blond!

The palace is more like a compound. It takes up probably the equivalent of about two or three city blocks and it’s entirely walled in. Inside, along with the actual palace, are a bunch of temples. It took me a while to figure out that while they are all Buddhist temples, there’s something special about each one. It was really surreal. The temples are literally right next to each other and they’re all really, really ornate. Some are completely covered in gold, others in jewels, others in intricate carvings. Only one was open to public entrance. We had to take our shoes off outside and have our shoulders covered. Once inside we were told to kneel down in front of the shrine. The room was huge and the shrine was huge, but the Buddha was kind of a little statue way on top of this huge shrine. Every inch of walls and ceiling were covered with beautiful pictures and designs. I was struck by the devotion of the people worshipping there.

After the palace, we hired a tuk-tuk to take us to cow-son (pardon the atrocious spelling), which is the backpacker/hippy tourist area. We wandered around through yet another outdoor market kind of thing. This one was obviously geared toward tourists though, and there were a lot of people from all over the world there. It was fun to mingle with the other foreigners. We shopped a little, and ate some roti (an amazing street food consisting of a thin sheet of fried dough doused in sweetened condensed milk and whatever other kind of topping you choose = so good!!). One of the girls and I also partook of a fish foot spa. Basically we sat with our feet in a tank of fish who ate the dead skin off our feet and legs. Let me tell you, that was an experience! I think I shrieked for the first 5 minutes straight…the people getting massages in the same room probably didn’t appreciate me very much!

We eventually found our way out of that area and to the riverboat taxi. We rode up and down the river, just looking around at the city from the river. We got off after about 45 minutes on the other side of the river, and found our way to the dinner theater where we planned to eat. It wasn’t at all what we expected, but the food was good and the view was exquisite. It turned out that it is actually an art gallery and the theater is separate. There was a short traditional Thai dance performance and some live music. We sat at a table that overlooked the river. The upper part of the wall was open so we could see and hear and even smell the river. Directly across the river from the restaurant we could see the rooftops of the Grand Palace all lit up. It was really beautiful! The night ended with a margarita at a jazz and blues club with amazing live music and a really fun atmosphere. All together the day was wonderful!