Bangkok Day 3

On Monday morning it was Sunday afternoon back in the states, so we got up in time to catch the end of the Indy-New England game. It decided to rain, and when it rains in Thailand it does not mess around. We crammed into a cab to check out a couple of the Buddhist temples or Wats that bangkok is famous for. It was here we had our first experience with a cabbie who didn't want to run the meter. Fortunately the Concierge had told us about what the fare should be, so we were not willing to negotiate. As we arrived at the grand palace and Wat Pra Kaeow it was pouring. Some Thai boys chased down our cab and sold us a few umbrellas for way more than we should have paid for them. We sought shelter in a nearby restaurant and had a great lunch topped by a really big bowl of ice creams in tropical flavors. Once it stopped raining we ventured into the grand palace to see the Wat and the emerald Buddha. Pants are required since it was a holy site, and they made scotty put on a pair of loaner pants. It was even steamier than usual because of the rain, and I spent the first ten minutes trying to clear the condensation from my camera lenses. We checked out the emerald bhudda, then wandered over to Wat Pho to check out the reclining Buddha. I had seen pictures of it in a National Geographic as a kid and always wanted to go see it and there I was standing in front of it. Its always great to cross things off your lifetime list. We had been hot for long enough and headed back through insane traffic in a cab ride even scarier than our loaded down trip from the airport. We had to go back to the tailor shop for a fitting, so afterwards Dave and I grabbed a beer, and we let W and Scotty go get massages. A quick shower and then we were headed for a nice restaurant for W's birthday. We decided to go someplace we'd seen in a book that was across the river, so we took a train and then a boat to get across the river. We get all the way to the restaurant only to find out they require pants for men (as opposed to shorts) and both Scotty and Dave took a comfortable approach in shorts, so we had to try something else. By the time we were back across the river it was after ten and we were hungry, cranky and not real sure where we were going to eat. We got off at the major transfer station in Siam and decided to look around, but everything was closed. A nice man took pity on us and recommended a seafood place that he knew was open til midnight. He was an English teacher, and he even got us a cheap tuk tuk fare to the restaurant. The seafood was a little pricey, but we were so hungry at that point we would have eaten the fried crickets at a roadside stand. Our meal was actually very good, and ended up being worth the hassle and price. We went home to crash and try to figure out what to do on Tuesday.