There was no way we would see everything but we managed to get a great feel for the city. Our first day we immersed ourselves in one of the biggest markets we have ever seen, Chatuchak Market. The key to shopping in Thailand...start your price negotiation by taking 60% off the first price.
We took a water taxi up the river that cuts through Bangkok and toured the Grand Palace and Emerald Buddha "Wat Phra Kaew". Since it was a Buddhist temple, we were issued sleeves and pants to cover our most personal areas (shoulders and knees). The palace was very interesting and peaceful. Just about everything was plated with gold.
After exploring the temple and saving some other westerners from the famous "palace is closed, I take you here" pitch from aggressive tuk tuk drivers, we attempted to walk to Chinatown but quickly became distracted by the surroundings of Khao San Road. We really enjoyed walking down the back alleys and seeing true Thai's hard at work....see Buddha shop and engraver below.
On the next edition of "Thailand's Most Wanted"...Monks who litter!
That night, we were hosted to an authentic Thai dinner at Liz and Stan's home, prepared by their housekeeper. Their well traveled friend joined us at dinner...he has spent extended periods of time in over 90 countries and told us the story of how he was credited with finding an extremely rare WWII plane in the Arctic. With all his life adventures, he is writing a book which should be out soon.
Late night, we ventured down to the famous red light district called Patpong. This is a family site so we'll spare you the details and let you use your imagination :) By the time we had seen enough the trains had closed for the night so we took a tuk tuk home...awesome. Side note: Claudia asks that you consider the camera angle when looking at her bum.
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