On our last morning in Bangkok I took the elevator to the top floor of the hotel in hopes of seeing the sunrise over the Bangkok skyline. Unfortunately, the windows were dirty and the Bangkok air was quite smoggy (for the first time–a morning wind took care of the smog on the other days).

The top floor of the hotel looked quite a bit different from the other floors. These must have been some sort of penthouse suites as you had to enter through a seperate set of glass doors to get to the special rooms. There were also sculptures and other decorations that the other floors didn’t have.

A guard also “prevented” entrance to this exclusive location. I put prevented in quotes because in actuality the guard was sound asleep, curled up in the fetal position on the floor (just out of range in the above photograph).

We split town and headed for the airport with a cab driver who refused to turn on his meter. He wanted more than we paid with the meter for the same ride we had on the way in. I told him I would pay what we paid with a meter on the way in. He didn’t complain and after dropping us off and getting paid he left us with a smile on his face.

The above photo is what happens in the Bangkok airport while dad is checking in.

As I mentioned before, the new, Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok is really nice–both inside and out. Personally, I wouldn’t have minded had they cut a few corners on the airport and spent the savings on fixing the sidewalks in downtown Bangkok.

Related posts:

1. Bangkok – Part 1
2. Bangkok – Part 2
3. Bangkok night

On our second, full day in Thailand we caught a cab to the MBK Center, which is a large shopping mall in Bangkok. Taxis in Bangkok can be ridiculously cheap if you negotiate the price in advance or use the taxi’s meter. For instance, the airport is the same distance from the city center as the Charles de Gaulle Airport is from Paris, yet a cab will run you under $15 for that distance in Bangkok and $60 – $80 in Paris. We took a crazy taxi ride our first night from Chatuchak (11 train stops that cost the four of us 160 baht on the Skytrain there) back to our hotel for 150 baht (under $5). We thought we were going to die, but the fact remains that we made it across town for next to nothing. Of course, if you aren’t careful, they will gladly charge you several times the normal rates.

Anyway, we had breakfast in the mall (MBK Center) at an all-you-can eat, help-yourself Thai buffet. The above picture may not look that great, since I was the one who threw this dish together, but the food was actually quite good, and we were able to try a half dozen different combinations of noodles, sauces, and vegetables. When I went to pay the bill (of the “huge” sum of 240 baht (< $7) for the four of us!) the guy wouldn't take my money until we had dessert. Now that's a bargain!

After a day of wandering down countless aisles of pirated software, video games, DVDs, CDs, fake Rolex watches, knockoff cellphones, and generic electronics galore we took another taxi to Lumpini Park.

I wanted nothing more than to sit on the grass and take a nap. The girls wanted to paddle boat around the lake in what looked like the same kind of paddle boat you find in Japan (swan style).

I didn’t notice the water monitor (we thought it was a Komodo dragon at the time), but Ellie sure did.

The giant lizard was about two meters (six feet) in length. Linda and Ellie saw some other ones sliding into and climbing out of the water–not exactly what you expect to run into when you lay down in the grass at a park to take a nap.

Related posts:

1. Phuket
2. Ueno Park – Part 1
3. Bangkok – Part 2

Night time came to our first full day in Thailand. After a refreshing (a bit too cold if you ask me) swim at the hotel we headed out for dinner…

…though not at McDonald’s. Notice that Ronald is doing the wai, a Thai form of greeting, thanking, etc. by putting your hands together near your neck and bowing a bit.

We ate at Sphinx, located at the end of Soi 4 off Silom Road. The food looked really good, and the free wonton appetizers were great, but this was my most disappointing meal in Thailand (and the most expensive).

We took a tuk tuk back to our hotel for only 20 baht (under $1). This was our first, and last, tuk tuk experience in Thailand, not that the experience was horrible. Tuk tuks in our next location (Phuket) were ridiculously priced so we never used them.

Related posts:

1. Bangkok – Part 2
2. One Night in Bangkok
3. Phuket

Street food, like the above, was available all over the place. Ellie had a coconut, but we avoided meat that wasn’t cooked right in front of us. Amazingly enough, none of us got even a little bit sick during the nine days we were in Thailand. We didn’t drink the water, but we had plenty of ice.

The boat ride back down the Chao Phraya River had better views than the way up as the clouds and sun did a little dance behind Wat Arun.

Right on the river, near our pier, was the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. The place is incredible. The above photo doesn’t do it justice. It probably didn’t hurt that we were hot, Bangkok was humid, and the inside was nicely air conditioned.

Further up the street we saw a street vendor making a killing thanks to the nearby school which had just let out.

Related posts:

1. Chao Phraya River
2. Bangkok – Part 1
3. Bangkok – Part 2

I’ll wrap up Thailand’s Grand Palace today with another flurry of photos.

This Thai man was working on the grounds. The above, close-up shot doesn’t fully revel his environment so I went for a wide angle shot, below, as well.

Just like Denmark and Norway, the king of Thailand has his guards too.

Above is the Chakri Maha Prasat Hall. We didn’t see any live elephants in Bangkok, but we saw many in Phuket a few days later.

I caught these two hanging out on the grounds of the Grand Palace.

The place almost looks like Disneyland… Older and not so phony though…

These two, Thai Buddhist monks sported far larger, fancier, and more expensive camera equipment than my little TZ7.

This last structure is called the Aphorn Phimok Prasat Pavilion.

Related posts:

1. Emerald Buddha
2. More from Wat Po
3. Wat Phra Kaew