Bangkok: temples and pollution (Part 2)

The objective of the next day was to visit the Royal Palace. At the entrance, a few guys were offering to be our guides and we decided to go with one of them after bargaining the price. So our guide led us into the magical gold structures of the Royal Palace. Once you see the poverty and pollution of Bangkok, being in the Palace feels like in a different space. Since Thailand does not have gold mines, they import the gold and every few years, they cover the gold roofs and structures so that it is always shiny. The royal family does not live in the palace and it is used for representative functions. One of the temples is royal and it is hardly used.
The architecture, the art, the diversity, the Buddha are absolutely impressive. You feel you are so insignificant and small. You can also feel that the Thai people really love their King.

After visiting the palace (where you can easily spend a few hours), we went to Wat Pho temple which is one of the famous ones. After that we also visited and say the reclining Budдha temple with a huge laying Buddha covered in gold.

The area which is famous among the sex tourist is not that attractive I would say. The market places (that are open either all night or till very late) are quite attractive – everybody is offering you something, when you say that you don’t like the price, the bargaining begins. After a while it gets really annoying. But it is what it is – people live that way!


An hour out of Bangkok is the city or the area of Ayutthaya – which is one of the ancient capitals of Thailand so we decided to go and visit on a day trip. After searching offers and bargaining, the drive came early in the morning to pick us up along with us. We were a minibus (2 minibuses) and it was promised that the guide will speak English (someone was asking millions of questions asking for assurance that the guide will speak English and that there will be explanation everywhere and they were giving us those promises but as you can imagine – they will do everything to sell you the trip and you’ll get what it is like it or not). So, the trip was quite long, we visited a lot of ruins, had an interesting basic lunch and at the end, we got back. Ayutthaya and its temples are interesting to visit but not to spend all day there.

One of those evenings, we had also an interesting episode when looking for a famous massage place – I had to use my hands all the time because most of the people we are meeting didn’t know this massage school which was supposed to be real good so the questions and all conversations that led us to the massage school were physical (some of us explaining and reproducing the massage movements and others laughing like this is the joke of the century). Well, the school was closed so we couldn’t get a decent massage but Chiang Mai was in front of us:)

We had one or 2 other massages (thai massages when you put something like a PJ and are stretch), had thai and hot spicy food; we took a tuk tuk for a trip that lasted probably 20min or so and when we got out I had a feeling that my hair is hard and dry from all the smoke and dirt; We got used to the pollution and the muddy river.

And every morning, not just in Bangkok but everywhere, the day was starting with sun screen and mosquito repellent and the latter was used a few more times every single day – what a smell what a charm! Another important observation about Bangkok is the clean and wide and well maintained streets -  great!

And on the 4th morning of our trip we were ready and looking forward Chiang Mai taking another Air Asia flight north.