Bangkok day 2- one of our crazyier days!!

We are now safely in a enjoyably quaint setting in the city of Chiang Mai; Phewph! because yesterday was a trip filled of nonstop action packed goofyness. The videos posted will tell it to you best.

The Grand Palace in Bangkok is where the Royal Family used to live and 'the city's most famous landmark'- we decided that sounded like a good place to begin our day! Upon arrival we were wooed into their street market and went looking for lunch:). Instead, we came across the offer to take a private boat trip through the canals of Bangkok. Doug said, 'that's on my things to do list' so we smiled and said Yes:)! This ride was a really fun trip! You can see that on the video.

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After that we grabbed lunch- a strange, but not one you want to hear about situation! Then we carried on 'out of the market' now walking up the streets taking it all in. We came across a landmark temple and I was excited to see the historical write up about it in English(for once!). So there we were taking it in, feeling a little strange that we do not know 1 iota about Buddhism... and 'this friendly, english speaking local' walks up to us and starts chatting. We had nothing to do but experience whatever came before us, so we engaged in conversation. He told us all the places we should go today that were 'must do's in Bangkok. Long story short this guy sent us on a trip of places that would benefit his friends. We are pretty sure we paid to view a temple that was free, but caught on when Doug had more knowledge than the 'Armani quality tailor' about fabric weights. Ha,ha! Our tuk-tuk driver was very friendly, but we peaced out from his company and got a taxi driver with no other agenda but to make a couple baht to take us back to the hotel. Traffic was crazy getting through town; We thought it was the 5-10minute stop lights that made the delay so slow, but we found out the real cause was the Royal Motorcade to passing through! Pretty neat!

Then once we finally touched base at our hotel to get our luggage it was time to head to the train station for a grand overnight train ride adventure! The bigger adventure though began before we got there:). With 2 hrs until our train departed we thought we were leaving enough in advance for a 40minute commute to the train station. But, with the traffic this was not the case. Our hotel concierge said we needed to ride on a tuk-tuk and not a taxi in order to get there in time. Tuk-tuks weave in and out of the cars as they please, and cars have to sit one by one in their proper place stuck in traffic. It was raining galore and we had lots of luggage, but we looked at each other and smiled and said 'ok' again!! What a ride, we held on for dear life! I will buy a gas mask at my first opportunity!! Doug said the pollution smelled like Asian adventure to him, too me just overwhelmingly gross.



We made it on our train and it was a great time. This morning we saw the Thai'lands' out our window and rice farmers. It was beautiful. We made it too our hotel today, this one is more of a family owned boutique hotel; it's cute:) Since markets are a cool 'going event' around here we are going to experience it at night tonight! We're keeping our guard up and staying safe :)

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