We meet Nook in the hotel lobby right at 9 am. We head out to the main street to grab a taxi, but not before she shows us some street food. There are little street stall 'restaurants' everywhere. Each stall specializes in a different dish. We pass some BBQ pork on a stick. Then there is something that catches our eye. It's toasted bread smothered with Thai butter, toasted again, then coconut milk drizzled on it. The guide tells the lady we would like some. 5 baht. That's just under 16 cents. Yum. We head back to the pork. 3 please. 15 baht. 50 cents. Two Pepsis: 50 baht - $1.67. Total = $2.33 for breakfast. That's the price for both of us, not person. So tasty too! Nook gives us tips on how to ensure the quality of the stall food, etc. We hop in a cab headed to our first temple and while Matt and I enjoy our breakfast we start to become giddy with excitement!
Nook took us to the Reclining Buddha, Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn), The Grand Palace, and the Emerald Buddha (which she pointed out to us is actually made of Jade, not emerald!). It was great to have someone to hold our hand while we navigated the city in tuk tuks, cabs, and ferries. Nook knew that we wished this day to also be an orientation to Bangkok, so while she told us the history of the places we were, she also shared many tips, tidbits of advice, and tried to teach us some simple Thai phrases. There were times her accent was a little difficult to understand, but overall her use of English was very good and she was so sweet!
Reclining Buddha - Wat Pho
Buddhas, Buddhas everywhere!
Temple of Dawn - Wat Arun... Too high for us to climb!
Tuk tuk
We also went on a private long boat tour of the smaller canals and it was very interesting way to see the life of the locals living along the canal. The tour ended at a floating market - something I had decided against prior to our arrival, but I was glad Nook encouraged us to come. Absolutely fascinating. We got to experience some more Thai food. Delicious and so fresh. Don't forget cheap!!
Thai woman heading down the khlong (canal)
Thai boys playing in trees!
Matt mastering chop sticks
Tamarind pork on a stick.
I don't remember what the red sauce was, but it was sweet.
The sour cucumber salad was delish as well.
These were a delicious dessert that
we would never have tried without Nook.
The orange ones were salty, yellow was sweet.
Because we were running low on time at this point, we decided to skip the Vimanmeak Mansion for today (another Royal Residence) and head the Jim Thompson House. Before leaving us, Nook reviewed some of our teachings for the day and wrote down a bunch of notes for us. The house was very interesting and it was fun to imagine we were back in the days when Jim Thompson was the King of Silk Thai.
Then Matt and I headed back to the hotel. We were beyond exhausted at this point. We took a quick nap (HOURS!) then woke up late (10ish) for dinner. We wandered around our hotel's neighborhood. Most of the restaurants were loud and 'happening' places, and we just wanted to sit some place quiet. We see a nice, quiet diner up the road, but they are just closing up shop as we arrive. We decide to stop at, gulp, McDonald's. I know. We are bad tourists, but we were too sleepy and it was too late to put forth more effort. We also scored some muffins for breakfast tomorrow morning. After dinner we head back to the hotel for SLEEP!
I had heard my dad's story about western toliets versus eastern toliets, but it was still a shock when I first saw one. I got a kick out of this sign in a western stall.
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