Bangkok, Thailand: An Experience for All the Senses

Wow! What a whirlwind of a weekend. We left Singapore at 7:30PM Friday night, got back at 1AM Monday morning. The trip was full of new sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches. In this post I'll cover the sights. What happened between goes as follows...

SIGHTS

Bangkok is full of colors, depth, and complexity. Shimmering temple walls, streets full of pink taxi cabs, blinding neon lights of the nightlife, golden Buddhas, giant lizards, dizzying array of goods at the markets, and muddy riverways...

We took a boat ride through that took us to through the main river, into small canals with tiny wooden houses on stilts, giant lizards, and a floating market.

One of our destinations was the Grand Palace, a huge complex full of golden temples and glittery jewel-lined halls. It's a must-do tourist destination, but one of the pricier ones (350 baht for a ticket, which is around $12. Not bad, but everything else in Bangkok was so cheap compared with Singapore!)

Another stop took us to a beautiful tall temple/pagoda, where we had this view of the city and the river. Bangkok is known as the Venice of the East because of all the riverways that run through it.

We also viewed the "Reclining Buddha," which is the largest relic of Buddha in the world, inside temple called Wat Pho across from the Grand Palace. Funny story - two guys tried to scam us into taking their tour and paying them when we were outside the Grand Palace by telling us that since Saturday is "Buddha Day," the Palace was closed. We fell for it, but it ended up in our favor when we couldn't find them later and left them without paying a cent.

And of course, the dazzling, rowdy, and sometimes (very often) sketchy nightlife. Bars and nightclubs abound. Visitor beware! If you want the sketchier details, you'll have to ask me about them in person. That's all I'm sayin'.

So, this post has gotten really long, and I'm really tired from not sleeping enough last night after the late flight, and getting up for work at the regular hour this morning. Next time I'll cover the tastes and smells of Bangkok.