Mom came to Bangkok with us to take us around, then afterward she will go visit her family and go to Cheng Meng on April 6th. This is when the family get together to remember grandma, grandpa and others. We stayed at Unico Grand Sukumvit hotel. This is right across the soi from the famous Bumrungrad hospital. It is also right near a sky train station, very convenient.
The first day, I went with mom and Aunt Eng to get my Thai ID so Michelle volunteered to take Lily and Syd to Ayuthaya. The guided tour wanted 1800B each so Michelle said no way. So they took the metro to the train station and took the train there - 20B each.
met back at the hotel and went to dinner at Vientiane restaurant. The food was quite expensive and was only ok, but the entertainment was great. They had a band that play Esan music, fun stuff. All the customers were foreigners though, probably read about it in the Lonely Planet.
The next day we went for the obligatory Wat Pra Kaew, Wat Po, and Wat Arun tour. We started early because it was getting quite hot in Thailand. We got into Wat Pra Kaew at 9am, the opening time. There are a lot of Thai people here today even though it was a Friday. They came to pay respect to the king's sister, she passed away very recently.
Here we are with 2 Yuk (giants.) Entry fee - 250B for foreigners, no fee for Thais. heh heh. The tickets were good for a few other attractions though.
This is the emerald Buddha, no pictures from the inside so I had to zoom.
Us with Hanuman (the white monkey warrior) and more Yuks.
This is one of the panel of murals lining the wall of Wat Pra Kaew. This one shows Hanuman defending Pra Ram over night.
Very busy that Friday.
Chinese statue in Wat Pra Kaew.
Next we walked to Wat Po. Wat Po has the famous reclining buddha and is right next to Wat Pra Kaew - easy to get to.
Making merit by donating some money. They'll give you a little bowl of satang (25 cents) to put in each thing there.
European statues - Only at Wat Po.
After Wat Po, we went to Ta Tien to take a boat across the Jaw Pra Ya river to Wat Arun (temple of dawn.)
River traffic.
Here you can climb the Chedi for a great 360 view of Bangkok.
It was getting hot - around noon.
The Chedi. You can click on the picture to see a larger view, see people climing.
The steps were very small and steep.
Went back to the hotel and rested a bit. That night we went to Siam Paragon food court for dinner and then to Sky Bar at the State tower for drinks. We actually went a couple of nights ago, but was turned away because they don't allow sports sandals. Oops.... The host said they'll allow fashion sandals with blings, but not sports sandals.
There was one drink minimum, but then you can hang out until your legs are tired - no seats. Awesome view from here, we loved it. Drinks started at 300B, but were nice and stiff. :)
Our last day - we went to Jim Thompson's house. It is right next Sky train stop - national statdium, very easy to find. Foreigners love this attraction for some reason. Thai people don't go here thought, maybe they think it's too expensive - 100B for a half hour tour.
After Jim Thomson's house, Michelle, Lily and Syd went to Vimanmaek mansion. It's the biggest teak structure in the world.
I went with mom and Ee Eng to a wat next to Siam Paragon. This is a very nice local wat, very quite inside, such a contrast to outside and Siam Paragon. We went to buy some dry goods to donate to the monks. This is Wan Pra - buddha day so there are many people at the temple bringing food for the monks. After the teaching, everyone lined up for lunch. This is excess food that people brings and there were tons of food. We had many different kind of food, it was a great experience for me. After that we went to hang out at the mall. Mom and Ee Eng talked the whole day. I called Michelle and told them to meet us at the mall and we went to See Fa for dinner. They had great thai ice tea with lemon and honey. The food was really good too, Michelle finally got her fish cake. We also had Tom Ka soup, larb, and silver noodle salad, yum...
The next day we sent mom off to the bus station. She is going to Rayong and will rest there for a few days then go to Chonburi. Our craziest travel day started at Suvarnabhumi airport. Actually, I guess it started with the Taxi ride. The taxi wanted 400B, but we said nah and grab a metered taxi and paid about 280B total. Artwork at the airport.
Yuks pulling on the Naga next to the UCCI store. Michelle is wearing her elephant Jim Thompson shirt.
This airport is really nice, just finished in 2007.
Michelle was impressed with the new airport.
Our 5 hours transit stop in Taipei. Here is the Hello Kitty store.
We got into Seattle an hour late so we had to rush to our plane to Portland. We got to Portland at 10am and of course our bag did not make the plane to Portland and I lost our tags in the scramble to get to the gate. But it all turns out ok. The bags were in the next flight and they delivered it to us at 2am. We took the MAX to downtown and walked home from there. Burrr... it was so cold here in Portland, I think I like it hot. back to work the next day. boo!!!!
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