So we're in Bangkok, a fact that has not yet sunk in entirely, based on the fact that every fifteen minutes or so I tell Will "Hey, guess what. We're in Bangkok!"
We survived the 7 hour layover and the following 2 1/2 hour flight, sleeping the majority of the flight, and arrived at Bangkok rather refreshed and awake, which I think was a pretty big deal considering the fact that it was after 26+ hours of traveling. We were picked up by Peter, who will be our guide on Monday through the tour company, and a driver, who took us to our hotel, which was about 45 minutes away from the airport. On the way he talked to us about the city a little bit, and also found out what we were interested in doing while we were here. We decide on a plan for tomorrow which is the flower market, the Grand Palace, and the Wat Phra Kaew, also known as the Temple of the Golden Buddha, the only place in Bangkok that can be found in Unforgettable Places To See Before You Die, which is a book that I have the goal of seeing all the places there. Will also mentions that he's interested in tailoring, because a friend of his that is Thai suggested getting suits made while we're there. So Peter tells us that he'll have a ride from a tailor pick us up around 2.
lots and lots of fabricr
So the next thing I know, we're not only in Bangkok, but we're at a tailor shop, being talked into buying suites. And apparently there's something about South East Asia that makes me less of a penny pincher, because not only is Will getting two suits and a shirt, but I'm getting a pinstripe suit with pants and a pencil skirt, and a silk shirt. Tomorrow at 2 they're doing our final fitting, and the suits will be delivered to our hotel tomorrow night.
 will getting fitted |  thai beer! |
Bizzare.
Afterwards we can have the tailor drop us off wherever we want, and we mention the place that Peter had suggested to us, but the guy we've been working with (who is the master jacket-maker) tells us we should go to the Sunday market, becuase it's only open on Sundays, and this is the one Sunday that we'll be here. So we roll with the punches and decide to go there.
The Sunday Market is the world's largest fleamarket and was pretty awesome, but soon we're getting tired and hot because it's all outside and crowded and under tents, so we decide to head to another place closer to the hotel. The guy at the tailor had told us that we could just take the Skytrain (a monorail) back, but after walking around for about an hour we'd passed the subway station twice, but not seen the Skytrain at all. So we considered what our guide, Peter, told us about the subway (don't take it, it's too confusing) and we decided that we were tired of walking, but not about to take a cab, so we were going to do the subway!
The subway wasn't all that confusing - the only part that threw us off was the fact that they gave us what looked like a little token, but you don't put the token anywhere when you're entering - you just put it on this pad and it reads it or something, and let you through. We took the subway one stop - to where it met up with the Skytrain station - and then hopped on that until we got to the transfer station. Will was incredibly excited to see an advertisement with a football (soccer) player he is a fan of (because he's a football (soccer) nerd like that). We decided to look around near the transfer station and saw that it was right by a big mall, which we entered in order to find some water, and ended up drooling over some donuts that they had with random toppings, like white chocolate and cheddar, and caramel.
Cesc Fabregas pimping Pepsi
We got back on the subway and headed to our stop on the river, so that we could catch a water taxi back to our hotel. Right when we got to the pier, the sky opened up into a torrential downpour. It was covered, luckily, because it was really kind of insane how intensely the rain was coming down, and how it came out of nowhere. Or maybe I'm just saying that because I've gotten spoiled from living in LA, and had I been living in Texas for the past two years, I'd be thinking it was no big. But anyways, it was pretty intense for us. It let up just a bit after a few minutes, and our taxi came up, so we hopped on and crossed the river, mid-downpour. Pretty fun!
the rain was significantly more downpoury than it appears here
We got back to the room and changed out of wet clothes, then headed downstairs for dinner. One of the restaurants at the hotel has really good Thai food, so we went there, and ordered a 3 course pre-fixe menu that looked good.Unfortunately, about 3 minutes after we ordered the food, we began to crash, hard. We lost our appetites and just wanted to sleep, because we're pretty sure our bodies were telling us "Ummmm, it's 5am. Why are you trying to feed us instead of letting us sleep?" We did the best we could eating the food (which was pretty awesome, so it was a shame that our appetites weren't cooperating) and then went upstairs to crash, around 8:30. My goal had been to stay up until at least 8pm, so I figured the fact that we lasted an extra 30 minutes was pretty impressive. (Will was saying that 8pm was going to be no problem, and though I was silly for thinking we'd be tired so early, so I guess I showed him!)
All in all a very fun, succesful day in Bangkok!
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