Geckos in the fruit bowl. A snail could be the main dish.

Home

 Over the last few days I've been seein' Wats up. Noticed all the house plants I've ever had ever are growing like weeds wherever I look. Sunday is western breakfast day here so Fritz and I had waffles instead of the usual thai food, rice and fruit. Then we went on an adventure to the Royal Palace which was jam packed of other tourists and within 30 mins I was overwhelmed by all the people and the ridiculous amount of detail on the temples. Seriously mind blowing. And they are constantly renovating. There is a mural surrounding the temples portraying the Thai version of the Ramayana and they re-paint it every year.  GOLD! GOLD! EVERYTHING IS GOLDEN! ITS KING MIDAS' WET DREAM!

It could use more gold here I think.

Woman fixing the mother of pearl inlay on doors of temple of the jade buddha. She said it's taken over a year to fix and shes not done yet.

                                    

                                   Mother of pearl inlay detail

 After we escaped most of the croud we went to a coffee shop next to the river with Oui. We tryed to get a cab but the first cab we got didn't want to run his meter (which means he was trying to rip us off) so we got out and Oui reported him and we got another to the cafe. It rained while we were there so we chilled out literary in the air conditioning. Kind of to cold after being in the humid heat sometimes. For some reason people like to put weird things together here in decorative settings like this coffee table or this fake flower arrangement in an office building.

Table at Vivi cafe. Just a natural setting of sand, shells and plastic weed leaves. 

                                         

A beautiful arrangement of orchids, ferns, mushrooms and a pinecone...

After some food which I guess was some real! authentic! Thai food. A dish that had noddles coconut milk ginger, garlic, dried fish flakes? and pineapple served cold. A strange mix of flavors but far from bad. After food we went to ferry across the river to see Wat Arun. Its all decorated with old china plates and dishes and for 50 baht (~$1.75US) you can go touch and climb it. Which I did. Fritz keeps giving me shit for not remembering to bring my student ID because I could have got in free to both the places we went.

Wat Arun in all its glory

I wonder how many people have died here.

Cowboy!?  

 Just the nasty Thai cousin of  Cowboy.

Looking out over the Mae Nom Chao Phraya river. Don't let the "cool" looking overcast day deceive you .  

China plate flower

Not so thrilled about Fritz wanting to pet him during his nap on the Wat

No shoes in the temples! Or in the house.

  Go hang out in a toilet slut!

Wat Arun from the ferry.

River bus

Wood floors on the free bus! Neat!
The free bus on the way home was ancient and the driver was crazy. Speeding everywhere and started to drive off before we hardly grabbed on to climb in. Fritz says the drivers are often drunk and two buses were racing once and killed a woman.... on a lighter note, check out these funky critters!

Yesterday I did some exploring by myself and ended up on a tuk-tuk ride to some really boring places because the driver gets paid if he brings people to certain shops.  They come up to you can say "oh hello! where are you from!" like they just happen to be walking down the street same place as you and know English  and if you cant avoid saying hi back then it continues "Oh WOW welcome to Thailand! How long are you staying?" blah blah blah " Oh very good, have you seen the Palace yet" yes "Oh very good. Me I'm very good tuk-tuk driver I'll give you good deal! Its happy buddha day so free to see big golden Buddha and lucky Buddha TODAY ONLY! I take you ONLY 10BAHT!" I say " Oh wow that's great I'll walk there thanks for the tip!" This particular driver was very persistent and at that point I was eh whatever 10baht at least I'll get a kick out of this ride in a tuk-tuk. So he took me to the tall golden Buddha (which you never have to pay to see) and the "lucky" Buddha which is just a golden Buddha in what looks like a cemetery (for just ashes) kind of thing and no one is there. Then he took me to a suit tailor and a travel agency (which is where he was getting payed to take me) so I went inside said hello acted like I couldn't understand what they were saying and left. When he told me the places we were going to go I tried to just get him to take me to the tall Buddha but he got so confused and sad and said "WHY! Its free today only! Free gas today only! I take you! Only 10baht!" 

It was really weird but I was just along for the ride and it only cost me 10 baht (usually they try to get 50-60baht for a ride anywhere for a tourist). He dropped me off somewhere random when I asked him to take me to the river but I knew for the most part where I was and went down some side streets and got to see that monster monitor lizard in the klong.

 Today I got my bus and boat ticket to Ko Samet island and I leave tomorrow and my plane ticket for Cambodia! I go there on the 20th for a week!

Ballin with baht yo. The king be on all the $$