Vietnam Cambodia Thailand 2024: Dec 6 Bangkok day 2

Another amazing day started with breakfast at 7 and then a tour at 8am. First stop was a local market for some attire to wear for the temple tours, as you have to cover your shoulders and have pants to cover your ankles. No hats and no shoes. Why not buy elephant print loose floppy pants with shirts to match. LOL. So off by van to The Golden Buddha temple we go all dressed up. lol It is located in Chinatown and features a 5.5 ton solid gold Buddha statue. Very cool to see. Absolutely stunning. Following that we visited the Grand Palace built in 1782 by King Rama. It houses the grand emerald Buddha made of solid jade. The grounds are over 1 square mile in size. Words can’t describe how “GRAND” the palace is. The architecture is truly amazing with gold and glass decorations. Once we walked around the palace we visited an incredible flower market. Table after table of beautiful flowers being arranged into bouquets and being sold to the locals. Flowers from orchids to roses to marigolds throughout the market. Beautiful!!! After that, we boarded a long boat on the Chao Phraya river for a cruise through a canal and saw how typical Thai people live and work along the river. It too was so cool. Then on to another local restaurant for some Thai food, oh and beers. This time not so bad. After lunch we took pics of the temple of dawn from across the river and visited Wat Po. The oldest and largest temple built over 200 years ago and housed the famous reclining Buddha. By this time we were mostly all Buddahed out, we were on our way back to the hotel when wait let’s check out a typical 7 storey shopping mall. Not just souvenirs, but a real mall full of knock off everything. It was really interesting but not as cheap as you’d think. Did pick up a few deals. OMG Mike would have loved the 4th floor. Shop after shop of knock off Apple products and other tech products. It was crazy. Soooo our guide has dropped us at the mall in downtown Bangkok and to get back to the hotel???? There’s a train that runs right to the hotel, but we need to find the station, then buy tickets, get in the right one, and get off at the right place. Good thing there are a few English speaking people to guide us along. No problem, made it back easily. No ordeal at all but was a great adventure. Back to The Game pub for a beer and then to Mc Donald’s for supper. Did I mention we are still in our temple elephant wear. We were quite the sight wandering around Bangkok. Got to some real looks and laughs, especially Garnet in his outfit!! Back to the hotel by 7:30, packed over to Brenda’s room for a drink and visit and back to mine for the night. Another fantastic day.