The train conductor made announcements at 5:30am this morning which woke me up. I slept like a rock last night, with the slight train movements, it felt like I was being rocked to sleep.
We arrived at the station at 6:30 and took the subway back to Yim Huai Kwang hostel at 7. They were so nice and accomodating allowing us to check in early instead of the regular 2pm time as our room was available.
After a refreshing nap we were ready to do the sight seeing we meant to do on our 2nd day in Bangkok but were scammed out of. I was supposed to pick up my scam suit today but my credit card company said they’re handling it which was a relief. Joanna found the same scarves she bought for $25 a piece being sold for $6 in the Chiang Mai markets.
Getting to the grand palace was tough. We got to the closest subway stop and had to uber the rest of the way. There was a lot of traffic and I feel bad for our driver to have to put up with all of that.
FINALLY we were able to visit the Grand Palace and it ended up being a grand disappointment. It was completely jam packed of people, 90% being Chinese tourists pushing and shoving through the exhibits. I lost my temper and yelled at a lady who just kept rushing me from behind. This was the one time I wanted rain and didn’t get it…
They are very strict about the dress code. No exposed shoulders and long pants or skirts covering the knees must be worn. I think the elephant pant industry must be booming as most people were wearing a brand new pair of them.
There was a 20 something Chinese girl who was wearing a spaghetti strap tank top taking pictures and posing in front of the temple. She took off her tshirt to take pictures and immediately, security was blowing their whistles at her. Demanded to look at her camera and delete the pictures. I’m happy that she was required to delete the pictures as cultural rules need to be respected.
Another example of typical tourist disrespect was a crowd of Chinese people taking selfies with the palace guards. GAHH makes me so mad!
We didn’t really enjoy our time here, it was too hot to deal with this many people. Seriously worse than the state fair because there’s no personal bubble here.
At this point of the trip we were kind of done eating pad thai every day so we went to a fancy western style mall and ate non Thai food. Closing out the trip with Din Tai Fung pork soup dumplings, Coco curry, and this amazing shaved ice dessert that we randomly chose at a dessert shop.
I need to pause and talk about this dessert. It’s called a two tone kakigori dessert at After You dessert shop. Originally I thought it was some creamy topping over hawaiian style shaved ice but I was so wrong. The ice was the consistency of fresh snow falling on Christmas day. One side of the topping was like a vanilla malt, the other side was light cocoa. They give you a small pitcher of dark chocolate that tastes like hot chocolate. They hid goodies inside of the pile of snow like chocolate covered biscotti, pound cake, and malted milk balls. Joanna just kept saying “holy shiet” and gave it a score of 13/10. This was nothing I’ve ever eaten before and would absolutely have again. Highly recommended if you come to Bangkok.
We did some shopping and headed back to the hostel. I don’t intend on sleeping tonight as we have to head to the airport at 2am for our 4am flight to Hong Kong. The trip’s winding down and I’m sorta ready to go home. I think I’d be a little less travel weary if we were going to a 1st world country like Japan or Taiwan since there’s just a lot of chaos and dirtiness here. It is part of the charm but after a while it kind of wears on you.
