Bangkok

After a lazy start to the next day, we took the metro to the Siam Museum. This was our first time on the Bangkok metro, not having had the chance during our last visit and were pleased to find that the carriages were air-conditioned. Beats the London underground! The Museum had an interesting mix of art, artifacts and interactive exhibits, all teaching about Thai-ness and what makes Thai culture. Having spent a few weeks in Thailand earlier in our trip, we enjoyed spotting items and customs we now recognised. Our favourite was the giant 'beckoning lady' statues that we'd been seeing outside shopping malls, we now know that they're supposed to bring good luck to the vendor by beckoning customers into their shop.

On Wednesday we joined an organised tour to some of the famous markets outside of Bangkok. First stop was the risky market, where you walk along train tracks , browsing the stalls either side until a train comes along and all the vendors put down their covers and store their goods. Customers have to find somewhere safe to stand either in a cafe or within a track side shop. Will and I found a clothes stall where we could safely watch the train pass, waving at the passengers as it went by. I had lots of fun choosing souvenir gifts for our friends and family. I've got much better at bartering during our trip and feel more confident getting discounts now. Will even managed to decide on a few souvenirs too and came away with a couple of things for once! Then we boarded our tour bus for a transfer to the floating market. This time we couldn't wander along ourselves, we had to get a row boat to take us along the canal, where we perused the goods on the boats as they passed us instead. We didn't buy anything, as our transfer guide had told us in advance to buy anything we wanted at the train market instead as it was more expensive here. We simply enjoyed the vibe of the market as we floated along and when we were back at the harbor we got some lunch at one if the many food stalls. It was interesting to see the contrast between the two markets and by going with a transfer service, we learnt about the history of each market from our tour guide on our way there.

The next day was an early start in order to get to the temple tour we had planned. We met our guide and took a ferry across the river to Wat Arun. We'd seen this temple when walking around the city, but never entered before. Upon entering, we learnt about the King of Thailand, who moved the capital from Ayutthaya to its current location and built this temple here. As he had been half Chinese, a lot of the sculptures were Chinese instead of Thai. Our guide showed us the correct way to sit in a temple, for a man or a woman in turn, and how to pray using the incense offerings. Our favourite things about the temple were the ceramics incorporated into the outside design of the temple, making it very distinctive and colourful. 

The second temple of the day was Wat Pho. The highlight of this one for us was the giant golden reclining Buddha, so large it has its own dedicated pagoda. This temple also houses the ashes of the Kings Rama 1 to 4 in stupas painted in the particular week day colour of their birthdays. When our guide told us this, we asked what our own birthday colours were and it turns out, as we were both born on a Tuesday, that both our birthday colours are pink! After walking around temple grounds all day, we took a tuk tuk back to our accommodation to chill in the aircon until dinner, when we went out to China town and Will had his favourite, Pad Thai.

Friday was our last day, so we checked out of our hotel and took the metro to Lumphini Park. We dropped our bags at a luggage storage shop and walked the rest of the way to Mahanakhon tower, where we bought tickets to the sky deck. After a very speedy lift ride up to the 74th floor, we enjoyed drinks and snacks whilst looking out across the city view from inside. We took the glass lift the rest of the way to sky deck, where Will was brave enough to walk on the glass floor. I decided to skip this bit and just watched him from the safe concrete part of the floor! Once we had our fill of the amazing views, we grabbed lunch and headed back to Lumphini Park, where we wandered around the lake and tried to identify the different birds we spotted; the only ones we confidently knew were pigeons! Then it was time to get back on the metro and make our way to the airport.