Day 308 - The Grand Palace - Chinatown - Trapped in a Temple with Alligators
Saturday, May 11th, 2019
Today, Sunshine and I went by ourselves to see the Grand Palace. Neither Gregory nor Daniel wanted to go. I always get a little nervous going by myself and I know nothing can go wrong but when I think how far away we are from home, I freak out, especially when I picture where we are on the map. I remind myself that this is a safe, modern city and then I’m OK. Besides, with Grab it was easy. [Gregory's note: Lili's modus operandi is to freak out first and realize later how easy things are.] I wanted to leave early to avoid the heat and crowds but we didn’t think about the traffic. We arrived at 9:30am and it was already super crowded with lots of tourist buses and it was already hot.
At first, I was upset about coming because I think I’m done seeing monuments and tourist attractions but then my sweet Sunshine reminded me that we wanted to see it. More importantly, we had time alone together! But I have to say, it's hard to enjoy when the temperature is in the high 90s F/30s C and a bunch of impolite tourists are pushing you around! Plus, there was no information anywhere. Luckily, Sunshine found a brochure in English and we were able to find the main buildings that we wanted to cover.
Is it worth visiting the Grand Palace? Well, it all depends on what you like but if you are only coming to Bangkok, it is definitely worth it. I think for us, everything is starting to look the same. I know some culture vultures would kill me if they heard me say this, but the pagodas looked like the ones in Myanmar. The colonial buildings, well, we have seen them everywhere and just recently in Vietnam. The Hindu temples and the Buddha statues, well the same thing. The fun part was taking pictures for Instagram and our blog. We couldn’t even wear our pretty dresses because our knees and shoulders show, but we got some good pictures for our marketing purposes, ha ha.
Today, Sunshine and I went by ourselves to see the Grand Palace. Neither Gregory nor Daniel wanted to go. I always get a little nervous going by myself and I know nothing can go wrong but when I think how far away we are from home, I freak out, especially when I picture where we are on the map. I remind myself that this is a safe, modern city and then I’m OK. Besides, with Grab it was easy. [Gregory's note: Lili's modus operandi is to freak out first and realize later how easy things are.] I wanted to leave early to avoid the heat and crowds but we didn’t think about the traffic. We arrived at 9:30am and it was already super crowded with lots of tourist buses and it was already hot.
At first, I was upset about coming because I think I’m done seeing monuments and tourist attractions but then my sweet Sunshine reminded me that we wanted to see it. More importantly, we had time alone together! But I have to say, it's hard to enjoy when the temperature is in the high 90s F/30s C and a bunch of impolite tourists are pushing you around! Plus, there was no information anywhere. Luckily, Sunshine found a brochure in English and we were able to find the main buildings that we wanted to cover.
Is it worth visiting the Grand Palace? Well, it all depends on what you like but if you are only coming to Bangkok, it is definitely worth it. I think for us, everything is starting to look the same. I know some culture vultures would kill me if they heard me say this, but the pagodas looked like the ones in Myanmar. The colonial buildings, well, we have seen them everywhere and just recently in Vietnam. The Hindu temples and the Buddha statues, well the same thing. The fun part was taking pictures for Instagram and our blog. We couldn’t even wear our pretty dresses because our knees and shoulders show, but we got some good pictures for our marketing purposes, ha ha.
We also visited the museum by the exit of the Grand Palace, mostly because it had AC. When we were completely done, we walked outside to request a Grab. We had some difficulties that I'd rather not write about. Mostly me, learning to use the app and figure out my location. If you know me, you know that I even have a hard time distinguishing left from right. The good thing is that we found a big yellow hotel called the Royal Hotel and we walked there to request Grab from there. It took a while but I did it! When I saw the driver and got in and felt the AC, I almost kissed him. [Gergory's note: remind me not to let Lili go out on her own.] We collapsed in the back seat and in half an hour we were at the hotel. I had texted Gregory to have cold Diet Coke and peanuts for a hangry mamma!
After we decompressed and cooled down, we walked to have shwarma for lunch. Yes, that's right we ate Middle Eastern food in Bangkok!
At night we ventured to Chinatown for street food. It was crowded and the air was full of all sorts of smells. I think we settled too soon for Pad Thai which was just OK but we were hungry. Still, that didn’t stop us from having sticky rice with mango, matcha boba tea, and matcha ice cream! We mostly looked at the food stands because it was hard to tell what things were. I'd rather not describe it. I did scream when I saw giant roasted bats. I just couldn’t believe it! I took pictures and I asked the people around me what it was and they would only laugh at me. Maybe they thought that I was the crazy one. Well, later analyzing the picture, we realized that there were chickens! Still, not a good thing to see! Daniel's note: There was a lot of shark fin restaurants and birds nest soup stands. Bird nest soup is where people take Swallow nests, which are hay and bird spit, and they put the bird spit in the soup. Supposedly it makes you feel stronger, but I don't want to test that.
[Gregory's note: we also don't support restaurants that serve shark fin soup, since they cut the fin off the shark and throw the animal back in the water to die. It's animal abuse.]
When we were done, Gregory told me that we were close to a temple that we wanted to visit because it has crocodiles in a pond (Daniel's note: they were alligators). Of course, it was after 10pm so the temple was closed, but since it was pretty close, we decided to go find it, perhaps the pond was outside and we would get lucky. Well, first of all, we were not that close. [Gregory's note: 900 meters. It would have been 800 but Lili and Sunshine thought the street looked "sketchy".] When we started to walk down empty streets, Sunshine and I wanted to go to the hotel. Gregory was determined to find the temple. It is almost like a challenge for him to find the sites, I think!
It was 11 pm when we made it to the temple. There was a guard outside and I figured that he was not going to let us in. Well, Gregory told him that we wanted to see the alligators and he motioned us in. I guess it was our lucky night. We had to walk past monks' dormitories and other buildings. At the end of the street, we saw a beautiful temple with Thai architecture and a sign that said Alligators and Buddha's Footprint. We found the pond and at first, we thought it was empty because we couldn’t see a thing but when I turned my flashlight on, we saw the shiny eyes of the alligators in the water. Sunshine spotted one in a cave with its mouth wide open. I heard leaves moving, and sure enough, I found another one near where we were. It was very impressive but the story doesn’t end here.
After we decompressed and cooled down, we walked to have shwarma for lunch. Yes, that's right we ate Middle Eastern food in Bangkok!
At night we ventured to Chinatown for street food. It was crowded and the air was full of all sorts of smells. I think we settled too soon for Pad Thai which was just OK but we were hungry. Still, that didn’t stop us from having sticky rice with mango, matcha boba tea, and matcha ice cream! We mostly looked at the food stands because it was hard to tell what things were. I'd rather not describe it. I did scream when I saw giant roasted bats. I just couldn’t believe it! I took pictures and I asked the people around me what it was and they would only laugh at me. Maybe they thought that I was the crazy one. Well, later analyzing the picture, we realized that there were chickens! Still, not a good thing to see! Daniel's note: There was a lot of shark fin restaurants and birds nest soup stands. Bird nest soup is where people take Swallow nests, which are hay and bird spit, and they put the bird spit in the soup. Supposedly it makes you feel stronger, but I don't want to test that.
[Gregory's note: we also don't support restaurants that serve shark fin soup, since they cut the fin off the shark and throw the animal back in the water to die. It's animal abuse.]
When we were done, Gregory told me that we were close to a temple that we wanted to visit because it has crocodiles in a pond (Daniel's note: they were alligators). Of course, it was after 10pm so the temple was closed, but since it was pretty close, we decided to go find it, perhaps the pond was outside and we would get lucky. Well, first of all, we were not that close. [Gregory's note: 900 meters. It would have been 800 but Lili and Sunshine thought the street looked "sketchy".] When we started to walk down empty streets, Sunshine and I wanted to go to the hotel. Gregory was determined to find the temple. It is almost like a challenge for him to find the sites, I think!
It was 11 pm when we made it to the temple. There was a guard outside and I figured that he was not going to let us in. Well, Gregory told him that we wanted to see the alligators and he motioned us in. I guess it was our lucky night. We had to walk past monks' dormitories and other buildings. At the end of the street, we saw a beautiful temple with Thai architecture and a sign that said Alligators and Buddha's Footprint. We found the pond and at first, we thought it was empty because we couldn’t see a thing but when I turned my flashlight on, we saw the shiny eyes of the alligators in the water. Sunshine spotted one in a cave with its mouth wide open. I heard leaves moving, and sure enough, I found another one near where we were. It was very impressive but the story doesn’t end here.
When we walked back to the gate to leave, guess what? It was locked. Yes, you heard me, LOCKED! Oh my gosh, I started to panic and laugh at the same time. Meanwhile, there were some large bats flying over our heads. Sunshine was so mad at Gregory and me. She kept saying, "you two are grounded" which only made Gregory and me laugh harder. Gregory mentioned that he had seen the guard so I started to walk around calling him but couldn't find him. Daniel was trying to see if he could squeeze through the gates and Gregory was trying to figure out how to jump the fence.
I figured my way was going to be the most effective so I stuck my face through the gate and starting yelling for help! Well, first I was yelling, "hello, hello" to get people's attention. Finally, a boy came and I asked for help. He went to another building and came back with another boy with the keys! I was relieved I didn’t have to jump the fence and get caught by police. I could almost picture the headlines on the Thai newspaper: Tourists caught jumping temple fence! [Gregory's note: I was picturing a different headline: California family locked in Bangkok temple overnight with alligators.]
By then it was past 11:30. Gregory called Grab and soon we were on our way to the hotel. The kids were not happy but Gregory and I couldn’t stop laughing at our little adventure.
I figured my way was going to be the most effective so I stuck my face through the gate and starting yelling for help! Well, first I was yelling, "hello, hello" to get people's attention. Finally, a boy came and I asked for help. He went to another building and came back with another boy with the keys! I was relieved I didn’t have to jump the fence and get caught by police. I could almost picture the headlines on the Thai newspaper: Tourists caught jumping temple fence! [Gregory's note: I was picturing a different headline: California family locked in Bangkok temple overnight with alligators.]
By then it was past 11:30. Gregory called Grab and soon we were on our way to the hotel. The kids were not happy but Gregory and I couldn’t stop laughing at our little adventure.
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