(The moment I fell asleep for the night)
After that I explored a little bit (putting my eyeballs in first a.k.a contacts) and went to the roof. Which is when I discovered the massive buddha and the surrounding area. Before heading down to get my Canon camera and returning. They also have a garden up there which made me happy to know that they grow some of their own food.
We eventually all gathered at about ten to here the different options of what we could do, picked and then set sail, literally. We walked to the river, passing a lot of plant markets along the way. And then eventually fish markets where one of the boys and I watched a catfish commit suicide by jumping out of the tub it was in. The woman who was running it didn't even care which kind of made me a little disgusted at the fact that she just shrugged. Eventually we made it to the lake where there were a massive amount of pigeons on the docks, and a huge mass of cat fist swimming against the current waiting for food to come there way. There was even a vendor that sold food to feed the animals. None of us did it but a few people around us did so we watched masses of birds and fish fight over food.The orange flagged water taxi eventually arrived and we all crowded onto the boat. I don't know how many people know this, but I hate small boats. I really do, especially when we're on a massive piece of water. I can do larger boats, but I get paranoid when I'm on a small boat. This one moved fast and jerky, and there was a crowd, ehh.
We all got off at the Grand Palace stop and made our way to a market area. Where we sat down and had lunch before being released to explore the market area. We were originally there for the amulet market, but it was small and sad unlike what they had probably seen. Only one from my group bought anything.
We all regrouped at one and went our separate ways, Janice took nine of us to go see the Emerald Buddha, while the rest went with Shannon to Chinatown. By then we had all already been sweating a decent amount, but it got a little worse. When you first enter the Grand Palace area, if you plan on going into the central court people will tell you you have to cover up. In this case, shoulders and knees. I don't own knee lengthen shorts, but I wore a T-shirt for this case to cover my shoulders. So all of us were given skirts, and everyone else was given a shirt to cover their shoulders before we could go in. (I'm the third one up on the left). It kind of sucked because the skirts/wraps were super hot, but they were really nice too.We went through a museum first that showed us a few royal objects (all practically made of gold) that were used throughout the years for the royal family here in Thailand. There was a few clothing pieces, and geez you should have seen the rings!
We then excited and made our way to the central temple where the Emerald Buddha was. I don't know how many people saw it but to be in the presence of him made me feel very emotional. I prayed a little too. After this long march we decided we should head back (all of incredibly sweaty, sticky, and really hot). I lucked out by only getting burned on the checks and a little on the eyebrows, cause dude that cowboy hat was a good idea to bring!
The travel back was a little weird because we were told one dock, and it was the other but the guy who ran the other dock didn't want anyone to be on it unless they were unloading. We saw a decent amount of tour boats that kept on unloading Chinese tourist groups all wearing the same flower necklace. It was a good thirty minutes before the second orange boat arrived and we all boarded and headed back to the hotel.
I quickly claimed the shower and laid down for a little bit before Janice came to see if we wanted to get a message because Shannon's group hadn't returned. Freaking out we all said yes and headed to the salon. Four of the five of use got the first hour and let me tell you, the woman who did mine is about the same size as me but she really could put pressure on areas. She worked a really long time on my legs while the others had moved on and then when she got to my back she literally crawled on me. Sometimes it felt like Olivia on my back but then other times it felt like a second me on top of me. It felt amazing though and I could tell that she could tell that I did a lot that used my legs and back. The only part that hurt was the inside area of my lower left leg that has been hurting for a while, so she avoided putting too much pressure on it, but still messaged out the area. I have to retape my ankle cause I had to remove the wrap but I took a photo to remember what it looked like.
After that a few of us went with Janice to get dinner. Now lunch and dinner I have shied away from trying exotic food so I got white rice with egg and chicken. Finishing that, the total for that entire meal was 300 baht, which is $8.54 in America....soo yeah. We were supposed to be given 300 baht but obviously we didn't use it all. We swung by 7/11 after that to get some ice cream before we returned to the hotel where I got ready for bed and started to write my blog.
One thing that stood out to me the most yesterday though was a lot of people own buildings that can be store fronts too so they can sell things, which most did, but if you looked further back you could see their kitchen and living room area. And the entrance were they sold the items was actually like those massive store fronts you can enter at the mall. I wouldn't feel very safe having those as my front door, but they did all have like a garage door and a gate that they could close up with. Odd, but it's a normal here...
-Claire
P.S. more images if you scroll down.
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| Room 307, our room. |
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| The small temple where they could give offerings every morning. |
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| The Grand Palace |
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| The Grand Palace |
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| The Grand Palace |
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| The Grand Palace |
Just amazing!!
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