The grand palace is a really big place but mainly filled with tourists. We seem to be the only few not with a tour group which is slighty disadvantageous because we didn't know what building we were looking at and the history behind them. So there were times when we hid behind a tour group to try and catch what the guide was talking about.
It was quite an experience considering there's no such place in singapore to compare with.
Next we wanted to go to wat pho, which was the temple of the reclining buddha but this was where we had a really bad experience. I won't go to the details but we were scammed by a very professional group of thai into wasting some time and some money. We ended up visitng wat pho at around 2pm.
Wat pho was breathtaking. The statue was so huge and magnificent that I was so proud I saw it with my own eyes after seeing it in street fighter when I was young. We donated 100 baht in exchange for a bowl of coins to place into many bowls by the side of the buddha to show our respect.
Next is when I started to get a little annoyed with my friends. A few of them wanted to go back to the hotel to rest and play cards. In my opinion, having paid so much to go overseas, minimal time should be spent in the hotel doing things that can be done back in singapore. I was there to see as many things as I can, even if I didn't know how to get to the place. I guess in the end I made my stand clear and we went on to visit wat arun, the temple of dawn across the chao phraya river.
We had to take a ferry-taxi across which cost only 3.50 baht per person. The taxi was super rocky and unsteady and thus we were lucky the ride took barely 5 minutes. Wat Arun actually looks better from a distance but the challenge of going there was to climb up the super steep flight of stairs to reach it's mid point, and we did it.
After that strenuous activity, we decided to head back to the hotel to wash up before going to suam lum night market. Had dinner at santa's at MBK on the way.
Suam Lum was just shopping and shopping non stop and it's actually like bugis street magnified 10 times? The stuff sold gets quite repetitive after a while but each shop had a different threshold for their goods so it's interesting to try honing your bargaining skills. Completed 3/4 of the market at around 10pm when it started to drizzle. We headed back to the hotel just before it poured and watched a 2nd dvd as our late night activity. That day it was "the hottie and the nottie".