Bangkok continued...

Bangkok is an amazing city, it's so diverse from the Grand Palace & spiritual Wat Phra Keao budist temple to the chaos of Khao San Road.

Reading up in the lonely planet I have realised why the restaurant that we went to with Fherm was called Venice. Bangkok was once called the 'Venice of the East'. Canals transported goods and people. The Mae Nam chao Phraya (Chao Phraya River) was the superhighway! The Thais considered themselves Jao Naam (water lords)...although times have changed and roads now dominate the city.

The Grand Palace & ancient temple was certainly the highlight of our visit to Bangkok. After trying to persuade a tuk-tuk driver to take us from Khao San Road to the temple we gave up and decided to walk there in the rain! The tuk-tuk driver wouldn't go straight to the temple as he wanted to take us on a detour first ...surprise surprise!

We managed to get there in time to spend an hour wondering around before it closed at 4.30pm. The entrance fee for the Grand Palace & temple was 350 baht (7 pounds), but free for the Thais and rightly so. The highlight for me was the Emerald Buddha, which was North of the Palace and linked by connecting gateways to reach the Royal Monastery. Inside the monastery people pay there respect to the Lord Buddha and His teachings. The Emerald Buddha is enshrined on a golden traditional Thia-Style throne made of gilded carved wood, known as a Busabok. Although famously known as the Emerald Buddha it is actually made of green jade and was first discovered in 1434 in Chaing Rai. At that time the Buddha was covered with plaster until a flake from his nose revealled the green stone which was first thought to be Emerald and thus the legend of the Emerald Buddha first began, over 500 years ago!

Coming back into Khao San Road after this peaceful expereince was another reminder that it was perhaps time to venture on to some chilled out Island Life. With that we booked our tickets to Koh Chang island (400 baht each...8 pounds). I think both Jonny and Elliott found Bangkok quite a culture shock. Poor Elliott spent those 4 days in Bangkok sleeping in a cupbaord and all of us were suffering from lack of sleep!

The mixture of chaos, heat and lack of sleep certainly takes it out of you!