Every Asian city rolled in to one.

Wednesday 10^th Feb 2016.

Woke at body clock time which was only 5am here, so had to try and go back to sleep. Breakfast is in the Bandara Café, on the ground floor of the first of the 2 buildings that make up Bandara Suites. We are in the 2^nd tower. They have everything you could want for breakfast, so we fuel up for the big day ahead.

Today’s itinerary includes catching the skytrain down to the river and catching the ferry up to the locale of the Grand Palace, Wat Pho, etc. The Emerald Buddha eluded us in Laos, the Siamese looted it hundreds of years ago and brought it home. Apparently it was their’s all along, the Laos had raided and stolen it in the first place. He is happily ensconced in the Grand Palace, and his mate, the Reclining Buddha (largest in the world) is next door in Wat Pho.

The ‘locals’ ferry is the cheapest option, but good luck finding it! We wasted a good chunk of time sitting waiting and it never came so we gave up and headed for the blue flagged tourist ferry. While we were pondering our options another touristy looking fellow asked us if we were taking the ferry and offered us his day pass which he had finished with. Score! So we only had to buy one. We ended up being at the back of the pack to board, so all the good seats were taken and we ended up in seats where you couldn’t even see out unless you turned around and looked out the back. There was a lady giving a commentary as to which pier was next and what there was to see. She made us laugh with some of the things she said. I guess you’d need a good sense of humour in that job, some people would try the patience of a saint! So, the map given to us with the ticket said that Maharaj Pier was the one for the Grand Palace, whereas I had read that we wanted Tha Tien Pier. Let me tell you, the map is stupid and Tha Tien Pier IS the best one for the Grand Palace!  We go the round about way to the Palace, passing busloads of tourist being disgorged from their coaches with the tour guides waving around crazy things on sticks so the group know who to follow in a crowd. And talk about crowd!! I knew it would be busy due to Chinese New Year, but busy was an understatement! It was pure chaos!! People everywhere!! There was no escape………… We eventually found the entrance gate and went in, like lemmings, just following the one in front, through a security check, just military looking dudes casting a cursory glance through bags and tying a white ribbon when checked. All that effort for nothing. We checked out the crowds, the lines for everything, considered how hot it was, and the fact that somewhere there was a bar with beers with our names on, and we decided to leave. Tempers were frayed from the lack of decent sleep, the heat and the crowds of sheeple, so it was for the best.

We headed back to the ferry and because we had the day passes, we continued up the river to the end of the line. We got good seats for the return trip to Central Pier and enjoyed the views and the breeze. The skytrain station at the river doesn’t have a ticket machine that takes notes, so you need to go to the ticket window, where they give you change to then go to the ticket machine and purchase a ticket. Go figure!

When we got off at our stop, we were fairly close to a place that I’d read about, but when we got there it wasn’t open and we were hanging out for a cold beer. The only place that was open and looked like they sold beers was a place called Sunrise Tacos. Turned out to be a good find, it was happy hour, so we got cheap beers and the waitress offered us a bottomless basket of corn chips and salsas to go with them. Seeing as it was after 4pm and we hadn’t eaten lunch, they went down very well.

Back to the ranch to regroup and cool off a bit before deciding what to do, where to go for dinner. We had seen a place around the corner that looked like it might be worth a try. The sign looked like Lao, written in Lao script, but it was actually called Som Tum Der and they sold Beer Lao Dark. Happy days!! Ordered a meat dish that was very tasty and a bamboo shoot dish that looked ok but smelled like something that you really wouldn’t want to eat. We tried to eat it and it didn’t taste as bad as it smelt but it was an effort to eat.