Jeff, Pueng, and I had a wonderful adventure on our first full day in Bangkok. We took the Skytrain to a station which is the access point for the Chao Phraya river tour boats. We bought one one day river passes which enabled us to exit the tour boats at as many piers as we wished. The boats ran about every 20 minutes so the wait wasn't great to re-enter another one. There are 10 piers which are cleverly numbered in the following order: Central Pier, #1, #3, #5, N14, #8, N14 (again), #10, #12, and #13.
Our first stop was Pier #5: Ratchawong Pier. The street leading away from the pier, Ratchawong Road, runs through China Town. There are scores of Chinese stores, restaurants, and outside vendors on both sides of the street. We strolled and window-shopped for about 3 blocks and then returned to the pier.
Our next stop was Pier #8: Tha Tien Pier. Here we walked a few blocks to Wat Pho which houses the largest reclining Buddha and the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand. The size of the statue is enormous and the the structure around it makes it impossible to get a photo on it's lateral side. The only vantage point is down by the feet. Nonetheless it was truly impressive. We then jumped on a ferry that took us across the river to Wat Arun. The impressive tall tower of this Wat is one of Bangkok's most famous landmarks. Jeff climbed about half way up and stopped when the stairs became blocked off to the public. We took another ferry across the river and picked up another tour boat.
Our last stop was one of the N14 Piers: The Mahraj Pier. Here a short walk brings one to the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo complex. The compound is 945 thousand square meters encompassing over 100 buildings. Needless to say it overwhelmed us. However, we managed to see parts of the palace and the National Museum. By the time we had arrived at this venue weariness was already setting in on two of us and as a result we regrettably cut the visit short after about 2 hours. We were hot, thirsty, foot tired and suffering a mild case of Wat-overload. So, we dragged ourselves back to the pier, grabbed the next tour boat going back and returned to the hotel by late afternoon.
To see pictures, click here.
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