Bangkok - Time for a bit of culture

We woke up this morning set for our first cultural day in Thailand. We took a taxi to the pier then hired a boat to take us along the canals to the temples. The ride took forever with little entertainin scenery howver we finally arrived at our first stop.

The Wat Arun or temple of dawn, is really old but spectacularly beautiful. It was then back onto the boat to visit the Grand Palace. The palace grounds were enormous and everything was so ornate and bejewelled. Everything was so decadent and over the top. There were lots of military paraphenalia and an ornate Buddhist temple housing the emerald Buddha - the most revered in Thailand.

After the Grand Palace we headed to Wat Pho temple housing the world's largest reclining Buddha. I bought a jar of coins from some monks which you deposit into seperate bowls in the temple supposedly to bring you good luck. Wat Pho also had a massage school where they train all the massuers. I enjoyed a massage there even though it was quite painful.

From there we took a Tuk-Tuk to Chinatown where we had an asian lunch and walked a few of the market streets - too many to choose from in one day. we spent a few hours looking around before catching a crazy tuk-tuk driven by a really bad drive back to our hotel. We rested for a while before heading out to dinner - a disappointing red curry. Then we headed back to the hotel to turn in for the night.