dec 19, pt 2: palatial
11:30 AM
samrang was promptly waiting for us in the parking lot. i think he wanted to take us to some animal show, but we were pretty set on our itinerary, so we headed back to bangkok to see the grand palace. samrang had informed me the previous day that i would have to have sleeves and pants, so i brought keya's cardi and wore my leggings under my tunic.
that was a double fail. on either ends of the spectrum.
a t-shirt would have passed, whilst my tights did not. so i had to borrow a skirt to put atop my leggings and i could have borrowed a shirt but i didn't wanna rack up my deposit, so i struggled in the thick sweater.
the palace was beautiful, there isn't much i can say about it to give anyone a good idea of what it was like to be thre. and it's not like i'm not a skilled descriptionist. i'm great at telling stories, but a place like that means something different to so many people, so i know my experience would just be very different from everyone else's.
the buddha was obviously a highlight for me and put me in this reflective state thinking bout religion and faith. western constructions vs eastern, westerners adopting eastern practices both seriously and superficially. it was quite nice for a place like that to inspire such thought. i also enjoyed taking a collection of pictures of these statuettes with such distinct personalities. at first i thought there were just 4, but the further we ventured around the grounds, there were plenty more. they reminded me of the 7 dwarfs, but there were more than 7 and they were quite adequately sized and not dwarfs. plus, i also liked noting the other tourists who made it past the fashion police despite their tight pants or revealing shirt. most of these tourists were white, so naturally i assumed racism was in play when making this asian girl put on awkward garment.
by the end of that 2 hours, keya and i couldn't be stuffed to really investigate the museums further as we were starving, so i returned my borrowed skirt, got my deposit and we left.
we were gonna be adventurous and look for street food, but samrang was creepily on our scent and came to take us to the car quickfast. he wanted to take us to the reclining buddha right away, byt we communicated well enough how much we wanted food, and cheap food at that. so he took us to this little cafe thing that advertised mexican food. i was a little skeptical, esp since coming from little mexico aka los angeles - tacos were the last thing i wanted. fortunately, when we hada crack at the menu, there was a great and affordable selection, so i got a couple of fresh fruit shakes and red curry which was so rich and delicious and will no doubt be my weight gain downfall. i also took the opportunity to jump into the net cafe and quickly tell my mom the deal with my cell phone.
and then we were off and samrang took us to the reclining buddha. kinda the same deal with the palace - hard to describe, but overall worthwhile. esp since it was pretty cheap. the greatest part of this leg was the end of it: searching for samrang.
we were so used to him on our trail when we needed to leave, but this time he was nowhere to be found. we did a walkaround inside the grounds and even walked the perimeter outside the grounds, getting a touch of hope every time we saw a thai man in an aqua coloured shirt. alas, twas not samrang.
it was cool though - our first time really fending for ourselves and seeing parts of bangkok without someone to hold our hands.
after about a half an hour of wandering, going a little hysterical and fending off tuktuk drivers, we went back toward the reclining buddha and lo and behold, saw a sight for sore eyes: our samrang.
i grabbed keya and was like 'let's jump on the mat!' in reference to our amazing race-like attitude whenever we hit a momentous checkpoint. by the time we reunited with samrang, we were giggling and i'm sure he had no idea what was going on but was glad oo that he found us.
and so, with that eventful end to our sightseeing, we drove off into the sunset, back to our hotel for a well-deserved nap after a day of boating, walking, eating, and searching for and finding samrang.
that was a double fail. on either ends of the spectrum.
a t-shirt would have passed, whilst my tights did not. so i had to borrow a skirt to put atop my leggings and i could have borrowed a shirt but i didn't wanna rack up my deposit, so i struggled in the thick sweater.
the palace was beautiful, there isn't much i can say about it to give anyone a good idea of what it was like to be thre. and it's not like i'm not a skilled descriptionist. i'm great at telling stories, but a place like that means something different to so many people, so i know my experience would just be very different from everyone else's.
by the end of that 2 hours, keya and i couldn't be stuffed to really investigate the museums further as we were starving, so i returned my borrowed skirt, got my deposit and we left.
we were gonna be adventurous and look for street food, but samrang was creepily on our scent and came to take us to the car quickfast. he wanted to take us to the reclining buddha right away, byt we communicated well enough how much we wanted food, and cheap food at that. so he took us to this little cafe thing that advertised mexican food. i was a little skeptical, esp since coming from little mexico aka los angeles - tacos were the last thing i wanted. fortunately, when we hada crack at the menu, there was a great and affordable selection, so i got a couple of fresh fruit shakes and red curry which was so rich and delicious and will no doubt be my weight gain downfall. i also took the opportunity to jump into the net cafe and quickly tell my mom the deal with my cell phone.
we were so used to him on our trail when we needed to leave, but this time he was nowhere to be found. we did a walkaround inside the grounds and even walked the perimeter outside the grounds, getting a touch of hope every time we saw a thai man in an aqua coloured shirt. alas, twas not samrang.
it was cool though - our first time really fending for ourselves and seeing parts of bangkok without someone to hold our hands.
after about a half an hour of wandering, going a little hysterical and fending off tuktuk drivers, we went back toward the reclining buddha and lo and behold, saw a sight for sore eyes: our samrang.
i grabbed keya and was like 'let's jump on the mat!' in reference to our amazing race-like attitude whenever we hit a momentous checkpoint. by the time we reunited with samrang, we were giggling and i'm sure he had no idea what was going on but was glad oo that he found us.
and so, with that eventful end to our sightseeing, we drove off into the sunset, back to our hotel for a well-deserved nap after a day of boating, walking, eating, and searching for and finding samrang.
