We woke up early to catch complimentary breakfast at our hotel before heading out on our temple tour, part two. The first stop on our list was the Grand Palace. This immense complex has over one hundred buildings and is home to the famous Emerald Buddha. It is also home to the Thai king. For those of you that do not know (because we didn’t), the king died last year and his son is in the process of being sworn in. We say this because we witnessed thousands of individuals lining up, all dressed in black, to pay their respects to the king every day for an entire year! Though his loyal mourners are permitted to enter early, the Grand Palace is only open from 8:30am-3:30pm to tourists and costs a whopping 400 baht per person (about $12 USD), which is more than any temple we’ve visited in Southeast Asia.
It’s worth mentioning that all visitors (regardless of gender) are required to wear a shirt with sleeves and pants, as most other temples allow men to wear shorts, this one does not (we found out the hard way). They offer pants for 200 baht, but with the hefty price of entrance, we decided to politely decline their overpriced garb and decided to come back another day, and not right at the 8:30am opening because there are hundreds of Chinese tourists being led with the stereotypical flag on a pole tour guide leading them aimlessly.
After leaving the Grand Palace, we stopped and took some pictures at the City Pillar Shrine (Lak Muang) nearby. Once here, Joey spoke to a local vendor who informed us about the aforementioned yearlong mourning ritual. She also mentioned that the king’s body still remains in the Grand Palace and this is what they are paying their respects to. He kept trying to see how we could be a part of the procession, assuming we could just dress in all black and join the masses, but she repeatedly said “No tourists.” After the procession began, we headed back to our hotel feeling somewhat defeated. We decided to checkout a bit early and head off to our next hotel.
We caught a taxi (remember to always insist on using the meter, even if they sigh and try to make a deal with you) to our next amazing accommodation. It was pretty far away from where we were and still only cost 130 baht (about $4), so it’s a great mode of transportation outside of rush hours. For the next two nights we’re staying at Bangkok Marriot Sukhumvit thanks to an amazing birthday gift from Joey’s dad for his birthday! This hotel is breathtaking, and not just comparing it to our previous accommodations, but the fact that it’s 45 floors, has an outdoor infinity pool, a rooftop deck with an outdoor bar, and numerous restaurants within. We probably could’ve spent our entire trip here and not run out of things to do.
After we got settled and over the fact that we’re actually staying here for two nights, we headed off to find five things on our list of things to buy for family and ourselves! Our first destination was back to the Chatuchak Market to find me a shirt and get another great lunch. This market is huge, and if you look back to our Day 2 post, you’ll see that there are endless things to do, see, and buy here. Tip: if you see something you really want, haggle and buy it. Don’t plan on coming back for it, because chances are you won’t be able to find it again. I saw a pocket tee that I really wanted the first time at Chatuchak and wasn’t able to find it then, so we decide to go back today.
We spent some time wandering around and saw some familiar stands that we recognized from our first visit. We got the same mango with sticky rice and decided to try to mimic Ms. Pa’s mango and passion fruit shake (see Day 8 for the best/cheapest fruit shake stand in Chiang Mai…possibly in the world). It was good, but definitely not the same. We found the t-shirt stand around where we remembered and bought it for 100 baht (about $3 USD). After we found the shirt (one of five items checked off our list), we got a cute little ice cream cone sampler for 30 baht (about $1 USD), which was perfect for the hot sunny day and off we went to our next destination, a real Asian mall.
We took the Bangkok MRT, which is like an underground subway, from the Kamphaeng Phet station near Chatuchak Market to the Rama IX stop for the Fortune Town mall. We had been planning this trip for quite some time and a major thing on our list of to-dos was to visit Baan Ukulele. This uke shop is pretty exclusive here in Bangkok because they are one of the only shops that carry the famous KoAloha brand. They are mostly manufactured in Hawaii and cost a small fortune, but they recently branched out to Thailand to manufacture a more affordable model called the KoAloha Opio series. Their ukuleles are some of the finest handcrafted ukuleles in the world. Each ukulele is crafted by hand and starts as a solid piece of food, in this case, acacia. We purchased a concert size KoAloha Opio and it sounds beautiful (two of five items checked off our list)! After wandering around the mall for a bit, we had a quick bite at McDonalds and headed off to our next stop.
Across the street there was another giant mall (even bigger than the first one), called Central Plaza (at Grand Rama IX). This building has fourteen floors and would’ve been completely overwhelming if not for the nice English-speaking employees working there. Here we found a local soccer jersey that Joey’s been dying to get and bought it for 640 baht (about $20 USD). We were completely shocked at the price for this really nice authentic jersey, as it would’ve cost five times that back home (three of five items checked off our list). We also found a little store we’ve been looking for and got my dad a gift to check off the fourth of five items on our list. We’ve been looking for a very specific item for Joey’s dad and couldn’t find it anywhere (the fifth of five items on our our list), but tomorrow we know exactly where to look.
After a fun day of shopping, we wanted to spend some time at our amazing hotel. With our hands and bag full, we decided to head back in a taxi rather than take the MRT to BTS transfer. We got stuck in a bit of 4pm rush hour traffic, but the taxi still only cost 100 baht (about $3 USD), which was probably cheaper than the MRT and BTS for two people, so it worked out perfectly. Once back, we change into our bathing suits and took a dip in the beautiful outdoor infinity pool. We didn’t get to spend as much time as we would’ve like because of some rain clouds approaching, but we plan to come back tomorrow for Joey’s birthday, so it wasn’t too upsetting to leave early.
We headed back to our room and were pleasantly surprised with a bouquet of flowers waiting on the bed for us. The people here in Thailand (not just Bangkok or the Marriott) always seem to go above and beyond to make your stay so unique and memorable! We cleaned up after the pool, enjoying the many amenities here at this magnificent hotel, before heading out on a short walk to an infamous food truck nearby! The truck is call Daniel Thaiger and claim to dish out the best burger (that’s right, a cheeseburger) here in Bangkok.
We had to put this claim to the test, as we haven’t had a burger on our entire trip and have been seriously craving one recently. Because we haven’t had other burgers in Bangkok, we can’t confirm or deny their claim of superiority, but we can say that it’s one of the best burgers we’ve ever eaten…and that includes all the classic and fancy pantsy ones in New York City. It was absolutely delicious, from the brioche bun to the crispy bacon and thick slices of cheese. The patty was perfectly cooked and even the vegetables tasted incredibly fresh.
As we were heading back to our hotel we felt some raindrops, but luckily we made it back to the hotel without getting too wet. Like we said before, our hotel is like a small city with many restaurant and amenities, one of which is the delicious Chocolate Cake Company. Although we didn’t get any chocolate at this namesake restaurant, their mango cheesecake was out of this world!
After splitting a slice of cheesecake, we headed back up to our room and relaxed for the rest of the night. Tomorrow is Joey’s birthday and we have quite the day planned, including an amazing dinner at La Table De Tee, so stay posted!