Two days Bankok - what to do?

Well there was a few things I wanted to do in Bangkok after buying my Bangkok Lonely Planet (the bookshop had it wrapped in plastic so I couldn't read before I bought it!).

One was to just to get a feel for the city and the people. Thai's are known for being very friendly and fun. Even work is suppose to have some element of fun in it. I also noticed that a lot of people were wearing yellow. Was I always walking next to a place where a business/university had a dress code of yellow t-shirts? No - Apparently when the king is born, the day of the week he is born on corresponds to a colour and for the current, very popular king, the colour is yellow. Support your King by wearing yellow and a lot of people do. Rule number 1 - don't dis the King to Thai people! Lots of photos of him around.


Like a lot of Asian cities the consumer is king and there's a lot of cheap markets and things to buy and people willing to sell them to you. Not looking the least bit Thai I guess I attract a lot of attention from sellers especially at the tourist spots. Very wearing.

Wat Po is one of the things to see which is a place of workship for mainly buddhist Thailand and the site of the largest lying down Buddha's in the world. See pictures. I got a tour round the site by a local since I really don't like to have my head in a book or wander round a place without knowing about the buildings/pagoda's etc. The thing I remember most was how black the teeth of my guide was - very distracting for me.


I also went to the Wat Po School of Massage for a genuine Thai massage. This proved to be a good idea after a day spent walking around and also with my right ankle that I twisted a week before the trip. As you can probably aware, there are plenty of places to get a Thai massage in Bangkok - seem to be on every street corner. An American tourist recommended the foot massage after a day of walking but said the body massage gave him a slipped disc. Can't say I enjoyed the Thai massage - lots of pressing and then pulling of your limbs around the place. My ankle felt better afterwards but I think a Turkish massage is better and you feel great afterwards especially since they wash you aswell.

Trips on the water were great for seeing the city and getting away from the street hawkers.


Spent my last half day in my hotel doing Yoga rather than hitting the streets in order to relax and prepare myself for Vietnam! Did I say there were a lot of pictures of the king around? This one was at there very new (Opened Sep 06) airport.