One night in Bangkok...

Finally the long night in the bus was over! We arrived somewhere rather far from the center of Bangkok at 8.30 am and took a taxi together with Emilie. Our paths had come to an end. We were heading to different directions. At first we head an interesting taxi journey ahead of us. The taxi driver had been driving for like 15 minutes or so and suddenly he turned the taxi meter of. And once we started fighting with him that we wont pay him if he doesn't put it back on, he turned the car around and took us back to the bus station while shouting to us like crazy. So, we took another taxi and the driver didn't know where to take us even tho we showed him the place on the map and all. Eventually we made it to the closest sky train station. I took a sky train to Marie's work to get the keys and then to her place to drop of my things and to take a shower. I didn't wanna waste anytime since the same night we were heading towards islands with Marie and her friends. 

Free haircuts at the train station

I walked to the Surasak sky train station and took it only for one stop.. On the way it started raining and I got a little frustrated cause I was that eager to do sightseeing when it was raining. Thank god it stop as soon as it started. Then I took a river boat and on the line waiting the boat I met a girl and a boy from Norway and UK. They were going to the same direction and I started to hang around with them after they asked me if I wanted to join them. Our direction was the great Grand Palace. On the gate I started to talk with this guard who told us that the Grand Palace was closed for one hour for a lunch break. So he took a tuktuk for us and told us that the driver is gonna explain everything to us. And we would only have to pay for 3 BAHT for around 90 minutes if we agreed on getting in! First the driver took us to see the standing Buddha. While we took photos he waited for us outside. Then we headed towards some custom made suit shop were we had to pretend that we actually wanted to buy something.. The shops were really expensive and fine. At the door we were offered champagne and catalogs. There were at least three men offering their help. So since we didn't have any common language with each other to try to figure out ourselves out from the shop without a fight we just each came up with a story why we didn't wanna buy anything. It was so akward! Haha, mine was that I work at a gym and my workmates would look at me like I'm crazy if I'd show up dressed like a lawyer.. So basically the tuktuk driver had an agreement with different places that if we took tourists there he would get some cards to get free gasoline. So, what we got was to see different sightseeing places basically for free but we had to survive these akward and actually quite scary scenes. 

Taken from the river boat

Bangkokkkkkk

The standing Buddha

Let's goooooo ;) 

The suit shop..

'Thank you but I won't be needing anything since I work at the gym and they would look me like a crazy if I come to work wearing this dress..'

Wat Benchamabopitr

Then it was a tuktuk ride to see this small temple and after to some huge jewelry place which was magical!! I actually would have wanted to buy something but I just didn't have enough money with me at the moment. Then we had the last suit shop in front of us and we even came up with a plan how to survive. Well, it didn't go as planned. The owner basically saw right through us.. He got so angry and mad to us, and in a way, I totally understand him since it's his job and he wants to earn money and we only wasted his time. Tho, the guy from UK was actually looking for a suit but couldn't buy one at the moment. So the situation ended up by him throwing us out from his shop... 

The driving would have wanted to take us to one more shop but we told him to take us back to the Grand Palace. The Grand Palace was so so expensive (500 BAHT) but as people told, it is the place to see! Once again, the photos tell more.. 

Just chilling..

As you could see the Grand Palace was full of gold and shiny temples! So many that you didn't even know where to start looking and exploring. After so many photos it was time to try to walk to the Chinatown which ended up being easier said than done. We walked around 1,5 hours and once in a while tried to take a taxi but when the prices where close to 200 BAHT we said no. Eventually we found ourselves to this big shopping mall called MBK to eat. At six o'clock I was back at Marie's place and we met at the front yard by accident, perfect timing! We went to the roof top to hang around for a while. On the roof we climbed to some smaller roofs without any handles... It was scary being so high just your feet hanging over the edge.. I almost crawled back to the ladder going down to the actual roof. I was so terrified! 

And we complain our five o'clock rush hour..

Things noticed in Bangkok:

• There were no teenager anywhere! (if you didn't walk past a school or something..) There were only kids, women and men. Since it was so difficult to estimate the ages of Thai people, and the teenagers looked like adults so it was really hard to recognize any teenagers.

• Pollution! Usually when I've been traveling I haven't noticed any pollution anywhere even in Athens where it's said to be pretty bad. But in Bangkok I felt like I couldn't breath properly if I was on a mototaxi or even a normal one. 

After the roof climbing we packed our things and then it was time to start a pretty good adventure so to say! To be continued... ;)