Until you try and climb an ancient pagoda in it.
After the taxi to the hotel we ventured out into Bangkok. We
wanted to go to the Grand Palace and temples in that area. It is more difficult
to get to because the skytrain doesn’t reach there plus it is harder when the
front desk give you wrong directions. That should have been a sign to try
tomorrow and do something close by instead. Oh well. So we made it to the river and we were
planning on taking a water taxi up to the temples. But of course all the river
taxis were ‘closed’ then. So we ‘needed’ to take a canal tour and they would
drop us off at the Palace. All lies. But that is what we did. The canal tour
was pretty cool. Kinda expensive but it is a sunk cost now and it was
enjoyable. We got to the palace and got to the ticket booth around 3:20. They
sell the last ticket at 3:30 and the place closes at 4:30. An hour seemed like
a plenty of time. However, Cori was wearing shorts that were prohibited. I was
in a skirt so I was ok. So we had to run down to the information desk so Cori
could rent a long wrap. Again. We
probably should have cut our losses and come back the next day. Ha. Oh well.
We got into the Palace and it was interesting. Again my
camera battery had died so I have few pictures from Cori. As we were leaving,
it started pouring. We ducked into an au pain for some water and a snack. I was
half soaked. Cori had an umbrella so she was ok. Damp maybe. We decided to continue with the temple tour
and take a ferry across the river to Wat Arun. We took the wrong ferry in the
pouring rain. And had to take a tuk tuk (ps my favorite thai place in London
was called tuk tuk. I get it now) in the pouring rain to actually get to Wat
Arun. At this point cori pulled out her
poncho the elephant farm had given us ever more prepared than me. I just got
wetter if that was possible. Wat Arun is famous for its pagoda that you can
climb up. However the stairs are tiny. And by tiny I mean as about as wide as
my foot. We decided to climb up it. (at this point we were getting all sort of
looks from Thai and white people alike. I was that wet. And most people have
the good sense to get out of a massive downpour) The further we went up the
worse the idea seemed. I think the
stairs got smaller. Once at the top and looking at we now had to walk down (in
the pouring rain) …we regretted our decision immediately. We had to descend one
at a time, side stepping. Heavens bless there was a railing on both sides which
I held on to – one hand on each railing.
Oh another fun fact. My skirt has an elastic waist and was falling down
continually because of the new added weight from the rain. Cori tried to
mitigate the damage by tying it with a hair tie, but it was futile the skirt
was too wet and already too big for me. Pretty sure I flashed the tuk tuk
driver when I got out. So the skirt plus
the rain plus the tiny stairs…it is a miracle I made it down alive.
After that we took the ferry back across the river to Wat
Pho. This temple had the longest reclining Buddha. it was pretty impressive. I
felt kinda bad dripping all over everything while I was in there. After Wat Pho
we were done and got a tuk tuk to the hotel.
At the hotel I began unloading my backpack, which was soaked through,
and drying out my things. When I was
doing this guess what I found…my poncho. It had gotten into my laptop sleeve
that is built into my backpack. What a sick joke, universe.
Bangkok –37, Holly- 0.
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