Bangkok - Day 1

Of course, the first order of the day was to find some coffee. One of the only nice things about staying in a really touristy place is that you know finding a latte will be easy. For us, it was painless. Just outside our hotel lobby is a place called Coffee World. They serve great drinks and have free wifi. Perfect. Buddy Lodge provides breakfast tickets for its guests, so we decided to give it a try. We were a little surprised to find the breakfast set up in an Irish pub, but what have you got lose from free food? It was much better than we anticipated. Once we were caffeinated and fed, we set out to find ourselves a wat. We had a decent map in our travel books and a touristy map, so, really, how hard could it be? I mean, everything looks so close! And that was our first mistake...

Turns out, the English names for Thai streets vary widely, traffic is a nightmare with crosswalks holding no sway over the drivers, and climate acclimation is not something to sneeze at. After a year on the tundra, Bangkok is hot! We meandered down the streets that seemed right and found a neighborhood school and temple. It was very peaceful seeing the monks in their saffron robes going about their duties or gathered in classes. This was the first place someone mentioned the "Standing Buddha" that we just had to see. We hadn't heard of it, so we just kept on wandering. We finally found a main road and were able to get our bearings. We looked into the National Gallery, but we decided to move across the street to the National Museum, instead (artifacts instead of paintings). Of course, crossing the street meant walking a block and going under the main road. Here, we were stopped by a tuk-tuk driver and offered a ride to this amazing standing Buddha. We just kept walking. We made it to the museum and took full advantage of the air conditioned gift shop as our first stop. Once we were cooled down, we wandered. The museum was a great intro to Thailand's history and culture. Unfortunately, most of the exhibit halls merely used fans to circulate hot air. On the upside, an air conditioned Hagen-Dahz stand was waiting for us at the exit.

Once we spent a little more quality time with our map, we plodded on to the Grand Palace. (To be continued...after I've bought more internet time :-)