March 18:
We wake up and pack up most of our things as we prepare to
leave Khao San Road later today. After
our breakfast, we inquire at the hotel about the prospect of paying a fee to be
able to have our room for a late check out and low and behold we can have it
until 6:00, the appointed hour of our departure by bus. This is fabulous news as we will be totally
hot and sweaty after a day in the sweltering heat of Bangkok and would be most
uncomfortable on a 12 hour trip to the islands without a cooling shower
beforehand. We make our way once again to
the water taxi station for a ride to see the King’s Palace and Grand Wat. We have been told that this is the most
reverent site within Bangkok and we may not where certain types of clothing. We
make an attempt to cover ourselves appropriately before heading off, but it is
hard to even consider wearing long sleeves and long pants in this heat. We arrive at the Palace and are told that our
clothes are not suitable. We can “borrow”
appropriate clothing for a small deposit that will be returned to us upon
return of the clothing. We have no other
option and go to the appointed dressing rooms to don their coverups. We look stunning!!! We and about half a million other people
enter through the main gates and I must say, this is an amazing place. In our society, this is the equivalent of
Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey all in one location. We tour the main temple and as we enter
through the doors are rewarded with the site of the Emerald Buddha. Everyone is very reverant and bows down and
sits on the floor. The Buddha is atop an
ornately carved golden pedestal. The
rooms is surrounded with murals from his life.
People are bringing in vases of flowers as offerings. This is a very special place and is home to
the most precious Buddha in all of Thailand.
We are in awe. After we make our
way out, there is a bowl filled with holy water that you can dip flowers into
and anoint yourself. I’m wondering if
most people are blessing themselves or merely trying to cool off….I suppose a
little of both. We walk through
countless stunning structures before we become a bit jaded, no pun intended,
and are ready for a break from the heat.
We pass by the royal palace and out the main entrance back to the
dressing rooms. We return our borrowed
clothes and walk out in search of ice
cream. We find a wonderful enclave a
short distance away that serves fresh mango frozen drinks and home-made coconut
ice cream. We can’t get enough. After cooling off a bit, we return to the amulet
market street for another brief look before hailing a taxi and riding in the AC
back to our hotel. We arrive around 3:00
and take showers in anticipation of our imminent departure at 6:00. After showing, Annie, Sam and I return for
another massage. We are total gluttons
for this simple luxury. We return to the
hotel around 5:30. We pick up a few
snacks on the street and stow them away for later. At about 6:15, we are greeted in the hotel
lobby by a man indicating we should follow him, which we do. We drag our luggage along Khao San Road and
then down some small alleyways out onto a large boulevard. We stand there in a crowd of about 100 other
people who I assume are boarding the bus as well. Turns out the waiting bus gets packed up and
our bus is not yet here. Our bus arrives
and we have a strategy to get good seats….Paulie will store the luggage underneath
the bus and we will go and select seats.
This works perfectly and we find a small compartment with only 8 seats
in it that we claim for our own....Sam and Hudson have decided to venture out
on their own and are sitting on the second floor with all of the twenty-something
European girls (smart boys J). The bus gets underway and after about 20
minutes we pull over for a very long time….we suspect this is going to be a
very long ride. We are soon greeted by
Hudson and Sam who decide that our little hideaway is preferable to their
pretty women (smart boys J)
As we are waiting on the side of the road, the driver peaks inside our
compartment and notices the vacant seats that we are hoarding….bummer. We are promptly greeted by two people who
turn out to be very nice and are on their belated honeymoon. They are very nice and we get along quite
well. We can hear the party starting up
above and are happy to be down below with our books. The ride goes on and on and on and on…..you
get the picture. We are able to doze
off, but sleep does not come to us as we are hurling through a foreign land in search
of the perfect island.
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