It is so early, why is it so early. We are speedily losing the battle to jet lag. Tonight’s bedtime is 10 p.m. regardless of how much caffeine it takes us to get there.
Though the fact that we spent 7 a.m. – 5 p.m. in the sun yesterday probably didn’t help. We tried to go to the palace twice, thwarted first by the two Thai people we encountered on the street who told us it was only open to locals on Saturday mornings and then later by the fact that David wasn’t wearing pants. Is it actually closed to tourists on Saturday mornings? We may never know. We went to Wat Suthat Thep Wararam in the morning (which also has a giant swing), started toward the palace, got turned around by the first person who told us it was closed, kept going anyway past a bunch of barbed wire (we are not having awesome luck navigating here), ran into the second person who told us it was closed, and admitted defeat and went to the Bangkok City Pillar Shrine instead. We then holed up in a coffee shop near our hotel for a bit to hide from the heat and so I could work on a faster internet connection.
Once we had somewhat recovered we ventured back out for our second attempt at the palace. It was open, but David was wearing shorts so we got turned away. Apparently we should have researched the dress code for men more intensively beforehand; I’ve been trying to be fairly conscientious about my own clothes (mostly just carrying around a long-sleeve shirt for temples) but forgot to pay attention to male dress codes. Usually no one cares about how covered-up dudes are in the US.
Either way, no palace for us. Trying again today and now we are being paranoid about whether our gross Tevas will be acceptable.
We went to Wat Pho instead, home of the giant reclining Buddha and many signs to beware of pickpocket gangs. Very impressive and very hot. Photos TK once I have the motivation and an internet connection that I trust can handle the upload.
After that I wilted so we started heading back to the hotel, purchasing a durian fruit on the way because David was intrigued by them. He took one bite and promptly made a face like it had personally betrayed him. Naturally the sane response was that I also had to try it, which I immediately regretted (more than I would have regretted not trying it? uncertain). It was squishy and tasted like egg. Or possibly onion? With a very lingering aftertaste that then also stuck around in our water bottle. Somehow after watching this display the tourists next to us asked where we had bought it because they wanted to try one.
This was around when we lost the battle to jet lag. We had planned to stop in the hotel, spend some time at the pool to recover, and then go out for the evening. David made the disastrous mistake of lying down while I was in the shower and then we ended up sleeping until 5 a.m. Like I said, we are losing this battle.
This post is so boring, I’m sorry, I will try to be more exciting and less full of lists in the future.
It’s 6 a.m. and someone is already rocking out outside our bathroom window. How. What is going on. Other than David yelling about his Teva tan.
Ever On and On 