BKK102

Day 1 (part 2)
8 May 2006
Monday


Right after our lunch by 3pm, we were recharged, we decided to take a walk from KhaoSan Rd. to the grand palace. we simply walked out to the main road, and walked following the walk path. the truth is, we can't seems to find the way to cross the main road to the opposite side, which is the Sanam Luang park... after walking up and down, we decided the risky move - "don't care, just walk across it like that..."... hahaha, considering the main road is something like a highway, and imagine the heavy traffic in central bangkok, i believe it's kinda crazy move!!


only later we found out, further up, there's a zebra crossing, hehehe!

so, ok, finally we reached Sanam Luang, we were already like sweating nonstop, coz the weather really is too HOT... like an oven! the park is very much like the size of Merdeka Square, very huge. but this time around, the park was surrounded by stalls covered in brownish yellow cloths. we walked into the swamp of stalls only to realize they were actually celebrating Wesak. only different is in Malaysia, we have 1 day holiday for wesak, but here in Thailand, it's a whole week celebration and holidays!!! wow!!


Here you can see the yellow color stalls and a monk just walked past us.

we do not understand thai language, so those stalls didn't appeal to us, but we could not resist the stalls selling cold drinks! Mikey walked over to 1 stall and bought a small bottle of herbal drink. at first we tried to ask the young lady what exactly was the drink... but soon we realized we are wasting our time bcoz she can't seems to understand English. which kinda surprised me, coz i thot most Bangkok ppl know English. but maybe, only maybe, it's a national celebration and food fair and exhibition, so most of the hawkers and ppl here are not local Bangkok ppl... well, i think la! hahaha.

back to the drink bt.10, it tasted like "kekhwa" (chrysanthemum) drink, but of coz it's not lah. but it's sweeter and actually quite good and refreshing. so we continue our walk. we saw a lot of students, teenagers in uniforms, a lot of ppl. wow, they being so religious amazed me. i mean, the celebration here at Sanam Luang Square was not at all entertaining, but rather educative and informative... i doubt Malaysians would actually turn up for religious activities like this. hehe!!! ok, i'm being prejudiced, sorry! back to the uniform things... hahaha, we noticed that the uniforms of Thai are all so tight, especially at the waist line there... ketat gila babi!!! so all the shapes and sizes of all these uniformed men could be clearly defined!! :D

After a "not so short walk", trying to avoid local aunties who were busy searching for tourists to sell some seeds to feed doves, we reached another main road facing the entrance of the grand palace. YES, we were finally here... BUT the sad thing is, the grand palace close by 3.30pm as stated at the entrance. looking at the watch, it's already 3.20pm, we chose not to go in. a funny thing happened is when i approached the guard which was surrounded by few tour guides or tuktuk drivers, one of them started talking to me in thai... i was like "what the hell??" and i politely told him, "i'm not Thai, sorry. but is the palace closed by 3.30pm"... then he laughed, "ya, as stated at the board. i thot you are Thai, coz you look like Thai ppl!!"... i was like... speechless. Mikey thought that was funny! -.-" WTH, i look so "cina pek", how can you mistaken me as THAI!! :(


This is the side door of the Grand Palace. pretty isn't it?

originally we planned to go to Wat Pho & Wat Arun, but we were afraid if the same thing happen again if we are to walk there, it will be a total waste of time. so we thought, it might be a good idea that we just walk back, rest and relax, and gather more information then will only explore this area tomorrow morning. moreover the hot weather was really killing us.

so we turned back the same way, and decided since we were here, why not just walk inside the Sanam Luang park and looked around their exhibitions...


These were like the flower-decorated carnival car for their parade i supposed. and of course the Buddhism theme, with little Buddha one hand pointing the sky and another pointing to the earth.


We can't help but took photos of one of the parade car... notice that it was decorated with all sorts of vegetables. fascinating! :)




This is the central part of the park. it's said that there was a buddha's relic stone (or whatever...) inside the little container. Thais come from everywhere of the country to worship here. the 3rd pic is the main possession of the stage.


a stall where ppl can choose a small print out for fortune-telling.

After some time exploring the celebration/ceremony, we got so thirsty again and thinking of getting another one of those "kekhwa" drink again. but then when we passed by a stall where a lot of Thais qued up to take reddish water FREE, we also joined the line. mmm... tasted icy cool and good too, how nice!!! i think we must have taken more than 3 glasses. hehe!!! yum yum!!

so all recharged, around 5pm, we walked back to KhaoSan Rd., this time followed the correct way back. :) just when we reached the room, straight away we took a bath and slept like a pig! muahahaha! :P