Bangkok--Chill Morning, Sweltering Afternoon

We took this morning to enjoy a home-cooked breakfast of Yorkies (English Sausages) and Scrambled Eggs. We also had our fill of Mangoes and Mangosteens, strong coffee and English Breakfast Tea. It was really nice relaxing in the beautiful condo, and not have to rush out into the intense city outside. Cartoons were certainly on our agenda!

Our late nights were starting to catch up with us, and this chill morning was very helpful in restoring our verve to see more of Bangkok. 

Since we don't have cable back in Penang, watching cartoons on TV was great fun!

Finally, we pulled ourselves together and proceeded towards the Grand Palace.

By now, all the rain that the city received (even this morning's) started getting baked into sweltering humidity. We noticed the  heat was certainly more oppressive today walking in full sun after the rain.

But first, a silly moment from Ian...

Oh boy!... moving on!

We got back onto the Water-Bus and made our way back towards Wat Arun.

Along the way, we saw a barge carrying a mountain of...

...empty Pepsi bottles!

Once off the Water-Bus, we spotted this 'roti' vendor who wrapped his crepes in sweetened condensed milk and icing sugar, vegetables or bananas and sweetened condensed milk and sugar.

We got the 2 sweet versions, and shamelessly, I like the one with bananas!

We spotted lots more food vendors as we walked out and along the street.

We passed many tables like this one laden with little buddha figurines which you could purchase and have blessed/charged by a monk nearby to transform it into a charm or amulet.

Finally, we realized that we walked the wrong direction when we arrived at the Thatien Pier where we take the ferry across to Wat Arun. We did that the day before! Urgh, so we took a quick cool off break--Ian and Aria did not want to leave this misting fan zone!

Eventually, we walked the whole way back along the palace wall, passing aggressive touts dressed to look like officials or police, who claimed that the palace was closed due to some religious festival. This despite regular recorded warnings blaring through speakers that the palace was open everyday, and to ignore touts. These touts would offer to take you to some other tourist destination far away, and charge you dearly.

~ Shien