Picture Gallery

Videos:

Kangaroos!

Waterfall in the Blue Mountains:

Intt and a Parrot at the Blue Mountains (sorry for being sideways):

Intt on the Ferry to Manly Beach:

BYE BYE BANGKOK

Today is our last day to enjoy Bangkok. Siam and Meow are heading back to Dallas today, so they are spending time with their family and friends. Meanwhile, Tang and her brother are going to take care of us. We have some more sightseeing to do! We all pile into a van and head off.

Today is hot. Really hot. Before the trip, I was warned that this is the hottest time of the year in Thailand. We had been really lucky so far with a lot of cloud cover and intermittent rain. Well, there’s not a cloud in the sky today, and it’s similar to Austin in August.

Wat Arun

First up is Wat Arun. This is a really impressive sight. From far away, you can’t see any detail, but when you get up close, you can see it’s covered with really intricate porcelain designs. It’s also got stairs running up it to two terraces. The stairs are STEEP, and honestly, a little scary. You can see that at some point they wised up and put in a handrail. I climb up to the first terrace and walk around. You can really see the city from up here. It also gets me closer to the unforgiving sun. I’m still recovering from the night before, and I decline making the trip to the second terrace, which has a much STEEPER stairway. Neff makes the trip up, though, in the name of good photography opportunities. I make my descent back to ground — slowly, and holding the handrail at all times. I wander around a bit, and then find the one sliver of shade on the entire temple grounds until it’s time to head out.

Pineapple fried rice

We all skipped breakfast this morning. Why would we want to get the taste of grasshoppers out of our mouths? But now we’re hungry again, and Tang’s brother drives us to a Thai restaurant. It’s fancy — there’s a woman singing Thai songs and a piano is accompanying. The tables are covered with white tablecloths. Most importantly, it’s air-conditioned.

The meal is excellent — I have a chicken curry, but I’m jealous of Tang’s brother, who orders pineapple fried rice. It comes out in a hollowed out pineapple! I have a taste, and it’s delicious.

Hanging out at the National Assembly

After lunch, we head out to the National Assembly building. This is another impressive sight, although it’s definitely influenced by Western architecture. Inside, they are exhibiting the pieces of art created to celebrate the anniversary of the king’s ascension to the throne. Cameras were not allowed inside. The pieces are really awe-inspiring — very intricate (and very large) works made almost entirely of gold. More interestingly, they are also made using beetle wings, which are a really cool iridescent emerald color. The beetle wings only stay brilliant if they die a natural death. Each piece contains thousands of wings. I know this because we’ve been outfitted with those art museum individual tour walkmans.

Once we’ve seen enough, we hang around the grounds a bit, and then head back to the hotel. I take another shower, then head out to Siam Square. Our time in Bangkok is running short, and there are souvenirs to buy! I get a cool Thai Coke shirt (for $4), along with some other knickknacks. We also eat some Thai ice cream. It’s really good. I’m not sure what flavor I had, but it was delicious. It’s a little more of a subtle flavor than traditional ice cream.

Now that we’re full of ice cream, it’s time to meet Tang’s family for dinner at a seafood restaurant. We had met them previously at the dim-sum restaurant earlier in the week. Like the dim-sum place, we get a VIP room. Unlike last time, there’s a bottle of whisky for us to enjoy.

Last meal in Bangkok

The food is spectacular as always. One of the plates has thousand-year eggs on them. These are eggs, but they have been preserved, and they are black. Jon eats one, and then Tang’s brother tells him, “it’s horse pee”. I laugh. Jon doesn’t. (Note: the eggs aren’t really preserved with horse pee, it’s just a tall tale.)

We thank Tang’s family for the meal, and then head off to the night market for final souvenir shopping. This is similar to the night market we were at last night, but this is a little nicer, and there are no insects to eat. It’s also still hot, and I’m sweating profusely. We wander around for a while, and then it’s time to go back to the hotel.

Overall, it’s a pretty tame day, but that’s fine by us. I think we’ve done justice to Bangkok. We hit the hay early — after all, we have a flight to Japan tomorrow, and we have to be up and ready to go at 3:30 AM. Ouch!