Day 27 of The Big Adventure, according to Sarah. 
We woke up early, determined to see more of Bangkok than just the inside of the shopping malls. We were ready for some culture!

We’d read in our trusty Lonely Planet guidebook that Wat Pho was also a great place to visit. We decided to try and get there using public transport (no mean feat) which would involve getting the sky train for half an hour and then a boat along the river. 

The skytrain went swimmingly (we’re pretty much locals) but when it came to the boat, we weren’t entirely sure how the ticketing system worked. 

As we walked up to the pier, there was a large ticket stand selling tickets for 100baht. Now Lauren, being the travelling guru that she is, had done some research and knew that tickets should only be 30baht. 

This 100baht ticket was for the tourist boat, but we wanted to get the local boat. So we went round the side of the ticket stand and stood in line. Thankfully, a ticket lady came around and sold us two tickets for 30baht each and we got on the local boat.

These sneak Thais certainly know how to prey on unwitting tourists. 

  
The boat was very crowded and it was about a 20 minute journey down the river to Wat Pho. 

  We weren’t exactly sure which stop we were supposed to get off at as the piers didn’t have great signage. But at one particular stop pretty much everyone on the boat disembarked so we decided this was probably the right stop. 

  

We hopped off and Wat Pho was a 2 minute walk. Perfect. 

It wasn’t nearly as crowded with Chinese tourists as the grand palace had been and was rather pleasant in comparison. 

  
Wat Pho is the temple of the reclining Buddha and in one of the large, highly bejewelled buildings is a giant statue (46m to be precise) of the Buddha lying down. 

  
To enter this particular temple, we had to take our shoes off and put on some rather dashing cloaks to cover up our ‘inappropriate’ clothing (highly appropriate for the temperature outside I might add). Far more civilised than the grand palace, we were given a bag to carry our shoes in and only had to wear the cloaks inside the temple. 

It was an amazing statute and took quite a while to walk all the way around. It almost looked like the Buddha had been squeezed into the building it was so big. 

  
  
You don’t usually see the Buddha doing anything other than sitting upright so it was quite refreshing to see him in a new pose. 

  
On the far side of the Buddha , the wall was lined with pots to put coins in to fund the renovations. 

In one of the temples, we stumbled upon a tv show being filmed . 
Of course, we had to don ‘appropriate ‘ clothing for this temple too.

 

   
More classic couture.

   
 
  
 
  
  
We wandered around the grounds for a while and took in the amazing architecture and sculptures, until we heard the all too familiar grumble of our bellies. It was lunch time. 

We had been recommended to go and see Khao San Road – a backpacker haven which apparently had some great food options. We argued with a few taxi drivers until one agreed to put his meter on and we jumped in. Taxi drivers are sneaky in Bangkok – you’ll tell them where you’re going and they’ll quote you a price twice what it would cost if you rode with the meter on. You just have to keep demanding they put their meter on or find another taxi. Very frustrating. 
Anyway we found one that finally agreed to ride with his meter on and he took us to Khao San Road. 

We had a wander along the street and it was basically just lots of stalls selling trinkets and souvenirs.  Nothing special.

 We had a cheeky look on Foursquare for some recommended restaurants in the area and settled on Shoshana – a middle eastern Asian fusion restaurant. 

We sat down and perused their extensive menu – I couldn’t decide so I told Lauren to decide for us. 

  She chose humus and pita bread and a shakshouka (a dish of poached eggs in a sauce of tomatoes, chili peppers, and onions, spiced with cumin). When she ordered I must say, I was more than apprehensive about the meal that we were about to consume. I’d never even head of shakshouka – but Lauren reassured me that Steve (that dad of her host family back in Syndey) used to cook it and it was delicious. And sure enough, when it arrived it was every bit as tasty as Lauren had said it would be. The humus and pita was delicious aswell and we left with two very satisfied bellies. 

  
When we were back out on the street, we realised we were both pretty tired and there was no point traipsing around more temples if neither of us was going to enjoy it. So we ordered an uber (which seemed to go the very scenic route) and headed back to matchbox. Now, Lauren’s favourite place to snooze is in the back of a taxi. This added to the fact that she had just eaten a big meal and was tired anyway led to the open mouth snooze of all snoozes. 

  
We arrived back at matchbox and decided a little afternoon nap was the best plan of action so we lay down our weary heads and napped.

We woke up at around 6.30pm (Ooops) and decided we should make the most of the evening ahead of us: we would go to an infamous night market. After a little researching, we found that one has recently closed down and that another (with a very similar name) had opened in a completely different location. On our way out, we passed some of the other people we shared a dorm with: these two in particular were German boys, around our age, who always seemed to be heading to Khao San Raod and never anywhere else. They invited us along but we politely declined and continued to the metro station.

Now the metro, as we learnt, has a completely different ticketing system to the skytrain. We tried to swipe our Bangkokian oyster-card-equivalents but to no prevail. So we went to buy normal one way tickets to the station near the market, and instead of two paper tickets popping out like we had expected, two round tokens came out. 

  
What the bloody hell are we supposed to do with these?!

There was no slot on the ticket barriers for us to insert said tokens. After a little watch-and-learn we soon found that you beeped in with the token (just like an Oyster card) and there was a slot for the tokens when you were exiting through the ticket barrier. This was actually a very economical scheme on the Bangkokians behalf as they can reuse those token and never print paper tickets. This got us thinking about how much paper must be wasted on one day travel cards and the like in London. I think we could learn a thing or two from these guys.

Anyway, we arrived at our destination station and walked the 50m to the night market. First on the agenda was food. 

This night market wasn’t exactly what we had been expecting as it appeared to be laid out along the sides of the entrance road leading to a mall. 

Now we weren’t sure if this was the whole market, or if it was more of an indoor market. We wandered along the stalls and didn’t really find anything of interest do decided to head inside. We took a decrepit old lift with sheets hanging over the walls (which needed a special man with a key to operate it) up to the second floor. 

Upon arrival, we soon realised that although the other night market had shut down, the transition process was still very much underway and many of the stalls were either shut or in the process of hanging up their produce to display.

  

We walked through the deserted laneways and it was like a ghost mall. Rather eery.

  
So we headed downstairs to try and find some food (we were getting really rather hungry at this point). With a lack of other options (we still hadn’t worked up the courage to try pork balls) we headed to the safety of the Golden Arches. We marvelled at how amazingly consistent McDonalds is all over the world – chicken nuggets taste pretty much the same in every country. 

We wandered back outside along the stalls and back to the metro station. That had not been what we were expecting at all and we were quickly learning that our expectations were often completely wrong and it was probably better to try not to expect anything at all. 

We headed back to Matchbox and decided to get an early(ish) night.