Following seeing the Grand Palace we were taken out for the night by another friend and his Thai girlfriend. They were insistent we saw the other side of Bangkok and we ended up at Nana plaza.
Nana is all neon lights and loud bars. It seemed to be set up for the older european travellers of a certain persuasion. There were a lot of ‘girls’ on the street and lets just say none of them were waiting for a bus. We ended up in a ladyboy bar where they were parading around all numbered up – each one waiting for someone to pick them out. Luckily the fact we were in two couples and had a thai companion meant we didn’t get any hassle! It was definitely interesting round there, pretty fun, and a side of Bangkok you probably have to see to get the full picture.
The next morning couldn’t have been more different. Our Grand Palace tickets also got us free entry to some museums at Dusit (where the king lives now) so we had some delicious patries and tea in the park (the park gets a special mention for being Ali’s favouritepart of Bangkok) & hopped on another boat upriver and walked to the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall.
It’s an enormous marble building, designed by an Italian and very european looking. Inside is a museum of the King’s blingiest possessions. Everything from a gold throne to a iridescent beetle wing coated chandelier. It was quite incredible; the level of craftsmanship and detail in each one was astounding. The museum give you an audio guide which tells you about each piece as you go round. Unfortunately you weren’t allowed a camera inside so no Gary shots. However I have found this link online just to show you an example.
http://www.artsofthekingdom.com/en/index.php?page=product_main
Here’s the outside though
Following that we went across to Vivanmek Palace on the same grounds. Supposedly the largest Teak building in the world it contained another small museum of arts and crafts from Thailand. All in all well worth a trip considering we had a free ticket!
That was it for our Bangkok sightseeing. We took a pleasant walk through the markets back to the boat.
We found an amazing restaurant called Jok Phochana round the corner from our guesthouse which was so good we ate there for lunch and dinner. We’d recommend it to anyone staying in the area, particularly the crab sausages, duck with holy basil, spring rolls – basically everything!
The next morning we set off for Siem Reap. We got an early morning taxi to Don Maung Airport for our flight. It wasn’t too far but in the Bangkok rush hour it still took about an hour!