Wats and wats of Wats

Today was an awesome day thanks in part to the late start we got. We
woke up relatively early but Jason got busy with his work stuff and I
got busy relaxing and reading by the pool. By the time 2pm rolled
around I figured I would look in the tour book and figure out
something to do, since our flight leaves tomorrow at 4:30pm and we
really only have 1.5 days in Bangkok. The Wats are the main thing to
see here and it is said that you can't go to Bangkok without seeing
the Royal Palace. So I looked up the Royal Palace and it closes at
3:30 during the week. The concierge suggested taking a direct boat
there but the porter suggested hiring a taxi for 500 baht (about
$16US) to take us exactly where we wanted to go.

We saw the Royal Palace and Wat Phra Keo (in the same compound), Wat Pho, Wat Benchamabophit (Marble Temple), Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn), and probably some other Wats. Our driver was really excited to
practice his English and had a dictionary and a translator at the ready so he could tell us about the different government buildings and the King's residence. Wat Arun was closed by the time we got there so
we just snapped some quick shots of the outside and went back to the
hotel from there. Enough Wats for one day.

Hiring our driver, John, was a great idea and such a headache saver.
We had him for about four and a half hours and even though it cost a
lot more than the water taxis or tuk-tuks it was worth it for us to
have an air conditioned car waiting every time we were ready to move
to the next place. I'm going to have to look in the tour book to
figure out what pictures are of what from today. The Thais seem very
into ornate detailing and GOLD so after a while it seemed like I kept
taking pictures of the same things over and over again. In hindsight,
I probably should have taken more but most of the Wats were really
crowded and we didn't want to be outside sweltering all day. The
statues outside of the temples tend to have extremely ugly and angry
faces though. We decided it was to ward off the evil spirits, but
we're not sure why.

We really liked the day we had today and the vibe of the city
(excluding almost going into cardiac arrest several times due to the
driving techniques) and we're excited about seeing some different
parts tomorrow. The plan is to wake up early, enjoy the amazing
breakfast, and head to Chatuchak, or Jatujak (JJ), Weekend Market on
the Skytrain. JJ is a huge market visited by over 200,000 people each
day and has more than 8,000 vendors. I figure since we have such a
limited time in Bangkok we might as well get the full-blown nauseating
experience. On the way back we'll hopefully have time to stop at Siam,
which is an area of town with "name brand" shopping. Then we'll grab
our bags and make the long drive back out to the airport.

Something that's very noticeable is how loyal Thais are to their
country and king and queen. It might be because you can get put in
jail or probably killed for slandering them, or just real admiration.
Every time we asked our driver about the king or he told us a story
about the king he would put his hands together and bow. There are
pictures of the entire royal family everywhere in case Thais forget
what they look like. They are mostly of the king, then the queen, then
the prince, then the princess. The current king has been in office for
over 60 years I believe and the prince is next in line. People
apparently don't like the prince so much because he has multiple wives
(that's what our driver said). We drove by the Prime Minister's
residence and there were riot police getting their shields on and
readied for the regular riots.

I'm posting a bunch of pictures on Picasa so please make sure and
check them out.