Royal Palace for a start, we knew we wanted to get there early. We also knew they were strict on dress code, no shorts above knees, and masks are still required, it's going to be a hot start to the day. Tickets are on the expensive side at $10 each, plus we hired a guide for another $10, cutting into cocktail budget early. Beautiful gardens, the prettiest blossoms on a tree I have ever seen (pentacme siamensis). Lots of gold and silver especially the silver pagoda and throne hall, neither of which you are allowed to take pictures. We spent about 1 hour here, King was in residence, the flag was up, but unfortunately we weren't invited in to his private residence.
Next stop was driving by Independence Monument and the Kings Statue for some pictures.
We visited outside the Buddhist pagoda just past the royal palace but turned around when we realized a service was happening.
Our driver had some pictures of attractions in his tuk tuk, it wasn't on our little map that we could find, but the Golden Pagoda looked nice so off we went. Over a bit of a scary bridge to the Island beside us, we are the only visitors here. It looks like there may be an orphanage or daycare operating out of here as well, lots of small children running around, and lunch is delivered while we are visiting. Walked around the outside as well and discovered a cemetery and another pagoda not far away. Back to our tuk tuk and surprise him with the direction we came from. Andre already had to wake him up once when we got out of the Royal Palace grounds, I call him our bodyguard, no one would mess with him.
Quick stop at the Post Office for Pictures. We were at the back of the building when we got off the mail bus, and we were right around the corner from here last night and forgot we planned on coming by.
Final stop is central market. A very big market shaped like a star. Not shopping for anything it was a quick visit. Picked up some Jack fruit for a snack while we walked around , paid tourist price I'm sure $1.00, but she had peeled and taken seeds out, well worth a dollar. Most fun thing to see in the market was ice delivery. They slide I guess what you would call logs of ice off a slide on the back of a truck, the ice runs along the floor for a bit from the momentum of the slide, then a guy picks it up with 2 huge ice picks and stacks the logs. Some logs are then put into ice making machines, or ice grinders to make crushed ice. So much fun to watch.
We are done. We have been touring around for over 4 hours now and it is hot. Back to the hotel, tuk tuk asks for $14.00, not sure what Andre gave him but he seemed happy.
Pool time, today they have French fries, so fish and chips it is. The fish was really good yesterday. We should have ordered fish and rice again, about 10 French fries on our plate, there must be a shortage of French fries still.
Trying to check in for our flight tomorrow and get errors. We saw a Vietnam Airline office 2 blocks away so we are off. Have to wear a mask to enter, good thing we had them on us from the Royal Palace visit. No need to check in online, we can just do it at the airport tomorrow. We were able to get seats assigned for our flight home in a couple of weeks that starts with Vietnam Air for the first leg. Happy to get that done.
Walk the back street to the hotel, same back street we walked the other night. Andre had seen an ice cream place but we had no money. We seriously bring the average age up here. It is definitely a younger kids hang out. I have no idea how many kids went into a back room, or what was going on back there. 2 mango Sundays were total 2.50, we ate there. Leaving Andre decided he could have a cone for .50 had to be eaten fast, it is still really hot out.
No internet when we get back to the hotel. How did we ever survive without internet. Andre said he felt sorry for the family with 3 kids that we saw in the lobby.
Andre had read somewhere about an area called Bassac for exploring for drinks and dinner. Found our tuk tuk driver hanging around the corner again and put him back to work. Work was $3.00 this time, pretty sure we overpaid. It is just a small area of little bars and a few restaurants. We really liked the area and wish we had discovered it sooner. For a change we had Greek tonight, a nice restaurant with an open kitchen. Had a decent liter of Sangria to go with the meal. They brought us free dessert as we were about to leave, guess we were good customers?
For at least the 3rd time Andre has forgotten to take his SD card for his camera from the computer tonight again. So, phone pictures it will be and he is just stuck carrying around his bigger camera.
Used a tuk tuk parked outside, he wanted 5.00, but Andre said 3.00 is what we paid to get here. Off we go to the hotel, still overpaying for the short ride, but this tuk tuk had a little fan going in the back seat, where has he been the last 3 days!
Back to the hotel at about 8:30, still beer in the fridge so grab beer and up to the hotel pool we go for one last swim to cool off. We were the only ones there at this time of night.
Still no internet so I break out my book that hasn't been looked at this week. I think I managed 3 pages, wow this heat drains you.
Todays Pictures:
Royal Palace
Kings and Monument
ne
amazing architecture. the pagodas are beautiful.
ReplyDeleteRollande