Well it is actually our first day on the ground. We arrived to our hotel room at The Dream Hotel a little after 1:00am last night. Since most international flights don't arrive into Bangkok until late at night, G and I decided we would go get a cocktail to celebrate finally being here. Unfortunately, the local bars were closed so we settled into our room and finally got to take showers. Still not overly tired, we found the mini bar which contained a bottle of Veure Cliquot (my favorite champagne) so we popped the bottle and toasted to the start of our honeymoon. perfect.We got up at 8:00am local time to work out. As most of y'all know, that is normal for G, but not so normal for me. After sitting on a plane for 27 hours and having meal after meal served without a single calorie being burned, I felt the need to find an elliptical and some free weights. We came back and ate a wonderful breakfast buffet including omellettes to sushi. Yes, sushi and it was amazing. Then we started out on our 'we have no idea besides what Frommers said' journey. We took a taxi to a place where we thought was the pier we were supposed to go, paid the fare (which we both thought was fair, ironically) and later discovered we got 'scammed'. Either way, it was awesome. We took a boat, completely by ourselves, north on the Chao Phraya River. Yes, it is some nasty water and not all the sights were beautiful (see when I add pictures), but it was a great way to see Bangkok. We stopped and got to climb some steep, steep (did I say steep? Like I was scared to death) stairs at the Temple of Dawn. I had to rent a sarong to cover my knees as we viewed the amazing piece of art. Back on our boat, the next stop was the floating markets. Although they were not what Frommers pictured, it was cool enough that G and I bartered for some little trinkets for some of my co-workers (and 3 beers..2 for G and 1 for our captain...0 for this GF). 
We were let off of the river at a market which was the gateway to The Grand Palace. Interesting to say the least. (pictures to be added) I did want a snack and went with a bag full of fresh strawberries. Amazing. I want those to always be so readily available at home when I want snack. We, not thinking that we look THAT much like tourist, we're told by 3 ( yes, three) different people that The Grand Palace was closed today until 3 due to a ceremony and that we should take their 'nuk-nuk' to 'another' tour site. Thank goodness for my research and communication with bloggers that I knew that this was one of their scams. G later admits he fell for it as he had one foot in a 'nuk-nuk' to only have me throw a temper tantrum for him to get out. Just a bit later, we arrive at The Grand Palace by foot to find out its hours are 8:30-3:00. Those jerks were going to have G miss out (because I sure as hell wasn't going with them). It was awesome. See pictures when posted. The museum shop was even better as I got some very fun, unique surcees.
We tried to head back to the hotel via taxi, but it was more difficult to find one than we thought. While I fell in love with the museum store, it apparently poured down rain so everyone was leaving at the same time. Not only that, but the taxis we did find wanted to negotiate a price versus starting their meter. Thanks to Kate, a blogger from TX ( yes, my family would love her), who made it very clear NOT to get in a taxi before they start their meter, another temper tantrum ensues. And rightly so, and G is later thankful.
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| Afternoon snack....fresh strawberries. yum! |
I took the second shower of the day (don't remember the last time that happened, but I sweated like a fat pig in 90degree humid weather) and then we were ready for our big night on the town. We started with cocktails in our hotel's bar (the only attendees of the BOGO free cocktail) then headed to the rooftop of The Banyan Tree Hotel. It was awesome even though another storm came in preventing us from being on the top floor. We settled for outside, 3 floors down, with the exact same view. Dinner was later served at Baan Khanitha and was nothing short of amazing. We started with crispy rice and a spicy curry sauce. G got what would turn out to be the world's best Sea Bass and I got very good GF pad Thai. (yep, authentic pad thai is GF and that made me happy). The only thing that made tonight better was the wine bottle serving basket (see picture) and G and I finally (quasi emotionally) recapping the wedding. Perfect night. We are ready for relaxation in Koh Samui tomorrow.
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| It was very windy on the rooftop...obviously. |
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| I loved this wine basket/server |
