Bangkok - Day 4

Jamie and I spent the entire morning traveling on Bangkok's public transportation system to purchase train tickets to Chiang Mai and bus tickets to Koh Chang. After finding a bookstore that carried 1000 Places to See Before You Die (not that we are dying), we discovered that one of the places was on our way to Chiang Mai. Ayutthaya was once the capital city of Thailand; and today, it is a sleepy little town which still houses the remains of some amazing temples and Buddha statues. More about it on Day 5. After finding two one way tickets to Ayutthaya and an overnight train to Chiang Mai (no sleeper car), we sought after the bus station to purchase tickets for Koh Chang Island. We might have to cut our time in Koh Chang short because of the return bus times, but we'll see. We successfully manuevered from one side of the city to the other using Bangkok's Skytrain and underground Metro System.

Afterward, we headed toward the river to take the river ferry. Along the way, we stopped at the Shangri-la Hotel and the Oriental, 2 more places to see before you die. Technically, you are supposed to stay there, but since the cost of a room is upwards to $400 US per night, we are not doing that. The Oriental wouldn't even let us tour the grounds because we had shorts on. La-tee-dah!

We took a neat little river ferry up toward a Khmer style temple called Wat Arun. Very cool and we were able to climp up and see a pretty good view of the city. Afterwards, we ferried back across the river and headed back toward the Grand Palace through some amazing shopping street vendors selling everything from cell phone chargers to wooden statues to handkerchiefs. And of course, there was the street food.

Afterwards, we decided to head back to the hotel, grab some Mexican food at this little place called Charley Brown's (rumored to be the best Mexican food in Bangkok), and then head to get a famous Thai Massage.

We found this little place recommended on the Internet called Health Land. After having some difficulty finding it, we finally walked in at 8:45. They promptly called us back, gave us some cool little slippers to wear, led us through a series of hallways and rooms into our own little private room for 2. They had little pajama bottoms and tops for us to change into and then the stretching, pounding, walking on, and kneeding began. Jamie loves this sort of thing and regularly has her feet massaged in China every Friday afternoon. I hate having my feet touched and really can't stand having my legs or head touched either, but I went anyway. I can honestly say that those 2 little women who massaged Jamie and I are the strongest 80 pound women on the planet. She twisted me around like I was a rag doll. All in all, it was a great experience and came to a grand total for both of us for 900 baht = $25 for a 2 hour massage. Afterward, they gave you some delicious honey tea and we were off to collapse. I didn't get a chance to blog that night because I was so tired. Great day! Check out the pictures entitled Bangkok Day 4.