Day 2: And they were all yellow...

The first full day in Bangkok. I decided to do some sightseeing. Tuk-Tuk drivers are everywhere. These are three wheeled open air taxi's. They follow you as you walk down the street wanting you to take a tour of the city for only 20Baht (like 75 cents). The real deal is that they drive you around, not only so that they can take you to the major tourist attractions, but so that they can make stops at little shops in the hopes of you purchasing something so that they make a commission.

I choose a driver to take me around, and he actually proved to be very useful. He took me the the "Big Budda", this amazing tall gold standing Buddha. Next was the Lucky Buddha which sat in a small temple in the middle of a school grounds. The Thailand kids are so cute wearing a blue and white school uniform. As I was leaving the temple, about twenty or so children came up to me and wanted me to sign my name on a piece of paper. They were asking me where I was from. I felt like a celebrity.

After a few stops to a tailor shop, a silk store, and then a travel agency, I went to see the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha, which is supposed to be 1,000 years old. I paid the driver 200Baht just because I didn't buy anything in these shops, and he was in fact, very helpful.

Well, the pictures speak for themselves. All the buildings of the Grand Palace were made of colored mirrors, porcelin from China, and gold leaf.

Truely, the Emerald Buddha was the most amazing thing that I have ever seen. He is only about one foot tall and rests on a golden shrine. He is the only green in the sea of gold that he surrounds. It was so beautiful!

Throughout the day I noticed that almost everyone in the city was wearing yellow. Not just yellow, but they all had on the same yellow polo with some sort of symbol on the right hand side pocket. My Tuk-Tuk driver had told me that it was to honor the King. Worn on Monday's. So, today, they were all yellow.

Dinner last night was Pad Thai bought from a food vendor on Tho Khao San Road for a mere 20 Baht. The Thai's best food so far has been from what I have bought outside on the street.

So now, here I am in Ko Tao. It's a little island in the Gulf of Thailand. The trip over here included an overnight train, which I slept like a rock, and a rocky sea sickening boat ride. Tomorrow I'm going to start day one of my scuba diving adventure.

P.S: Here is a picture of what I call the Toilet of Death. It was the toilet on the train.