Grand Palace & Thai massage

I followed the advice of many friends and hired a tour guide to take me around Bangkok yesterday. For 1,700 Thai baht (about 50 USD), I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with Pong, a 57yr old Thai man, born and raised in Bangkok, studied law as a student, lived in Germany for four years, taught law at the University, and now has been a tourguide for the past 20 years. He was awesome! A driver comes with the tour, so Pong could spend his time waxing eloquent about Bangkok and not worrying about the traffic or where to park. The driver stays with the van, and is available whenever we want to move.

On the way to the Grand Palace, we drove through Chinatown (does every city in the world have a Chinatown?!), and Indiatown. We drove through the biggest flower market I've ever seen ... city blocks of nothing but fresh flowers, either arranged or in bulk. My sister-in-law, Angie, would have been in heaven! Then came the vegetable market, then the fruit market, smaller than the flower market, but still very substantial! Food vendors everywhere. It took nearly an hour to get to the Grand Palace because the traffic was intense, but we finally did arrive and our driver dropped us at the front gate.

The Grand Palace is the old palace and Buddhist temple of the king of Thailand. All the kings are called King Rama (good king). Thailand is on Rama IX, but he is 87 years old, so Rama X shouldn't be long in coming, although a new law was passed recently that allows the daughter of the king to become Queen, so Thailand may soon have it's first Queen, head of state (as opposed to Queen, wife of the King). Pong & I wandered the grounds for a couple hours, him talking on and on about every aspect of the palace, the temple, the grounds, everything. He'd stop and let me take pictures, and then we'd continue on. It was great. I learned a lot, and since Pong kept up a running commentary, I didn't feel obligated to do much talking.

When we left the palace, we drove through the government area of town and past the current palace and House of Parliament. We had to take an obligatory stop at the Gem store. The Thai are very proud of their sapphires and rubies, and nearly every tour of the city requires a stop at a relatively high-pressure sales Gem store with a VAST display of uniquely designed, quite expensive jewelry. I knew it was coming, and I was prepared for the sales pitch. As I was walking out deliberately empty-handed, my saleslady stated that next time I needed to come back with a "good rich boyfriend." She said he needed to be both good and rich, because if he was rich but not good, he wouldn't let me spend his money, and if he was good but not rich, then why bother! Spoken like a true Thai!

After the gem store, the tour was essentially done, so Pong said he could drop me in one of three places: my apartment, the Weekend Market (HUGE outdoor market open every weekend, which we had discussed, and where I am probably going today), or at a spa for a traditional Thai massage and foot massage. I opted for the massage (also a recommendation of something I could not leave Thailand without). For the next 2.5 hours, I had the most wonderful massage, and left feeling completely relaxed and happy! I even managed to bargain a rate with the taxi driver to take me back to my apartment.

Day 1 in Bangkok, Fabulous! Here's pictures.