Our morning started off well as we had a delicious breakfast in the hotel restaurant - the hotel breakfast was included in the price of the room - which was a nice bonus, and very wel done. But today was not just about breakfasts - today, Erin wanted to get a Thai massage. Over the past 2 days, we had seen numerous massage parlours, so Erin had decided that if a massage was within our budget, she wanted to try it. She ventured back into one of the spas we had passed the day before and told them she wanted a one-hour massage. The massage focused more on pressure points and on stretching than she was used to, but she still found it very enjoyable. Additionally, it only cost about $9 US dollars for an hour - which made it so fantastic that she considered getting another one.
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| Erin's massage was actually done on the floor! |
After the massage, Erin returned, and we headed out for the day together. We wandered through the markets again. Our goal today was to walk toward the Grand Palace because we had some problems getting there yesterday. We decided to take a different route today, and walked toward Lumphini Park where we saw a giant lizard. Initially, we thought it was a Komodo Dragon, but after doing some research we discovered it was a friendly monitor lizard.
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| A look down one of the street markets we wandered through. |
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| One of the monitor lizards we saw in the park - it was very large! |
We continued our walk until we reached the Victory Monument in Bangkok. We took a brief break, looked at our map once more, and decided to continue walking west. We knew that if we kept walking, we would eventually hit the river, and could then find the Palace from there. We wandered through some very non-touristy areas, including a motor repair area. We also stumbled upon another temple and took some pictures.
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| The Victory Monument in Bangkok. It was built in 1941 after a brief war with France, in which Thailand won. |
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| Some of Bangkok's big buildings in the background near the Victory Monument. |
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| The really random "car-repair" road we found ourselves on. Those are all automobile engines in the picture. |
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| We found ourselves at a temple that wasn't on the map...go figure! |
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| Many of the shrines were covered in gold as are the ones in this picture. |
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| A view of the temple from the front. The temples were very colorful and decorative. |
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| We were actually thankful we didn't hear all of these bells being chimed while we were visiting the temple. |
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| People often bring flowers as offerings to the shrines. |
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| More exotic decor at the temple. |
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| Tabitha sat with one of the shrines in the temple. |
We continued walking, hoping we'd hit the river soon, but we just didn't see it anywhere. So, we decided to walk back. We saw what appeared to be a university, so we sat for a few minutes and rested. There were some students nearby us, so James got to use one of the few Thai phrases he had memorized, and we asked for directions. They pointed us in the right direction, and we finally got back on a main street and saw Sukhhumvit Road ahead. James wanted to wander through some of the markets, but Erin was exhausted and dehydrated from the heat. We had already walked 14 miles for the day, and the temperature was above 90 degrees, so we agreed that it might be a good idea to start heading home. We stopped at McDonald's for a snack and then went back to the hotel. Erin went swimming and worked out before we headed back to the Tops for dinner (yes, we have had dinner at the same place 3 nights in a row...). We came back to the hotel feeling refreshed and watched a movie together before going to bed.
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| James enjoyed a pineapple pie from the McDonald's in Bangkok. |
