One Night in Bangkok...

Okay, so it was actually TWO nights in Bangkok, but who is counting?

This plan has been in the works for a while.  Brian and I are fortunate enough to not only have great neighbors, but they are also great friends.  We met our Swiss neighbors, Pierre & Corinna, last year, during my stealth cookie-drop-off operation.  Over the past year, we've hung out with these two quite a bit, and they have been a lot of fun.  Pierre had planned a "guy's weekend" in Macau, and so Corinna & I decided to have a "lady's weekend" in Bangkok.  Ours was considerably more tame, and did not involve gambling or staying up until 4:00 in the morning, but I'd argue it was just as fun.  :)

It was just a quick trip - we arrived late on Friday night and had to head back to the airport at 11am on Sunday, but we covered the essentials - getting scammed, taking a tuk tuk, seeing the Palace, and getting an awesome Thai massage (okay, some might call Thai massages torture, but I did loosen up considerably!). 

Here are a few pics from the weekend:

Our boat ride was the "getting scammed" part of our trip.  Corinna & I were walking to see the Grand Palace when a Thai woman came up to us and asked us where we were going.  We told her, and she said "oh, the palace is only open to Thai people in the morning - you should go in the afternoon, and go for a boat ride now".  She told us how much it would be, and then we took a tuk-tuk to get there.  I'm pretty sure she had called ahead to tell the people how much she had told us, because they would not haggle at all.  When we looked it up later, we found out that the palace was in fact open in the morning - to ALL.  Anyways, it was a lovely boat ride, but, darnit, scammed AGAIN!  :)

Some of the houses along the way during our boat ride

The Palace compound.  I had been here before about 5 years ago, but it is still impressive!

Look at all the inlaid gold and jewels!  Quite a contrast to what we had just seen on the boat ride!

I love these little guys!

Temple of the Emerald Buddha - no pictures allowed inside, but just imagine amazing gold ceilings, lots of jewels, and a one foot emerald Buddha overlooking it all.

This is the actual palace

Peppers at the Flower Market - wow!

It was a quick, but lovely trip.  Corinna & I will take another "lady's weekend" while Brian is in Tanzania in March with a school trip, this time to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.