September 1

Wake up call- 9am- there's so much to do! After our buffet breakfast (which we have now perfected our choices), we took the metro and skytrain to Somdet Phrachao Tak Sin Bridge on the Chao Phraya River. We caught a river express boat up the river to the Grand Palace. The river is so dirty! It is really gross. Our trip to the Emerald Buddha Grand Palace was so annoying. It was super hot and stinky outside, for one thing. But most annoying were all the scammers along the way telling us the Palace was closed and to come see the "Happy Buddha"- we luckily aren't so easily tricked, although they are very official looking and convincing. We found the proper entrance. We saw the Palace, which certainly was grand, but all the buddha stuff started creeping me out and we were hot because we had to cover our shoulders with shirts we brought. We caught a taxi to this other HUGE mall- Siam Paragon. Its size is truly undescribable. Consumerism is alive and well in Bangkok. I don't know how a city like this sustains all the shopping and eating it offers. We first stopped at the food floor. I have never seen so much food or such options in my life. A lot of food is sold in individual pieces, so 1 chicken skewer, 1 spring roll, 1 gelato, and several free samples of fruit (dried and fresh) later, we went up to the "luxury goods" floor and looked in all the designer stores. From there we went to our "Nice Massage" place and I had a $9 hour long massage and Syd got a Thai massage. Feeling very relaxed, we went to MBK to use the internet before heading back to the hotel at closing time.