Another 5.30am internal wake-up call for me, but this time icicles were hanging from my eyebrows. My sis had turned the temperature down to freezer proportions. More Friends reruns.
Breakfast is becoming more efficient. We both just go for what we know we'd like. They had spring rolls today, rolls that even Tian could enjoy because they showed no hint of vegetables. I think I burnt my toast today but I simply scraped off the charred bits with my knife.
We hailed a taxi from the front door, and headed for the Grand Palace. I wasn't expecting much. Just the usual. You know? Boring temple like atmosphere, golden pointy rooftops, lots of statues and hot weather.
Well, it was all that but it was more fun than I expected. Lots of pictures from this visit. Tian seemed to like some faded building she kept snapping photos of. She likes to take pictures of windows too. And I thought doors were weird enough. The crowds were teeming, more than anywhere else in Bangkok and it was almost elbow space only in some areas, it's amazing that our photos weren't just of a mass of animated heads.
We tried to call back home from a payphone. No luck. Probably lunch time over there.
Hailing a cab back to the hotel proved to be more difficult than expected.
"100 Baht. I take you."
"Noooooo. That's ripping us off."
Finally, after walking like about a 100 metres, we found a cab that would charge us by the meter. The taxi was hot and muggy and I soon fell asleep. About twenty minutes later, I was woken with a start when the driver overshot the hotel turning, then screeched to a stop and dropped us off outside Coca restaurant. Impulsively, we decided to enter for lunch. It wasn't half bad though we got strange looks when we didn't order suki (steamboat). I wondered if I would bring the Sprite bottle home for my brother but finally decided it was too much of a hassle.
After lunch, we headed back to Novotel for a short rest then decided to visit Jim Thompson's house. Apparently, he was some OSS chap (that's more or less CIA) which makes him a spook who lived in Thailand and revived it's weaving industry. Tian was quite interested.
Wasn't much to talk about actually, just a bunch of old buildings which we weren't allowed to snap pictures in. Thompson apparently disappeared in Malaysia under mysterious circumstances at the age of 61 but that's about all that's interesting about him.
Apart from that, we finally chalked up another shopping centre to our list of contacts. Siam Discovery was equally fruitless but I did manage to snag some cheap Corinthian football figures.
We're due back in Singapore tomorrow. Gotta pack.
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