Bangkok day 2 - 3

Bangkok surprised me. It's a very modern city and very clean too. I was expecting dirt, grime, and yucky men reaching out to me. But it was cleaner and more decent than China. I'm sure I wasn't going to the more seedy areas but in general it was a nice city. They Skytrain and taxi boats made it really easy to get around.
The taxi boats are really convenient...their like trains on the water. they stop for less than a minute at each pier letting locals and tourists off and on and then jet off to the next pier. If you are not hanging on to your belongings...it'll be floating down the river.

After 2 hours on the internet booking my flight and hotel for cambodia, my first stop was the reclining Buddha. it was breath taking. I don't know what the deminsions are...will have to refer back to the guide book, but it was enormous. the things that distracted me were the massive amount of chinese/japanese/korean tour groups and the pillars that were directly in front of the buddha. there was no good angle to get a decent picture from, on top of that, everyone is fighting to get a photo of the buddha.

I wanted to go to the Grand Palace next but by the time i was done strolling through Wat Pho, reclining Buddha, the palace was closed. So I was suckered into hiring a Tuk Tuk to bring me to another large Buddha, then to the Golden Mountain...but of course along the way the driver had to take me to TWO different tourist traps before actually dropping me off at my destination.
The Big Buddha was nothing spectacular. I took my photos and waited 20 min for my driver to "use the toilet" then left. when finally arriving at the Golden Mountain I was shocked to see another market/bizarre. it seems like everywhere you turn in thailand...or Asia...there's another street market/bizarre. This was like a Chinese/Asian/thai San Gennaro's festival. I call it Sang Gennarwoh. Street food, thai desserts, ferris wheel, duck rides, games, balloon popping, freak shows, clothes, and shoes. it was fun to walk through but if you're with someone make sure you have a meeting point because you will get split up if you're not literally glued to each other.
After that took a taxi boat home, got a thai massage, shopped a little, walked around my neighborhood which is mostly middle eastern, and called it a night.

The Emerald Palace
Since I missed the Grand Palace the day before I had to go the next day even though I had to leave the hotel by 1pm. The Grand Palace which is adjacent to the Emerald Palace was....shiny and ostentatious. all the temples and buildings are in gold with colorful shiny glass accenting them. it was truly remarkable. it was hard not to get mesmerized in the gleam of the reflecting sunlight. I had to breeze through that sight as well since the tour groups were unbearable. It was also hard to take a photo of myself and didn't want to ask others to take one of me. After an hour of blinding temples I headed off to Wat Arun, temple of Dawn, across the river. see photos.

I wanted to go to Chinatown but missed it since i ran out of time. I would love to go back to Bangkok and see the other sights that I had missed and also see the night life.