We arrived in Bangkok at 10:30 in the morning and grabbed a taxi to our hotel. We were thankful to surprisingly feel fairly well-rested after our 19-hour journey. Our hotel was in the Sukhumvit neighborhood of Bangkok, which is known for its shopping and sometimes compared to NYC's Fifth Avenue. We dropped our backpacks off and headed out to lunch at Baan Khanitha for our first dose of "real" Thai food. Despite flying across the world, we ordered the same thing we always do at Thai restaurants in the states- cashew chicken and Pad Thai - but we were convinced we could taste an extra hint of authenticity.
After stuffing our stomachs, we were tempted to forget our plans and go for Thai foot massages to escape the scortching 100*F heat, but decided instead to take the subway to the old city to see some temples. The subway took us about halfway, and we then took a river ferry the rest of the way down the Chao Phraya River to Wat Pho, a royal temple that houses over 800 golden buddhas. After purchasing our tickets to the temple, I was prohibited from entering due to my bare knees, and was pointed in the direction of a strategically positioned woman selling elephant-print pants, which luckily were pretty cute. Decked out in my new pants, we entered the temple and quickly spotted the famous reclining Buddha, which stretches 46 meters in length and is 15 meters tall. Buddhists believe that worshipping the reclining buddha will bring them peace and happiness.
After visiting Wat Pho and crossing the river to another beautiful temple, Wat Arun, we were exhausted and decided to head home. The way back was slightly less comfortable as we were packed like sardines into the river ferry, but soon the sun started to set and our picturesque view made it all worth it.
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