Bangkok Day 4: Grand Palace and Emerald Palace and Reclining Buddha
This is the dress code for The Grand Palace and Emerald Palace, I basically explained the rules for the dress code in my previous blog post.
The entrance fee for The Grand Palace/The Emerald Palace is around 450-600 baht altogether.
Reclining Buddha
There are a lot of recking buddhas but this is the most famous one inside The Grand Palace
(Bottom of the feet)
Wat Pho
No entrance fee for Wat Pho
(Wat Pho at night- photo from our dinner cruise, bangkok day 2)
After the Grand Palace/Emerald Palace we wanted to go to Wat Pho. Wat Pho is right across the Grand Palace/ Emerald Palace, you will need a water taxi to get to the other side it's probably 5 mins.-10 mins max and it should be around 100 baht each for a water taxi to get across ( We know the info because we had a really nice taxi driver that told us what to do to not get scammed and not get ripped off).
We still got scammed! We took a tuktuk to take us to the dock but the driver took us to the Private Boats which ranges from 400 baht each-800 baht, the private boat will take you on a tour, and not drop you off across. They didn't want to tell us where the water taxi was so that we would take their tour. We weren't the only ones lost, a lot of the tourists were getting dropped off at the same place we got dropped off. My family and I just started to walk around and ask where the water taxi was, every person we asked would say different things so we were confused. There was this guy just standing on the side of the street and he saw that we were lost so he approached us and told us that Wat Pho was closed "on their lunch break" and that they would resume in an hour or so, so he recommended us to go to a temple and go to a jewelry expo and then he said that the tuktuk will drop us off to the cheap water taxi to get us across to Wat Pho. So he called a tuktuk driver and he told the driver to drop us off at the places that he said and they were talking in Thai so we didn't really understand most of what they were saying, he even bargained the fare for the tuktuk for us.
We were really thinking that he was really nice to tell us directions etc. so we were really happy that someone helped us. But when we got off to the first stop it didn't even look like a tourist spot. It was just a building and there was one small buddha inside. There was a guy inside that was explaining things to us. We were the only people there. There was leftover food near the buddha. I was by the door because I didn't want us to get locked inside because there was really no one around and I had a funny feeling about the place, so I didn't trust anyone. After that we all knew that we were getting scammed, so we wanted to leave and we told our tuktuk driver to bring us back to where we were but he didn't want to. He kept insisting that we go to the jewelry expo "for him" we asked why and he said it will give him free gas, and we then found out that the jewelry expo had an entrance fee of like 500 baht each, he basically said there's free beer etc. and you can buy jewelry (it was a way for them to do some sales talk while you were getting carried away drinking). So we asked him why he didn't tell us about the entrance fee and about him "wanting to go there for free gas" he didn't say anyything. We didn't really know how true that was but we knew that he would get something if we end up going to the jewelry expo. So we told him to just take us back and we'll just pay him 300 baht, he said ok. The guy who helped us and the tuktuk driver were basically working together to get money if we went to the jewelry expo.
So we went back near the Grand Palace and we asked a personnel that worked there on how to get to the cheap water taxi to get us across. She told us to take a tuktuk (again) and drop us off at a nearby market. We then arrived at the right place and we saw a lot of tourists going through the market and the dock for the cheap water taxi was there and it was 10 baht each. We finally then arrived at Wat Pho I was already too tired, and still pissed off at what just happened to us, so I just sat down to rest most of the time that we were at Wat Pho, it was really small anyway so I didn't really have to walk a lot. Regardless of what happened we were still very thankful that nothing bad happened to us, and that we were able to figure it out right away.
So my advice would really be research on where the places really are located, so you won't get fooled by anyone who will try to tell you other directions. I would only ask staff members that works inside the temples, students, guards, hotel staff, etc. Even though we really had a nice taxi driver that day I don't trust them a 100 percent even the tuktuk drivers, especially not random strangers approaching you telling you were to go.
There is a beauty buffet inside the mall and the brand Human Touch ( which is for couples) matching pillow cases, mugs, etc.)
We still got scammed! We took a tuktuk to take us to the dock but the driver took us to the Private Boats which ranges from 400 baht each-800 baht, the private boat will take you on a tour, and not drop you off across. They didn't want to tell us where the water taxi was so that we would take their tour. We weren't the only ones lost, a lot of the tourists were getting dropped off at the same place we got dropped off. My family and I just started to walk around and ask where the water taxi was, every person we asked would say different things so we were confused. There was this guy just standing on the side of the street and he saw that we were lost so he approached us and told us that Wat Pho was closed "on their lunch break" and that they would resume in an hour or so, so he recommended us to go to a temple and go to a jewelry expo and then he said that the tuktuk will drop us off to the cheap water taxi to get us across to Wat Pho. So he called a tuktuk driver and he told the driver to drop us off at the places that he said and they were talking in Thai so we didn't really understand most of what they were saying, he even bargained the fare for the tuktuk for us.
We were really thinking that he was really nice to tell us directions etc. so we were really happy that someone helped us. But when we got off to the first stop it didn't even look like a tourist spot. It was just a building and there was one small buddha inside. There was a guy inside that was explaining things to us. We were the only people there. There was leftover food near the buddha. I was by the door because I didn't want us to get locked inside because there was really no one around and I had a funny feeling about the place, so I didn't trust anyone. After that we all knew that we were getting scammed, so we wanted to leave and we told our tuktuk driver to bring us back to where we were but he didn't want to. He kept insisting that we go to the jewelry expo "for him" we asked why and he said it will give him free gas, and we then found out that the jewelry expo had an entrance fee of like 500 baht each, he basically said there's free beer etc. and you can buy jewelry (it was a way for them to do some sales talk while you were getting carried away drinking). So we asked him why he didn't tell us about the entrance fee and about him "wanting to go there for free gas" he didn't say anyything. We didn't really know how true that was but we knew that he would get something if we end up going to the jewelry expo. So we told him to just take us back and we'll just pay him 300 baht, he said ok. The guy who helped us and the tuktuk driver were basically working together to get money if we went to the jewelry expo.
So we went back near the Grand Palace and we asked a personnel that worked there on how to get to the cheap water taxi to get us across. She told us to take a tuktuk (again) and drop us off at a nearby market. We then arrived at the right place and we saw a lot of tourists going through the market and the dock for the cheap water taxi was there and it was 10 baht each. We finally then arrived at Wat Pho I was already too tired, and still pissed off at what just happened to us, so I just sat down to rest most of the time that we were at Wat Pho, it was really small anyway so I didn't really have to walk a lot. Regardless of what happened we were still very thankful that nothing bad happened to us, and that we were able to figure it out right away.
So my advice would really be research on where the places really are located, so you won't get fooled by anyone who will try to tell you other directions. I would only ask staff members that works inside the temples, students, guards, hotel staff, etc. Even though we really had a nice taxi driver that day I don't trust them a 100 percent even the tuktuk drivers, especially not random strangers approaching you telling you were to go.
Terminal 21
After Wat Pho we went back to our hotel at around 3:00 pm, we rested for a little bit and we went to Terminal 21, this was the day that I finally get to go around this mall, because the past few days that we would drop by there I wasn't really able to shop.There is a beauty buffet inside the mall and the brand Human Touch ( which is for couples) matching pillow cases, mugs, etc.)
We were here for around 3-4 hours? I tried to save the remaining bits of my money for Chatuchak Market( a weekend market even cheaper than the things I bargained from Platinum Mall).
I still spent around $100. This mall is more pricey than Platinum Mall and in this mall you can try on clothes but you CANNOT bargain. The accessories at Terminal 21 are better quality than Platinum Mall. The turquoise necklace and is actually brass so it would not tarnish/fade. I bought the turquoise brass necklace and the silver brass earrings for around 750 baht for both. I bought nail polishes and a Gino McCray brush (which is really soft) at Beauty Buffet. The nail polishes are actually pretty good quality and I think it was around 100 baht each.
I would probably do a separate blog post for everything that I bought in Bangkok.
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