Fueled by 14 hours of sleep, we woke up ready to tackle the 14th largest city in the world, determined to see and take in all it had to offer. Scott went on an early morning 7-11 run to get us bottled water¹ and coffee while I was getting dressed, buttt their coffee machine was broken; reminiscent of McDonalds and their notoriously malfunctioning ice cream machines.

He was on his way back to our hotel when there was a huge boom that we each heard and the neighborhood went dark.² Who knew that the movie The Hangover II that is set in Bangkok and that we had watched right before our trip would serve as an instruction manual? Because of it, I immediately messaged him to be sure he wasn’t stuck in the elevator. Thankfully he was not, although had it happened about one minute later, he would have been, and he had his handy dandy powerful pocket flashlight that he had received from his parents for Christmas (although he did have to climb the six flights of stairs up to our room). Aided by the bright light that it cast we were able to pack up for the day and head out.

We headed to the Ruam Sap market again in search of coffee and breakfast. I felt braver this morning and got the egg and pork noodle dish that Scott had tried yesterday and Scott had a coconut smoothie as well as some of the more mysterious bits of meat from my noodles. We bought a bunch of teeny bananas from one of the fruit stalls and were happy to discover that they tasted similar to the varieties that we had experienced in Hawaii³.

From the market we headed to catch the Bangkok metro to take us to see Wat Pho, better known as the Reclining Buddha, and the Grand Palace, former home to the Thai royal family and government until 1925. While Google Maps does make it fairly easy to figure out which lines to take and where to transfer if needed, I am always thankful for Scott’s willingness and ability to be our de facto navigator when we are in strange lands. When we popped out of the station and onto the street we were immediately swarmed with loud and pushy tuktuk drivers offering us rides to wherever we might possibly want to go. We shouldered through them in search of Wat Pho.

Wat Pho, the Reclining Buddha, is a sprawling Buddhist temple complex featuring a 46 meter long, 15 meter tall, reclining Buddha as the name suggests. While the Buddha in repose was admittedly impressive, I was more captivated and excited by all the cats that were wandering in and around the temples and the surrounds. (This would be a theme for the entire trip, just like it was in Hawaii.) It was in Wat Pho that we experienced our first coconut smoothie⁴ that sparked our obsession with them.

Coconut smoothies in hand, we wandered around the expansive 80,000 square meter complex and all its various temples and gardens. Our favorite was the Crocodile Pond (sadly no live crocodiles live in it anymore, just a brass statue representing the monastery’s crocodile that once lived there) which was a walled garden with an elaborate pond and abundant orchids and moss cloaked amongst the trees. The fountains within the pond featured misting systems amongst the greenery which gave dramatic flair. It was a mighty fine spot to sip our smoothies.

The next stop was the Grand Palace, which was just a short walk away from Wat Pho. Once there, there was an underground walkway to transport you safely to the entrance which was similar to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, to keep pedestrians from attempting to cross the busy road and getting hunted down by drivers; a favorite pastime enjoyed by drivers both in France and Thailand. The Grand Palace was indeed grand, as well as incredibly and unbelievably crowded. The main attraction (at least for us) was the Emerald Buddha but for whatever reason, it was closed that day. We went into another large and popular temple within the Palace featuring another elaborate Buddha instead (not sure what this particular Buddha’s gimmick was- neither of us can remember, sorry to any Buddhists that are reading). Edited to add: Upon further research, it seems that it was the Phra Ubosot, or The Chapel, that we visited. To be honest, they really did all start to blend together unless they had some remarkably distinctive architecture or distinguishing Buddha feature. The one we most hoped to see, but never found, was Wat Pariwat, which is adorned in Marvel movie characters.

It might have been at this point that we decided we had seen enough wats. We were watted out. So we headed in search of lunch. We were quickly learning that you could pay American/Western prices for food, or you could pay Thai prices for food, and the restaurant that we found that was right on the edge of the Chao Praya river, and directly across the river from the famous Wat Arun⁵, definitely had American prices, but the food was good and the meat distinguishable. We dined looking at Wat Arun and then decided to make our way back to the hotel, this time deciding to take the BTS skytrain.

We took our first water taxi in order to reach the train station, and got to watch the woman that was taxed with getting tourists onto the correct boats. She was mighty similar to a TSA or DMV worker as she bossed and sorted tourists where they needed to go, barking at them in broken and rather angry sounding English, commanding people to “Sit! Stay!” as if they were naughty puppies, and when it was time for them to make their way to the boat she would shout “You go away now!” From this water taxi, we got a view of downtown Bangkok from the Chao Praya that more closely resembled a freeway than a river, and got to catch our first glimpse of the iconic gold domed Lebua skyscraper that Scott recognized from The Hangover II.

We made it to the skytrain station, and as we were trying to figure out which direction we needed to go on the train, we must have looked a bit confused because a very kind American man asked us if we needed help. He was heading more or less the same way we were and told us to follow along with him. We enjoyed talking with him on the train and he gave us a helpful Bangkok public transportation tutorial. Thanks Derek from San Diego! We made it successfully back to the hotel and took a quick nap and set multiple alarms to be sure we wouldn’t pull another accidental 14 hour long nap like we did the day before.

We obeyed our alarm and headed out for a night of Muay Thai, or famous Thai boxing, at the purpose built Rajadamnern Stadium a few kilometers away. We were attempting to take public transportation there and the first leg of that plan was successful. We took the skytrain to where it wanted us to get off and go find a bus. However, once we found the bus station, the bus that ran to the stadium ended up being delayed indefinitely so we decided to get a Grab or Bolt (the Asian equivalent of Uber).

We got our tickets and were escorted to our seats which were in the top row of the bottom deck and actually provided a pretty good vantage point. A concession worker personally came and found us and handed us menus (quite a clever strategy, I might add) and we got Chang beer and popcorn to eat and drink while we watched wiry and lithe 115 pound Thai men try to pummel, punch, and kick the living daylights out of each other until one got knocked out. There were some warm up rounds with the B-team boxers and then it was time for the main event. There was a female DJ that Scott couldn’t keep his eyes off of spinning the tunes to pump up the crowd and an entertaining emcee/hype-man who thankfully dual-cast his hype both in Thai and English. There was also a live Muay Thai band that provided the rather dramatic and iconic backdrop to the fight, called the Sarama, that plays in the background during the pre-fight ritual and while the boxers fight. It absolutely added melodrama. There was an impressive pre-show sound and light celebration that played on the towering interactive ceiling above us that told of the history and story of Muay Thai. (Essentially it was the style of fighting used by the king’s warriors who were taxed with protecting their army’s elephants.)

And then it was time for the main event… There was lots of kicking, punching, bleeding, grappling, wrestling, that sometimes ended in knock outs. If there was a point system, and I imagine that there was, it was lost on me, but I appreciated the cultural significance of what we were watching, although I might add that my Muay Thai observation face is remarkably similar to my rodeo observation face. It was one of those “do the thing you’re supposed to do in the place you’re supposed to do it” sort of events and I’m glad that we went.

In lieu of attempting public transportation so late at night we opted to summon a Grab or Bolt back to the hotel and we promptly passed out once there.