The Grand Palace in 40 minutes

We arrived just fine in Bangkok; this is the same airport that was the scene of rioting several weeks ago. Fortunately all was quiet on the Eastern Front and everything was very modern and clearing customs, seamless. We had purchased our train tickets 60 days in advanced to gaurantee we would get sleepers cars so we met the courrier with our train tickets there at the airport. All in all... a piece of cake.... mmmm cake.

We had originally thought we would leave our bags at a "luggage /leave" area at the Bangkok airport, do some sight seeing and come back and get the bags before heading to the train station. But after we looked city map... okay I lied... after Tammy and Suzi looked at a map we decided... lied again... Tammy and Suzi decided it would logistically impossible to to go all the way into Bangkok see or do anything and travel back to the airport and back to the station in time for our 6 o'clock departure. See this is why I hate maps; it didn't seem that far to me when I looked at it.

So, we got a taxi and headed into Bangkok to the Hua Lamphong train station and were pleased to discover there is actually a place there at the station where we could leave our luggage, which we did. A very kind and helpful "visitor guide" at the imformation desk encouraged us that we would have enough time to make it to the Grand Place and back to the station before our train left. She even told us how much the taxi would probably be and told us not, I repeat NOT to take one of tuk-tuk as the drivers can't be trusted and they will try to rip us off.

We immediately left this woman who had been so helpful in every way, never giving us a reason to doubt her, and said "yes" to the 1st tuk-tuk driver who agreed to take us to the Grand Place for 50 baht, the amount the sweet woman had told us would be pretty fair. We got about a quarter mile from the train station and the tuk-tuk driver pulled over and started trying to sell us some tour and told us the Grand Palace would be closed and we would never make it.

I don't know why any of us were suprised, but we were both shocked and appalled and he in about 30 seconds had three mad hornets demanding he either take us to the Grand Palace now or we would leave. He kept trying to talk us into something else so we got out and marched off in the opposite direction. We didn't know where we were but we able to flag down a metered taxi who got us to the Grand Palace.

There are people who will spend a whole day at the Grand Palace studying the amazing architecture, getting a feel for the history of this jewel of Bangkok. Speaking with the volunteers or guides and gaining a great appreciation for the wonder this place is. We are not those people.

We did the Grand Palace in just about 40 minutes and we each thought that was just about right. Now don't get us wrong... this place is honestly breath taking, absolutely beautiful, but our appreciation for it was perfect right at 40 minutes. Just about the time our A.D.D. started to kick in, Tammy found an Hagen Daas ice cream shop and our whole experience with the Grand Palace was made... perfect.

We are in Chiang Mai right now our 2nd night and there is a TON of stuff to catch you up on but it is 11:00pm and my two "spell-checkers" have fallen asleep so we will call it a night.