Day 3-More Bangkok

This was a crazy busy day. We again took the SkyTrain to the River, caught a boat, and went to the Temples. Today we did Wat Pho (HUGE reclining golden Buddha), The Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaeo (a 3 foot emerald Buddha resting about 40 feet high on top of an immaculate golden throne), and the National Museum. Next to Wat Pho is the famous Thai Massage Training School, which we partook of for a total of $4. In case you've never had one, Thai massage specializes in treading the fine line between excruciating pain and complete relaxation. It was nice, but my hamstrings and back forced out audible grunts of pain for the duration.... Terri's masseuse was about 80 pounds and treated her well. Mine was built like a linebacker and wrapped me into plenty of painful positions. Terri, an apparent sadistic soul, continues to find this humorous.
An afternoon monsoon swept in, providing a timely relief for some Thai food at an EASY to find restaurant, and we headed over to Khao San Road. This place is Backpacker Central. There's literally hundreds of roadside travel agents and streetside vendors begging for your business. I bought a pair of flip-flops for a buck, bartering them down from $1.50. Always a deal to be found... We then headed over to Wat Saket, another Temple with graves lining a winding hill with a golden temple atop. Although repeated warnings that it was closed, we foraged ahead, which was quite creepy with the sun going down. At the top, we met a very friendly monk with good English, who escorted us back down and pointed us to the boxing rink. After talkig a tuk-tuk driver into taking us for 50 cents, we went to see Thai Boxing. It features 16-20 year old kids, all 100 pounds soaking wet, and all able to whip anybody I know. These guys were tough, and Thai Boxing is "anything goes." Knees, elbows, kicking, punching. Terri and I sat in the top with all the locals betting each other, making deafening noise,and for the most part disregarding the fight. I was quite thankful of Terri's ethnicity this night, as they let me stay in the section, but kicked all the other white folks out of their seats and made them sit across the way. Well after a healthy dose of violence, we found a cab and after much banter with our driver, we found our way to the SkyTrain and back home. Dinner and sleep was imminent...