We both awoke at 5:30 feeling refreshed and rested!
Went down to the breakfast buffet overlooking the river and both had our dream breakfast: mushroom, tomato and onion omelet for RR and sushi with amazing pickled ginger, pork buns and pomegranate-shaped fish dumplings for me. Too great!!
We walked to the river to catch the Marriott ferry that seems to run 24/7, and 20 minutes later were delivered to the #4 pier where we got onto a regular passenger ferry. Zoomed up the river past brightly-painted water taxis and huge barges pulled by tiny tug boats hauling freight down to the Gulf of Siam. We disembarked at Pier #9, walked through a crowded market to the Grand Palace. Lonely Planet suggests coming here when it first opens, but we were a little late and had to join the swarms of tourists trying to visit it also.
At least we didn’t have to go into the dressing rooms and put on rented clothing as we had read up enough to know to wear the long sleeves and pants and closed shoes demanded to show respect! I wanted to rent head sets and tapes to have a running commentary on what we were about to see, but the agency demanded that we leave our passports or credit cards behind as a guarantee on returning the recorders and RR didn’t want to do that, so we set off grumpily and in total ignorance to explore the Palace.
It was totally amazing: golden temples and gods, green, gold and red tiled roofs, curlicues, jewels, and tiles, ornate beyond belief. And people photographing their relatives standing in front of every possible object! We found that if we explored obscure little alleys and corners, we could get away from them and see equally beautiful things. We found an endless mural depicting the history/mythology of Thailand with warriors, goddesses, monkeys dressed in monks robes, and crocodiles.
We left about 1 PM and got back on a ferry that was crammed with people..”ferry overturns, hundreds lost” flashed through our minds, but we made it back to Pier #4 and climbed onto the Marriott ferry, where we sat feeling rather grubby, until a boat man handed us cool damp lemongrass-scented towels to clean ourselves bit before we re-entered the magic world of the resort!
We changed into shorts and went down to the pool area which consists of several levels, main pool with surrounding ponds with lily pads and fish, a café and lounge chairs. I ordered Tom Kha Gai soup on the recommendation of Suzanne, my sister-in-law, and Bob got beef, pork and chicken satay. The soup was the best ever: coconut broth with cilantro, fresh ginger and lemongrass. I only shared it with Bob because I’d promised to before it came. We had two pitchers of beer and collapsed for naps.
I had to try the pool and so went down about six and slipped into the large stone furiously-bubbling hot tub for a while before stepping into the large ~90 degree water pool. Absolute heaven! I floated about until it was dark and returned to the room where we decided to go to Brio, a elegant Italian restaurant downstairs, for pizza and campari/rum/oj drinks. Watched the curling competition on TV and fell asleep.
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