Thailand Day 4 & 5 (March 18 - 19, 2009)

Our final full day in Bangkok, the trip itself has seemed like a blur. In the morning Dean and I picked up our suits at the tailor – fit great! Dean had to have a few more adjustments done with his, so we decided to pick them up later that evening. We decided that day to head to the Grand Palace, still located in Bangkok but far away from our hotel. Initially taking a cab to its general location we soon realized that we would have to take a water taxi the rest of the way down the river. The water taxi was reasonably fast and packed as well – one of the main forms of transportation in Bangkok for the locals. We arrived at the Grand Palace, but weren’t exactly sure what entrance to go to. Luckily, we ran into a New Zealand couple on their honeymoon that was in our same situation. It was really neat to talk to them about our travels and hear about their stories as well. We chatted about rugby for awhile – they were big fans, we had just been in South Africa so we all knew a little bit about the game. After walking around what seemed to be the entire palace we finally found the correct entrance. Walking into the gate, I was absolutely amazed how large the palace grounds were! The architecture was amazing, it seemed like the entire palace was made out of gold. The Grand Palace itself served as the official residence of the Kings of Thailand since the 18th century onwards. Even though I heard that the current King resides elsewhere, many of the modern looking structures were off limits, leading me to believe that some of the grounds are still used by the government. After the Palace, we headed back to the hotel to eat and pick up Dean’s suits. The last thing we wanted to accomplish in Bangkok was to go to a Muay Thai fight (not to be confused Mai Thai, even though they sound similar). It is a form of martial arts using kicks and punches – they do wear gloves though so it is somewhat similar to modern day boxing. Tickets for the fights are fairly expensive but we found out that there was a free fight that night, located in another part of Bangkok, far away from our hotel. We desperately wanted to see at least one fight though, so we headed to the mall where it the matches were being held. Thankfully, we were able to catch the last fight of the night -- an American woman versus a Thai woman. People all over the world move to Thailand and train Muay Thai. It was great that we were able to see a fighter from our own country. Even better, the American pummeled the Thai woman in about 10 seconds! Chalk one up for the good guys! I was absolutely blown away with the power behind the some of the punches but especially the kicks. It was a lot of fun. We went up to the ring after the match and discretely but effectively yelled “U.S.A!” in the direction of the American fighter. She looked at us, smiled and raised her gloves – it was awesome.

Unfortunately, our last day in Thailand was spent traveling back to the ship. It was about two hour drive back to the port. Right after we checked out of the hotel, we caught a cab and headed back to the ship – saw some of the country side though.