Emerald Biuddha plus a little more

I'm hot. Hot and sticky and sweaty. Today is my last day in Bangkok (for this part of my trip). Tonight i take the night train to Nong Khai. I didn't think I would be e-mailing again today but I have already checked out of my room and it looks like it is going to rain. Plus I'm 4 hours too early for the train and I think i rather stick around the lobby of my hotel than the train station.

So i wanted to see something touristy while I was here. I wanted to be able to say i saw something. So i picked going to Wat Phra Kaew (Emerald Buddha). On the map it really wasn't that far away and usually i can follow the directions from a map pretty well. But for some reason I had so many problems getting there. First of all, i tried not looking at my map and just remember names and directions - that didn't work for me very well. I ended up making a circle back to my hotel. I did decide to eat something and hang out in my hotel lobby with the AC. My second attempt I went around the block again and then pulled out my map and started asking people. I was pointed in the wrong direction a few times. Then I had a woman force bird feed in my hand and had me sprinkle it only then to tell me i owed her money. Grr. I gave her 1 baht. I don't think she was satisfied. She was looking for paper money that starts at 20 baht. I finally found the Emerald Buddha. I paid the 300 baht to see inside it and the Grand Palace.

The detailing and gold on those places were amazing. The time and effort that was put into the buildings astounds me. But i have to say I'm a little disappointed in the Emerald Buddha. For some reason i had this idea that the Buddha would be huge. But no, the Buddha was smaller than me and way up high on tops of a detailed mountain. It was amazing and I could have taken hundreds of pictures... but I tried to limit myself. If my bags weren't being held by the hotel i would up load picture of me being there. Pictures will come some time soon. I decided that i was too hot and tried to look at any more so I walked back to the hotel. I didn't have any problems with my directions back to the hotel but i did have problems with traffic.

Traffic here is amazing. And by amazing I mean horrible. Family - think of Amsterdam! Tailgating is normal, pedestrians don't have any right-aways, you don't really have to stay in your lane, motorcycles will come at you from all directions... it's crazy. I'm surprised that I haven't seen an ancient. Oh, in the back of taxis there are the harnesses for seat belts but no place to hook the harness into.

*right now the staff are setting out big buckets where the roof leaks in preparation for the rain*

The last few days lots of small things have happened that i haven't remembered to write about. I think the best thing that has happened was when i was asked if i was Polish. I guess my sage green, REI button down, shirt looked like something one of the Polish teams wears. I was quite confused but when with it. Last night while I was sticking my feet in the pool i was asked if i was Israeli. She came a little closer and figure it out herself. I guess I could be European or Australian but I think I look very American... especially with all of my REI clothing on.

Last night was the first night that I slept okay, not great but loads better than the two nights before that. I think talking and hangout with Joey gave me a lot of confidence in myself and being here on my own. Oh, I'm also starting to eat more.

I'm tired and am ready to be on the train so i can veg out and not have to worry about the train ride anymore.