We were quickly pulled over by a police officer. He was on foot, though, and he kinda just waved us over. Apparently, we were driving in the wrong lane or something. A bribe for something like that is 100baht (about 5USD). A more serious bribe is about twice that. You better be loaded if you wanna bribe the cops!
We checked out the... Handicraft... Center? I'll get back to you on the names. It's this huge center created by the queen that's like a mall and a training center for ancient Thai handcrafted goods where people can buy and sell different works. It was pretty sweet! Just saw a lot of cool art and textiles from all over Thailand. We had the whole place to ourselves.
We took a trip to the royal summer palace, which is a massive amazing estate with European and Asian architecture. We had to take a little cable car over a river to get there. There were maybe 100s of people out there drawing. I guess it's just a pastime? The buildings of course were full of royal accoutrements. There were a ton of people there. Later, we ate some noodles by the river.
We ended up seeing about 8 temples today which were spaced out throughout the city. Some of them were up to 1,000 years old. Most of them are in disrepair from the Burmese War or flooding. But people come to all of them to pray, meditate, and give offerings. There are actually male monks all over Thailand who where orange robes and shave their heads and eyebrows. They're as young as children. The Buddhas, even if they're missing heads or appendages, are adorned with similar robes. There are others who aren't monks but have dedicated time to meditation and where white robes. We walked through a village of them where everything was almost silent.
We went to a little river village where all the buildings were on stilts and boats and bridges connected everything.
After that we went to a heritage festival with all kinds of food, art, fireworks, and performances. They lit some lanterns and let them drift through the air, and then we left.
After getting back to Bangkok, we decided that we still had a little more energy left. We went to a lounge on the roof of one of the highest skyscrapers in the city. We sat out there and had drinks and lied under the night in the middle of all the lights of the city, even though we were covered in sweat and filth.
Pictures are coming. Sorry, been busy! Need to get... visas? Train, bus, airplane tickets? Postcards? Soon!
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