Thailand Vacation (Day 7 & 1/2)

Our flight out of Ko Samui departed at 6:05am. We had to be there an hour before take off and it was about a 45 minute drive. Take into account getting ready and eating something, we basically got up extremely early. The taxi came promptly and we soon headed to Bangkok. The flight was quick and before we knew it we had landed.
When we arrived in Bangkok we went straight to the left luggage department and dropped off our bags for the day. We were going to be walking all over the place so we did not want to carry our stuff with us. It was only a couple of bucks to leave the bags.
After dropping off our stuff we went towards the airport shuttle bus area and bought a ticket to take us to Ko San Road. Buying the ticket was convenient and we hopped straight on the bus. I had done some research and mapped out our modes of transportation, however I did not expect it to be this easy. It seemed as if we were just having the best timing. The bus ride took about 40 minutes to get to our destination. We got off the bus and walked Ko San Road. This particular strip is a haven for foreigners and it is usually really lively, we were told. But at 9 O'clock in the morning, not much was happening.
We then headed to the Grand Palace. The Grand Palace is home to the king and queen. It was only about a 15 minute walk. We bought our tickets and went right inside. Before we bought our ticket though we had to rent a few pieces of clothing. You see, you can't wear shorts, me, and you can't show your shoulders, Latanya. So we needed a shirt and a pair of pants between us. We gave them the $6 deposit and put on the loners. It was especially funny looking at Latanya wearing such a big and baggy shirt. Let's just say she did not want her picture taken (I was able to take a few though).
Once we got in we took the tour around the grounds. It was pretty crowded. Because it was Sunday they were having a ceremony inside the large temple. The temple housed the Emerald Buddha that I wanted to see, but because there was a ceremony going on we were not able to see it. The Grand Palace itself was really beautiful, all the architecture looked amazing. We walked around for a little while longer and then returned our loners and headed over to our next destination.
The main tourist attraction we wanted to see was the Reclining Buddha. It's a giant golden statue of Buddha and he is reclining, pretty obvious right? The best part is that it's inside a building that is barely bigger than the statue. It was really amazing. Because we got there early in the day hardly anyone was there. We got to take our picture with no one else in the background. We stayed in the building for awhile and just took in the magnificence. We then left to our last must see destination in Bangkok, the shopping.
We hopped in a taxi and went to MBK. MBK is a giant shopping mall with individual vendors selling everything you could imagine. It was basically a huge mall designated for knock off everything. They sold knock off designer jeans to fake Rolex's. The best part was they were mostly really good knock offs for really cheap. The one thing they did not have an abundance of, were designer purses. They did not really have what Latanya was looking for. But as for clothing they had it all. I bought five polo brand shirts for about $4 a shirt. What deal right? And they look great. Latanya got some jeans, skirts, shirts and souvenirs. We also bought a cheap duffel bag to put all our stuff in. We were having such a great time shopping. After many hours in the mall, mind you Latanya also got a massage, we decided to check out the rest of area. We went to a couple other well known malls and walked and walked. We were really worn out when it came to the early evening time. I don't know how celebrities and rich people can go shopping all the time, it's exhausting. We ended up just sitting in a Starbucks for a couple of hours to kill some time.
It was about 9:00pm now and we needed to make our way to the airport. We grabbed a cab and he dropped us off right at the left luggage area. We got our stuff and then headed for our terminal and then gate. Our day in Bangkok was almost too easy. I had allotted some time for getting lost or longer transportation routes, but over all we made it around the city easily. I almost wished we would have fit some more sights in. We did do all we wanted though, so I guess we did not need to squeeze in anything else.
Our flight left at midnight. We took off just fine and actually I had started to fall asleep right away. I mean we had been up since 3:30am. So I was in my little dream land for a little while and then suddenly I was awoken by my neighbor to my left. She had put her pillow on my lap. That's odd, why would she do that, she should obviously know that I am clearly married and my wife was sitting on my right. Well she put the pillow there to catch the water that was leaking from above. Oh just great! It turns out it was the air conditioner that was leaking, and it was leaking onto my lap. The stewardess was very apologetic and was helpful. She tried her best to fix it, but the only solution was to have me switch seats. I ended up a few rows towards the front on the aisle. I was actually happy about the aisle. Dinner soon came and went. I then proceeded to fall asleep, again. About twenty minutes had passed and was awoken again by my new neighbor. It was an middle aged women who did not speak any English. She wanted me to move. I quickly said why? I was half asleep while we were conversing or charading. She wanted the extra seat for her son to be able to lie down to sleep. She pointed to another open seat that was between two people and I preferred not to sit next to. We argued back and forth for a few minutes and I finally decided to get up. When I got up I noticed the boy already fast asleep and not only that but he was like 14 or 15 years old. You have got to be kidding me. And why couldn't she have said something before when I first sat there? But no she wanted to wait until I was fast asleep. So because I was really frustrated and tired at this point I went back to my original seat that had a paper towel plugging up the leak. The stewardess attempted to talk to the crazy mother but she was not budging. After a leak and two seat switches as well as some always fun (not) charades I was finally fast asleep again. This time I slept for the rest of the flight.
We landed in Beijing and our layover was only 2 hours and then we got on our last flight to Seoul. Once we arrived we bought our ticket for our airport express bus and then passed out as soon as the bus left. Two short hours later we were back home. At this point is was about 1:00pm. The journey was long and interesting to say the least. We would have done it over and over though, it was all worth it. We had such a great time in Thailand. We will definitely go back.
Next trip, Beijing in October!!!