I can’t believe the smell here...it takes your breath away. Every time you walk past a drain it just hits you. The worst was when we turned a corner and there was a fish restaurant and they had these weird looking fish in an outside tank, the smell was awful- I think I gagged a little :) so gross. Today we headed to the grand palace. We had our first chance to haggle for a taxi. Katane managed to get us a taxi for 100 baht so we got in and then he locked the doors and drove off and said its 400 baht so katane said no no no pull over we will get out, and then the bartering began- it was hilarious!! Katene did a great job- we didn’t get taken to the gem stores or markets the taxi driver tried to get us to go to and we ended up paying 120 because it was a long way and we felt bad. Outside the grand palace people try to scam you into buying pants and tops, as you have to have your arms and legs covered, and just as we started heading in the direction a man pointed us in we hear over the loud speaker for the grand palace "don’t trust anyone trying to sell you things outside the palace". So we went in and lined up to hire some clothes. Jess and steph got these shirts that made them look like nurses and I got a long skirt that felt like it was made out of curtain material. The palace was amazing- so much intricate details and the gold- now you know where Thailand’s money goes- to make the gold Buddha shrines. I got told off in the temple for pointing my feet at the Buddha. Opps my bad. Tonight we are going to the night market and then to the sky bar to get a good view of Bangkok. We have two new roomies, two Scots. They left their bags on their beds and left the room- so katane thought it would be funny to swap their bags. So later they come back when me and jess were in there and couldn't figure out why their bags were on the wrong beds. I finally told them because I was laughing inside at their confusion. Oh and we also have a taser in our room- the one that looks like a cell phone- you may have seen it on the customs program - because they are illegal to bring into nz, the two Irish girls left it behind- but they gave us a demo first- man it has a lot of kick to it.
