1. A Day in Bangkok

My first complete day in daylight in Bangkok. After getting up, I discovered a nice breakfast spot right away and then cheerfully headed to the bus stop in front of the hotel. Line 59 was supposed to bring me quickly towards the Grand Palace, which was basically my main goal for today. No such luck! I got ready to wave down a bus in the local manner; all the other lines passed by me multiple times, but I didn't see the 59... Great, what a start! So I walked a bit and then I found the 59 at the Victory Monument. I quickly got on the vehicle with a wooden floor and comfortable seats that exuded a certain historical charm. After about 40 minutes of travel and what felt like 30 stops, I reached the old town. Thanks to Google Maps, I also found my stop, which I called out to the bus driver in newly learned phrases. (PS: Becoming a bus driver in Bangkok is definitely not a career goal of mine). Then, after a brief stroll through the old town, I headed to the Grand Palace, but on the way, I wanted to take a quick glance at the National Museum, surrounded by some school classes. The area turned out to be larger than expected, and the quick glance turned into 4.5 hours... then I walked through the university campus, where art students were hosting a festival, towards Wat Pho (the royal temple complex known as '1st class'); there I joined the afternoon crowd. For about the 50th time that day, I took off my shoes and walked in socks (that's how it is in the temples) around the enormous golden Buddha statue; always with some tourists hovering around, trying to fit the reclining golden figure into a selfie, which is quite a challenge given its dimensions of 46 x 16 m. Naturally, I joined in this tourist tradition. The Wat Pho complex is vast, lined with temples and Buddha statues, and all sorts of things are offered for sale, even though I doubt that the pink unicorns have any religious significance here. Watching some European visitors getting massages, however, had a certain divine charm in the view... After that, I strolled a bit through the adjacent market. Not all the smells of the local food delighted me, and it was already time to head back to the hotel as darkness set in, and I didn't quite trust the local connections due to my morning experiences, but that turned out to be unfounded... Conclusion of Day 1: Without Google Maps, I would have been lost; you can't always get by with English, and somehow everything works out...