Day 2: Chao Phraya River Cruise & Wat Arun

My breakfast:

I am a huge fan of sunny side up and I don't love many things.

Among the spread, I gladly had just bee hoon and egg.

The cute one munching on her corn flakes

The online review of the breakfast was pathetic. I thought there should be some justice done here: there was your classic breakfast ie. coffee and tea, bread (toast or not) and butter, corn flakes ...orange juice and ... I can't remember what juice the red one was, but we would take the orange juice anytime

porridge
bread with jam or butter

fried bee hoon

rice with vegetables

ham and sausages

sunny side ups

fruits and hard-boiled eggs

The simple layout of the cafeteria

Some travellers had mentioned that the eggs were cold. I guess it depends on the timing you had your breakfast. The breakfast starts at 6.30am so if you get there by 7 am or 7.30am, the eggs would still be warm. Mine was. If you get there at 10am, it's likely that they would be cold by then.

Our Free & Easy package had a city tour in it. We first followed our tour guide to a river cruise at Chao Phraya River.

Getting on the tourist boat

We went to Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn

('Wat' = Temple)

We were thirsty and so we tried an authentic Thai coconut

Visitors praying to the Buddha (which I could not see)

Girls or women could dress up in Thai costumes and take pics on their own.

100 baht per pax

The dressing up took too long. The novelty wore off ...

She bawled ...

Loads of 'cannot wear this', 'cannot wear that' for the female. No 'cannots' for the male. Talk about sexual inequality!

Generally, women cannot wear sleeveless tops, shorts or pants above knees, or slippers or sandals into temples. I put on my cardigan before entering the temple.

Ticket for admission is 50 baht per pax

There are very steep and narrow steps up the temple. We didn't attempt to climb up though.

Okay, bye bye, temple!

I thought their Mandarin is interesting as well

There are souvenir shops around the temple. I bought a pack of 4 thai silk purses for 100 baht

More shops

I was tempted to get some of these white outfits, but the material was very thin. Very translucent.

Our tour guide

Where the King lives and works from - the hospital. 'That's why I love my King,' proclaimed our tour guide. The King is old and sickly but insists on working for the people.

Next, we went to a 'floating market' for the tourists only. A huge canal with 2 or 3 sellers paddling their touristy items.

What one paddler sells

After that, we went to another temple to make donation by buying a 100-baht loaf of bread to feed the fish.

The fish ate the bread feriously

Some houses we saw along the river

Where the local live

Grandfather and grandson

If it happens that you are totally on F&E, to take a Chao Praya River Cruise (10 baht per pax), take the BTS Skytrain to Saphan Taksin (terminal station), then go down to the ferry station. There you will find several boat companies offering you day-trips to different places eg. Orchid Farm.

There are a total of 34 piers along Chao Phraya River and you are free to get on and off where you wish.
Wat Arun is not easily accessible by public transport. The easier way is to go there by ferry.