Second Day Shenanigans, or, Wats Galore

After a restful sleep, we awoke ready to conquer another hot, steamy day in Bangkok.  Despite April being the hottest time of the year, we managed to do a lot during our second day.

                

train station

street scene

typical sidewalk spot

After dropping our bags off at the "Left Luggage" facility in the Hualamphong train station (the past tense did not particularly inspire confidence), we headed across the bridge to Chinatown.  From there, a taxi took us to Khao San road, where we had a satisfying lunch of soup noodles and rice for approximately US$2. We then strolled down Thanon Thao, popping into Wat Suthat Thepwararam Ratchaworamahawiham (how's that for a mouthful?) for its soothing, cool interiors: 

before heading to the Royal Palace:

and Wat Phra Kaew:

              

and Wat Pho:

where we saw the giant reclining Buddha.  It measures 15 meters high and 43 meters long!

 And last but not least, we took a ferry to Wat Arun, on the other side of the Chao Praya river.

    

Wat Arun was massive and had steep, steep steps that went to the top.  From there, with shaky legs, I took some pictures of the view:

By this point we were fully "watt-ed out", and opted to take a water taxi down the river to the Oriental pier, where we toured the beautiful grounds of the Mandarin Oriental.

                            

We ended the night by heading back to the train station for our night sleeper train to Nong Khai.