Today, we decided to go to Wat Arun, a very beautiful Buddhist temple right on the river.  We could have taken a taxi but decided to go the scenic route — a 3.5 km walk to the river, a commuter boat down the river, and a shuttle boat across the river.  But, no trip to Bangkok is complete without someone attempting to scam you, and today we were hit not once but twice — both times someone tried to get us into a tuk-tuk to be taken to who knows where (most likely a store or restaurant where the driver gets a commission).

First, as we were walking towards the river, we were approached by a policeman.  Yeah, right, sure he was a policeman.  A policeman who told us the walk was 8 km — but not to worry he knew a tuk tuk driver.  After successfully extricating ourselves from that discussion, we were soon approached by another guy.  He tried to tell us that none of the river boats were running — it is a holiday, don’t you know — but not to worry he knew a tuk tuk driver.  After once again extricating ourselves from that conversation, we finished our walk and found out that, sure enough, the boats were running.

We hopped on the Chao Phraya Express boat and soon we were at Wat Arun.  It is really quite stunning, and the photos don’t do it justice, but hopefully you can get an idea of the intricacy of the temple: 

Wat Arun

After visiting the temple, it was time to find an Irish pub — we have a tradition of visiting an Irish pub in every city.  Lucky for us, there was a pub on the way home and, even better, it was playing football (soccer):

Lisa at Flann O’Brien’s

Not only did we find an Irish pub, but we also had our first street food of the trip.  Our second scammer actually gave us one piece of good information — he told us a street near our hotel was closed to vehicles and a street fair with all kinds of food was set up.  After listening to some little kids (maybe 6-8 years old) sing Zombie (the Cranberries song), Robert got small crabs that had been deep fried, shells and all:

Fried whole crabs

He also got some sort of fried eggs — the sign said “squid egg” but we are guessing they were actually quail.  The two of us also got two noodle dishes (one with bbq’d pork) and a pomelo (a type of fruit that is very yummy but hard to find in the US unless you are near an Asian grocery).  All of that cost a grand total of 170 Baht or $5.22.  Yeah, Bangkok is just too expensive!  Now, fingers crossed we don’t get sick…