Palaces, Temples, Cabbages and what?

With so many sites to see in Bangkok we wanted to make sure we made the most of our day so we hired a tour guide and driver to take us around.  We met up with our friend Kathy and her daughter, Ann Marie for a day of Bangkok's most popular tourist sites.  A few of these we visited on our last trip so I'll just post a couple of my favorite pictures.

The day started with Nat (the son of Rat, seriously) picking us up to meet our guide at the Grand Palace.

Back to the Grand Palace

Kathy unintentionally photo bombing.  She was standing there first but our guide yelled at her for being too close to a monk.

A little sprinkling of the water that was used to wash the Emerald Buddha 

One of the temples on the Palace grounds

Just a few of the many Buddhas 

Next stop was the Temple of the Reclining Buddha.  

A small altar in front of the big Buddha

These stone Chinese statues are quite common around the temples and this is because they are the ballasts from boats from the olden days.  The Chinese would leave these when they came to pick up goods.

We made stops at the Vimanmek Mansion and the Jim Thompson House but pictures were only allowed outside.

One of the former royal palaces of Rama V

Jim Thompson was an American who revitalized the Thai silk trade in the 1960s.  We bought tons of great silk stuff from the Jim Thompson Outlet

By the time we headed back to the hotel it was a Friday night traffic jam.  It was so bad that we ended up walking back to the hotel instead of waiting several hours in this mess.

We had asked Nat what a great place to go to dinner would be and he recommended Cabbages & Condoms.  We kept dismissing him because it sounded like a pretty sketchy place but he insisted it was nice.  After confirming this on TripAdvisor we decided to give it a shot.

It was a nice, secluded restaurant off a backstreet.  So far, so good. 

Those aren't just regular lamps.  They are made of what? Condoms?!?!

Cops in Rubbers, oh my.

While the decorations were all condoms and birth control, the restaurant was as we were told, very nice and served great food.  The restaurant was founded by a politician who was promoting family planning in the 1970s.  At the time the average family had 7 children and through his efforts they have reduced that to 1.5 children.  To continue with the theme, the restaurant handed out condoms with the bill instead of mints.  Despite its awkwardness I would be willing to eat there again.

What a long, interesting day!