Thailand: Bangkok

A couple months ago I went to Thailand.
After my initial flight was delayed by a typhoon, and mom waited up all night to make sure I got where I was meant to go, I arrived in Bangkok. I  met up with Leonie in the airport, and with our two additional travel companions in the 'tourist ghetto' of Khoa San Rd. After receiving many sets of contradictory directions, we found our little 'hotel' and settled in for the night, grateful for the AC.
My travel companions were Leonie, Katie, and Jaclyn. Here we are (minus Leonie) in the side alley leading to out hotel.
The next day we went to the Grand Palace complex, a beautiful, majestic, and wholly overwhelming place. Once again we endured many conflicting directions that the Lonely Planet guide later confirmed to be common scams (Grand palace is so boring, here take this tuk tuk that magically appeared and go on this other tour instead; the Grand Palace is closed today because it is a Buddhist holiday and the monks are praying; Oh you can't go that way, the road is under construction...). Baffling as it was for me to be lied to, I tried to remember that this was a totally different culture where lying to strangers is not a faux pas.

Our clothes were deemed inappropriate and we rented skirts/shirts as necessary to become appropriate. Jaclyn decided the crush of tourists was not for her. And so we commenced our tour of the glittering place.

Perhaps my favorite thing were the enormous bowls of water lilies, complete with tiny fish presumably in place to corral mosquitoes and  such pests.
     

Many different forms of guardians, this was the most intimidating. 

Painted tiles on a low wall, another detail I really liked. 

And that is pretty much my impression of Bangkok. It  left me feeling much the way I feel about most big cities - not for me, but surely others enjoy it.