Day Two: Thailand

I arrived in Thailand yesterday. The flight was extremely long (17 hours). Exactly as a friend warned me -- I looked up at the monitor when there was a little over 7 hours to go and thought I might die. Somehow, I managed to fall asleep for a few hours and all was well.
Today is a completely different story. I woke up early this morning ready to adventure out. I practiced a bunch of Thai phrases, mapped out my plan and ordered breakfast. Ah breakfast! I order the "complete Continental Breakfast" - pointed right to it on the menu. I recieved a bowl of cornflakes. Small by my standards. I waited endlessly for my check. Ok fine. I used the Thai phrase for "thank you" quite a bit despite the incorrect order and slow service.
Then, I asked the desk how to get to the river. They explained that was very far and called me a cab to take me to my first destination, Ka Phrat Kao. This was beautiful. After negotiating the cab fare, and borrowing a skirt to cover the three inches of calf that would surely offend the buddha, I took out my camera. Alas, it didn't work. Apparently, I never put batteries in it. So, I took lots of pictures with my phone. Upon leaving I found a store to buy batteries for the rest of the day.
As I left the Grand Palace and traversed the street that ran along it's gate, I met a man who offered advice about where to go next. He circled 4 more Wats on my map and put me in a Tuk Tuk. He told the driver that I would pay 40 Baht for him to take me to all 4 places and then back to Wat Po. For those of you wondering, that's about $1.50. I should have known that there would be a catch given the low price of transportation. The driver insisted on taking me to some shops where the sales pressure was through the roof. When I said I didn't want to shop, he explained that it was for him and not for me. The shops give him vouchers for gasoline when he brings people. And, as I discovered, he doesn't get a voucher if I don't stay long enough.
So, I saw some wonderful temples where there were no tourists. I got to pray alongside Thai people in home temples. I made a friend at the first. We sat on the carpet in front of a great golden buddha and chatted about our children, living in the US and Thailand, and other random topics. I bowed a lot, practiced not allowing my feet to point toward anyone and tried to use Thai phrases as much as possible. I was also bamboozeled into a few purchases and overpaid for one or two things by choice because I sensed the sellers needed the sale more than I needed to hold on to a dollars worth of Baht. I also enjoyed seeing sleeping cats around some of the temples.
And, a simple highlight for me was seeing lotus flowers. I had never seen one in person and was surprised at how sturdy and beautiful they really were. I wished I could grow them at home.
Finally, my feet were aching and blistered from my cheap Target sneakers. I hopped in a cab and gave the address to my hotel. He said he knew where to go but was hopelessly lost. We drove around for what seemed like hours. I watched him miss signs and tried to point them out but to no avail. He finally figured things out. The taxi ride was an adventure. Now, having been running on fuel from one small bowl of corn flakes all day, I am quite hungry. I am a little disappointed that I passed up so much good food today and definitely sad that I just walked right by the massage school. I chickened out at the last minute. Not only am I a little shy about being touched, I was very sweaty by the time I got there.
Well, I have a few more days left to explore.