On our first night in Bangkok, we attended a Classical Thai dinner and dance at the Oriental Hotel. When we arrived at the dock to take the boat over to the restaurant, our guide looked down and noticed our feet as we stepped out of the van. The girls were wearing dressy flipflops and I had on low heeled sandals. She was so sorry, but our shoes would not be accepted in the restaurant. After some quick discussion, we were whisked away to a local, fairly cheap, department store where we quickly purchased some new sandals for the girls (mine in the long run were fine). We rushed back to the dock, quickly took a boat to the restaurant to arrive just in time. As we entered the restaurant, the first thing we were requested to do was give up our shoes, since we needed to be barefooted in the restaurant! We still are not sure what was going on there, but it was pretty funny at the time.
The first day of touring in Bangkok, we visited Wat Traimit with the Golden Buddha. This is a solid gold, 13 foot high, 5 ton Buddha from the 13th century. Really impressive. Next at Wat Pho, we walked along the 150 foot reclinine Buddha. Every temple was bright and beautiful. A huge contrast to the stone work of Angkor Wat, which was beautiful in a different way.
