Fun Facts: The currency of Thailand is the baht. 31 to 32 baht is one dollar, or something like 27 or less if you go to the airport to exchange money. Fractions of a baht are called satang (like US cents). Most things cost at least 5 baht and I haven't used any satang yet; you get these little coins as change from grocery stores where they charge fractions of a baht. Denominations of baht go 1, 2, 5, and 10 as coins with 20, 50, 100, 500, and 1000 as bills. Some denominations of satang (I've only seen 25 and 50 so far) are smaller than dimes. When you get the bills, you can see that they are almost always in impeccable condition. This money has the king on it and he is very highly respected. Because of this, the money should always be handled with care as it would be disrespectful.
Food and other things are a lot less expensive in Thailand than the USA. You can get lunch/dinner for 30-45 baht and then a drink will be 10-15 baht. So that's about two dollars or less for a meal. Yet there are some places where food can be extremely expensive (fancy tourist places). Food courts are an interesting option as they allow you to go around and see a wide variety of options. At places like IT Square and the Central Mall, you put money on a card which you give to the people you get your food from. They subtract the value from the total and you can recover what's left when you leave the food court. You'll have to order from pictures placed around the storefronts. Once you've ordered, they cook it to order in front of you usually.
Street vendors are another popular option and you can't go far without running into one or a grouping of them. However, people traveling from outside the country should probably be sure to avoid certain foods or conditions as it could make them sick. I haven't had anything from the street vendors yet.
Another thing is that you can often bargain/haggle with vendors selling goods outside of established stores. It's fun and shouldn't be taken too aggressively. If you're a foreigner, you can probably get something down 10%. More if you can speak Thai or just some phrases (they seem to think it's cute or something), down to 25% off in one case. Usually just asking for a lower price will get you somewhere but in the end it's still really less expensive. Thai people get the most generous discounts. Most numbers are written in Arabic (0123456789) on signs and in shops but vendors will speak the numbers in Thai. I've learned to speak the numbers (it's a bit simpler format than English) yet vendors will also have calculators on hand to show you the price in a format you can understand. Since the labeled price will drop with haggling, the calculator provides a quick and concrete way of showing the new price.
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Day 2: On the day after resting up from the travel, we left early in the morning to tour numerous cultural sites around Bangkok. The first was the Grand Palace. It's a huge religious site that is maintained by the royalty and there are no monks living there. One part of the Thai culture is that every man is expected to become a monk for some period of their life. This can be a few weeks or much longer. The main temple of the Grand Palace houses the largest jade Buddha around, which is referred to as the Emerald Buddha. It is placed on top of a huge golden set-up inside a large room where people come to pray. Pictures weren't allowed inside. This statue is dressed for each of the three seasons in Thailand. There's also a whole tower covered in gold tiles and the building housing the Buddha is encrusted in what could be gem stones and more gold. Altogether this site took only three years to build a long time ago. There are also giant statues placed at the entrances; these are demons placed to fight off evils that would follow people into the site.
After the Grand Palace was Wat Pho, where the giant golden reposing Buddha statue is located. It's pretty big. On the opposite side of the statue near the exit are 108 bowls where those praying can drop a single coin into each one as they go along. 108 is the number of Auspicious Symbols in Buddhism. There's a station where one can exchange 20 baht for 108 coins. I'm not sure if these coins are satang (the Thai equivalent of cents) or some specialized coins. Afterward we stopped for lunch at a nice restaurant by the river.
Following this was the Vivanmek Mansion. It's a royal mansion built with teak wood about four kings ago. Since then, it has become a storage place and museum for gifts and other possessions of the Thai royalty. A lot of neat things are on display but cameras were forbidden. The tour was rather straightforward and showed off many collections of expensive things. Next door was the Arts of the Kingdom V exhibition of masterpieces to commemorate the elaborate gifts created to honor the king's birthday. Each one took months or years to finish and the details are amazing. They're built with teak, gold, iridescent beetle wings, and gems. Once again no cameras were allowed. Some stuff can be found online.
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