We walked to the 'Smile' restaurant to have our complimentary breakfast at 9am. The weather was still quite cool compared to the South. Jay had pork rice soup which was not great as it was not hot. Helen had pancake with banana and syrup and a cup of tea, this was tasty.

After breakfast we booked our VIP bus for Chiang Mai (North Thailand), which cost 320 THB each (6GBP).

We walked to the Grand Palace, it took approximately 15 minutes to get there where the weather started to warm up. We looked around the temples, they were so beautiful. They were made out of real gold leaf, glass, marble and other exotic materials. The Grand Palace itself is a very impressive building, the front garden looked so attractive with oriental style trees. We managed to see the changing of the guards which was great.

After viewing the temples and The Grand Palace, we walked back to our accommodation and enquired about how to get to the 'Wat Arun' Temple (Temple of Dawn, the most photographed building in Thailand). We then had lunch at 'Popiang House' restaurant. Jay had BBQ chicken with rice and Helen had Thai fish cakes. They were delicious.

After lunch we made our way to the 'Wat Arun' Temple, we walked to 'Pier 13' where we caught the ferry (cost 25 THB each) southbound to 'Pier 8', from here we could see the 'Memorial Bridge'. When we got to Pier 8, we needed to cross over to the west side of the Chao Phraya River where we caught a separate ferry (cost 3 THB each) which dropped us directly at the 'Wat Arun' Temple. The ferry gave us a different perspective of Bangkok outside of the backpacker district (Khaosan Road).

Upon arrival at the Wat Arun, we were taken back by the sheer amount of detail that was physically carved into the structure of the temple. The temple was noticeably more impressive than what we had seen from a distance on the ferry earlier. At this temple we had noticed that there were far more monks than we had seen compared to any of the previous temples we have visited. Jay was hoping to get a lucky Buddhist wristband from this temple. After speaking to a couple of the monks at the temple, one of them was kind enough to bless both of us and offered us a lucky wristband each. The monk could not put the wristband on Helen as he was forbidden to touch women.

We reached the top of the temple by climbing up two flights of steep steps, the second was far steeper than the first. There was an orangey-yellow sheet of folded lucky material hung around the temple, we like many others signed this.

We had a great view over the Chao Phraya River and the surrounding area. After crossing the river, we decided to walk back from Pier 8, whilst we were walking back we bumped into two local guys who advised us to go to 'Wat Ratchabophit' Temple, which was a small temple used by locals. It was free entry for tourists and was only open on specific religious days. We saw a group of school children making a prayer with a congregation of monks leading the prayer session. The surrounding area and the outside wall did not look as though it had been maintained, however once we entered through the temple gate we were both pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the temple and how well it had been looked after.

For dinner, we went back to 'Popiang House' restaurant as we liked their food. We both shared a BBQ red snapper (cost 150 THB) with rice. The fish meat was so tender and delicious, this was a much bigger fish than what we had in Phuket.

After dinner we got a tuk tuk to 'The Banyan Tree' Hotel, at the top of this hotel is where 'The Vertigo' bar is located. This is the tallest open air bar in Thailand. As we entered the bar, Helen had to change her footwear (flip flops) into a pair of white slip-on flat shoes borrowed from the bar (not stylish and a bit too big, she would have worn anything to get into this bar haha). The bar and restaurant area were completely open air and very posh. The drinks were expensive but the views certainly made up for it. Jay tried a Singha Light beer, he also had a Sangsom with coke and lime. Helen had a vanilla vodka with ginger ale and lime.