More from Bangkok: Grand Palace and a boat ride

After leaving the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, we walked around the grounds of the grand palace. No longer the home of the King, the palace is now used for formal ceremonies and entertaining foreign dignitaries. We didn't get too many photos from here because the King's sister had just died and was laying in state, so much of the palace was off-limits to foreigners.

This last photo is of Thai students on a field trip. Their teacher is giving the history of the Grand Palace via megaphone.

From the Grand Palace, we turned down about 8 tuk-tuk rides and went walking through the city. Not sure where we were, we ended up walking out onto a pier overlooking the main river that runs through the city. Bangkok is layed out a bit like Venice with an extensive canal system networking the city together. While many canals go untraveled, Bangkok has recently seen a movement to clean up and revitalize the canals. The difference, though, between Bangkok and Venice is that a boatride is not a serene, romantic ride, but instead a jet-powered, white-knucking trip to your destination. With no intention of taking a ride, we found ourselves haggling the price of a boatride with the lady. As we quickly discovered on this trip, "no" only seems to be an advance for Southeast Asians to prod at you futher until you walk away or give in. So, we gave in and went for a boat ride.

Monster engine attached to a stick with a teeny propeller.

At a floating market.