Lost in Bangkok

I took a taxi to my hostel in Bangkok and was ready to start exploring - so I began to walk. I had no clue where I was going or in which direction I was walking, but I decided I would try to head generally toward the tourist center (which is quite far). I did manage to find ice cream pretty quickly. After wandering for a while, I saw a couple locals waiting at the bus stop an decided to wait with them. When they hailed a covered pickup truck sherut sort of thing and got on, I joined them. We cruised around for 10 minutes or so and everybody gets off at a metro station, so I do too.

Now I'm totally lost, so I walk around for a bit and jump on a bus, which just takes me to the neat metro stop before they kick me off. I eat lunch, buy DEET, and keep wandering.

At this point, I see hundreds of kids in uniform leaving a school, and I walk towards it. Next to the school is a beautiful temple; though I was taken aback, this temple isn't even on the list on my map application, leaving me ever for the ones that are. Writing this on my phone doesn't allow me to caption or inline images - forgive me.

At some point I ended up in a very poor part of town, and decide it was time to hail a cab an head back.

Some things I noticed:
The food you can buy on the street looks as though it has been sitting out for days. Eating at the mall, my first meal in Thailand was Japanese. The city (not the nice part mind you) generally smells of waste and/or feces. Nobody speaks English, which, combined with the fact that it is still developing, makes me feel like a British imperialist. It is hot in this city.

Also - I washed some clothes and discovered that Bangkok has a nice planetarium.