First days in Thailand

It's my 3rd day here in Bangkok. I have been trying to piece together a little plan of how I would like to spend my time here.
After not going out at all the first day because I was trying to rest after the trip from Sydney, I decided to explore a little yesterday. I'm currently staying at the Thai Cozy House in the backpackers ghetto of Bangkok. Slightly expensive for Thai prices but fine with me so long as I can relax and gather together a plan.
Yesterday I woke early and headed over to the Grand Palace where I was able to catch free morning tour in English. There was a nice guy from Seattle in the tour group also alone so afterwards we set off together to find some food, walk through the cities markets. The variety of things you can buy on the street is astounding. Everything from a real tiger skin to fake teeth, and of course a million different kinds of amulets. My favorite of course was seeing, smelling and tasting the street food. I started simply. After we sat at an outdoor street vendor cafe for a bowl of noodles in spicy Thai broth, we walked over the bridge amongst the rows of amulet vendors and I stopped to buy some pineapple with chili powder. Then I got a fresh mango fruit shake. Craig, the Seattle fellow, wanted to try grass jelly. So we stopped at a little hole in the wall place and he got some. It tasted like tea flavored jello and it was served in a small bowl with ice and a brown powder that tasted like tamarind. Craig said it reminded him of molasses.
Afterwards we parted ways because I was feeling ready for a nap and was supposed to get back around 3ish to call Dan's (who I met in Argentina) brother, Brian about meeting for dinner that night and getting insider info about how to get around Thailand since he lives here. I of course managed to get lost and it took me about an hour to find my way back. But it was fine and after arranging to meet him at 7:30 I went to my room for a nap.
Brian took me to a restaurant nearby where we ate falafel (of all things, I guess if you live in Thailand eating falafel is a treat). It was good though, and he was super helpful about giving me all sorts of travel advice. He is very knowledgeable about temples and meditation in Thailand and so I decided to take a trip to a female temple west of Bangkok for this weekend. Hopefully it will work out. I am probably just going to show up tomorrow, even though I emailed. They might not reply by then. Worst thing that could happen is that it doesn't work out and I head north to Chiang Mai earlier than expected.
I had thought about going to Angkor Wat but after looking at the flight prices and learning about the alternate long and bumpy bus journey, I think I may have to leave it for another trip.
It's almost 1 in the afternoon here now, and I have been doing Internet research about this meditation thing and travel north afterwards all morning. Might go out in a bit to get pad thai and see some wats.