The story from everyone was that you will either love Bangkok right away, or you will hate it. It's a city of huge discrepancies, from the illustrious Grand Palace to a rickety food cart there is splendour and squalor where ever you look. I have to say that I fall in the middle of the continuum. I have enjoyed my time in the city, eating my way down Koh San Road, and visiting exquisite temples, getting introduced to the easygoing, friendly Thai people (and when you can say that about how they act in the city, they must truly be friendly). On the other hand I am quite ready to leave the congestion, pollution and crush of people behind. As told to me by a nice man from Mexico City, (known as the worst traffic and most pollution filled city in the world) he felt right at home.
Getting over jet lag and getting our bearings within the city was the goal for the first couple of days.
Our very first day that we arrived we just wanted to go right to sleep, even though it was the afternoon here. We had just spent an overnight layover in the Shanghai airport sleeping on a bench. Surprisingly restful, we each managed to catch a few zzzzs between announcements, people walking by and rolling to find a comfy spot. Needless to say we did not feel guilty laying down for a bit. We had scheduled to meet up with Thai friends of Krys' that live in the outer Bangkok area. They gave us an incredibly warm welcome to the city, plying us with their favourite Thai and Chinese dishes and insisting on helping us plan our trip around the city and answering any questions we had. I had lots. Mostly about Buddhism, and less about travelling around.
The next couple of days were all about walking and temples. We strolled and dripped (it's hot and humid!!) our way around the city visiting the Grand Palace, many wats (temples), and some other interesting landmarks like a giant swing. They used to use it in ceremony where young men would try to swing high and grab a bag filled with gold coins off a very tall pole. They stopped using it in the 1930s after multiple deaths. The Grand palace took almost half a day to walk around and admire. It was absolutely filled to overflowing with tourists. The other temples; the one with the reclining Buddha, the one with the jade Buddha, the temple on the hill were all quieter and much more peaceful. Each of them were different enough from the other that they were all interesting enough to look at. And take LOTS of pictures of.
The next two days we happily got out of the city for a little bit. One day we hired a car who drove us to the Damnoensaduak floating market. This has been the highlight of my travel so far. We hopped on a motorized canoe-like thing that drove us down the "Venice of Asia" where homes and businesses balanced on stilts over a lovely green and sludgy canal system. The boat circled through the floating market, while spewing noxious fumes. The market was so much fun, with food vendors on boats floating by, touristy trinkets and some nice crafts in little three-sided buildings, open to the water. When you were interested in something you just had to point and the driver of the boat would steer you over and the vendor would hook your boat with a big metal hook. Or try to hook you, and laugh and laugh at his joke. It was in this market that I got my first taste of mango sticky rice. It was a life changer. I picked it up from a young man floating by in a canoe. Incredibly fresh and tasty mango (my favourite fruit), sticky rice mixed with nuts and thick sweet coconut milk. I am scared to get it again in fear it won't be as good as that one was.
In the afternoon, we drove around the town of Ayutthaya, stopping at places part of the Ayutthaya historical park, consisting of ruins of temples, prangs, palaces, and Buddhas, from when Ayutthaya was the capital city of the area, from 1300s to the 1800s, when those darn Burmese ruined it. It was very atmospheric. The different styles of pagoda and temple construction was very evident from what we were seeing back in Bangkok.
The second day trip we took, we joined a tour that was an overview of some WW2 landmarks. Thailand was held by the Japanese at the time and the area that we went to was a prisoner of war camp and working area. We visited the JEATH (Japan, England, Australia, Americas, Thai, Holland) war museum which contains some relics of vehicles, military equipment and some very amateur paper mache sculptures of prominent military person, even Hitler himself warranted a statue. We walked out along the bridge over the River Kwai, and then had to duck onto outcroppings as the train slowly chugged past. Later we took another train, for about an hour which was a beautiful scenic trip past fields of different crops including cassava, sugar cane, and rice with jagged mountains in the background. The highlight though was passing over a one kilometre long section of the railway that was still the original wood. Let me backtrack a bit. The entire railway line was built by prisoners of war for military who felt they needed a faster connection with Burma. This leads me to the cemetery we visited, which contains the remains of over 6000 prisoners of war, of the over 15000 who perished at this camp alone. If I died of over exhaustion from working 18 hours a day, malnourishment and illness, I would hope to be buried here, it was a very peaceful spot. It was interesting to walk among the grave markers and read the names as well as the religions, regiments and countries each person was from. It was a genuinely level playing field which made me think about what it would have been like for these men, all mingling together in the camps. Would they have found commonalities, talked about home like new friends do when they meet people while travelling today?
Also part of this tour was a very un-enjoyable and un-authentic "pony ride" on an elephant. We hopped on the back, where there was a seat, and got walked around a field in a big circle. Let me say an elephants gait is not the most comfortable to get in rhythm with. There was also a similarly un-authentic float on a bamboo raft on the river where a quick motor boat up the river resulted in a peaceful 10 minute float back down. The current was surprisingly swift.
The final part of this tour was a gorgeous mini hike to visit what must be a lovely waterfall. However, even though we are travelling in monsoon season, there is little rain (which we are not unhappy about) and so the waterfall was completely dry. Nice spot anyway and a pretty cave to explore behind where the waterfall should be with stalagmites.
The last day we had in Bangkok started with us finally succumbing to the chorus of what sounds like dozens of cats in heat, but what are in fact the nasally call of Thaaaaaaaiiiiiiiii maaaaaaaassaaaaaaaggeeeee spouted by little Thai women enticing you to come into their parlours. Being that I am now a massage connoisseur, since I have had massages back home in Canada, and been beaten in a Turkish bath. I have to say that Thai massage was certainly unique. We are lying on mats on the floor and my lovely little lady gets right down with me. Not unlike Muay Thai where they use their hands, feet, elbows and knees to hit, this woman used all of those parts to bend and contort me into various pretzel shapes while driving down into my muscles and was not the least bit gentle in doing so. If I didn't have my eyes open, I would swear that she implemented a 300 pound weight, but no, that was just her elbow. Afterwards I felt two inches taller, and so loose that I could hip hop dance!!
Later, we walked until we ended up at the Royal Museum, and managed to figure out the multi-step process involved in getting in. Firstly, we had to go in the back way because we had to put our bags in a locker. That was like 4 blocks around the sprawling grounds. Then we had to purchase a sarong because unknown to us, women were not allowed to wear pants into the museum. It apparently is a very formal place. Then we line up to get in, then we had to go back and replace our beige ticket for a purple one. Then put my camera in another locker. Then for the pat-down, and metal detector. Nicely provided with an English automated tour guide, telephone thing and we are finally in!!
The museum featured commissioned art works, Thai traditional crafts and fine art, and gifts given to the royal family. The royal institute artisans are incredibly talented and the works that they produce; carving, tapestry, inlay, gold manipulating are outstanding. I was blown away at every piece and needed to look at every intricate detail. The embroidery was most outstanding. Huge pieces, metres high made from the finest silk from Thai silkworms and featuring details of colour and shading unlike anything I have seen before. Unfortunately, no pictures from inside. This actually made for a very peaceful tour through the museum because there was not a 'certain people group' jostling for position and stepping on your feet because they want to take a perfect picture. The grounds of the museum also included a royal elephant museum, and a textiles museum featuring samples of clothes from across the country, and samples of weaving/embroidery and dying styles. This was my favourite spot.
I write this from the overnight sleeper train travelling from Bangkok to Chumpon where we are going to catch a ferry to Koa Tao. Can't wait to enjoy the island life and get some diving in!! The sleeper train is interesting. It is second class, but air conditioned. The air conditioning is on so high, I think it is snowing. I have on two of the three sweaters that I brought, and a warm blanket and I am still freezing! I hope they dim the lights soon, I want to get some sleep before I have to get up at 3 in the morning when the train arrives in Chumpon.
Appendix: The lights never dimmed and I was freezing all night. The bathroom was fun. Picture trying to balance on a squat toilet on a rocky moving train with an open window and a hole open to the train tracks whizzing below. We sat in the Chumpon train station for a while and made some Dutch friends and watched rats run around and swim in the fountain. Now we are on the ferry And island bound!
Nathan and Krys ate a grasshopper. I did not
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