It's Always Sunny in Bangkok

I was on a mission today to get my suits. We had seen a tailor that looked to be pretty reputable on our way to the night bazaar the other evening and figured we’d give them a try. The Paul Smith Fashion Tailors (lucky super #1 tailor in Bangkok) is on the other side of the street from our hotel about a block down, so we hoofed it in the oppressive humidity alongside the bustling daily Bangkok traffic. Crossing the streets here in Bangkok is an adventure - first you got to get used to them driving on the other side and being able to turn left on red, and then get used to the amount of traffic flowing from all directions.

We made it to the tailor and were instantly besieged upon by two Thai gentlemen that wanted to help. I told them what I was looking for and the one (Peter) began to help me make my selections on fabrics for my two suits, sports jacket, pants and 6 shirts. (maybe I went a little overboard). After selecting the colors and fabrics I wanted out of the hundreds of choices they had it was time to negotiate price. Sweet, I get my game-face on like I’m getting ready to buy a new car (thanks for all the lessons growing up, Dad). I know the round about price I want to pay and he comes in waaaay over. So I haggle with him a bit, start to take some items off the table, Peter comes back with 10% lower - not enough - and we go back and forth. In frustration, I make the fatal mistake of stating my price - 35,000 Bhat…. He’s got me. We finally agree upon 36,500. From here I get measured up and will be picking up my new clothes on January 2nd. That’s 3.5 days. I don’t want to think about how they can turn that around so quickly.

We leave and head back to the hotel since we have a tour to go on in the afternoon. I’m quite pleased with my purchase and walk merrily down the street with a grin on my face, anxious for my first fitting the next day. We grab some lunch at the hotel and make final arrangements for our tour - a trip on the Chao Phraya River with a stop at Wat Arun.

Our guide picks us up at 2PM on the button. A young guy named Yothin, Yo for short, is our guide for the day with his driver that he calls James Bond. He speaks English very well and conversed with us about American pop culture, celebrities, the NBA, etc - when asked where we were from (NYC), he responded with a joke about his Big Brother being in America. Barrack Obama. We laughed at the corny joke, but I was glad to hear the optimism and hope for a better world carries around it.

Yo talks our ears off as we make our way to the riverside, telling us about the movies and actors he likes, while interspersing it with Thai history and culture, stories about himself - his business plans, his life, his girlfriend. In one of his history lessons, we learned that the King and I is based on King Rama IV (current King is Rama IX) and the movie is not available in Thailand (banned for lese majeste). We make our way to a rickety long-tail boat and jump-in. Long-tail boats are traditional Asian river boats, but the new ones are powered with load and uncovered diesel engines (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longtail_boat).

We get moving along the wide open river and go down one of the thousands of klonds, or canals, that make up Chao Phraya. The river used to be used for everything by the Thai people that lived along its waters - cooking, showering, drinking - but now it is too polluted for any of that. Pollution is a huge problem here in Bangkok. Not only is the water dirty, the air is also some of the worst in Asia, which speaks a volume about their air pollution.

The sights were incredible as we slowly waded down the river. Lined with homes, big and small, temples and construction companies, the Thai Navy and fishing boats, there was plenty that caught our eyes along the narrow canals. The foliage and animal life that we saw gave us a sense of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now, but not as sinister. There were other tourists on the river, as well as floating merchants that we were obliged to buy from and even floating restaurants - basically a cook in a boat with a propane hot plate making noodles and what not.

It is bad form to fish at the riverside temples, so swarms of catfish tend to congregate there, much like salmon do in the rivers and streams of the Great North West. You can buy a loaf of bed for 10 Bhat and feed them, which we did. The monstrous looking catfish frenzied over the feeding.

We finally arrived at Wat Arun - the Temple of Dawn. I know it sounds like something out of Indiana Jones. It looked like it too. The temple was built in the 16th century before the capital of Thailand was moved to Bangkok by King Rama I. As you can see from the pictures, the structure is enormous with incredibly steeps stairs leading up. But once the stairs are navigated, you get a breathtaking view of the Bangkok city skyline, with the Grand Palace and Wat Pho clearly visible across the river and downtown in the distance. Decorated with Chinese porcelain and statues of the Buddha sitting under The Bodhi Tree (Pho Tree in Thai), Wat Arun was another amazing beauty.

We made our way back with Yo to meet James Bond our driver across the river on the ferry, which cost 3 Baht/person. We of course got stuck in the afternoon rush-hour traffic, but enjoyed the sights along the way and Yo’s stories.

That’s it for now, more to come soon. In the famous words of Borat Sagdiyev, “I like you, you like me?”

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