ONE NIGHT IN BANGKOK

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March 8th 2015

Published: March 8th 2015

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Kevin and Susan

MAGNIFICENT STUPA

Wat Arun...Temple of Dawn

As we make our way through Asia’s mega-metropolises Kota Kinabalu, Hong Kong, Saigon, and now Bangkok and Singapore it is amazing that each is so unique. They all have commonalities such as lots of people, overwhelming traffic congestion and varying degrees of air pollution. But each city has its own personality and pace and history and attractions.

Bangkok is a city on the verge of gridlock. It barely has the infrastructure to deal with its exploding population and rampant development. But because of the calm, friendly nature of the people it is still a city much loved and worth visiting.

As in Saigon, the Silver Whisper is able to cruise all the way up the Chao Phraya River into downtown Bangkok. How nice is that! We usually dock at Laem Chabang which is a 2-3 hour bus ride away from town. That is one of the great joys of traveling on a smaller ship. Cruising up the Chao Phraya, the River of the Kings, is fascinating in itself. Passing temples, pagodas, mangroves, villages, ship building plants and dodging river traffic along the way makes for a very interesting ride.

Bangkok has the least amount of green space of

BARGE TRAIN

The river is a highway of barges like this

any major city in the world. It has been beset by political unrest and corruption. A major flood in 2011 caused $45 billion damage in and around Bangkok. There have been 23 coup attempts since 1933. But the King is the most revered man is Asia. The movie “The King and I” was banned because there was a perceived lack of respect for royalty. This is a city full of hidden charm and grace in spite of its shortcomings.

Our sister ship, the Silver Wind, was cruising up the river just ahead of us and we were able to visit her after we docked. She is smaller than the Silver Whisper, actually having more of the feel of a large yacht. We met with several of the staff whom we cruised with last year on the Whisper.

Two days before we arrived in Bangkok we got an email from our Aussie friend, Ilse, who was vacationing there. As it turned out her hotel was just a few miles from the port. We took the shuttle and then rode on the Skytrain and walked for about a mile in 90+ degree heat arriving at the Nanatai Mansions in Sukhumvit

THAI RESTAURANT ON THE CHAO PHRAYA

area of Bangkok. It was kind of an eye opener to walk down the street and see all the open-air girlie bars in full swing at noon. Bangkok is notorious for its red light districts. From the looks of things, there is no economic downturn in this business. The government is trying to crack down on child exploitation and forced prostitution but it is so prevalent it is an uphill battle. Bangkok’s nickname is City of Angels…perhaps not always.

We took a refreshing swim in the hotel’s pool and then Ilse, her friend Phillip, Kevin and I took off for a night on the town. Since it is impossible to get anywhere on the clogged streets, we again took jam packed Skytrains to get down to the public docks on the river. Bangkok’s elevated trains were built in lieu of subways. So at least you’re not traveling in a hole in the ground.

We caught a ferry to a relatively new development called Asiatique. It is a combination of fisherman’s wharf, night bazaar, ladyboy shows, trinket shops and best of all some lovely riverside restaurants. It was a beautiful night as we dined at a terrific Thai restaurant.

SILVER WIND

We docked together in Bangkok

On the ride back to the public pier, I looked at the folks lined up waiting to take the ferry and to my great surprise, there was our Hong Kong friend, Roxanna. In a city of 9 million people, what are the chances of running into someone you know? Amazing!

The next day Ilse came to the ship for a few hours. She loves cruising and really enjoyed touring the Silver Whisper. It was great to be able to spend time together with Ilse in this exotic City of Angels.

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