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Published: December 29th 2007
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Wat Trimitr
Home of the solid-gold Buddha Tuesday, December 25. Days 1 and 2. Los Angeles to Thailand. The flight from Los Angeles to Seoul Korea is a butt-numbing 12 hours 20 minutes. Admittedly Korean Airlines does its best to provide creature comforts including two full meals and individual televisions with head sets that offer a dozen major motion pictures. It actually feels good to have a three-hour lay over in Korea, but in no time we have boarded another plane for the final leg, the five-hour flight to Bangkok Thailand. We have left L.A. about 11 am Tuesday, Christmas Day and we arrive in Bangkok about 21 hours and one dateline later, just after midnight Thursday, Dec. 27. The room at the Century Park Hotel is spacious and clean and I'm in bed and asleep by 2 am. Wake up call is at 8 am.
Thursday, December 27. Day 3. Bangkok. Now that's what I call a nugget! The day starts with a buffet breakfast including eggs, potatoes, ham, and waffles. Nothing like clinging to the Western culture to begin a visit to Asia. The 40 members of the tour-group clamor onto our tour bus, which features a garish, psychedelic-red ceiling with pink scalloped curtains on the
Wat Po
Roofs of polished orange and green tile at Wat Po, the home of the reclining Buddha windows. With our tour director, Nok, we spend the day paying homage to Buddha--appropriate in a nation that boasts almost 98%!B(MISSING)uddhists. First stop: Wat Trimitr, a small temple which houses a five-ton solid-gold Buddha. It says something about faith in a nation of poverty that this statue's still in one piece. Second stop: Wat Po which features a 150-foot reclining Buddha resplendent in gold leaf. This temple sits within a sprawling compound where visitors wander between ornate temples, shrines, and chapels. I'm now beginning to recognize people from the group and have even learned a few names. At times I thought I was lost and found it comforting to bump into follow wanderers bearing the orange smarTours name tags. Final stop: the White Marble temple and a bowing lesson in front of yet another Buddha before we head "home" for the rest of the afternoon. I take a nap. Not exciting. But necessary.
Friday. December 28. Day 4. Bangkok. Half the fun is getting there. About half of the tour-group takes the optional trek south to the famous floating market of Damneon Saduak. About half way there, we stop at Mae Klong, the railroad market in Samut Songhram. Merchants
line railway tracks on both sides with a variety of fruits and vegetables unknown to westerners. I am startled as I stare at a bucket of fish that begin to wriggle. Talk about fresh! Suddenly there is wholesale movement as vendors pull their wares away from the tracks and encourage hapless sightseers to scurry into corners, nooks, and crannies. A couple of our group scream as a train roars by, passing within inches of their quaking bodies. Within seconds of the train's passing, the vendors have pulled their goods up to the edge of the tracks and resumed sales, leaving the tourists laughing and shaking. Next stop: the coconut village where we learn how coconut milk and coconut candies are made. This serves mainly as a happy stop, as Nok calls it, or bathroom break. Back on the bus we are in farm land now, land which has been passed down in some families for 14 centuries. The third stop of the morning is to catch long, motorized, flat-bottomed sloops--eight passengers to a boat--for a 30-minute ride thru canals to the market. Homes on stilts line the water way, laundry hanging from porches, hammocks slung under the houses where families
escape from scorching summer heat. But it's winter in Thailand right now--about 85 degrees F. with humidity over 90%! (MISSING)Quite pleasant on the water. The floating market seems a bit of a misnomer in that the vast majority of shops are set-up under the covered wharf. But a few hearty souls in huge straw hats still hawk their wares from boats. We jump out of our boats and begin shopping and snapping pictures before our bus arrives to whisk us off to yet another venue. The afternoon is spent at a Thai cultural show which presents glimpses of Thai traditions. I'm thinking the highlight of this day was that train roaring thru that little, bustling, authentic Thai market. But the day isn't over yet.
Let it all hang out. In the evening I opt for one of Bangkok's more exotic presentations, a cabaret show featuring transvestites and transgenders. Lots of hair and makeup and very little clothing push the limits of what it means to look female. It's fun. And, for me at least, surprisingly touching.
Saturday. December 29. Day 5. Bangkok. Wat a day! I am not too keen on visiting yet another temple--or wat--but so much has been
said about the Grand Palace complex that I cave and hop on the bus. First stop: a small flower market where I buy a flower offering for Buddha. I'm not really hedging my bets; I think of it as a sign of respect. The approach to the complex is breath taking. Glittering roofs and towering stupas--some dressed in gold, some in shimmering green and orange tiles, and others in porcelain flowers, greet the unsuspecting. Walls shimmer under gold leaf. This is truly a feast for the eyes. I am especially touched by a visit to the Emerald Buddha where I make a wish and then place a wreath of flowers on a small altar. The opulence, craft, care, and architecture that guards this little jade Buddha pierces the heart; I found it quite touching. I think the visit may actually have straightened out a few of the kinks in my surely pretzel-like Karma. After wandering the extensive grounds, we take a long boat down the Chao Phraya River past a skyline of ornate temples juxtaposed next to gleaming skyscrapers. Talk about the old and the new. We take the Skytrain to a seven-story shopping mall for lunch, and then separate
to shop. This is an adventure in and of itself. There is one floor devoted to cell phones, for instance. Booth after booth after booth of cells. That's a wat of technology!
An ode to a city. Tomorrow we leave Bangkok and head north. I'll add pictures and do a spell check on this blog when I get home in a few weeks. Meanwhile, indulge me while I share my overall impressions of Bangkok. Bright pink cabs belching clouds of exhaust into the already poisoned air. Arteries of traffic pulsing with the life blood of the city. Blackened, sooty buildings. Tin roofs. Crumbling sidewalks. Boy-girls in boas and sequins. Shimmering temples beating with the rhythm of a million foot steps. Hoards of tourists, cameras clicking. A kaleidoscope of fruits and vegetables laid out as far as the eye can see. A chaotic, bustling, modern, ancient, jostling, colorful, exciting metropolis. Bangkok.
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Diane
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Cell phones
As I read out hightlights to my kid, his attention was caught by the 7 story mall with one entire floor dedicated to cell phones! Enjoy your trip Susan. I am!