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Published: January 31st 2008
Wat Arun overlooking the river
Could you spot the palaces at the opposite river???This time the exploration continued with The Land of Smile, which full of rich heritage and natural charms and it would definitely killed my eyes. We first set off to Bangkok, expecting to meet the different start from the capital city. We were actually amazed to see this hectic city which it’s far better developed than Kuala Lumpur, although dusty at times, but not that bad though. No littering around like Malaysia at least. I do think that they were doing great in their public transportation as well, at least better than Malaysia. With the wide coverage routes, one can reach many places conveniently by BTS, MRT, train, or even boat without worrying to get stuck in the massive traffic jam.
So we set off to our first place at Erawan Shrine near to the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel, the hindu shrine that houses a statue of Brahma that was built in 1956 to correct bad omens that believed to be caused by laying the foundation on the wrong date. It was so crowded with people who came to pray. Classical Thai dance performance was playing beside it which were hired by worshippers. We then heading to Pratunam market, strolling
Wat Pho
Donating coins behind of reclining Buddha! Shhh!! around every alleys, seeing people happily cram into everywhere and shopped, seemed like they would get some kinda surprises in there. It was a very huge market which spread over every alleys and even deep inside the buildings. Nothing to shout about really, mostly selling clothes and woman’s thingy. We spent couple hours wandering around and we both sweat like hell under the hot sun shoving amongst the crowds, so we decided to quit the crowds and hid into the shopping mall to get some fresh air. Thankfully the malls were all near by. There’re tons of shopping malls around and wisely we chose whichever sold the cheapest one. Paragon featured a very large foot court, perhaps the largest in Bangkok and MBK sells wide variety of goods in cheaper prices. Lots of lots of stuff inside the mall and we knew we would not going to finish it for sure, and we decided to just wandering around, bought some important stuffs and quickly dragged ourselves away from those crowded places. So Sukhumvit was our choice, we made a stop at one of the Soi sipping cold beer for the night.
The another day was brilliant, we started our
day cruising along Chao Phraya river and traveling around some of the river piers. It offered a glimpse of traditional lifestyles, seeing many khlongs and boats busying around, the tranditional waterborne way of living on the river banks, and many temples and palaces lining the river. It was one of the main transport arteries and so we could see many cargos transport as well. As well as many monks and locals waiting at every piers for the boats and I thought this was a very pleasant way to travel the city and just get rid of those noisy roads. We really hoped we could stop at more piers and visit to more places as the experiences were superb and thanks for the full day pass that allowed unlimited access to the boats but it’s shame that the sun set too early and the boat services was going to close soon. So we had to stop our daytime trip at Wat Arun, which overlooking the beauty sunset.
Before visiting to Wat Arun at sunset, we visited Wat Pho, more renowned for it’s reclining Buddha. Inside the complex there were lots of chedis on one side and a gigantic reclining Buddha
The condom tree
Fang with the condom tree was inside a well-decorated hall, I think the buddha’s almost same size as Penang’s version, but looked much more impressive with the feet and the eyes engraved with mother-of-pearl decoration, and the feet also show the 108 auspicious characteristics of the true Buddha. The wat was built at about 200 years ago and yet still impressive. It’s a huge complex and thankfully we managed to exit the wat without any problem, no wonder I was told that it’s the largest wat in Bangkok. And then we learnt that it was the first university and home for the most famous school of Thai massage, such a shame that we didn’t aware of it that time, so we missed the good massage.
It’s a bit disappointed when visited the Grand Palace where some buildings were closed due to a ceremony held on the same day to pay respect to the princess who had just passed away couple days ago, it was not too bad though, as we managed to see the royal families came by and how the royal ceremony looked like. And we literally dropped Wat Phra Kaew from our itinerary due to the rainy day and the ticket was
a bit too expensive for us. And so without wasting more time, we hopped on another boat to Wat Arun at the opposite river, better known as Temple Of The Dawn. There’s a main prang (Khmer’s tower) surrounded by 4 smaller prangs and the top of main prang offered a very stunning view over the river and palaces but the stairs were very steep and dangerous. The main prang’s about 80m high set beside the river bank which offered remarkable scenic beauty from the opposite river. Initially we planned to hop on a river cruise at night to have some spectaculars spotlight views along the river, but found out it was so expensive and so we had to drop the plan.
Only the very disappointment of the day was when we were on the way walking down to Grand palace where we actually got ripped off by a tuk-tuk driver which offered to take us to 3 wats, including Wat Happy Buddha, Wat Saket and Wat Marble for only 30B. Since we still have lots of time to visit elsewhere before Grand Palace and the price was so cheap that we finally agreed upon it. I was damned sure
that he would bring us to the jewelry shop in order to get himself a free petrol coupon, as it’s a norm in Bangkok and I thought it would still worth the fare because I could go to Wat Saket and Wat Marble which were actually in my itinerary, within short amount of time. So, let’s try it, it’s not a bad idea for 30B anyway. So I thought I certainly made the right decision but things became worst when we found out the Wat Happy Buddha was closed and we were approached by a creepy Thai keep promoting Thailand to us, it was hilarious that I couldn’t even speak any word because he was the one who always did the talking, until I felt annoyed and forced to cut off his speech and got back to our tuk-tuk, which then took us to the jewelry shop as I expected, just a simply glimpsed and we got back to our tuk-tuk again, looking forward to step on top of wat Saket now. Here the thing turned to worst, after a long driving, finally he dropped us off in front of a very enormous building, which I could see plenty of
chedis inside, happily jumped off and then he said to us, “OK, 30 Baht.” Of course we were shocked at the moment, and then we were told that the time was up and inside the building was actually Grand Palace, neither Wat Saket nor Wat Marble. In fact, I’d nothing to complaint about since we’d been approached by that fucking creepy stranger for so long, and I even forgot to look at the time, but was very sure that all the time was actually wasted on the roads where it took us so long to reach each places and he only offered to drive us for 2 hours! Ridiculous indeed!
I got to recommend to those who haven’t been to this cute restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms. Quite a strange name and I’m still wondering about it. But I did know this restaurant was actually to promote the family planning and safety sex. And so we came to this place at Soi 12 in Sukhumvit. Beware of the elephants that would approach you on the main road and asking for bananas! It’s a pleasant place to enjoy the dinner! their menu choices was fabulous, the food was nice, the
atmosphere was awesome and the staffs were very helpful, but a bit too pricey. The whole restaurant was well decorated by fairy lights and condoms. There were various posters showing the different condoms around the world, and many quaint displays incorporating condoms as the main theme. The entrance was a beautiful tropical garden and then you will be welcomed by a huge condom at its front door. You will be given free condom after your dinner, instead of mints. It’s hilarious to see that on the bill. After the dinner, we shopped at its gift shop which sells condoms and condom based novelties, I bought few as souveniours, and they were all funny and creative stuffs.
We set off to Ayutthaya for our next trip, around 2 to 3 hours up north of Bangkok, by a local bus to northern bus terminal and then catched another coach to Ayutthaya, where Fang was happily bought herself some beautiful handbags at the terminal markets. Upon arriving at Ayutthaya, we were approached by a tuk-tuk driver called Tok, who eventually became our guide in Ayutthaya. It was less hassles over Ayuthaya I would say. The place we stayed was a small town with some markets lining on the streets where the locals hanging around. After wolfing our lunch (a normal Pad Thai), we set off to all the wats as many as we could, Tok was the one that offered us the drive and recommended us the famous wats to visit. So met the first wat at Wat Cai Yai Mongkhon, which I think was one of the most impressive monuments in Ayutthaya. The main chedi was enormous surrounded by loads of Buddha images which were still in good shapes. It was built to celebrate the victory of King Nareseum’s single-handed combat on the elephant's back.
Wat Chaiwatanaram, on the other hand, built for King Prasat’s mother’s cremation which was lying beside the river. Some claimed that it was built to celebrate the victory against Cambodia, which could be explained by its Angkor Wat Khmer’s architecture, the main prang was even huge and surrounded by 4 smaller chedis, as a symbolic representation of Mount Meru, the courtyard was huge and filled with loads of Buddha images, quite a sight.
Another great monastery, Wat Phra Si Sanphet was just located in the royal palace’s compound, with 3 massive bell-shaped chedis stand on the ground, to keep the ashes of the King’s families at Ayutthaya era. Then we had also visited to Wat Phu Kaothong which situated at the northwest island, Tok took us there to catch the sunset. It was about 80m high chedi and offered a stunning view under the sunset, a nice view from the top instead where we could see all the paddy fields and ponds. We were told that it was a battle field between Burmese and Thai long ago.
Besides, we had also visited to Wat Mahathat, Wat Phanan Coeng, Wat Phuthaisawan…and the list goes on. All the ruins of monasteries and monuments had actually enlightened people about this mighty Kingdom. And it was such a great open-eye experience for us on the whole. We really enjoyed it.
Nightlife in Ayutthaya was easy, we eased ourselves drinking at few different bars at night after the exhausting trips in daytimes, and this was definitely the best idea to take a rest away from the sun. There’re few which actually played good live music at night which we enjoyed our night to the fullest.
We eventually left Ayutthaya after days of cycling, tuk-tuking, cruising, and sunburning. Thanks for Tok who patiently showed us around for the past few days although he could barely speak English. He even gave us both a piece of Sam Poh that would bring good luck to us. Really? Hmm, let’s see. After all these trips, I’d just skipped telling about Bang Pa In trip as I found nothing to shout about except one Chinese temple on the riverside, it was really stunning and it’s the only one I liked. And now we were looking forward to touch the tiger!
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