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Published: August 29th 2010
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sunrise over river
view from hotel room I’ve been home one week today, so I wanted to write some things down about Bangkok before I forget…
I went to Bangkok in 1989 on a family vacation when I was a teenager. I have some very specific memories of the trip, but didn’t remember many details about Bangkok other than the tuk-tuks, big roads, major traffic, bargaining with vendors, lively streets 24/7, and some of the visuals of the Buddhas and the temples. So I was excited to get to go back as an adult. The city does not disappoint. I love the mix of traditional Thai architecture, small shrines, and temples with the modern skyscrapers and hotels. Whereas Shanghai seemed dominantly modern, Bangkok has so much of that Thai flair that is so beautiful and different from home mixed in with the big buildings. In short, the “city of angels” is lovely.
I got more tourist time than expected, and was able to experience the Grand Palace, Wat Pho (with the Temple of the Reclining Buddha), the weekend market (Jatuchak Plaza), a quick trip into the Siam Paragon Mall, a boat ride in a long skinny boat with a huge engine, and a massage. All that
on top of two hard days of working with teams from Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. What a smart mix of people all together. We went out for a traditional Thai dinner at Mazzaro, where the food kept on coming and was quite tasty. My favorite was dessert - first a fruit that tasted kind of like grapefruit but less acidic, (pomelo I think) then fried bananas that tasted like banana donuts, plus ice cream. So delicious! And while I’m speaking of fruit, one of our colleagues from Vietnam convinced me to try
mangosteen. This was such a different format of fruit than I’m used to in the sense of how you get into it and what it looks like. Each fruit has a little flower shaped stem on the bottom - every single one. And then the taste was so good - very sweet and soft. I loved these and then ate them every remaining day that I was there.
The wats (temples) I visited are stunning. We had been warned by a colleague not to listen to people who came up to you as you are approaching a temple and tell you that it
is closed and that you should go to this other temple. This happened to us twice as we approached the Grand Palace, the second time by a man in an official-looking Grand Palace jacket and uniform. Very convincing. However, upon continuing our walk to the main entrance, it is of course open and teeming with tourists. I guess it is a scam to get you to another temple in order to make some money…I don’t really know. But I’m really glad we didn’t listen to these guys and got to go inside. A few days later, I went to Wat Pho alone, and hired a guide for about $2. He walked me around for about 30 minutes and had so much info about the place…394 Buddhas total on the grounds. The big reclining Buddha is cement and brick on the inside, beautiful gold on the outside. The ornate ceramic/tile covered spires contain the ashes of wealthy families; the very large ones contain the ashes of kings. The Chinese-looking sculptures are in fact from China, brought back to Thailand to balance out the boats. A 10-story high standing Buddha. He talked about reaching the state of nirvana as Buddha did, why
Buddha rests on his right side (better for the heart), why his head is raised (not using a pillow creates anger), why his 10 toes are even (something about being close to reaching nirvana), and more. It was a great $2 spent.
The weekend market was wonderful - the sign even says “select whatever you want.” Baby chicks, kittens, puppies, fruit, jewelry, clothes, shoes, the random pop-up café within the stalls, trinkets, home furnishings, sculptures, music CDs, Thai silk, seriously such a vast array of colorful, inexpensive items. The pictures will show more than I can describe.
The people were incredibly welcoming and friendly. I let a group of students interview me outside one of the wats, and they were so cute. They just wanted to ask me questions like why I like Thailand, how many times had I been there, etc. They were practicing their English and writing notes in English. It was a fun and unexpected human connection during an “alone” day.
I think my photos will tell the stories better than I can. I’ll post a few here, and if interested, you can find the rest on my
Flickr photostream (no login required).
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