Day 57-60 Four nights in Bangkok and the worlds your lobster...

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Best laid plans and all that… we were back on a train on the 8.50 from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, it was a 11-hour journey but we thought it would great to take in the scenery. Problem number one - the seat we were assigned. The window seals had blown leaving it misted so couldn’t see out, we did move and for 3 hrs we had wonderful views of mountainous jungle scenery until the train filled up and we were directed back to our seats by the inspector. Then 2 hours before Bangkok as night fell, out of a crevice two cockroaches played hide and seek. Alison did her usual trick of attacking said creepy crawly, missing, which sends them scuttling in my direction!

Bangkok is hot!, the temperature is oppressive, but pleased we booked a hotel with a pool. This was near the popular and lively Kho San road area of Bangkok, which we explored for some live music and something to eat.

We were based near the river, which was great for seeing the sights. The regular and cheap water taxis offer a speedy way through the city. Our first stop was Wat Phra Kaew and the Royal Palace. Lonely Planet had already advised us against the scams, one was saying a venue was closed then offering a tour instead. Sure enough that’s what we were told on approaching the Palace, we politely ignored him, surprise, surprise it was open! The Temples and buildings within Wat Phra Kaew were beautiful, decorated with mosaics, some ceramic, some gold and sparkly. However the heat, and the many Chinese tourist groups were taking its toll, so it was back on the river taxi to the pool.

The following day we set out to Wat Pho one of the prominent temples in Bangkok, apart from magnificent structures and statues, it is home to the enormous reclining Buddha housed in a magnificent, but oh-so-small temple, you couldn’t get back enough to admire the entirety of it, but the buildings were lovely and it was much quieter than our experience the previous day. Down the road was the little advertised Museum of Siam. This was a fun interactive museum, telling the story of the origin of the Thai people, as it became Siam, eventually becoming Thailand. It was probably aimed at a younger audience, but was very informative compared to some crusty museums we have visited.

On the last day we headed down river again to connect with Bangkok’s modern Skytrain, an elevated train that takes you above the busy streets. This took us to, Jim Thompson House, doesn’t sound interesting on the face of it. But Jim Thompson was once an architect who worked for American Intelligence during the 2^nd world war, then went on to establish a silk empire here in Thailand. The house he designed and built himself, he also collected traditional houses from around Thailand and incorporated them in the grounds of this canal side property. He collected art and antiques from all over South East Asia. His silks were used in the movie King and I. A post note to this success story was that Jim Thompson disappeared in Malaya’s Cameron Highlands in 1967 and never seen again.

We don’t usually do shopping but we needed a few bits and the nearby MBK shopping mall fitted the bill, with a food court at the top supplying a vast array of south east dishes once you had bought a pre paid card to purchase, including Korean curries and some of the nicest freshly made pancakes.

To try a different area of the city we used the Skytrain to visit the busy Sukhumvit area, it was a bit livelier than where we stayed. I hate to say we went to two shopping centres in one day, but ‘Terminal 21’ was a 6 floors shopping centre that had different city theme for each floor, London, Rome, Istanbul, Paris, was included and San Francisco for the food court on the top floor. There was a replica of a London Bus and the entrance of the toilets was like a tube station! One thing, in both these shopping centres they build escalators isolated, nothing either side, not good if you don’t do heights!

Bangkok is famous for the seedier side of life and next to Terminal 21 is Soi Cowboy one of 3 red light districts in Bangkok. It was a fascinating opportunity to people watch.

Strangely although we were staying in a popular place in Bangkok, taxi drivers didn’t want to cross town to take us back to our hotel. I think they wanted the more lucrative shorter journeys. A tuk tuk driver quickly mopped us up and took off at a frightening pace (did he have a V8 engine fitted ?) -it flew.

Travelling around you get a feel for a place, town or city. We never felt the love for Bangkok. On trip advisor, the Skytrain came in at no.2 of things to do…. says it all really?

So we are pleased to be moving on, and after all the temples, museums, antiquities, we are going to do what most good explorers and adventurers do - hit the beach!!!

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Photos

Ramakian Mural
Depicting epic Hindu story.