Advertisement
Published: February 18th 2018
DSC08836
5 to a scooterBoy, they live life fast here in Bangkok, at least if their traffic is any measure. Unless if and when it all gets snarled up, then it's a different matter.
The main roads in town seem to go from racetrack to car park in a heartbeat.
At one extreme it is alive with drivers trying to outspeed each other along 2 or 3 lane highways from one set of lights to the next, whilst simultaneously trying to avoid the masses of motorised 2 wheel - mopeds, scooters and motorbikes - and 3 wheel - tuk tuks - that regard any gap, any lane change, that is more than 1 cm bigger than what they need as fair game. And all within a system where said traffic lights are regarded as advisory rather than absolute.
And for the 2 wheels even the pavements are not out of bounds. And don't even think that 2 seats on a scooter means only 2 people. We saw one today on which were sat, from the front, child / father /child / child /mum, and only mum in a helmet.
At the other extreme when it blocks up it totally gridlocks. On
DSC08504
Indian temple our first afternoon /evening here we took ourselves off walking, further and further from our hotel. By the time we turned and headed 30 mins or so back, using Google maps on Paul's phone to successfully negotiate us through the back streets, we decided we would hail a tuk tuk instead to do what would take us, probably, about 45 mins to walk. Price agreed we set off and for 5 mins all seemed fine. Looking at the moving blue dot on the map he was also taking the back alleys.
But, then he turned left to one of the main highways. As he turned into stationary traffic, with no way out, we were stuck. For the next 2 HOURS we spent far more time static with the engine off than we did moving.
Let's go back to day 8, our arrival in Bangkok. Flight down from Chiang Mai was smooth. The airline brochure had a feature that spoke of the 3 different puddings their chefs had devised for the plane meals for that day, Valentine's Day, one for each class of travel. What we had missed was that Economy wasn't one of those 3 classes. We got
a Krispy Kreme Doughnut, in a themed box ❤️.
After a refresh we set off for an explore. And were interested to discover a temple to Shiva rather than Buddha - the Sri Mahamaricamman Temple, also commonly called Wat Khaek Silom. Built around 1879 this is a riot of tile work, so different from the Buddhist work we have seen so far.
The day ended with that horrendous tuk tuk ride described earlier.
Next day we took ourselves by Thai train to Ayutthaya, about 80km North of Bangkok. It was the capital of Siam and a prosperous international trading port (though not on the coast, on an island surrounded by the confluence of 3 rivers) from about 1350 until razed by the Burmese in 1767. A World Heritage Site, it was a vast amphibious city built on canals which have now largely disappeared. By 1685 it had a population of 1 million. London at that time was only half that size.
In the 16th C it was described by foreign traders as one of the biggest and wealthiest cities in the east. One wat had a 16m tall gold covered Buddha, cast in 1500, that was
destroyed and melted down into 160kg of gold when Burma invaded!
The old places are in ruins now, and is surrounded by a modern town. We hired bicycles - 50 baht /£1.20 - and cycled around at our own pace. It was very hot, and we drank litres of water.
The most popular complex there is the Wat Maha That, partly because in ground area they are probably the most extensive. But also because they have an iconic photogenic image of a Buddha head entangled in tree roots.
The largest site is Wat Phra Sri Samphet and Grand Palace which is where the gold Buddha was. It still has 3 very large Chedi - stupa, dome shaped shrines.
On our return to Bangkok we ate in Chinatown - it was close to the station - which was heaving with preparations for Chinese New Year.
By chance we came across an impressive wat - Wat Traimit with another enormous 'gold' Buddha. However, when researched we find those quotes marks are unjustified. It is gold! Ranging in parts from 18 carat to almost pure. 5.5 tonnes of it!! And only relatively recently rediscovered. It used to be
DSC08505
Tetris office block in Ayutthaya, and looked very plain. So happens they used to cover gold ones with plaster and stucco to hide their real wealth. Made possibly in the 1400s it was covered before the Burma invasion. Moved to Bangkok in 1801, when it was being moved in 1955 it was dropped and some plaster fell off revealing the real gold statue beneath. There was even a key to unlock it into 9 parts.
But don't you think someone should have had an inkling due to its weight when moving it?
We stayed within Bangkok on Friday. In contrast to the mayhem on the roads the single line metro system is a haven of tranquility. They even form two orderly queues to either side of the carriage doors leaving a full width for passengers to disembark.
We spent the morning at the Grand Palace and Wat Pho.
The Grand Palace is the official residence of the Kings of Siam since 1782, and is opulence personified. We were there soon after opening and it was jammed. We think everyone is following the 'get there early to beat the crowds' maxim.
Wonderful murals, Demon Guardians, Chinese statues (imported as
DSC08517
The offending tuk tuk ballast in the silk, rice, porcelain and teak trade). Magnificent buildings, richly decorated, and the most revered Buddha image in the country, the Emerald Buddha, which has 3 gold seasonal outfits, changed ceremonially by the King!
Around the corner was Wat Pho, framed for its enormous reclining Buddha, 46m long. Regrettably though it is shoehorned into a building that is really too small for it and so it was difficult to really appreciate it.
The fun part of the site though was the monk blessing outside. Unlike the moderate sprinklings that we have seen elsewhere this guy was really full on, hitting people repeatedly with bamboo brush loads of water. It seemed that the less hair you had the more bashings and water you got. One poor bald bloke was hit over 20 times.
Late afternoon we caught up with a longtime friend, Chris, who was returning to the UK from a trip to Oz...
before going on to a meal at Gaggan, a 'modern Indian cuisine' restaurant that is rated as No 1 in Asia /No 7 in the world.
25 tasting courses, all you have initially is a menu of emojis so you don't
DSC08571
Pip almost trick cycling really know what you are getting. A great experience.
Yesterday we grounded somewhat by taking a trip to the Bridge Over The River Kwai and the Death Railway. Started in Oct 1942 the Japanese expected it would take 4 years to force the 250 miles of track through the jungle and hills. Instead, by forcing 2-300,000 S East Asian labourers and 61,000 Allied Prisoners of War to work 18 hour days on minimal rations and in appalling conditions, the line was completed in 14 months.
16,000 PoWs and 100,000 labourers died during the build, mostly through disease and malnutrition.
The PoWs built 2 wooden and 1 steel bridge over the river. The wooden one of film fame was 300 yards downstream from the current metal bridge. The current bridge was rebuilt as war reperations by the Japanese, and is still used by the state railway. We rode, starting just before the bridge, for around 50kms, finishing the far side of a wooden, cliff hugging trellis that was part of the original build.
On route to the railway we stopped at the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, the largest locally, and located near to the former PoW camp. Around
DSC08527
Ayuttaya - not Pisa! 7000 casualties are buried here. As is ever the case with these cemeteries it was immaculately maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. There were several grounds-people working whilst we were there, including 3 women hand weeding.
We then visited the JEATH museum - Japan, England, America/Australia, Thailand, Holland. A small open air museum originally established by the monks who tried to tend for the prisoners. A strong link to the horrors and atrocities but the museum is sadly way past its best. We understand there are a couple of much more modern museums but sadly not on our trip.
We also got to walk on the bridge between trains. Whilst there Pip got collared by a group of Thai schoolchildren using worksheets to ask questions and practice their English. They put our - non existant - Thai skills to shame.
Our transport from museum to bridge /train was by a fast long-tail boat. Remarkably splash free!
An eye opening trip, but a long day. It was around 140 km there, 180 back so a very long day. So we had an evening just having a drink on the top, 15th floor of our hotel.
Today was an almost total wipe out. Today's meet up for the Explore trip is now 7pm not 1pm so we planned some more sightseeing - a couple of markets, a boat trip, street food. But, Paul's phone, our main technology for the trip, stopped working after our first market. It's only 2 months old!!! Won't bore you with detail but essentially we have spent 9.30am to 4pm trying to sort it via web and then Sony shop/service before giving up and buying a new Samsung tablet instead. Phone will go back to Amazon, but not until May.
Will leave it there. Off to Cambodia, Siam Reap/Angkor Wat, overland tomorrow. Wake up call is 04:30!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.076s; Tpl: 0.045s; cc: 9; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0204s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
