Day Thirteen: A Free Day in Bangkok

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A free day! We think that the tour specifically did not show us anything in Bangkok and gave us this free day in the hopes that people would pay additional money to hire the guides for this “free” day. But there was no way they were going to get us to pay $55 each! Matthew and I looked up a few sights and mapped them out, and then the four of us bought a day pass for the subway and a day pass for the sky train and set off to see things.

We walked toward Central World, the largest mall in Asia and third-largest in the world. It’s in the middle of a very fancy shopping district. Apparently last year in the anti-government demonstrations this mall was nearly completely destroyed (by fire?), but instead of demolishing it the owner decided to salvage. A good portion is open now, but there is still plenty of work being done.

Near Central World is one of the most visited shrines in Bangkok. There are shrines all over the city in addition to the 2,000+ temples. This particular shrine, with the four-faced Buddha, is situated on a hotel’s property. Apparently, 40 or 50 years ago when the hotel was built, the builders learned that the foundation was poured on an inauspicious day and so they built this shrine to ward off bad luck. Then in 2006, a madman destroyed the image in the shrine and was beaten to death by people in the streets. Something tells me the shrine wasn’t as fortunate as expected.

Pratunam Market is the place where everyone goes to buy cheap clothing items and the occasional shoe, purse or trinket. Stall after stall greets anyone willing to spend a few dollars, but I still found some of the prices a bit too much, especially after shopping in Saigon. Thu found good deals on shoes – four pairs of shoes (very cute/wear to work) for $16 – but my feet are just a bit too big for all the cute styles. (I was actually surprised by that because there are so many German and Dutch tourists here and I know that the women from those countries have large feet like mine.) I did find a beautiful dress that I love (Rene, you’ll have to figure out how to make it – it looks simple), we found more costume jewelry, and we enjoyed walking around and looking at things. Finally, at about 2:30PM, we decided to have lunch.

Across the market was an Indian restaurant (Thailand has a large Sikh population) and we ate an excellent lunch. I truly love Indian food and few things make me happier than fresh garlic naan.
After lunch we decided to split up. Thu wanted to do more shopping, but Matthew and I were about out of baht and wanted to use the sky train and subway to see more of the city before it got dark (dusk is well before 6PM in this part of the world, which really throws me off). We had given Thu and Micah a map with various things marked so that they could find their way back, so we went in our separate directions and hoped no one would get lost.

Matthew and I love riding public transportation in foreign cities because it is a great way to see the sights. We traveled around for a bit and by the time we were ready to head home it was rush hour (just after 5PM). The subway at rush hour was more crowded than anything I’ve experienced – even in New York City and Seoul. I had to hold my shopping bag in front of my face because we were so packed in that I couldn’t put my arms down by my side! Crazy! But in Thailand, everything is orderly. People actually queue, and everyone is polite about getting in and out of tight situations. This is so different from Vietnam!

Shortly after 6PM Thu and Micah were back at the hotel and we all decided to go grab dinner. At first we thought about ordering something and having it delivered (every place, even McDonald’s and Subway, seem to deliver here), but then we realized we didn’t know what the delivery fee would be and by this time we had a very limited amount of money left. We wanted Pizza Hut again and knew that there was a mall about three subway stops away (we had seen it the night before), so we headed there. Pizza Hut was closed, so we went to KFC – they had egg tarts! – and then went to a grocery store. It’s always fun to visit a grocery and see what they stock. In Thailand, the Tesco had an isle of monk supplies. We learned the next day that all men in Thailand are required to be a monk for at least a month. Isn’t that interesting? I also read an article in a travel magazine at our hotel that there is now monk tourism – someone can go to a monastery for a week or a month. I bet that would be an experience!

We did not see everything that we originally wanted to see on our free day and that was primarily because it was raining. Hard. For most of the day. A good day for shopping, but not the best for sight-seeing. That’s okay, though – we still had a good day.

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