Advertisement
Published: October 23rd 2005
Visited Countries Map
As some of you may know, we originally planned on going to India. We had some visa issues and couldn't go there, so we had to find somewhere east of Greece and west of Australia that didn't have any visa requirements AND that Delta or one of its partners flew AND they had seats available for us in the time frame that we needed. As I told Doug, "things happen for a reason" and we were able to find seats to Thailand, albeit in coach. We have been so spoiled flying in business class, that we considered not going, and during the third flight of the day that itself was 10.5 hours, we weren't the happiest of campers, BUT it would have been a huge mistake to skip it because we love Bangkok and wish we could have a couple of
more days here.
This entry is going to be a bit different than the others because it's going to start with
the food. We both like Thai food and we have found some really delicious stuff. The ironic
thing is that the best stuff has been the cheapest stuff. We consistently found main courses
for a bit
less than $3.00. The curries have been excellent, with Doug's beef curry and my green Thai curry garnering special mention. Doug also had some good pad Thai at a hole in the wall place that we stopped into because we saw a sign for any beer for 65 baht ($1.50).
We also went to a place twice because they had probably the best pork dumplings we've ever had or at least can remember having in the recent past. They also made some tasty spring rolls.
We also ventured into Chinatown one day for dim sum. We had six portions of different kinds of dim sum and two Cokes, all for the exorbitant price of $3.25. We walked around a bit, expecting the area to be bussling with activity, but it was pretty quiet. Maybe it was because we were there in the late afternoon and not at night; however, we did visit another wat while there. There are a couple of photos showing close up detail of the tile at that one.
We have to admit that we weren't particularly adventurous with any "new" food. I tried to get Doug to order the pig intestine in cabbage,
but he wouldn't do it. There were also some other "interesting" dishes on some menus, such as duck web soup and pig tongue noodles.
We did try to two Thai beers that we found. We both liked Chang better than Singha. Maybe it was the higher alcohol content or the cute white elephants on the bottle, but we downed our fair share of them. There is an emergency delivery coming to the hotel tomorrow to restock the shelves. The barmaids at the hotel eventually stopped asking if we wanted the small or large size and just started reaching for the big ones when they saw us.
As for the touristy things that we did....you can see for yourselves that the architecture here is unlike any other place that we have been. We went to three wats, with the largest being Wat Phra Kaeo inside the grounds of the Grand Palace, Wat Arun and some other one that we don't have the name for right now. A wat is a temple that has resident monks, in case you're interested. Wat Phra Kaeo is the most famous wat because it houses the Emerald Buddha, but it does not have resident
monks. We were not allowed to photograph the Emerald Buddha. If you could have seen all of the bling-bling in that room, you'd be in awe. And you cannot really see the level of detail involved in these structures from the small pieces of colored glass to the finely-shaped ceramics; all you can do is stand there and shake your head. This is also the Thai peoples' holiest shrine. The amount of work that went into constructing this place was immense and took a number of years to complete.
Speaking of immense, there is a picture of the standing buddha. It is the largest standing one in the world at 46 metres. Sorry , you'll have to do the converesion to feet. Trust us, it was a big one. I also mention it is the tallest standing one because a talkative teacher on the street told us that there is a larger sitting buddha in Japan now.
Wat Arun has slightly different style than Wat Phra Kaeo. It is the one shaped like a you know "wat" (ha ha) and is not as glitzy as the other one, but the tile work is more detailed. I got to
take a ride in one of those long, skinny, wooden boats to get there, which was neat. I was greeted by a boa constrictor when I landed, as well as a lady to charge me a landing fee. I guess I should be happy that I didn't have to pay a departure fee too.
Doug visited a mall while in Bangkok (the MKB mall, for you shoppers). There was only one major department store, but possibly 1000+ more tiny shops in there. They sold everything from scarves to furniture to electronics to souvenirs. And FYI, if you come here, the souvenirs and t-shirts are cheaper in this place than from bartering on the street. One store even sold jeans and nothing else. I guess they're trying to capture the denim niche market.
We also went to a couple of jewelry stores, as we were told that we could get gems here at a good price. We went to a family-owned store, a wholesaler and what is supposedly the largest jewelry store in the world. There was quite a difference in selection, price, quality and of course, service. It is worth a visit if you want to buy jewelry,
but we suggest shopping around first and then making a purchase. Especially if you are taken there by a car from a hotel or even a cab. Everyone is in cahoots with somebody, so they get commission on anything you buy from the store.
We grabbed a tuk-tuk (picture a covered motorcycle with seating for two passengers on the back of it) from a wat to Chinatown for lunch at around 1:00. We were quoted a great price ($.50) and told he would show us the golden, standing buddha. We thought, sure, why not? Well then we were taken to stores for custom-tailored suits (very useful for a bartender/black jack dealer, huh?), jewelry, carpets and duty-free stuff. The driver told us that we could just look, no problem, but that if we bought something, he would get a tank of gas. Little did he know that we had already talked to a nice teacher by the golden buddha who told us the government was giving them free gas in October anyway. He also told us the government would help pay for your honeymoon if you got married in October. Why, you ask? Because October is the month the current
king was born in and things are kind of slow in the tourist business. Smells like more kickbacks to me.
The pollution here is terrible; you can actually see the smog at some times and a fair amount of people where the oxygen masks on the streets. We got an extra-strength dose of it when we took a tuk-tuk from Chinatown to our hotel. We got caught in a traffic jam because it was Friday night and a holiday weekend, so people wanted out of town. The normally half hour ride took us 2.5 hours. The driver would go fifty feet and then shut off the thing, trying to spare us from the fumes, but it didn't help much. Nor did the fact that he took us to the other two properties in the hotel chain before I had a Thai guy tell him where to take us. When we finally got to the hotel (with only a half hour left of happy hour mind you) and we washed our face with the white washcloth, it turned a nice shade of grey. We should have taken the actual motorcycle taxis, which bypass the traffic by driving along the curb,
driving on the white lane markings between cars or even on the sidewalk if it becomes too congested. They work their way to the front of the street where our crosswalk would be and form a big pack of bikes. Then when the light turns green, they all gun it.
We also saw a couple of families of four on a motorcycle. One was a dad, mom and two kids; the other was a dad with three kids all under the age of eight. There just aren't the regulations and road rules that we have. Or if they exist, they are not being followed and enforced. It just makes you wonder why there aren't more accidents.
We have to mention that the people are very friendly and eager to please, especially the working girls who are ALL OVER THE PLACE and making no attempt to hide what they are doing. They sit in packs by the entrance to the bar and try to entice you in to buy them a drink or whatever. They even hit on Doug with me right next to him! Some of them aren't as obvious as others. At a bar near our hotel
we went in and they got us to play a game we think is called Jenga. Do we have this in the States? It consists of rectangular blocks that are stacked three by three, alternating the way they are facing. You take turns pulling out a block and putting it on top until the tower falls over. We did really well at this actually; I don't think we ever lost, but maybe once. I did get my ass kicked at Connect 4 (remember that from 25 years ago?, which I think is the last time I played it) by one chick. She was so confident, she told me she would buy me a drink if I won a game. That never happened. I bet I could kick her ass at cribbage though.
We had some great staff at the hotel bar, but maybe that was because we went to happy hour every day and didn't complain that there wasn't any alcohol in our drinks like people from the country you can probably guess (hint: it's on the other side of the pond).
That's it for now. We cannot believe that we are actually going to Australia tonight and
that we only have 6 weeks left!!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.218s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 13; qc: 63; dbt: 0.1737s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Celia
non-member comment
you ain't in Kansas, are you?
Wow! Following your trip has been a real reminder of how vast and diverse the world is, and how little of it most of us see. The architecture alone is facinating! Y'all have fun down under. I suppose it'll be nice to go where they speak English for a change. We did dinner at my house agian last night, but I'm still refusing to call it a tradition - I called it a coincidence. Love!