Bangkok

7/24 - Tuk Tuks and Long Tail Boats

We woke up with solid plans on getting to the airport early and taking an easy stroll through to the terminal. Alas, I had built that plan based on going to the wrong airport… So a scrambled scamper through various trains and subways, we ran into the airport concerned about missing the flight. Turns out, it was the easiest airport to navigate through for the entire trip and we made it through check-in and security with enough time to spend some time in our fancy credit card travelers lounge (which, as a side story, had a machine that automatically poured beer – including a proper tilt to the glass until the end where the last bit was poured to add just the perfect head on top). The flight was mostly empty and I learned that Bangkok was a lot further from Japan than I had imagined in my head when planning this trip.

Upon arriving in Thailand, we went through the regular cash and phone routine to get set up for the remainder of the trip. We took the fairly long, though very inexpensive, cab ride with a gregarious cabbie to the hotel and then wandered off to see the city.

We didn’t have any firm plans for the day, so we found a bar overlooking the river and Wat Arun temple. It was a relaxing introduction to a hectic city of tuk-tuks, long tail boats and temples.

Quick notes. Tuk-tuks are basically three wheeled, scooter powered carriages in which you sit on a small, covered bench behind the driver. Long tail boats are long, thin boats that use an automobile engine mounted at the rear of the boat on a rotating platform. The propeller is then mounted at the end of the engines driveshaft coming directly out from the engine, thereby creating the ‘long tail’. They are common basically due to the cost of outboard engines versus finding an old engine from a broken down car.

After a couple of drinks we meandered off and found ourselves on a dock offering long tail boat rides, which of course we decided to do even if it was late and the sun was just setting. Our driver spoke no English, which in Thailand was actually kind of an odd thing, so he kept asking us questions to which we had no answers. In the end we just had a really fun boat ride, most of which was at night with us barely being able to see anything – well worth it. A spicy thai meal overlooking Wat Arun again came after and we followed that with a ‘welcome to Thailand’ tuk-tuk ride wherein the driver flew down the streets, drifting in and out of traffic – super fun.

7/25 - The Grand Palace, Wat Arun and a Night Tour

We left hotel and found a tuk-tuk to take us to the palace; however, the tuk-tuk driver offered to take us on a bit of a ride through different parts of the city. Sam had read up on common scams, and called it out right away, but I wanted to go for a longer ride in the tuk-tuk so we took him up on the first stage of his scam. He took us to a couple of random temples, which actually weren’t too bad, but then it quickly became clear that he intended on trying to take us to a bunch of shopping stops along the way to get kickback from the various locations, so we called it off and got back on track towards the palace.

The Grand Palace. Built in 1782 and the home of the king until the 1930s, it was probably the best Bangkok attraction we went to and definitely worth dealing the crowds. From the somewhat bizarre mural running around the complex and depicting the story of a princess kidnapped by a monkey army to the emerald Buddha inside the Wat Phra Kaew, the palace grounds are crammed full of architectural styles and ostentatious statues and entrances. Having come from Japan, which was really my first experience with Buddhist temples, it was a stark contrast to the natural, contemplative style seen there. Instead it was reminiscent of some Catholic cathedrals filled with gold and marble statues. I suppose a big part of this is that it is all set in a royal palace, so there’s that.

After a delicious – and inexpensive – lunch, we went to see the reclining Buddha in Wat Pho (aka Wat Phra Chetuphon). Interestingly, the temple is also a massage school and as such is also the first public university in Thailand. Many of the statues and murals in the complex relate to health and wellness themes. Similar to the palace, its filled with fantastic buildings, rows of Buddhas, and the star attraction – the Reclining Buddha. The Reclining Buddha is a massive golden Buddha laying on its side – which doesn’t seem very interesting, but I’m not sure how to make it a better description to really convey its impact. It is also worth noting that this is a very active temple, with monks praying and students learning. Very cool overall.

We followed this up by jumping on a boat that ferried us across the river to Wat Arun – the temple that we had spent so much time looking at the day before. Unlike the other temples (which were mostly in gold), Wat Arun is covered in a white tile mosaic. It has existed since the 17th century, though its current form wasn’t set until the 19th century. It is a very simple building, but I think that made it one of the more interesting ones we saw. It definitely allowed for the creation of striking pictures – which was clear by the number of well-dressed tourists posing for a thousand different shots, trying to grab the perfect one. Sam only needed a couple of seconds to get hers – though it was more by my prodding.

At the end of the ride, we were dropped off near where we would be meeting our tour guide for the evenings tour. We killed the last bit of time by stopping off at a bar on the water again, although this time it overlooked a more modern part of the city. The bar itself had an ‘edge of the world’ sort of feel to it, rickety chairs on a dock that had boards missing.

We met Bas just outside the metro station. He was a young guy with long hair wearing an old t-shirt. He was the first to tell us about Thai names and nicknames. Apparently, at birth all Thai folk are given their real name, which tends to be a long and complicated name that only the person and their parents remember, and a nickname. For him, his was Bas – as he would tell us, like a shortening of basketball. He started our tour at the Flower Market. I would definitely recommend visiting here if you are in Bangkok. It’s a vibrant, chaotic mess of flowers, elaborate flower wreaths to bring to temples, vegetables and, well, really anything you might buy in a farmers market. Bas pointed out how each stand had a little shelf with Buddhist icons to bring good fortune and that the market itself was basically in use 24/7. It was a neat stop.

We left the market and Bas led us to the tuk-tuk for our tour that night. This tuk-tuk was the Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift of all tuk-tuks (second time I’ve mentioned FF3 in my writeups!). Multi-colored led lights, a sharp paint job, pimped out seats, and the driver looked more like he was on his way to a rave. It was cool enough that at one of our stops, a group of women stopped by and asked the driver if they could take a picture with it – which he clearly loved. We hopped in and Bas took us to get dinner. Bas explained to us that Bangkok was a city you needed to see twice; once in the day, and again at night. After our little tour, I would have to agree. We began by heading back near the Grand Palace and the Royal Park. At the Grand Palace, we mostly just got some history and took some rather great pictures with the tuk-tuk.

One fortunate part of our trips timing was that the king’s (King Rama X) birthday was in a couple of days and the city was set to fully celebrate it, with light everywhere and parties already starting. This meant that our evening tour would be particularly spectacular. Bas made it clear (and this would be echoed many times over), that the Thai people loved the king. They didn’t much care for any of their forms of government, but the kind was outside of that (since moving to a constitutional monarchy in the 1930s – though there have been various other types of governments in power since then).

We made our way through the city until we arrived in the Bangkok China Town; Sam’s research had found that it’s considered one of the best in the world – whatever that actually means. Bas explained that here too, it was different from day to night. During the day it was a normal street filled with shops and people working, but come the night, the shops closed and food carts came out in front of the shops, the police closed off a lane of traffic, and the whole area became a hub for street food (including one we saw that had a Michelin star). Thailand has a lot of people of Chinese origin, as there have been two major migrations – one at the end of the emperors, and a second with the Maoist revolution.

We next went to city hall and a ceremonial swing (which actually looked like a very tall Japanese temple gate with a swing attached). Bas pointed out two things here; one is that English speakers all pronounce Bangkok wrong, and two, that Bangkok is really the nickname of the city, but that it is actually “Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit”. This translates to “The city of angels, the great city, the residence of the Emerald Buddha, the impregnable city (unlike Ayutthaya) of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarn”, or for short, “city of angels” – so L.A.

The tour continued as we continued through the city, looking up at Golden Mount (Wat Saket) and then stopping at the Royal Pavilion Mahajetsadabadin. This had been lit up for the king and was absolutely stunning. It looked like a fairy tale Christmas village set in Thailand. Even Bas was taking pictures, telling us that he had never seen it in quite this state.

The next stop was Wat Pho – where the reclining Buddha was. Here too was a wonderful contrast of day to night. Gone were the crowds, instead the complex with filled with light and shadows, bringing out the moments and buildings in new ways – all very cool.

Our decked-out tuk-tuk brought us back to the hotel to close out a really great – and packed – day.

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