Today is Memorial Day, and I’m doing a throwback listening to live throwing copper plus a mix of candlebox, oasis and even tool. I have said this before but it bears repeating, if you want to know more about the places I visit in each city then just Wikipedia it. If you read any of my other post or this is your first time, I do not talk about the history of any place. Unless of course I want to, but seriously you will not get too many direct details.
Moving right along as you can see this trip is Bangkok, Thailand. 90 days have passed since my last trip and so it is time to leave the country and keep my visa current. I originally was looking at Hong Kong again and trying to see what to do in a place that big. I thought about going to Hong Kong Disney but that price just did not suit me well. Then I looked at plane tickets to Phuket, Thailand.
I was getting a little excited and then started reading about how to get to and from the place and it starts to get just a little bit overwhelming. Researched island hoping, big productions, Thai fighting but nope. More importantly though, was that it would take me an extra two days just because there weren’t very many direct flights to the place and that also creates a long long layover. One place for the layover is in Chengdu which could have been cool and I could see the Panda exhibit. Well I talked to the guy who pays the bills here and I think the way it went down was the price for Phuket was too expensive.
Bangkok and Hong Kong were nearly the same price. My boss knew I was going to Bangkok and he advised me not to go because of the political up rising. Now a month or so later it’s gotten really out of hand but when I went there it was no big deal being there.
Lucky for me it was the Throwing Water Festival (Songkran Festival at Khaosoan Rd). Apparently the throwing water festival, is about a bad spirit and you if the ground is wet it can’t come after you or something like that.
I arrived at the airport, go to K-bank ATM to get some money (that’s a travel tip I didn’t know about before coming to China…just pull money out of an ATM and you get a pretty decent conversion fee) and then board the elevated train. I saw some kids get on one of the stops and they had their ID and money in a little plastic lanyard and they had some kind of white cream dried on their face and water guns.
At the destination I’m trying to find a cab and I show them on my phone the address in Thai and they keep saying no. Color me confused. Found a taxi, and he said I can only bring you so close because of the festival.
I was like oh okay I didn’t realize I was staying right in the middle of the festival aka Bourbon Street Mardi Gras style madness. Luckily the hostels will give you a round-about price to get you from one location to the hostel.
That really paid off because one guy was going to charge nearly double and another just charged about 50 baht more than suggested. On the way there they had these passengers on tuk-tuk’s (its pretty much a three wheeled scooter that looks like it’s got turbo nitrous tanks) and people would just throw buckets of water and throw baby powder all over your face while driving by. Oh man, fun to see festivals.
I get dropped off, I think I know where I’m going, but I get turned around 2 or 3 times and it is wall to wall people. I got my bag on my back, they notice that your dry and they just throw water all over you. Okay so I’m walking around lost, I just get hosed by someone and then I’m like oh no but luckily my electronics and money are fine. So now I’m lost, I go to a hotel and figure out how to get to my hostel.
On the way there I ran into a chicken shwarma on the vertical grill as a street food vendor. Let’s just say I ate it again that night, not from throwing up I just went twice. I finally arrived at my 22 beds in one room Hostel, that was crazy. I’m soaking wet and two other Americans were near me so we had a nice little conversation and I sat on my bed to dry off a little and when I got up my brown leather belt made a nice brown stain on the hostel Nappark sheets.
Closer to dinner time me and one of the guys went grab some food. Since I was already wet and my important stuff was locked away, getting back out there was no issue. Walking the streets shoulder to shoulder with everyone and water is being poured on you it was not so bad, except that it was cold water compared to the heat of Thailand.
I quickly learned about the second tradition of the festival…when walking people would just grab this white powder paste and smear it on your face no questions asked. You could wipe it off, but then it would look semi clean and so someone else will pop you in the face. I wanted to smear some off my face and put it on other random strangers…but I wasn’t to sure how the foreigner to local exchange would be taken…oh and it was an asexual thing (gus could rub on other guys).
Because of the craziness downstairs my original sightseeing plan was squashed. That was okay I got a shower and rested and just chatted with these guys. At least today was the last day of the festival.
I picked this hostel in this area because it’s very close to the attractions I wanted to see. Apparently some reviews call it the backpacker area and so it’s a little bit frowned upon. I guess there’s hostel snob in every city. If I ever went back I would have probably have stayed in this hostel one day and then went to another part of the city for a new hostel.
The day started with a delicious French toast breakfast. Fresh juice was quite popular and I partook of it once. On my full day of sightseeing I did 15 miles which is almost 35,000 steps thank you fitbit. Did not need to walk that much in one day but I really don’t have an excuse for not just getting a cab, just saying.
First stop is the Grand Palace and it sure was grand. The buildings are all decorated in a mosaic theme with lots of colors and gold (paint that is). From a distance it looks very beautiful and ornate, upon closer inspection it just looks cheap but still very impressive. I mean these buildings are decorated ground to steeple top.
This big Palace is surrounded by a wall and on the inside of the wall in the palace there is a mural that goes across the entire inside of it. (redundant hehe) It has scenes of buildings, monsters, war scenes, religious stuff etc and has gold foil to highlight areas.
Most of the buildings were built in the 1700’s and some artifacts date back to the 1400’s. It seems that they like tall spiky monuments and shrines versus the arches of China.
Oh and the King has his picture all over the place…including the money. Inside the palace they have really cute leaves of trees in sphere shapes.
There was also a museum dedicated to Queen Sirikit. It was a nice Museum & apparently when the new King became king and his wife and him were going to do a Western country tour they came to conclusion that Oh Yeah we outlawed a lot of the traditional clothes. So they had to design completely new wardrobe dresses for her.
A combination of old style with a new hot designer from France (Hansel-he’s so hot right now, Hansel) and use of traditional fabric and colors which meant a lot of silk. Thailand is known for its silk if you did not know.
Wat Pho, which is the reclining Buddha, area is next up. I entered on the opposite side of the reclining Buddha and inside the temple grounds was full of street food vendors. I had some ice cream and grilled BBQ chicken breast. Inside one of the temple sections was a bunch of sand and people were building “sandcastles in the sky”. NO just kidding about it being in the sky, that was a song reference, but seriously they did build sandcastles along with tacky used car colored triangle ribbons stringed across stuff.
It had something to do with honoring the dead. And in another area people poured oil over these little pointed head Buddha. The statues in these places were amazing by the way. A recurring theme were these ½ women ½ birds. Strange little creatures. They also had a statute that reminded me of a New Orleans voodoo man,
& a couple others that just had the Thailand look to them with cool swords and ornate necklaces. That reclining Buddha was actually quite long and the bottom of his feet were made to look like footprints. I guess even there god (yea that’s right, small g) gets tired and needs a nap. I think he was awoken from a nap, rolled over on his side and says, what can I do for you I’m in the middle of my nap.
Next up is when Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn. You have to take a boat across the river to get to the temple of dawn which is a very tall structure that’s very old, shocking. During part of the architecture there are a bunch of little guys that are on like one knee and the other knee is up (like tebowing) and the arms are half up so it looks like they are holding up the building.
This was such as steep staircase to climb your knee was literally at your chest and then you have to push off with your foot and the hand railing. When I got back down from the top, I could see that there is a ladder from the tippy top for repairs that would have been so scary too climb.
I did have a Thailand coffee while touring this place and it was quite delicious. On the top of the temple you did get to see a nice view of the surrounding area. Hold up, I just read the ticket stub and it said these are called Pagota’s and it is a big landmark of Thailand on the Chao Phraya River.
Well that’s over so I decided to take my map out and try to get to the next place on my bucket list. On my walk a man noticed I was looking at a map and he tried to help me and I hesitantly let him. As usual I was trying to go one place and he was trying to say go to this place and eventually I figured out that he was trying to get me to use a tuk-tuk. It is advised not to use the tuk-tuk because they are overpriced and can be dangerous. He wouldn’t let go of my map so I just eventually let it go and sort of took off running a little just to avoid any confrontation.
Well I have pictures of maps on my phone and I’m trying to use that to navigate to get my bearings which was not very fruitful. I ended up following one of the rivers a little while and a couple of guys were trying to say something to me. I assumed it was hey take my taxi blah blah, but I didn’t go to much further, looked up and the entire area was barricaded with circular barbed wire fences… it was a military / opposition area,
I better get out of here quickly. Probably an hour and a half or two hours later I get to where I wanted to go all along and take a bus. Aggravated wasn’t even close to my feeling once the bus passed exactly where I was at just an hour ago.
The bus ride, which ended up being free, took me downtown to the MBK and SIAM shopping area. SIAM district has the fancy Prada type stores and even has a Lamborghini dealership inside. I did end up buying a front pocket wallet which pretty much has room for credit cards and maybe some receipts but I really liked it and have been looking for something like it.
Now MBK building is a huge seven-story 2 block long mall that sells cheap knock off iPhones, Androids, Samsung, and Bose all kinds of clothes as well. It was not a bad evening. That was it for the day.
Next afternoon I was leaving and I had Jim Thompson house to tour. This guy was an American spy who lived in Thailand and then when he was in his 60’s he went out in Malaysia for a walk and then never came back and no one ever found his body. You can now tour his house which is a mixture of Western and Thail. It was neat.
Traditionaly the Thai have two house areas and to go between them meant being exposed to the elements, he decided to put a roof over it. That was a novel idea and created a nice living room area. Second, normally they would have the decorative wood surrounding the house or the windows facing the outside but he liked to see them so he had it built facing the inside.
Another interesting architect design: door openings in Thai homes have a 12 or 15 inch piece of wood on the bottom so you have to step over the obstruction. Why might you ask.. so the babies could not leave whatever room you put them in.
He collected beat up Buddhist statues, and was fascinated with it even though he was Christian. It was a fun quick tour complete with a koi pond.
One thing they have in Thailand home cultures is this miniature version of your house outside in the shaded portion of your yard. It looks like a bird house but you would actually bring food and water and things like that as a sacrifice. That’s about all I have to say about Jim Thompson house,.
I decided I had time and went back to the MBK building (it was roughly across the street) and purchased some gifts… that will remain a secret.
I took the elevated train a little further down the road to try and get Mexican food, however I went too far and ended up eating a classic Thai dish. Fried chicken that ends up being cold, chopped up, with some rice, very very good. I hope you enjoyed your Bangkok trip in Justin’s eyes.
