Bustling Bangkok

Recently Bangkok has been in many movies, none of which have portrayed it in any positive way. I have several friends who used to live in Bangkok who assured me that it wasn't as bad as it looked. With only 2 full days there, I wanted to get a bit of rest and explore some of the major sights too.

The first night we came in about 5pm, and took a taxi through often standstill traffic to get to our hotel. Our driver didn't know where the hotel was and had to call someone several times to figure it out. We did get there safely and were rewarded by a room on the 30th floor with a great view of Bangkok through the floor-to-ceiling windows. We had originally decided to eat at the hotel restaurants, but after looking at the prices (sky high) and the not so tempting dishes, we went out to find food. Most of the stalls had closed for the night and we didn't feel like wandering far on our first night. In the end, we settled for Pizza Hut as it delivered and we were too tired. The pizza came, and wouldn't you know it, mine was too spicy to eat! Paul graciously swapped his non-spicy pizza and we had an early night.

Our first full day we decided to take it easy to recover from the long travel day the day before. Also, we had piles of laundry we needed washed and had some communication and work to do online in preparation for our return to the UK. So around lunch time we found ourselves on Silom Road first passing a temple, then realizing that this is a street that has a tailor, a gem store, a massage parlour, and a restaurant one after the other just like clockwork.

A temple on Silom Road

 We got a delicious lunch at one of the restaurants there, enjoying the lower humidity compared to Cambodia. Paul ordered a 'mild' steak salad. Note that it is completely covered in chilis. This is mild?

If only he had a glass of milk, the cure-all for spicy things. Beer just doesn't cut it!

Without any need for tailored suits or gem stones, we just soaked in the atmosphere of pestering tuk-tuk drivers, street carts selling everything imaginable, and the loud, never ending traffic on the street.

Eventually we found ourselves on a quieter road, passing school after school teeming with uniform-clad squealing children. It was nice to see so many kids in school after hearing about the miserable schools in Cambodia. After a few risky road crossings we found our way back to the hotel. Paul needed to get online to do a bit of work and I had my heart set on a Thai massage. I gave him all my valuables and set off, the heavens taking that moment as a cue to open up and pour buckets onto my head. Luckily I had an umbrella which I hastily opened. I had chosen to walk down a street that was traffic jammed with cars waiting to pick up their children from school. Each driver held a card showing (I think) the name of the child and some kind of number. I snuck past these smiling children, who were drenched but skipping down the road to buy crepes, skewers of meat, gum, and meeting their parents in cars, motorbikes and walking. With the rain continuing, I dove into the first massage shop I saw. I was taken to a room with thin mats on the floor and told to put on a flowery smelling cotton top and long light trousers that tied around the waist. A tiny Thai woman then came in to use her knees, elbows, and pointy fingers to press and rub every achey muscle I had, she was sure good at finding the painful parts! With more twisting and cracking and pushing, my hour massage was over before I knew it, but I felt amazing. The rain had stopped so I made my way home to find Paul and then get dinner and see a movie.

Bangkok movie theatres are said to be some of the most luxurious in the world, and so we booked the deluxe love seat couch to see the English movie 'Love, Rosie'. It was nice to stretch out and be able to sit sideways or cross legged in our little personal seat, and that being our last movie abroad, was probably the best quality we had seen as well. In a different screen (not showing the movie we wanted) there were even better seats that reclined! But we decided the movie was more important than the seats, and these were pretty comfortable. We took the Skytrain back, which let us off right outside our hotel.

Our next full day was partly taken up by dropping our bags at the main international airport. Because our return from our kayaking trip would be a single flight to Bangkok, then a connecting flight through Beijing, China, then finally landing in Tokyo, we didn't want our bags to get lost on the way. So we stashed them in left luggage, which took longer than we would have liked. By the time we finally made it back into town on the train, we had missed seeing the Grand Palace. I hadn't realized it closed at 3:30, and it took longer than we expected to do the bag drop. Next up on my list to see was Wat Pho and its famously reclining Buddha. We took a boat up the river here as we were informed by a taxi that he couldn't do it (we found out later, this was a lie). 

'Tourist Taxi' boat up the river to Old Town

Protective building for reclining Buddha

We loved the incredible statues all around Wat Pho

Wat Pho has many beautiful things, but the most incredible is the gigantic reclining Buddha. When you walk into the protective building, you can't believe how high and long it is - 46 meters long and 15 meters high! The feet are covered in mother-of-pearl decorative patterns and it is constantly being repatched. This was the busiest part, so we admired it, then squeezed out to find a quieter place. We gazed the detailed decoration on roofs and statues and walked from Buddha to Buddha (Wat Pho boasts more than 1000!), reading parts but mostly just enjoying the peace and quiet. It wasn't too long of a visit as I was hungry!

Mother-of-pearl feet

Close up of feet

More feet patterns- so much detail!

Tons of Buddhas everywhere, all different styles

This guy was my favorite!

The 4 main chedis in honor of the first 3 kings

We tried to use trip advisor to find some food nearby, but to no avail as we wandered up one street and then another.

Finally as it began to rain we flagged down a tuk-tuk and told him to just take us somewhere to eat. We were dropped in front of a brightly lit restaurant full of locals and were not particularly impressed by the menu. But everyone said it was great, so we tried a few dishes. The service was awful abut the food alight, enough to keep us going at least. With the light gone, we decided to try to see one last thing before the day ended. The brightly lit Democracy Monument was at the end of the street and then we made our way to the famous 'backpacker' street, lined with restaurants and hostels and every type of person imaginable.

Democracy monument

Backpackers street

After walking the street we found a pub to sit in and soak up the ambiance before calling it a night. On the way back, I tried some grubs (yum yum) and replaced my lost sunglasses. A quick tuk-tuk ride (from the center of town to the train station! It was possible!), and then a train later and we were home for our last night. A 2:30 am wake up awaited us the next morning and we needed to get some sleep!

What would you try?

Tuk-tuk ride of death!

Bangkok was not quite what I had expected, but I think I needed more time there - maybe 5 days at least. Normally I'm not a city person, but I think this is a city that begs to be explored, with so much going on, and so much a tourist can't see. We did enjoy the food and the parts we got to see, but it wasn't quite enough. I'm just going to have to come back someday to see the rest!

Our view and reflection of bathroom. Not bad!