First day in Bangkok: 9/30/13.

We didn’t arrange any tours in Bangkok in advance so it was refreshing to discover the capital of Thailand by ourselves after all the tours we had had up in Chiang Mai, as great as they were.  Steven had been to both Chiang Mai and Bangkok but that had been over 40 years ago or, as he likes to say, in another lifetime!  He remembered a few things from his travels to Bangkok, but 40 years ago, he wasn’t interested in seeing what we both wanted to see together now.  The result was really seeing the city for the first time for both of us.

·   I had read reports of other travelers’ absolute horror stories about getting around the capital.  But, thanks to Steven’s great map reading skills honed on this trip, the signs and the wide variety of transportation options in the city, I can safely say we had no problems getting to where we wanted to go AND we went from end of town to the other the 5 nights we were there.

·  Bangkok is rightly known as the Venice of the East – remember St Petersburg was known as Venice of the North!  One of the most pleasant and unique ways of navigating and discovering Bangkok is traveling by river ferries up and down the Chao Phraya River. The river is also called Bangkok’s highway!

·   Since our hostel/guesthouse was only a 7-8 minute walk to the nearby N13 pier, we used the river ferry system a lot.  There are a number of ferries that travel the river; we only ever took the orange flag 15thb ferries, i.e. the non express ones, as were never in any rush and wanted to get more of a sense of being with the locals. Saffron robed monks, school kids, families: everyone travels the ferries so it always made for great people watching and photo taking.

·  No visitor to Bangkok should miss a trip to see the Grand Palace, home of the Emerald Buddha, so that was our first stop on September 30^th.   The Palace is a massive complex; established in 1782, it consists not only of the royal residence and throne halls but also a number of government offices.

·  We had to wait a while for Steven to borrow pants (a huge deposit but refundable when returned) b/c of the strict dress code.  It was fascinating to see how they deem what passes muster and what doesn’t as that changes depending on who’s looking and judging; one day, my black skort you’ve seen in a million photos was judged to be OK, but not in another place of worship or reverence.  You could never figure out what the arbiters of what’s appropriate to wear would say so you just had to go with the flow!

·  Scams were alive and well in Bangkok, not surprisingly, I guess, when you consider how huge the city it is and how many tourists there are everywhere you looked; we heard touts wanting to charge us to borrow clothes but no refunds after returning them even though if you walked a few steps further, you’d see the official place to borrow clothes.  You just had to be constantly on your toes and aware of people around you at all times – a sea change from our week in CM.

·   Likewise, touts would tell you that a museum you want to see is closed and encourage you to hire their tuk tuk to see something else instead; meanwhile, of course, the museum or whatever you want to see is not closed at all!

·  There were prominently displayed signs everywhere, even INSIDE the wats themselves, to be aware of pickpocket gangs.  I had my new “North Face” mini backpack, bought for all of 250thb (about $8) in the CM Night Market, on and was told by another tourist while waiting in line for Steven to get his pants, that one of the zippered pockets was wide open.  I had been completely unaware of its having been opened; I felt violated again as it brought back unwelcome memories of my purse having been stolen in Reykjavik at the beginning of the trip.

·  For the first time all trip, the dirt, grime and overwhelming poverty got to me finally in Bangkok for some reason; I had been able to turn somewhat of a blind eye to it all before today but today, for whatever reason, was the tipping point for me.  I know I’ll regroup but still tough knowing we have another 3 weeks of roughly these same conditions before leaving on October 24^th to fly home from Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

·   Perhaps it is the accommodation we have here in Bangkok.  After staying in such a charming guesthouse in CM, both of us but I especially was somewhat aghast at our new abode in Bangkok.  The Khao San Baan Thai was a very basic place to rest your head in a great location; we had our room just off the lobby and could hear everything through the paper thin walls and, no doubt, could be heard as well too.  Our mattress was on the floor so it was a long way down and even a longer way up in the morning, it seemed!  The other bugaboo was there were only communal bathrooms, no big deal in and of itself, but these were outside, albeit covered with a tin roof to the rest of the building!  At this point in our lives, we don’t need to rough it like this PLUS we don’t need to financially either.  Having said all that, the staff was very knowledgeable and helpful and that made all the difference in my book.

·  Oh yes, we did see the Grand Palace btw and we both thoroughly enjoyed our time there after my funk!  Photos below will, I hope, let you know how beautiful it is.

·  We then walked to the nearby Wat Pho: According to travel info I had, it sweeps the award for superlatives; it’s the oldest and largest temple in Bangkok and dates from the 16^th century; it has the country’s largest reclining Buddha and the biggest collection of Buddha images in the country.  “The main attraction is the stunning reclining Buddha 46m long and 15m high; the figure is modeled out of plaster around a brick core and finished in gold leaf; mother-of-pearl inlay ornaments the eyes and feet.”  The wat is also the national headquarters for the teaching and preservation of traditional Thai medicine including Thai massage.

·  Took a 3thb ferry on the short hop across the Chao Phraya to walk up the incredibly steep steps of Wat Arun for a bit before taking another 15thb ferry back to our N13 pier.

·  We’d missed having lunch again – that has become the norm for us lately that we only eat 2 meals a day and snack on raisins, sliced apples and crackers in between.  We ate at an outdoor Thai restaurant; luckily they had fans on as it was very humid all day but no rain at least which was nice.

·   Some of you have asked about what food we’ve been eating so here goes:  Steven had sweet and sour chicken and veggies (90 thb or $3) over rice (30thb) and a 70thbThai beer; I had veggies and rice for 120thb; mine was delicious and not spicy, thank goodness!  It was nice to sit down and rest after another long day. 

Note:  As I mentioned in my last post,I had planned to include photos but have been having so many problems with loading them, I'm just posting the text now.  I'll include the photos asap.