05 April 2008 – 22:00
Bangkok – Sites and Smells
It was 6:15 when I awoke, or more precisely realised I’d fallen asleep. I found it really difficult to get to sleep, despite being really tired. But with a noisy and inefficient air conditioning unit, a karaoke playing outside my window and not having a pillow all contributed to a difficult night’s sleep. However I must have slept at least 4 hours in total, which was possibly the most I’d slept in the last three days, so I welcomed all the sleep I could get.
In the end I manufactured a pillow from my towel, which although hard was better than nothing. I rose tired but optimistic for the day ahead, and plunged into the shower for a refreshing wake up. Mercifully the shower was warm and powerful, and it somehow managed to shake much of the sleep from me. So after a shave and a brush of the teeth, I dressed and made my way down to floor 1 (Ground floor to you and me), where I spotted breakfast being served at the restaurant.
Although the room seemed fairly busy with both staff and residents, the room was barely 3rd full. I quickly scanned the floor, but not recognising anyone, I made my way to the breakfast buffet. There “American” and “European” breakfasts were being served. Now I’m not entirely sure what the Thai’s consider an American breakfast, but it closely resembled an English breakfast, so I plumped for that menu. The eggs of course were recognisable, and the bacon passable as such, but a frankfurter sausage certainly isn’t (in my book anyway) a proper sausage, especially for breakfast. However with a hash brown (nearly) and some beans, my plate looked reasonably complete, so with a juice I made my way to a table, where I spotted Christope hiding behind a column tucking into his food, so I joined him.
Soon after most of the posse entered the restaurant, and chose seats close by telling their own tales of the night. Most had some sleep of one sort or another, but Catherine seemed to have come out the worst, for she had a mouse come and visit her via the air conditioning ducts during the night!
The “original four” (Catherine, Daniel, Christope and myself) all were due to return to the hotel for our last night in Thailand as we were to take a later flight than the rest, but following our mixed experiences of the hotel up to that point we vowed that we would consider another on our way back.
By 08:30, as instructed by Katie the night before, we were ready in the reception area for our first escorted day full of activities. Katie had organised four tuk-tuks to take us to the Grand Palace and neighbouring temples, which were less than a mile away. We squeezed onto the tuk-tuks and speedily made our way.
Tuk-tuks are great fun, and I vowed there and then to take every opportunity to ride them again! For as we made our way through the streets, blissfully ignoring signs, white lines and narrowly missing pedestrians, cars and other road obstacles, we raced each other, sometimes four abreast. Bangkok streets it seems are the racing domain of the tuk-tuk!
The complex we visited first was of the Wat Phra Kaeo and the Grand Palace. The whole complex was encircled by a high white wall, with ornate golden gates with a couple of armed guards and a barrier at the main entrance. Once inside we walked past a well manicured lawn and trees to our left. Beyond the lawn was our first glimpse of the Temple of the Emerald Budha (Wat Phra Kaeo). To our right were some less inspiring if dowdy buildings of the Offices of the Royal Household.
It was quite clear from the moment we entered that this was a major tourist area, largely populated by Japanese tourists (of which we’d see more of later in the trip) and some younger European tourists, of whom the majority I assumed were like us or backpackers.
Although, not even 10am when we first entered, it was already getting particularly warm, so it was clear that I needed water, and so took the first opportunity to dive into a gift shop (of which there are numerous) for a bottle of cool water. I wasn’t alone in getting stocked up on water, but I felt as if I was suffering more than most. As the morning progressed I ended up seeking every source of shade as we traversed through the compound!
Katie, armed with her umbrella (in the colours of the Union Flag) took us round the complex, showing us the highlights of each temple. In particular we were shown some of the 178 panels of the murals of the Ramayana, which depict every blow of an ancient story of triumph of good over evil painted in gloriously deep red, gold and white paint. Apparently because of the damaging humidity these panels are constantly being maintained.
After the temples and museum, we took a look at the Chakri Mahaprasad Hallwhich was the main residence of the king until the mid 20th Century. This building looks more European in design, and with good reason. The then King Rama I commissioned the building after he visited Europe; however he insisted a traditional roof to symbolize the Thai King at the top!
After a short break, we moved on to another series of temples, this time the temple of the Reclining Buddha. The highly impressive gold plated reclining Buddha is 46 meters long and 15 meters high, and is designed to illustrate the passing of the Buddha into nirvana. In the building to one side were many potsthat you could ‘donate’ coins for good luck.
We soon hit lunchtime and to be honest I was both weary of the heat and somewhat “templed out”, so I was thankful for the break. We were taken by Katie out of the complex and through the streets to the river, where we had lunch on a restaurant built of wood that stretched on stilts into the river. To the untrained eye the restaurant didn’t look particularly sound, but seemed sturdy enough to hold 14 Europeans and many other eating guests!
After the meal (a theme that would continue throughout our trip was emerging of egg fried rice and chicken or Thai green curry), Katie had organised a river trip up the Chao Phraya River. We were taken onto a reasonably sized tourist boat that had about forty blue leatherette seats, a roof and a large car engine powering the propeller, although no windows. As we made our way along the river, we welcomed the cooling breeze, as well as some of the fumes from the engine, making a welcome change from the now accustomed smells of the streets of Bangkok. Smells that consisted largely of cooked fish, sweet spices, and various unmentionables.
While on the boat we passed some notable landmarks, and in particular the Royal docks that contained ceremonial barges richly decorated in gold. We stopped a couple of times en route to firstly buy fruit and bread and then to feed the fish that live in the river. I must admit I was amazed when I saw fish in the water, as I’d assumed that the water must be heavily polluted, but considering the amount of large healthy fish in the river, the water can’t be that bad?!
After about an hour on the boat we returned to land and walked back to the hotel, which was little more than a 10 minute walk away.
We couldn’t really hang around as we were checking out that afternoon, for our 16:30 departure on the overnight train trip south to Phunphin, which would lead us to our next stop, the Khao National Park – the rainforest!