Asia: Bangkok

I´m at the Dong Mueang Airport in Bangkok at the moment, waiting for my flight to Phuket. (It´s been delayed by 2 hours.) So I decided to use this time usefully and write my blog. I just spent three fun days in Bangkok, that I´m going to tell about…

Monday 31.1.2007

When it was finally time to leave for the airport I first had to drag my suitcase to Central to take the train to the airport. I was there well in time to check in, which proved to be good. First of all, I was worried about having a heavily overweight luggage, and ended up making it lighter by throwing away some stuff (towels, shampoo etc). As I was at the check-in desk they sent me over to the service desk to clarify my tickets. It took them forever to figure out my tickets, and I had to pay almost $300 for changing the tickets (which I had done in August, when the friendly lady didn´t charge me the fee), service and Hong Kong airport tax. After finally being able to check in I got a $15 vouncher to spend at any restaurant. My flight ended up being delayed by 2 more hours, so I used the vouncher to buy lemon chicken salad at a Japanese restaurant, and then just walked around the area until it was finally time to board.

So the flight was delayed altogether by 5 hours, and I didn´t arrive in Bangkok until 3.30am. I didn´t even notice the change of year as I was watching a movie. (They´ve got a really good selection at Quantas: all newest movies and TV shows.) I spent most of the flight sleeping and eating all the food they kept serving. When I arrived in Bangkok I took a taxi to my hostel. I had been told to ask for meter, but I was really tired and got confused by all the people coming up to me and starting to bargain for taxi prices. So I agreed to pay 500THB for a trip to my hostel, which was ripping me off (it´s usually 300-400THB). But it was good to go to bed finally and get some sleep!

Tuesday 1.1.2008

I woke up at 8am, after sleeping only for 3 hours, but too excited to sleep any more. So I decided to find a place to get a cup of coffee. I found a small tourist map from the hostel lobby, and started walking along Silom Road (where my hostel was located) until I found a café. It was really quiet because of New Years Day – closed stores and few people - and my first impression of Bangkok was a bit shaky. I spent some time at the café studying the map and then started walking towards the Chao Pharaya River. I met this nice man on my way there, who told me how to get to the wharf. There I was offered all kinds of cruises and trips with different boats. Luckily I met Sis, a Danish girl, who told me to just get onto the normal river boat. We talked a bit more on the boat, and exchanged phone numbers. I took the boat to Grand Palace. The river boat ended up being the fastest and most convenient way of getting around in Bangkok, and it only costed 20THB. The river wasn´t as beautiful as I would´ve tought, but I could see some temples, lots of skyscrapers and the big bridge from there.

A river boat

I was pretty hungry when I got to the wharf, and luckily found a market place with all kinds of different food. I bought Thai noodle soup before starting to randomly walk around the area. I was really tired and had hard time focusing on anything, so I decided to spend the day just wandering around and figuring out the city. I found some more markets, and tons of people trying to sell me just everything (this lady even tried to ask me money for throwing corn to birds). I bought ice cream and walked past the National Museum and National Theater, that were both closed for New Year. I wanted to go see some old war boats at the Royal Barge Shed. So I crossed a bridge and then tried to find my way to the museum. (I had asked a tourist police officer and he had told me the museum is open.) I got suspicious as I followed the signs to the museum. I walked through some poor and dirty neighbourhoods, on really small paths, sometimes inside people´s homes. After I had walked for almost half an hour I faced a wooden path crossing a little river full of rubbish. I almost turned around, but decided to give it a try, and found the museum. It was just a shelter. The boats inside looked impressive – they were long and decorated – but the museum was closed indeed. Some men standing there offered to let me in, just to stand in the corner and take 5 pictures, for 100THB, but I declined the offer and walked back to the bridge.

Pictures of the King and the Royal Family

I took a ferry to the other side of the river and walked to Phrasumain Fortress, that was just a white building surrounded by a small park overlooking the river. Then I walked to the Democracy Monument, that was worth seeing! I climbed upstairs, where I had a good view over the city. Bangkok is full of diversity: glorious palaces right next to poor and dirty neighbourhoods. There´re also King´s pictures everywhere. Thai people obviously love their King. Sis told me they gotta salute the King even at the cinema before starting the movie. Golden Mount is a big temple with all golden roof next to the Democracy Monument, so I went there next. I climbed upstairs to take a look, but it was crowed with tourists so I skipped going to the highest part.

Pharasumain Fortress

Democracy Monument

Golden Mount (I think)

By that time I was feeling really tired and wanted to go back to the hostel. I walked around for a while trying to find a bus and even asked for directions, but with no luck. So I ended up taking a taxi (this time with meter, which costed 70THB). I was offered tuktuk-rides all the time; where ever I walked the drivers stopped me and asked where I was going to. After a while it was hard to keep being polite to all of them. After taking a shower at the hostel I went to walk along Silom Road. It´s like the Wall Street in the US, full of shops and market stalls selling everything: fake designer clothes, bags & belts, scarfs, flower shaped candles, wooden stuff, jewelry etc… And tons of food is being sold everywhere in the streets of Bangkok; grilled meat, fruit, coffee... None of the market stalls have fixed prices but you gotta bargain for everything. The best way is to walk around first and ask for prices, and when you find something you like start bargaining for it. I didn´t buy anything this time and went back to the hostel to sleep rather early.

Markets on Silom Road

Wednesday 2.1.2008

I slept for 10 hours and felt a lot more alert after waking up :) I went to buy instant coffee from a nearby 7-Eleven (Thailand is full of them!) and then walked towards the wharf. On my way there I saw tons of tailor shops and went into one of them to ask for prices. The man there spoke good English and had served many Finns before, and without hesitating long I decided to have a suit made for me. I chose to go for the best quality of fabric and brown colour with white stripes. I used my bargaining skills to get a suit jacket, pants, skirt and two blouses for 9500THB.

After being measured I continued my way towards the wharf and took a ferry to Grand Palace. This policeman told me the King had died today and there would be special trafic arrangements around the palace. It was true: All the people looked sad and many were dressed in black, and they kept closing the roads for some special vehicles driving by. I made my way to the palace and had to rent a skirt and a blouse to cover my shoulders and too tight leggings before going in. There was a lot to see and wonder inside the palace! So much glittering decorations, golden towers, temples with many buddhas and overall gloriousness! I think pictures tell more than words. I spent over an hour walking around before meeting Sis outside the palace.

Grand Palace

Grand Palace

Me wearing the clothes

We had agreed to meet outside the main entrance, but because of the special arrangements they had changed the entrance for the day so I was waiting for her at the wrong place. When we finally managed to find each other, surrounded by huge crowds of people, we went to the first place we found to have some lunch (prawn salad). Then we walked to Wat Po, which is a temple with a huge laying buddha. And I really mean huge! After seeing it we decided we had seen enough temples and buddhas for the day and headed to Khao San Road, which is a famous backpackers area with shops, markets and restaurants. It wasn´t too hot anymore, and we walked around looking at all the stuff and interesting looking food. We covered most of the place and enjoyed the more quiet and peaceful atmosphere without too much traffic. Then we went to have dinner at Sis´s favourite restaurant, which was really nice and cheap indeed. I had steamed rice with seafood in oyster sauce (65THB).

The huge buddha in Wat Po

Khao San Road

Eating my pineapple dish

The last ferry departed at 7:15pm and Sis walked me there. When I was walking on Silom Road I heard some noise and when I went to see what was going on there was this quite old man laying on the street, not showing any sings of being alive. He had been hit by a motorcycle I think. There was no ambulance and people were just standing and looking at him. I didn´t know what to do, either, so after a while I went back to my hostel. The traffic is crazy in Bangkok, though. Cars, busses, tuktuks and motorcycles just drive however and there are hardly any traffic lights. Crossing a road is about testing your luck; whether or not you end up being hit by someone. When crossing busy roads I tend to follow any local people to feel a bit safer.

Thursday 3.1.2008

I woke up at 8am, and after coffee and cereal I went to Smile Tailor to try on my pants. (They´re very nicely fitting. I hope I won´t gain a lot of weight in the near future.) Then I spent the morning wandering around on Silom Road and doing some souvenir & gift shopping. Sis and I had agreed to meet on Khao San Road at 1pm and I decided to test the local bus service to get there. I had asked for the right bus from the man working at the hostel, so I hopped to 705. The lady selling tickets inside told me to change busses at Siam, so I took 74 from there. It wasn´t as simple as I make it sound, though. I had to ask from several people before I got satisfying answers, since not all of them speak English and I guess they don´t like admitting they don´t know something, so even if being unsure they give some sort of advice, either correct or incorrect. I got to the right place eventually, but almost half and hour late. The traffic is pretty chaotic and the busses had to wait a lot.

Anyways, Sis and I had decided to have lunch on many of the nice looking places on Khao San Road. I had delicious rice & chicken in a carved pineapple. After lunch we spent an hour walking to Marble Temple. It was a good way to see some of the local neighbourhoods with lots of market stalls and tons of people. I like them selling fresh fruit and freshly squeezed juices in almost every corner, and I had a bottle of most delicious orange juice for dessert :P On the way there we walked past Anantasamakhom Throne Hall, which is a western looking building. The Marble Temple is a smaller area than Grand Palace but it´s beautiful. The main temple is made of white marble and there´s a buddha inside. (What a surprise. I think I´ve seen just enough buddhas by now. They´ve got temples just everywhere around the city.) The area consisted also of some green areas and fountains.

The Marble Temple

We decided to head to Victory Monument and spent again some time walking there. On our way we saw Chitralada Palace. It was fenced so we couldn´t go in, but saw some cows in there. (We couldn´t figure out why they had cows in a palace area.) All that walking was nice indeed since it felt like we had known each other for a lot longer time so we talked about just everything. Sis had been an exchange student in Singapore and she was travelling around Asia before returning there to do an internship at the university. The Victory Monument was a monument in a round about surrounded by tons of traffic: cars, trains and pedestrians.

Victory Monument and traffic

We took a train to Siam, which is a big western style and really posh shopping complex consisting of three multi-level malls. We went to this big supermarket, where Sis bought a salad for lunch. I did tons of free sampling and felt so full after it I didn´t need anything for dinner! We went outside to sit by this beautiful fountain & light thing. Then we went to walk around in one of the malls. We tried not to go into the stores, though, so we wouldn´t end up buying anything. (Both of us have the problem of already having too heavy luggage for flights.) They´ve tons of international brands, such as Gucci, Versace and Prada, but also cheaper brands like Mango and Zara, at so cheap prices! They also have interesting looking brands I had never heard of before that I´d love to try since they´re a bit different from the clothes I usually go for. We hadn´t much time to wander around before I had to take the train back to Silom Road. I had an appointment to try on my skirt and blouses at Smile Tailors.

Sis and I at the mall

(By the way, I´m at the Phuket Airport at the moment. I just spent two relaxing days at Patong Beach and I´m looking forward to writing about them, too. I´ll try to go online as soon as possible to post this text. I apologize for my terrible English, but I´m just too lazy to pay attention to grammar. Now I´ll turn off this laptop to save the battery and go buy a sandwich for lunch before boarding for the flight back to Bangkok…)