Day 13: Last hours in Thailand, the return home

On our final day, we woke early and packed up our stuff. We asked the hotel to call a taxi for us and, after about 10 minutes, one finally agreed. The reason all of them were hesitant was for two reasons: 1) with the protests becoming increasingly chaotic it is a hassle for them to get through the traffic not to mention a very slight danger 2) they could easily charge a flat rate of over 200 baht instead of putting on the meter, which is what the nicer hotels make them do. If you are trying to hail a cab, make sure they meter (or if you're desperate at least haggle for a decent price) and don't fall for any excuses like "it is a national holiday". Unless it is actually a holiday, the driver is just using this as a way to drive up a flat rate offer. We were on our way and arrived soon after at the Grand Palace of Bangkok.

This magnificent palace is the symbolic seat of the monarchy and the site of many ceremonies. It is also the most visited tourist spot in Thailand. About 251 billion baht (over half the country's tourist revenue) is made in the capital of Bangkok with a large chunk of that coming from this palace alone. Even at the opening hour of 8 am the grounds were flooded, mostly with Chinese tourists, loudly clamoring for every photo opportunity they could get. As you approach the gate, you pass by a multitude of armed guards with bayonetted rifles. Then you are inspected for modesty. Nicole was fine, but I had to rent a pair of long pants to put over my shorts. I only had 1000 baht bills so I had to leave one as a deposit for my rented pair of khaki colored pants. They had no pockets which ironically made me do an indecent "reaching into the front of my pants" move every time I took out my phone for a picture! Whatever, we were at the ticket counter and after paying 1000 baht for the both of us, we were inside. Every bit of hype about this place is true. Whether it's the shimmering gold bell shaped turret which looks like smooth gold but is actually made of individual gold tiles, or the elaborately painted murals that stretch around the grounds of Wat Phra Kaew, the place is every bit as spectacular as you could imagine. I will let some of these pictures speak for themselves:

This is home to the Emerald Buddha, the symbol of Buddhist unification with the monarchy. Actually made of a type of jasper quartz or jade, it sits atop a massive altar in one of the temples. Also worth checking out is the scale model of Angkor Wat. One could easily spend half a day in Wat Phra Kaew alone, but after an hour or so, we pressed on towards the Grand Palace. This is the ceremonial grounds for some of the king's events. Also nearby is the mansion in which important guests and diplomats to the monarch are housed. The palace has an impressive throne room or two, an armory museum, and various other sights. It is a more relaxed part of the grounds as many of the tour groups spend their time milling about Wat Phra Kaew. Nicole found a friendly palace cat.

Satisfied with our morning and the multitude of pictures we had taken, we left and walked towards Khao San Road for a late breakfast before heading back to the hotel. Strolling the streets of Bangkok, I couldn't help but feel early twinges of sadness for having to leave such a marvelous place. Over breakfast we vowed to come back very soon. We even talked about ways we could live in Thailand! We snagged a couple last minute gifts for friends and family, then hailed a taxi. The driver laughed at how we were pronouncing the hotel (soo-ko-sol) with our flat, atonal American way and corrected us (soo-KO-son) with a rise on the "o". Rising and falling tone is exremely important in most Asian languages. We grabbed our stuff from the hotel, took a cab to Suvarnabhumi International Airport. Our flight wasn't for a few hours so we had a couple of beers and looked back at photos of the trip. Then I remembered there was supposed to be a large sculpture of a famous Hindu myth, the "Churning of the Ocean Milk" inside the airport. I asked where it was and we found it!

This is a similar depiction to the relief at Angkor Wat, with Vishnu in the center, the whole scene symbolizing the awakening of the kundalini, the serpent uncoiling from the spine. I am increasingly fascinated with Vishnu, Shiva, and Hindu mythologies related to the kundalini. With this, our Thailand adventure had come to a close. We had a short flight to Bayun International in Guangzhou. While standing in a frustratingly long line to get through passport control, we took pictures of the disease prevention and screening apparatuses including a heat-sensing fever detector.

 

Then it was back onto China Southern Airlines for the long flight home!

Until the next adventure...

 - C

Day 12: Leaving the islands, back to Bangkok

Our morning in Ko Samui was a tranquil one. We had a great breakfast (interrupted briefly by a giant wasp which flew under our table and stuffed a large caterpillar into its nest). Nicole took a dip in the water, which now appeared to be jellyfish-free. We soaked in some sun and decided it was time to move on.

We hailed a taxi back to the pier and tried to get combined ferry/bus tickets at the main counter. The price was expensive and did not include a bus combo, so we headed back to the pierside town and asked around at some travel agencies. We found one that offered the combo trip for about half the price we'd found elsewhere, so we sprang for it. In the meantime, we grabbed some drinks at a coffee shop while we waited. It was some of the best coffee I've ever had, Nicole had a delicious coconut shake. There was also a crazy bulbous-headed fish in a tank.

We boarded the ferry and, since Samui is the closest island to the mainland, it was not very long before we were on our bus back to the airport. We ate a late lunch while waiting for our flight, since we had a few hours to kill in the Surat Thani airport. We watched some tv showing footage of the protests in Bangkok, which had turned violent only a couple days earlier. We were glad we did not see any of it, and hoped on our return we wouldn't catch any violence. Interesting to see similar discontent as we had witnessed in Cambodia about a week prior. I wondered if Southeast Asia might see an arab-spring type of moment in which discontent manifested throughout the region in protests against their regimes. Our last hotel of the trip was closer to the shopping malls and Sukhumvit. It was a five star hotel called The Sukosol and was booked through my credit card rewards. It was one of the fanciest hotels I've been in. The staff were hand over foot friendly and we had a sweet room with a view of the Bangkok high-rises. It was just what we needed to rest up for the next day and our long flight ahead. Since it was getting late, we ordered room-service for a decent price and talked about our plans to squeeze every last drop out of our trip. The goal was to visit the Grand Palace first thing in the morning before checking out of the hotel!

- C

Day 7: Taking it easy in the Thai capitol

My stomach was better in the morning, but not back to normal. Nicole and I decided to take it slow and make use of the laundry option to wash our clothes at the hotel. We agreed that we were glad we had already hit some of the main sights in the city on our first day there. We talked about trying to see a floating market but realized that even early afternoon would have been too late in the day for them. Most are located outside the city anyhow.

We transfered hotels, but had some difficulty finding a taxi that wanted to take us near that part of the city due to the protesters who want to shut down the government. They believe that the current prime minister is just part of a corrupt cycle of family connections and not a representation of true democracy, so they want to install their own people. They are in the minority for supporting this change, however, as there is much support still throughout Northern Thailand. Walking through the streets where the protesters were, we were able to see and buy patriotic items from street vendors while watching a speaker talk on a big screen. We just hoped nothing turned violent while we were there.

Our next hotel, The Viengtai, was just one street over from popular Khao San Rd. - a moderately sized hotel with a basic, but charming feel. We decided to grab lunch across the street (an appropriately bland one for myself) and head over to Wat Arun, located to the southwest of the Grand Palace.

You have to take a ferry across Mae Nam Chao Phraya river, which costs 10 baht, or about 3 cents and it takes just a few minutes. Wat Arun is a spectacular temple, Khmer style, with incredibly steep stairs leading up to the second and third tiers - even steeper than those we encountered at Bayon and Angkor Thom. Visitors gripped tightly to the railing on the way to view the sunset and the surface of the temple, glittering with broken ceramic, colored tiles, and gold. Truly a breathtaking panorama of Bangkok from here, and even prettier when the sun went down and orange colored lights turned on to wash the whole temple in a golden hue.

We made our way back and tried searching for a place called Ranee's, which was supposed to be a good restaurant. Walking down the backroad, we were approached by a European-looking dude, who softly said, "Hello guys... are you looking for... anything?" We said we were not. We joked later about saying, "We're not looking, we've already found Jesus. Have you found Him?" and launching into a tirade that would have caused his smirk to fade pretty quickly. We found the restaurant, ordered an Italian noodle fusion dish, a fish burger and a large Chang beer. It was a tranquil end to what was a somewhat mellow day. But we could feel our anticipation rising for the next morning when we would fly south to the gulf side islands!

- C

Day 1: Bangkok!

We arrived in Bangkok in the afternoon and grabbed a taxi. The international airport is new and very nice. Here is a sign we saw:

Our hotel is called Roof View Place and is just a short walk from old Bangkok and Khao San Rd.

Khao San by night is the most dizzying array of sights, sounds, and smells we had ever experienced. A cornucopia of tourist markets, tattoo shops, massage parlors, food carts, fried scorpions being offered up on trays, and of course, the drunk tourists reveling in it all. A visceral experience. We headed one street over to grab a bite to eat: some pad Thai and spicy basil chicken with rice. Also, some local beer for dirt cheap. The hanging lanterns gave us a sweet ambience.

We crashed early and woke up early, deciding to head over to the Royal Palace and temples. Glistening with sweat in the 85• weather at 8 in the morning, we approached the temples and the government buildings where there were mass protests only days before.

Wat Pho is a breathtakingly elaborate temple consisting of several buildings. One of which housed the famous reclining Buddha.

Enormous and ornately inlaid mother of pearl at his feet.

Also, the walls were hand-painted in exquisite detail.

Some more pictures of the temple area including monks chanting during prayer.

We headed to the Royal Palace and Wat Phra Kaew but decided to come back when it is less crowded. These little fish tanks are for cleaning debris off your feet. Have a seat with your feet in the tank and the sucker fish will nom your feet.

On the way back to the hotel, Nicole was kicked in the shin by a local woman. I bought some little donuts from a food cart and as we ate them wondered, "what was that about?". We're now preparing for our flight to Phnom Penh. We'll see you again shortly, Bangkok!

- C