After a very relaxing week in Hong Kong, we boarded an Air Asia flight for the land of green curries and Pad Thai. First stop: Bangkok

Day 1

In every entry about Bangkok in every guidebook there is a warning about the most common scam: on your way to the Grand Palace a tuk tuk driver will tell you it’s closed, and offers to take you to another, better temple, and on the way takes you to a store or market where he receives a gas coupon in exchange for bringing in customers.

Well we fell for the nice art students in Beijing but after almost 2 months in China, we thought we were pretty seasoned travellers, immune to such things. As it turned out, we were wrong!

A very friendly Thai told us of a few nice temples, and then suggested we have lunch on the way, and then tells us that it’s pretty far so a tuk tuk makes more sense, and we could do all of this for only 40 Bahts – Roland totally fell for it, probably because he liked the idea of having a private chauffeur for the day, waiting outside for you while you eat or visit… or shop! Nevertheless, there we are on the tuk tuk, ending up in an ok-but-not-so-cheap-restaurant, where we realized what may actually have happened.

Roland negociating a new route (not involving a silk shop):

Unfortunately we were unsuccessful, and he admitted he wouldn’t get his gas coupon if we didn’t go to the shop, so we just gave a bit of money and went on our way, on foot.

We headed over to Khaosan Road in search of a guidebook for the rest of our time in SE Asia. Khaosan Road is a small street, but it’s where most backpackers end up in Bangkok, and is filled with restaurants, bars, hostels and clothes stands, not to mention the abundant knock off CDs and DVDs. I expected it to be hideous, but it was ok and a good place to enjoy a cheap pad thai and cocktail.

Uninspiring Khaosan Road:

We then hopped on a ferry to go explore the streets a little. The best way to get around the city is by boat, as you avoid all the traffic and congestion of the roads:

They’re packed with people, but they zip around quickly and only cost about 20 cents! Plus there are the breezes…

And nice views along the trip:

These are the taxi boats which we didn’t take, but looked nice:

Everyone had said that Bangkok was aweful, but we found neat areas to explore.

Chinatown:

All over the place there are people weaving flowers together to make garlands and arrangements for the temples:

People also like to sleep everywhere:

The ubiquitous tuk tuk:

We decided to splurge a little for dinner and went to a place recommended in the Lonely Planet and for once it didn’t lead us astray. The place was called Cabbages and Condoms and is a (surprise, surprise) condom themed restaurant, with lamps and flower garlands all made out of coloured condoms. The restaurant actually supports community development, using profits for HIV prevention and planned parenthood and the food was de-licious!!

Roland enjoying a pre-dinner cocktail (note the bird shaped carved pineapple):

Yummy!:

A smashing dress made of, you guessed it, condoms:

Day 2:

Today we decided to check out the temples a little. First stop was Wat Pho (the Temple of the Reclining Buddha). It’s the largest temple in Bangkok and famed for its huge reclining Buddha measuring 46 metres long and covered in gold leaf.

The Buddha’s feet are 3 metres long and exquisitely decorated in mother-of-pearl illustrations.

The whole room echoes with the sound of prayer coins dropping into these pots that line the wall:

Roland putting prayer coins in the pots:

All of the walls were decorated:

While Buddha is the main attraction, there are many temples and statues on the grounds:

Most of the structures are covered in this tile:

Beautiful roofs:

A quick ride on the ferry and we headed accross the river to Wat Urun, or the Temple of Dawn:

There are stairs to climb up, and they say you are climbing towards heaven (though I thought I was climbing towards my death, the stairs were so steep):

And up!:

More cool statues:

On our wander back, we got off the tourist trail and stumbled on a boxing ring under a bridge. They were very friendly and invited us in to watch for a bit.

We also took shelter from the rain in a flower market:

Day 3:

Today we packed up our bags and took the subway to the train station as we had a night train to catch at 7:30pm to head to Chiang Mai in the north. We checked our bags into the left luggage (a life-saver!) and headed to the Royal Palace. In all the guides they make a big fuss about the need to dress propperly when visisting the palace: knees and ankles covered, no t shirts, no tank tops, no sandals, no open back shoes, etc, etc. So, we were wearing our long pants, long sleeve shirts and hiking boots (in 30+ degrees of course). Of course, after going in we saw that people were in flip flops and short skirts and our guide told us that they hadn’t enforced the sandal rule in six year! (Thank you, Lonely Planet 2008).

We were grumbling a little about the huge hike in the entrance (from 200 to 350 baht, or 7 euros), but as soon as we were inside, we shut up quickly. The place was incredibly beautiful and ornately decorated in gold and rich colours.

The famous 3 temples of the royal Wat that appear on the coins of 1 Baht, are of 3 different inspirations: Thai, Cambodia and Laos.

Demons protecting one of the temples:

Another nice roof on the temple of the emerald budha (in the Royal Palace grounds). The Temple of the Emerald Buddha (officially known as Wat Phra Sri Rattana Satsadaram) is regarded as the most important Buddhist temple in Thailand. Carved from a single block of jade. The Emerald Buddhais a Buddha image in the meditating position dating from the 15th century AD.

Raised high on a series of platforms, no one is allowed near the Buddha except the King. He even gets to have his little outfits changed depending on the season! A very important ritual, the changing of the robes is performed only by the King to bring good fortune to the country during each season.

Here he is with his hot, rainy and cold season outfits, respectively:

Scenes from the Ramayana (an ancient Sanskrit epic) decorating one of the temple walls.

Guards at the Royal Palace:

And thus was Bangkok.

We boarded our sleeper train that evening, munching our green and red curries…

Unlike the Chinese sleepers, the beds here run the length of the hallway. Our carriage contained pretty much only backpackers, with barely a Thai in sight! A little taste of things to come in Chiang Mai…

When you’re ready for bed, someone comes to make up the beds with clean sheets and pillows. Roland slept well, but Kath, on the top bunk, was kept awake by the light poking through the curtain. She really needs to learn to use sleeping shades!