Quest to See the World

It’s 7:49 and they are still sleeping, but it’s the perfect time to get some blogging in. I didn’t think that the time change has been that difficult to adjust to until it got to be around 8pm and all of a sudden I felt sooooo tired and I wasn’t able to write last night because I just wanted to crash.

So I’m going to back up a little bit… We’re staying at the New  Siam Hotel which is around $17 per night for a/c, private bath, flat screen tv, clean, but we had to get 2 rooms because they didn’t have a triple. It’s okay, the walls are just white and there aren’t any decorations.  Before I go to sleep I watch TVE from Spain because the other options are either in a language I don’t understand or from the states…hey, might as well keep up on my Spanish while I’m here There’s a cheap open air restaurant here and internet service too. I’m in my own room and they are sharing. I wasn’t going to get  A/c, but that room was on the fifth floor and they’re on the 1st and it would’ve been a pain.

The craziest thing happened, but i forgot to mention it last time…The first night we were here stacy’s phone rang at 3:30am with caller ID showing a Massachusetts phone number!!! She didn’t answer it though because it would probably be like $4 per minute.

Ok, back to the first day…we got to the hotel around 2pm and decided to check the place out a little, but had no idea of anything because none of us have read too much before coming here (I know, what were we thinking?!?!?!). We checked out the map and decided to walk to the river and hop on one of the boats that runs up and down as public transportation. They stop at each pier along the way and you can get off at any stop, it’s around $.50  each. Ok, so we found the pier, bought the ticket and got on the first boat that stopped…well it wasn’t the right one. It took us across the river instead of down the river, so there we were, the lost, confused tourists who don’t speak a word of the language. The boat driver quickly understood that we had no idea what we were doing as we used body language to motion that we were going to stay on the boat and head back to the other side again, we paid $.30 each for our little adventure. Ok, we get off of that boat and onto the next one, the right one. We weren’t really headed to any place in particular, so we stayed on for a while and got off about a half an hour later at the skytrain stop. We didn’t expect to see a monk with a laptop, but there was one on the boat with one.  So we got off the boat and just followed the crowd. This was not a good stop though because there were about 6  homeless kids there, but that’s the only place we’ve seen that in the city so far. The city is really clean and not very congested at all for a city this big, especially for a capital city. We haven’t seen any dire poverty yet, other than the kids.

Bangkok is super modern and the young people here are much more hip than the young people in the states. They have very fashionable hair cuts and clothes. I’m still trying to figure the people out though because the staff at the hotel seems to be really reserved, but when we’re out walking around some people are really outgoing and helpful with no hidden motives.  There’s also a high level of false security here.  Walking around one feels really safe, but it’s a capital city of 8 or 9 million people so it can’t be as safe as it feels everywhere.

Back to the first day. We got off of the boat and started walking back in the direction of the hotel which was several miles away by this point.  Nothing exciting happened, but we came across a little market area of clothes and watches and food and stuff, went into a department store quickly and caught a boat back to the area of our hotel after a few hours. When we were on the boat going back we noticed signs that said “space for monks” where we had been standing previously on the other boat, ignorant tourists! When we got back we ate dinner and crashed around 8pm. Mom got pizza as her first meal in Asia and stacy and I got some thai food and i sadly have to admit that mine was pad thai, but i just wanted to see if it tastes the same here, and it does.

So yesterday, after we left the hotel we headed toward the grand palace on foot, but before we got there some we passed by the museum which was closed and some small temple type of place and this guy told us that we should go to the palace after 2pm because it was a buddist day and the monks would be praying there until then. He also told us that we’d need to have long pants and our shoulders covered to enter. On our map he showed us where some other big temples are in the city, including a golden buddha that’s like 5 stories high, and he also told us which tuk tuks (three wheeled motorbikes that serve as taxis) to take so we don’t get ripped off too much. I asked him to wave down a good one for us and he did. The guy didn’t speak much english (the driver) so the helpful young buck translated for us too and told the guy where to take us and discussed the price too, which was supposed to be only $2 total to take us to 4 different places and then back to the hotel with waiting at each stop…I don’t know how they make any money?!

Ok, so we get into the tuk tuk and head off to the buddha first. We never could’ve found it on our own. There was a pretty big temple there with a buddha inside and some people praying. You must take off your shoes when you enter a temple and they sell small garlands of flowers to put in the temple or sometimes outside of the temple where there are a lot of other ones and also incense and candles. I don’t know anything about buddism, but plan on learning more when we visit my friend dale’s dad tomorrow in another town. There was also a monk outside of the first temple sitting up on like a table or altar thing praying and some people were in front of him sitting with their heads bowed and this was outside under an area with a roof.  They were on the right and behind the people seated is where the temple was. Walking past them there was a lady with a bunch of small wooden cages (approx. 6″x6″x6″) with small birds in them  and sign saying that if you let them free in the area of the buddha it’s good luck. It was $3 per cage.  Well if you know me, you know that I wanted to pay to release all of them, but I only bought one cage and the one that had 5, not 4. I figured that some other sucker of a tourist will come by and pay to release them anyway. I left that gated area and crossed over to the next gated area where the huge golden buddha is. There were more people praying and I released my poor little birds. I also put my garland of flowers on buddha’s big golden toe. It was amazing how big it was ! We walked around the back of it where there were a bunch of smaller, life sized buddha statues and also a bunch a cats, petted the cats, took some pics and got back in the tuk tuk.

We headed off to the next temple and the  nice man inside told us that there are 7 different buddhas in thailand, 40,000 temples and 475 in bangkok. He also told us to never allow anyone to charge us to enter a temple. WE saw more cats outside, took more pics and got back in the tuk tuk. Next we headed to the national tourist office which is the official government office where one is supposed to go for some honest help. Stacy and I talked to the lady and mom sat on the comfy couch and waited. we got info about getting a train to the north after visiting dale’s dad, which she wasn’t too nice about. She gave us attitude about why we wanted to go to the town where his dad lives. We let her book us a hotel for the town up north, but that  was it because she was snotty. We decided to go to the train station ourselves to get the tickets instead of getting them from her, but now we had to explain this to the driver and also work out a price. with my handy little phrasebook I communicated about the train and some guy helped with the money part. he said we could pay whatever we wanted…

WE get back in the tuk tuk and the driver was trying to explain something to us, but his lack of English and our lack of thai caused some confusion. i resorted to my handy phrasebook again, which, by the way, I am the only one to try out, but it wasn’t much help. WE had read in the guidebooks about tuk tuk drivers taking sorry ass tourists to gem stores and stuff to make commission, but we had a set itinerary with this guy, well not for long. So we came up with a bunch of different interpretations for what he was trying to communicate to us… he was pulling at his shirt, saying something about gasoline, pointing to these postage stamps that were attached to the inside of the tuk tuk, and it had begun to rain. so we thought that maybe he had to make a quick stop at home to grab his rain gear (???) which wouldn’t be entirely unusual in a place like this, maybe he was stopping for gas (????), needed to mail something (???), we were confused. Then he was saying something about a store and I was like, oh, no, he’s not taking us to a gem store!?!? and i understood something about 2.

ok, we pull up at the first store and it’s a place that sells tailor made suits and silk ties and scarves…now do we really look like we’re in the market for some suits ??? I was like, “no, no, we’re not going to this store”  very firmly, and he stuck his head inside the back part of the tuk tuk and quietly said “no, no, you no buy, only look, one minute”. ok, so we got it, he’ll get his little commission for taking us there and we just look around and act interested for a short time. sure, we can do this to help the guy out, no problem. As we were walking in there was another group in front of us that looked even more confused than we did, and they were taken upstairs. we stayed downstairs and mom even bought a bar of fancy soap. ok, we were on our way again and i said in thai “train now” and he said “one minute”….ok, i was right, there were 2 stores. he started saying gasoline again and we stopped at a 2nd store, this time a fancy jewelry store. it was pouring down rain by now and this guy from the store comes to the tuk tuk carrying a huge table umbrella to walk us in. the tuk tuk driver says “gasoline, one minute” and takes off as we get out. me, being so observant spotted a guy sitting to the side with a walkie talkie and a notebook. I think i figured this part out. he writes down the license plate of the tuk tuk and radios to a guy a the gas station to give the guy some gas for taking us there.  the driver goes and fuels up and returns for us.

so, we’re inside of this jewelry store with a bunch of other tourists and i saw some stuff carved out of ivory. i said to the lady, “this is very bad” and pointed to the ivory. she’s like, “you no like,  you can get out…you get out”. I just ignored her and pretended to look at some other stuff while we were waiting for our driver to return because it was raining like crazy outside and i wasn’t about to stand out there and get drenched!! a few minutes later we walked outside and there was our driver. we got back in and i said “ok, train now” and he said “yes” with a big smile on his face. the stores weren’t too bad…a few minutes of our time and some free gas in his tank he gave us an umbrella to hold by the opening of the side of the tuk tuk so we wouldn’t get splashed and we were off.

we went to the train station, got our tickets and we were on our way again. before heading back to the hotel he stopped at another temple, we bought another garland, some incense and a candle and he explained what to do. he bought one too. he told us that last night on the news the king said to treat tourists well. he was showing us around the temple and pointing stuff out inside. we then headed back to the hotel and i asked him for his # for next time we needed a tuk tuk driver. we gave him 300 baht instead of the 60 he asked for originally because that’s still only around $9 us dollars for driving us around for a couple of hours. he kissed my hand and stacy’s hand and asked us to call him when we return from the north. 

Stacy and I ate from a street vendor, kha kom or something like that that’s a coconut based soup with vegetables and plate of rice for just over $1US. i also got  a yogurt shake (mango) for $1…mmm. we stopped back in the hotel quickly and headed to the palace again, the grand palace. it’s crazy!!! i can’t even describe it in words. the emerald temple has a buddha carved out of emerald inside of an extravagant temple and everywhere you look it’s just golden buildings and different colored tiled, extremly detailed buildings. i looks like the emerald city in the wizard of oz. i seriously felt like i was at epcot center/disney world. people really used to live there.  it was like a small city. you’ll just have to see the pics. the royal palace is there and we saw the changing of the guards too. i’m not really into seeing the riches of those who got their money from exploiting others though. I actually feel like all of bangkok is epcot center. it’s really weird. i don’t feel like i’m on the other side of the world. i can’t wait to leave the city tomorrow though. the countryside will be soooo much better.

after the royal grounds we walked through another market, stacy bought a watch and i got a bandana for holding my crazy hair back or wiping sweat off of me. it’s really hot and humid. we stopped to get a beer at place along the river on the way back to the hotel area and a bad storm started to roll in. mom got her “american” burger and stacy and i split some fried bananas, again…mmm. we waited the storm out and headed to khao san road in the evening.

this area is the party place of bangkok apparently. it was crazy. there were vendors everywhere, clubs, restaurants, lots of neon lights, loud music, and people filled the street. we checked it out, got a bite to eat and exhaustion began to set in. we headed back to the hotel and i quickly crashed around 9pm. i was even too tired to consider typing one line.

we were supposed to go to a floating market today, but stacy was opposed to it, so we’re stuck in bangkok for another day. also, my right eye is weird and a little puffy, but i’m not sure why. right now stacy is figuring out where we’re headed for the day. we’re going to take the skytrain and see what happens.

check ya later.

Tags: bangkok, grand palace, thailand, tuk tuk

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 at 8:43 pm and is filed under Asia Trip-Summer 2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.