ChrisJenTravel.com – Honeymoon Trek

We walked about Bangkok, exploring the sights, sounds and flavors, still trying to recover from jet lag. The Royal Palace temples were a mile away and we thought that it would be an easy sight to see. However, as we entered the grounds, tour guides flocked towards us telling us that we would not be allowed in due to our inappropriate attire. I wore a 3&1/2 length sleeved shirt (down to my elbows) and cotton shorts that passed my knee (which was not acceptable) and Chris wore long shorts. In order to enter, I would need a skirt or pants; Chris would need pants. Understandably, we hailed a taxi and headed to Siam Square, a shopping district that we wanted to stroll through. The traffic was overwhelming – 30 lanes of traffic converged to one intersection. Lanes of traffic are a concept in Thailand. Most don’t adhere to the lanes; instead, the millions of scooters, motorbikes and tuk-tuks weave in and out of traffic and create their own lanes. Relaxed and happy to not be driving, we waited for our stop at Siam Square.

Siam Square is a large, expensive shopping square made of 24 streets. Disappointed that it wasn’t more of a simple market, we began to talk to some locals about the area. There are plenty of people who are overly nice simply because they want to steer you in a specific direction for a personal gain. Small-time scams abound here, with everyone seeming to have a friend to send you to for whatever you need. However, we met a local professor and a businessman who both gave us honest suggestions for temples, treks in Chang Mai and the local’s favorite suit tailor. They were eager to practice their English with us and proud that we chose their country to visit. We thanked them for their suggestions and left to book our bus tickets to Chang Mai for the next day.

At the Tourist Authority office, we booked our bus trips, treks and rooms for the next 5 days in Chang Mai up North as well as our bus transfers for 3 days in Cambodia. We had never planned so far in advance on the trip so we were a little apprehensive at shelling out money and being locked into a specific itinerary. However, we were traveling in high season with limited time to do as much as possible so we abandoned our wait-and-see method that had taken us this far. Starting the next night, we would begin an 8-day journey that included mountain trekking to see hill tribe people, elephant riding, bamboo rafting, Thai cooking classes and finally, exploring ancient temples; all on an air-tight schedule complete with two 12-hour overnight bus rides and one 25-hour marathon of bus rides, border crossings and transfers to get to Cambodia. Mentally exhausted at just the thought of what lie ahead, we left the travel office to fit in a little suit shopping with what remained of the day.

Getting fitted for a custom tailored suit is a time-honored tradition in Bangkok and we considered doing so even before we landed. However, the only shops we had seen so far were tourist trap operations promising a 1-day turnaround for a custom suit at dirt-cheap prices. Like all the other vendors, the salespeople wade through the streets and do their best to direct you to their stores or pay the taxi drivers with free gas to bring you there. Obviously, quality might be an issue so we were skeptical about which shop to choose or whether to even get a suit. But after the two gentlemen we met (who had no financial interest in our decision) both recommended a certain tailor that they themselves had used (as had dignitaries and government officials), we decided to give it a try.

We arrived at the Manhattan Warehouse Suit building and as soon as we announced our interest, we were whisked upstairs to the custom department and the high-pressure sales floor. There, we were shown countless bolts of fabric lining the walls of two stories, design styles and colors. We hadn’t even had time to eat lunch yet so we planned to look and return later. Instead we were asked what we wished to eat and 5 minutes later it was in front of us with drinks, compliments of the on-site kitchen. The whole place stirred with salespeople and customers lost in the endless amount of fabric. Obviously the whole scene was set to get people into as many suits with as much money spent as possible, but we knew what we had come for so we took our time, trying not to become overwhelmed. Jenny wanted a few pairs of custom pants and a shirt; Chris wanted two or three suits. Miraculously, we found the styles, fabric and colors we had in our minds and, using pictures from catalogs, began designing our clothes. With that out of the way we began the arduous task of negotiating a price. Chris set his limit somewhere between the cheap suits on the tourist street and what he would spend on an off-the-rack suit on sale back home. After nearly an hour of hard-nosed negotiating, we agreed on a price. However, when the store offered to give us a complimentary ride back to our hotel in their shuttle van, we began wondering just how good of a deal we had given them! None-the-less, we were excited to be getting some VIP treatment on our tight backpackers budget and celebrated the feeling that night with inexpensive dinner and drinks.

Before leaving the next afternoon, we wanted to see the river traffic and a few more temples. The river wasn’t exactly what we were hoping for. Enormous barges motored down; large ferries transferred locals. It was more like the St. Johns, but we wanted to see the market – canoes carrying fresh produce, women wearing huge hats, sheltering them from the sun. The market we were hoping to find was 80km north of town, so instead, we hopped in a tuk-tuk and paid the driver $2 to take us on a half-day tour of the surrounding temples. The Buddhist temples were extravagant to say the least. Buddha statues skimmed the clouds above, covered in gold leaf and gleaming like the burning sun. At each temple, we followed our driver inside, slid off our shoes and took the sticks of incense offered. Eventually we caught the hang of it. Drop coins in the offering; accept the bundle of 3 incense sticks that held a small golden colored candle – bound with paper, which held squares of gold leaf. The process: light the incense, bow to Buddha, sometimes leave a flower at his feet, always press the gold leaf squares directly on the Buddha – inevitably watching one fly away in the wind, leave the incense to burn standing in an urn of sand, light the candle, leave it burning aside the others.

We crept into some temples to watch the meditation. The old monks sat humming – a constant sound wave without interruption. After seeing 2, Chris was sure that they were fake, the color and texture of their skin resembled wax. His disbelief was hilarious; they were real. The temples were brightly adorned with pieces of colored glass, mirror and gold. Bright jewel tones covered the buildings, inside and out. Almost gaudy adornments covered the inside, bestowing blessings of wealth for those who frequented. Between some of the temples, our guide took us back to the river to feed the river fish. The river was a solid wall of fish. When you looked out to the horizon, you could see the small splashes that they made from one side the other. Dropping food into the river was all it took to see the fish surface and spray like a fountain – flopping out of the water as they lay on top of one another. It was astonishing to see; the inedible fish had no room to swim in a river as wide as the St. Johns.

Our last stop was The Golden Mountain, a temple built high above the city. We followed some monks and made the trek up hundreds of winding stairs to the top. The bells were rung and the view was 360 degrees of Bangkok. We felt like we were at the top of the empire state building, gazing out at bridges and high rises. Our driver waited at the bottom for us. We were running out of time and needed to get back to out hotel to check out. There was one more temple on the list and a silk manufacturer. We argued with the driver that we would not be able to complete the tour and we didn’t understand his stubbornness in allowing us to return. And here, in this moment, we found the catch. The catch that existed in almost every single service in Thailand. There was something in it for him. Although we had agreed on a price beforehand, the “silk manufacturer” was in fact a suit manufacturer…. ready to pay him in gasoline for dropping us off for a look. On most days we would have obliged, helping him out. Instead, we insisted to get back to our hotel to gather our belongings before we were charged for another day. Thanking him and paying him double wasn’t sufficient. He turned his head away when Chris tried to thank him and left in a fury.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 29th, 2006 at 6:13 am and is filed under Travel. 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.