Llew Wanders the World

Within about half an hour of arriving in Bangkok, I’d already come to the conclusion that even visiting the place would take a lot of mental energy. And the only reason it took that long was because I spent twenty minutes standing still in the train station while my mom and dad dealt with some administrative details.

The 10km taxi ride from the train station to the hotel my mom and dad had pre-booked took something on the order of half an hour (not counting the time spent haggling over the price.) It was immediately clear why Bangkok has the slowest average traffic speed of any city in the world. Throughout the city of 11 million, inumerable cars whizzed, or rather, plodded along the roads. And while the number of motorcycles and tuktuks was also inumerable, the cardinality of their set was still higher. (For those who don’t already know, three wheeled motorcycle type vehicles with a fabric roof and a bench seat for 2 or 3 in the back [and for those who aren’t math nerds, that whole cardinality business means, in short, that there were even moe of them than there were cars.])

The quality of our relatively inexpensive hotel was a pleasant surprise, and once again my mom and dad were kind enough to get me my own room. Or perhaps they just didn’t want me in theres. Either way it was bliss to once again be able to have a bath, walk around in my underwear, lay down on the bed and watch football (soccer) on the TV.

After a bit of this relaxation, my dad came and knocked at the door, informing me that they were ready for our planned trip out into the bustling city (I probably ought to look up a bunch of synonyms for “bustling” right now, since describing Bangkok will require a lot of them.)

The moment we stepped outside the hotel, several taxi drivers appoached us, all wanting to know where we were going, where we were from, offering us “good price” and so forth. Thankfully they were aggressive, but polite and not too persistant, since we’d just planned on going for a walk. We’d just started out when another taxi driver approached us and offered us a trip to a buddhist temple and a nearby maket for twenty baht (there ae about 30 Thai baht to a Canadian dollar.)

After a bit of consideration we accepted. Our first stop was the Buddhist temple, or Wat, which was pretty enough and contained a large golden buddha statue. (In light of how many big buddhas we’d seen already and how many we’d see later, I’ve decided to tone down my adjectives when describing them.) According to the interpretive display nearby, this statue was over 700 years old, but had been transferred to this temple relatively late in life after it had indicated to a senior monk that it wanted to be there.

As we walked around the temple grounds, a group of three little Thai girls stated calling out “Hello! Hello!” as we walked by. They giggle hysterically when either my dad or I replied. Also at the temple was the first of many vendors we’d see offering us an opportunity to release caged birds for good luck. The birds, of couse, are trained to fly home immediately after release, so there’s not an awful lot of point to it.

After wandering around the pretty temples for a bit longer, we rejoined our taxi driver, and he asked us if we’d mind visiting a jewelry store. He explained that he got free gas coupons for each tourist he delivered to the store to have a look aound. We’d soon become VERY familiar with this deal fom taxi drivers. Our driver in this instance was a nice fellow, so we happily agreed to go in and take a look around. Thailand is well known for the production of rubies and blue sapphires. The jewelry on display in the store was quite pretty, but none of my mom, dad or myself were really that interested in buying any, so after a few minutes of browsing, we headed back out.

The driver next asked us if we’d mind visiting a tailor’s shop. I wasn’t entirely pleased with the way we’d been roped into this, but as I’ve said, the driver was a nice fellow, and we really HAD wanted to look for some clothes at some point, so we agreed.

The folks at the shop were very welcoming, holding the door open for us, and offering us all drinks. No one accepted at first, but once my mom and dad had stated seriously considering buying some clothes, I had a beer and they each had a cup of tea.

The salesman was an engaging fellow and really knew his business. By the time we were done in the shop, perhaps 1.5 hours later, both my parents had been measured up, my dad for two suits, three shirts and a few ties, my mom for a beautiful silk jacket, along with three silk tops, a pair of pants and a skirt. The total price for all of these made to measure clothes came out to about the price of one nice off-the-rack suit in Canada.

While I did plan on purchasing some tailored clothing in Thailand, I had much more time to work with and decided to wait a while before committing to anything.

After we were done at the tailor’s shop, our driver (who had been more than happy to wait for us, since he got his gas coupon [apparently he got it whether we made purchases or not, so long as we looked for a while]) took us to Phratunam Market, which was actually very nearby our hotel. My mom and dad were quite pleased with their morning’s business, and were equally pleased to wander around the busy market area looking at huge quantities of knockoff designer clothing, handbags and accessories, along with all manner of assorted stuff (from Japanese swords to fake leatherman tools to jewelry to watches.) Since we’d had only a small breakfast, our (very) late lunchbreak partway through our wander was quite welcome.

I’ve always been a big fan of Thai food, and one of the key points I’d been looking forward to about Thailand was eating there. Our first meal didn’t disappoint. Some Tom Yum (hot and sour lemongrass soup) and various fried rice and noodle dishes were all delicious. The meal, which included a 750ml bottle of green Fanta (it tasted kind of like cream soda) came to about six dollars. I was in heaven!

After our wonderful lunch, we continued our wandering, this time with an eye for the photocopied travel guidebooks that I’d heard could be procured dirt cheap at some Bangkok markets. We had no luck finding them, but just wandering around the market until sunset was an entertaining way to pass the time.

After returning to our hotel for a rest and a quick shower (just to clean the film of grime that develops on one simply from walking around in Bangkok) I headed out again. It seemed that my mom and dad were asleep so I wandered out into the streets on my own.

The first thing I noticed was that the taxi and tuktuk drivers were still out in force, this time wanting to take me to clubs and bars in Bangkok’s red light district, all the while pressing flyers for the places on me. I politely refused their offers and spent half an hour or so wandering around the nearby streets. While they were quieter than before, there was still plenty of activity about. Before heading home, I sauntered down a small side street. Having only had one real meal during the day I was still rather hungry, and ducked into a small Thai restaurant that whose market was clearly native Thais. There was no menu of any sort (not even in Thai) so I made due with watching the lady doing the cooking and simply saying “I’d like that” when she began preparing something that looked good.

I went to sit down at a table by myself but the two Thai women that had been talking to the chef earlier beckoned me to join them. The younger of the two offered me an orange and some of their water. We sat and talked for a bit about the usual subjects: family, Canada, what I thought of Thailand and so on. The women also did their best to teach me tiny bits of Thai: hello, thank You, the name of the food I’d ordered. Much to their amusement they also got me to say “I love you” in Thai. They were all supremely friendly, and despite the stories I’d heard of Thai women who simply latch on to any western man they can find with nothing else in mind but the colour of his skin, these ladies just seemed to be genuinely friendly.

When my food was ready I dug in and thoroughly enjoyed it. The three women at the table (the chef had joined us now) all insisted that I try some of their meals as well. I’d so enjoyed my dinner that I ordered another of the same thing!

When I was all done, I bid the friendly women adieu and walked back to the hotel, a smile on my face all the way, revelling in the friendliness of the Thai people.

The next morning we woke up and stared out over the monstrocity (that was originally a mis-spelling, but I liked it so much I let it be) of Bangkok as we waited for the elevator to arrive. We went downstairs and enjoyed a huge breakfast (it came with our hotel room) and then headed down to the Bangkok Skytrain in order to make our way to the Chatuchak weekend market. The skytrain was modern and efficient and probably got us to the market far quicker than a taxi would have, especially given the horrid Bangkok traffic.

The market itself was huge. Perhaps five hundred metres on a side, it made the Phratunam market near our hotel look like a garage sale. We waded into the covered section, squeezing our way in amongst crowds full of tourists and Thais alike. The first section of the market we ventured into featured mostly clothing and accessories. My mom started her shopping here while I wandered around, perusing the preserved insects and arthropods at a nearby stall.

We continued wandering, with me still looking out for copied travel guides (the night before we’d found some brand new real ones for for almost C$40 a piece.) We eventually found the books section of the market but aside from some similarly priced new books, they didn’t have what I was searching for. Our wander ’round the market continued with my parents doing a bit more browsing. Eventually my sleepiness/boredom got the better of me and I wandered off on my own across one of the wide laneways that cut through the market and into the pets section.

Almost any animal you can imagine keeping as a pet, and many you couldn’t were available for sale. Cages full of puppies lined some aisles, while baby bunnies and birds filled others. Exotic tropical squirrels were found in another section, snakes, lizards and spiders in still another. A large portion of the market was devoted to fish, with aquariums, pools and even large plastic bags full of all things icthyine.

I wandered back out into the street and was walking around, pondering where I ought to head next when I was approached by a small Asian woman who was asking for directions out of the market. I’d been wandering more or less randomly and had thoroughly lost my way, so wasn’t able to help her. Nonetheless we wandered along and chatted for a bit. As we talked I discovered that Eva (this was her name) was from Bali (I hadn’t thought she was Thai, but had originally guessed Phillipino from her accent.) Eva and her sister were both nurses, and coincidentally her sister would be moving to Toronto on a two year contract for work the following May. We went back into the shade and sat down near a food stall to have a drink. We talked for a while longer and she explained that she was in Bangkok visiting her uncle who had married a Thai woman. Eva invited me back to her uncle’s place where I could meet her sister and answer any questions she might have about her soon-to-be home.

I (as is sadly typical of most western people) was very nervous about this possibility, envisigaing myself ending up robbed, drugged, kidnapped or meeting some other horrid fate. But Eva did seem like a very nice woman, so in the end I agreed. We eventually did find our way out of the market and hopped into a taxi. The ride wasn’t too terribly long and took us into a pleasant looking residential area of Bangkok.

Eva’s uncle Larry greeted us at the door, greeting me warmly and welcoming me into his home. After ensuring I was comfortable, he hobbled back to the kitchen (due to arthritis in his knee) and continued the cooking he’d been in the middle of when we’d arrived. Unfortunately, Eva’s sister wasn’t home, since she was visiting her aunt (who would shortly be having a baby) at the hospital.

Befoe long, Eva took over the cooking and I sat talking with Larry. He was a fascinating person, having worked in casinos for the past 18 years, beginning as a janitor and working his way up to his current position of senior supervisor. Her was currently working in a casino just across the Cambodian border whose main clientelle are Thais who have to leave the country to find legal gambling. Prior to this he’d worked most recently in Melbourne, Australia, and pretty much anywhere else in the world you might find a casino.

Before I knew it, the meal was ready, and I sat down with Eva and Larry to enjoy some very tasty Balinese food. The meal included rice, deep fried meat of some sort (pork chops perhaps?) and a delicious spicy chicken and vegetable soup. We continued talking as we ate, with Larry inviting me to be his guest at the casino if I was ever in the Cambodian border town where it was located. Eva and Larry both insisted that I have a second helping of pretty much everything, so it was a while before we were all done. Despite my offers, my hosts insisted that I not help with clearing up and cleaning afterwards.

Once we’d finished eating, it was growing near time for Eva to head to the hospital and take over from her sister. This being the case, they called a taxi, insisting that Eva accompany me back to the market before she went to the hospital. Aside from the fact that they’d taken me away from the market, they also noted that as soon as a taxi driver saw it was a white person paying the fare, the price went up significantly (my observations of travel with and without Eva confirmed the truth of this statement.)

This trip took much longer than the ride out, the traffic having thickened considerably. As we approached the market, Eva suggested that it would be a nice gesture for me to contribute to the purchase of some fruit for her soon-to-deliver aunt, in keeping with Balinese tradition. I very happily agreed, overjoyed at the opportunity to at least partly repay the hospitality of her family.

By the time I took my leave of Eva, I felt thoroughly ashamed of my previous paranoia, but happy to have made a couple of new friends all the same. I took the skytrain back to the Prathunam area, along with masses of other Bangkok residents who were headed in that direction.

The evening was a quiet one, spent wandering the streets near our hotel with my mom and dad in search dinner. We ate at another simple Thai restaurant and once again thoroughly enjoyed our meal. After eating, I stopped in at an internet cafe not too far from the hotel to finish my Malaysia entry. As I wrote, I talked with the young (under 25 I’m pretty certain) owner of the place, a friendly fellow named Max. Despite his poor English and my even worse Thai, talking with him was fun, and he did his best to teach me a few more snippets of his language.

I wasn’t entirely sure if he was staying open just for me, though it certainly seemed that way. In any case, I was grateful to him for hanging around until almost 01:00 when I finally finished, headed home and tumbled into bed.

The next day would be our final one in Bangkok and, as it turned out, the busiest. After our usual big breakfast (I’d been so enjoying the delicious and cheap food in Thailand that instead of feeling obligated to fill up on a free breakfast as I usually would, I felt almost guilty about it) we caught the Skytrain and then the subway (which was modern and efficient) to the section of town thickest with Buddhist Wats (temples.) We wandered on foot a bit, following signs to a wat that, despite its beauty wasn’t one of the dozens shown on our map of the city. This fact probably contributed a lot to my enjoyment of it. There were no other tourists anywhere to be seen, so the grounds were peaceful and quiet, with only worshippers and a lone “security guard” (who was more a friendly greeter than any sort of real guard.)

While the entire temple complex was beautiful, the most memorable portion (aside from the untouched feeling of the place within the huge, busy city) was the large (again, toning down the adjectives. It was actually something like 8m long) golden reclining Buddha statue. Also very memorable was the naturally mummified body of the Amazing Monk. A greatly respected monk in life, his body has been left untouched since his death in 1960 and is still in an amazing state of preservation.

After a bit more wandering and enjoying the peace of the grounds we walked down the street, eventually picking up a tuktuk to head for some of the notable temples in the city. The first of these was the Golden Mountain, a huge man-made hill with a temple on its top. We climbed to the peak and were afforded beautiful views out over the city. (This is actually pretty much the least interesting of the views, but my sister says I ought to include at least one picture of myself in each entry, and I didn’t take many of me in Bangkok.)

We headed back down the mountain and walked around the rest of the temple grounds (at the insistence of our tuktuk driver, who clearly didn’t mind waiting for us.)

Throughout the day we took several side trips to tailors and jewelry shops to help our two tuktuk drivers make up for $0.60 ride he’d offered us. Under normal circumstances this might have been annoying, but there were a few up sides. First, we got to see how lucky we were to have been brought to a good quality tailor straight off (the goods at several of the shop were of mediocre quality.) Second, one of the jewelry shops allowed us a quick visit to their cutting and polishing room. Finally, we got to spend most of the day zipping around Bangkok on a tuktuk, which is actually pretty entertaining in its own right.

Our next non-commercial stop was Wat Pho. This is the most visited of all the Buddhist temples in Bangkok, and for good reason. The grounds are huge, and every square centimetre is crammed with something interesting. Unfortunately every square centimetre is also crammed with tourists. But then I can’t be too critical, given that we were among them.

The outdoor portions of the temple are filled with beautifully decorated buildings (bits of mirrored glass providing the flashiest adornments) as well as dozens of stupas (solid spire-like monuments, some used as burial places, others simply celebrating the solidity and steadfastness of the Buddhist faith.) So impressive was Wat Pho that something so simple as a secondary gate out on to the street was an amazing sight in itself.

Aside from being a place of religious significance and a major tourist attraction, Wat Pho also serves as a school for Thai children. Many of these were present during our visit, some taking lessons from Buddhist monks, and others just having some fun.

Perhaps the most impressive, and certainly the most famous feature of Wat Pho is the enormous golden reclining Buddha statue (you’ll note that I HAVEN’T toned down my adjectives here.) The statue is 46m long and the peak of its head is 15m high, all of it covered in gold leaf, except for the soles of the feet, which are deocrated with mother of pearl inlays depicting significant images from the Buddha’s life.

We continued to wander around the buildings and stupas for some time, still in wonder over the beauty of the place, and the sheer exoticness of it.

We finally were ready to depart and head across the street to the Grand Palace, home of the Emerald Buddha, which my mother was very keen on visiting. As we walked down the street towards the entrance, a friendly Thai man approached us and started chatting. Before long he’d informed us that the Grand Palace was already closed, but had suggested a couple of other Wats that we might visit, as well as flaging down a tuktuk, writing down our destinations in Thai for us and negotiating a good price with the driver.

The first spot we visited was an absolutely beautiful temple. Unfortunately it turned out to be undergoing restoration, and impossible to enter any part of. While at this spot we also took a walk down a small laneway to the Mae Nam Chao Praya (the river that runs through Bangkok) for a good look at the huge numbers of carp that inhabit it, as well as the finish of a dragon boat race on the far bank and a beautiful view of the Rama VIII cable stayed bridge.

After departing the under-construction temple, we headed to our final Wat of the day, the Marble Temple. Constructed of Italian marble, the exterior of this temple may have been the prettiest of all, and the inside was almost as beautiful. When entering the central portions of Buddhist temples, one removes one’s shoes. Doing this allowed me to discover how wonderful smooth marble that’s been heated by the sun all day feels on the feet.

As we walked out to our waiting tuktuk after visiting the Marble Temple we came across one of the most interesting of Bangkok’s many food carts. I almost did, but in the end no one partook of its wares.

Our final destination of the day was my last ditch effort to find some knockoff guidebooks: Khao San Road. Khao San Road is the “backpacker ghetto” of Bangkok, and it shows. Everywhere you look there are bars, cheap guesthouses, English bookstores, food carts featuring dishes popular among westerners, pirated CD shops and hordes, HORDES of young western tourists. I didn’t find my photocopied books, but at least found used versions for less than half the price of the new ones. Despite the partial failure of my mission, I was happy to have visited the place, partly because it was interesting to walk around, but more importantly because it allowed me to confirm that there’s not a chance in hell I’ll be staying there when I return to Bangkok on my own. Khao San Road really does illustrate the effects of backpacker culture at their near-worst.

After our venture into the belly of the beast, we returned to Phratunam and had our first disappointing meal in Thailand. While the place did have Thai food on the menu, it specialized in charcoal roasted chicken. It wasn’t a complete failure, since the stir fried morning glory was interesting, and the roast chicken actually was very good. The papaya salad WOULD have been good, but my mom and dad were a bit nervous about the (possibly) unclean vegetables and dried shrimp, so not much of it got eaten. The meal was made still more depressing by the fact that as we were eating a small elephant was led by the front of the restaurant and customers were pressed to buy food for the poor animal, so far out of its natural environment.

The evening took a much more positive turn after we finished supper, and I headed back to my regular internet Cafe, Mr. Max’s. As before, I talked with Max as I wrote, finishing off my Malaysia entry. At the end of the evening I was getting ready to head to bed (we had an early flight the next morning) when Max stopped me and gestured to a wooden elephant on the table beside me. He picked it up and pointed to me. It took me a couple of minutes before I finally realized that he was offering it to me as a gift. I could hardly believe how wonderfully welcoming and friendly he and many others I’d met in bangkok had been.

I walked back to the hotel with, once again, a broad smile on my face.

The next morning we woke up early and caught a taxi to the airport to catch our plain to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand.

The flight was pleasant enough, and Bangkok Airways’ service was quite commendable. The most memorable part of the trip north, however, was the short stop at Sukhothai airport. Between the three of us, my mother, father and I have seen a LOT of airports on five different contients, from giant megalopolis terminals to little prop-only fields in the Amazon rainforest. With this in mind, the fact that we all agreed that Sukhothai airport was the nicest we’d ever visited should say a lot.

The entire airport (save the runway of course) was one giant garden, with beautiful traditional Thai buildings. In the departure lounge, potted orchids hung from the eaves of the roof. In planters on the ground were still more orchids, which would have put most North American greenhouses to shame. To top it off, there as also a small cart offering free fruit, snacks and exotic drinks (my dad had longan juice and I enjoyed a chrysanthymum drink.) We were actually SAD to get back on the plane after our quick stop at this airport, and were quite looking forward to stopping in on our way out of Chiang Mai.

But for the moment, we were in Chiang Mai, with three days in front of us to explore that beautiful city.

Thanks are due this time to Eva and Max and all of the other folks in Bangkok who made my stay there so memorable and so much less stressful than it otherwise could have been.

For anyone looking for internet access in Bangkok, I’d very highly reccommend Mr. Max Internet, located near the corner of Ratchaprarop Road and Soi Watthana Wong. If you do ever get there, make sure to say hi to Max for me 🙂

Tags: Thailand

This entry was posted on Monday, December 13th, 2004 at 10:33 am and is filed under Thailand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.