Wanna Bangkok?

Posted by Emily

Sawadee from Thailand!

Yes, it's true that I haven't finished updating about Europe so I will do that very quickly as Europe is not my favorite continent and quite frankly I'm tired of writing about it. It's about time to move on to the exciting world of Thailand.

The last stop on the European tour was Vienna, not my favorite city so I won't dwell to much. It involved lot of meat and beer, a few art museums, some walking around, some shopping. It was a fine time but really just another big city to me. Our organized tour ended there too so we split off from the group and got to do whatever we wanted. It was very nice.

Last Tuesday, my mom left Vienna for Minneapolis and I left, with Nicki and Alex, for Bangkok. I must say that I very highly recommend Qatar Airways. They do say that they pride themselves on 5 star service. Our first flight was to Doha, Qatar and involved some of the best airline food I have ever had and free wine, and of course, even more exciting was the short lay over we had in Doha. So I've kind of been to Qatar....so random. Our second flight to Bangkok was even nicer and involved more wonderful food and free wine and our own personal video consul (?). I love these and the last time I had one was on Air France. You could choose from more than 20 movies, TV shows, news, video games and music, much of it very new, and you could even create your own personal playlist. This was very exciting for us and kept us quite entertained for a very long time. I watched Brokeback Mountain. So good. I wanted to watch more but then got too tired. Our next flights to New Zealand are with Emirates, which is supposed to even better.

We got into Bangkok at about 7 am and took a taxi to our hostel. No one ever told me they drive on the left side of the road here! I wonder how that happened. It's quite strange to see until you get used to it because if there are no passengers it looks like there is no one driving the car. The traffic in Bangkok is pretty intense and we got caught in a few traffic jams. In some ways the city reminded me of Dakar at first, mostly the heat and humidity in the air and the infrastructure that could probably stand to be in better shape. Bangkok is SO much bigger and that becomes obvious after spending more time in the city, getting caught in crowds and admiring the lovely (air-conditioned!) metro and sky train (like a monorail). You're think if Bangkok could do it, so could Minneapolis!!

Anyway, we spent the morning sleeping to make up for the fact that we hadn't really slept on the plane and the jetlag. I think we got up after about 6 hours because we decided that we wouldn't sleep that night if we didn't. We had dinner at a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms, a place that was in our guidebook but was also visited by some of my coworkers from the Epidemiology Dept at the U of M (where I TAed). The restaurant was either started by or is operated in conjunction with the Thai Population and Community Development Association. In addition to having really good food, they have the mission of promoting condom use, birth control and prevention of HIV. Every diner gets a condom after the meal instead of an after-dinner mint. I was super impressed with how large and well-managed the restaurant was. One of ways that Thailand has cut down on their HIV rates is by destigmatizing condom use and that tactic is very obvious at the restaurant where everything from lamps to flowers to models of ships are made out of condoms.

The next day we had a lot more energy and explored the city a bit more. With some advice from the receptionist at our hostel, we went on a mission to find the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaow, or the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. We took the Sky Train to the last stop, where it ends by the river and then took a water taxi to our desired destination. This was a very good tip from the receptionist because it allowed us to get around easily and cheaply without getting stuck in the traffic. After a few misunderstandings, we finally figured out which water taxi we needed to take and which dock we needed to take it from. After this, it was smooth sailing...no pun intended :) The water taxi was quite interesting because it allowed us to observe the life that takes place in and around the river, such as the lining the water (if you can call them that) and the businesses run near the water taxi stops.

The Grand Palace was amazing and almost beyond words because it is incomparable to anything I have ever seen. There is building after building ornately decorated in gold and colored mirrors with details that are mind-boggling. Every door, window frame, railing, etc. has tiny details. Hopefully I can post some pictures eventually, but even those don't really do it justice. If you ever thought cathedrals were impressive, they've got nothing on this place! The Temple of the Emerald Buddha was another very impressive site to see. The Emerald Buddha is actually made of jade that was mistaken for emerald. It sits on an elaborate pedestal in the temple and is dressed in different outfits depending on the season (summer, winter, rainy).

After checking out the rest of the grounds, we got some lovely fish ball soup (better than it sounds!) from a street vendor and set off to find Wat Pho, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, a HUGE golden statue of Buddha reclining (obviously). Very interesting but we have done ourselves a disservice by seeing the Grand Place first as nothing really can compare to it.

We then took another water taxi across the river to see Wat Arun Rajawararam (Palace of the Dawn). This one is supposed to be especially impressive when viewed from across the river at dawn or dusk. Unfortunately, we never saw it at either of these times but it was still quite nice. It has large pillars (I'm sure that's not the correct term)and terraces that our guidebook says that you can walk around for a good view of the city, but sadly they were closed when we were there.

After heading home and resting for a bit, we checked out the Suan Lum Night Bazaar, a market that is run only at night. We had dinner there at the food stalls where we realized that the place really isn't for tourists because none of the menus were in English. We got dinner from the first guy who said "Pad Thai?" (wonderful fried noodle dish that is all over the place) to the confused looking foreigners! We walked around to the stalls but didn't really buy anything. It was very interesting to see though because it was definitely the cleanest marker I've ever been to! The stalls are all in a covered building with white tile floors and many stores are playing music and have fancy, beautiful lights. It seems almost more like you are walking around in a mall that has very small shops that are open on both sides. I was also impressed with the items that were available. They had really nice furniture, pottery, etc. Things I'm not used to seeing at markets!

Well, that's almost all about Bangkok but the cyber cafe is about to close so I will finish later and add more about Chiang Mai, the city we are in right now, in the north of the country.