Well, it's only taken over 4 years of living in this country, but I finally had to succumb and do the rather embarrassing thing and become a Bangkok tourist. There are so many things to do and see in this city yet I have done so few of them. I suppose it's always the case that when you live somewhere you'd rather not spend your free time traipsing around in the heat, with crowds of often irritating and ignorant tourists who just add to the Thai understanding of foreigner equals stupid person who's easy to rip off. Also it's very easy to put these visits off when you are tired and you know there's always going to be another occasion to go.Saying all this however, when Nick's mum Val came to stay we felt that it was the perfect opportunity to see some of Bangkok's best sites. We were on holiday at the time so figured we'd have more patience for the whole malarkey, not having had to shout at kids all week.
From the morning Val arrived we had a jam packed itinerary planned. Not sure how it happened, but it seemed to revolve more around eating than anything else. Eating with the odd temple and a fair amount of shopping thrown in. Val landed at about 7.30 and after getting a taxi back to the apartment and barely having chance to get her bearings we were out and on our way to a huge plant market that specializes in orchids. Now I've never been much of a flower person, but the colour and shapes of the masses of orchids that are hung in shops at head height are an incredible site. It's also pretty cool to wander through the jungle of plant shops there. After lunch out we headed home to rest up before going out again for dinner.
The next day was the one I had been dreading most. We were going up to the grand palace and this meant lots of tourists, touts and the annoying fact that we had to wear closed shoes, long sleeved tops and cover our knees, all in midday sun. The day didn't really start that well with us being misdirected a number of times by 'helpful' locals telling us that the palace was in fact closed today and was only open to Thais, or that the palace was open but not for the next hour as it was lunchtime. Although I've learnt to not listen to strange people who pull you over in the street and tell you things like this, it did get quite annoying listening to all the excuses as to why we couldn't go in and peoples 'helpful' and 'innocent' range of suggestions as to where we should go instead. Eventually though we found the main entrance, clearly distinguished by the heard of 'farangs' or 'white people' going in. Beside the entrance there was a huge information sign, at the bottom of which it stated in bold writing 'beware of wily strangers'. Getting into the grounds of the palace was just the start. Once there we found that while girls could in fact show so much leg they couldn't really call what they are wearing 'a skirt', guys had to wear long trousers. Nick's 3/4 length trousers didn't make the grade so we had to wait while he went in and borrowed trousers. Now most people don't know this but in Thailand they have something we call 300 % employment, meaning they have 3 people to do one person's job. Nick had to go in, get a slip of paper off 
one person, pay money to another person, collect trousers from another person and then hand in the slip elsewhere, or something to that effect. Obviously when you add in the number of people queueing to get clothes, it only takes one confused person to send the whole thing into chaos. As you can imagine by the time we finally got into the palace we were more than a little harassed and Nick was most definitely not in the touristy mood.
I am pleased to say though, the Grand Palace was well worth all the hassle of getting there. It is like walking inside a life size jewelry box. There is more bling than you can imagine. What was most surprising, is that after getting around the first corner, you can find whole areas without a single person to walk across your pics which is usually the norm in places like this. As you can see by the photos, it really is quite amazing.
The next thing we had planned was slightly less touristy. We had arranged to do a bike tour of a part of Bangkok that is actually on an island surrounded by the Chao Praya River. This island has been made into a kind of nature reserve, with few roads and many raised narrow walkways. To get to the island we had to first ride along and across 4-6 lanes of traffic, getting up close and personal with Bangkok's unpredictable truck and taxi drivers. We then put our bikes in a long tail boat and went across the river to Bang Kra Jao. We then followed our guide along quiet leafy lanes and then rather precariously along paths about 3 feet wide and up to 7 feet off the ground. Now biking has never been one of my stronger skills and when you combine this with the fact that I have appalling balance when standing on two feet let alone on a bike with a 7 foot drop on either side, I spent the whole time praying that I'd not end up in the canal or swamp below. Thankfully though, I was spared this embarrassment, and it was the rather arrogant stockbroker from Sydney who came off his bike instead. And he was riding along a flat bit of road. (And yes, I know I look stupid with a cycling helmet, but I have learnt the hard way about not wearing protective headgear for sports I'm not that good at.)
Some of the other things we did included eating and shopping at the night market, eating and shopping at the weekend market, visiting Khao San on a difficult 'bag with bells' shopping quest, visiting the giant reclining Buddha at Wat Po, going on a much more enjoyable dinner cruise along the river, eating at the famous Blue Elephant restaurant and a rather eventful trip to the Sky Bar where my first aid skills were called into action when the Thai girl next to me hit the deck and blacked out for a couple of minutes. Still not sure if it was the height, the alcohol or just a way of escaping her date, but it was a rather surreal experience anyway.
All in all, it was a very hectic 10 days. Thanks to Val we had the motivation to go and do both the usual and unusual sights in Bangkok, and I would be happy to do it all again. We did however decide that it would be quite some time before we ate out again, and maybe we'd done enough shopping to last us a while.
one person, pay money to another person, collect trousers from another person and then hand in the slip elsewhere, or something to that effect. Obviously when you add in the number of people queueing to get clothes, it only takes one confused person to send the whole thing into chaos. As you can imagine by the time we finally got into the palace we were more than a little harassed and Nick was most definitely not in the touristy mood.I am pleased to say though, the Grand Palace was well worth all the hassle of getting there. It is like walking inside a life size jewelry box. There is more bling than you can imagine. What was most surprising, is that after getting around the first corner, you can find whole areas without a single person to walk across your pics which is usually the norm in places like this. As you can see by the photos, it really is quite amazing.
The next thing we had planned was slightly less touristy. We had arranged to do a bike tour of a part of Bangkok that is actually on an island surrounded by the Chao Praya River. This island has been made into a kind of nature reserve, with few roads and many raised narrow walkways. To get to the island we had to first ride along and across 4-6 lanes of traffic, getting up close and personal with Bangkok's unpredictable truck and taxi drivers. We then put our bikes in a long tail boat and went across the river to Bang Kra Jao. We then followed our guide along quiet leafy lanes and then rather precariously along paths about 3 feet wide and up to 7 feet off the ground. Now biking has never been one of my stronger skills and when you combine this with the fact that I have appalling balance when standing on two feet let alone on a bike with a 7 foot drop on either side, I spent the whole time praying that I'd not end up in the canal or swamp below. Thankfully though, I was spared this embarrassment, and it was the rather arrogant stockbroker from Sydney who came off his bike instead. And he was riding along a flat bit of road. (And yes, I know I look stupid with a cycling helmet, but I have learnt the hard way about not wearing protective headgear for sports I'm not that good at.)
Some of the other things we did included eating and shopping at the night market, eating and shopping at the weekend market, visiting Khao San on a difficult 'bag with bells' shopping quest, visiting the giant reclining Buddha at Wat Po, going on a much more enjoyable dinner cruise along the river, eating at the famous Blue Elephant restaurant and a rather eventful trip to the Sky Bar where my first aid skills were called into action when the Thai girl next to me hit the deck and blacked out for a couple of minutes. Still not sure if it was the height, the alcohol or just a way of escaping her date, but it was a rather surreal experience anyway.
All in all, it was a very hectic 10 days. Thanks to Val we had the motivation to go and do both the usual and unusual sights in Bangkok, and I would be happy to do it all again. We did however decide that it would be quite some time before we ate out again, and maybe we'd done enough shopping to last us a while.
1 comment:
I couldn't have asked for better ' tour guides'! Made my holiday a fantastic experience and I'm sure I saw a lot more than most tourists would in 10 days!
Thanks you both.
Post a Comment