Bustling Bangkok

Our final week abroad was spent in Bangkok where we stayed in a condo through ginnie’s resort credits timeshare exchange. We planned to use it just one time in our travels and figured it would be a great way to end the trip. Funny enough, before we arrived, we were both wondering if it would not be as enjoyable since we’d been staying in local guesthouses meeting wonderful local hosts and staying right in neighborhoods where we got a small glimpse of local life. We also worried it would be far from places we wanted to visit since we were not finding it on our limited maps. All that quickly dissipated when we arrived and were greeted by some of the friendliest Thai hosts we could imagine and then entered into a lovely high-rise condo overlooking the Silom area of Bangkok. We were a short walk from a SkyTrain station which enabled us to access all the areas we planned to visit and more. While local dining options were limited, it was not a problem as we had a kitchen and nearby supermarket and we delighted in cooking for ourselves again after 6 weeks!

Our flight from Chiang Mai on the 4^th of June was bright and early, so we got into Bangkok around 9:30am. For the first time in 3 stops at Suvarnabhumi airport, we stepped outside and made our way into the sprawling urban metropolis we would call home for the next 6 days. Ginnie was not as excited about Bangkok when we first planned the trip because, unfortunately, the majority of what she understood of the city came from her reading on sex trafficking as well as the portrayal of the city as a place to party. Well, while those things exist here, it is also an incredible, lively, and impressive city with equal parts old world tradition and new world development. A lot of people visit for shopping, which we can understand, if we had money and space, we would have been shopping, too – things are so much more affordable here! There are four rather large malls within a few city blocks of one another; we visited the one that has the more affordable shops and stalls where we can bargain for the final items we were looking to pick up before we left, as well as to search for a cell phone. The cell phone search turned out to be way too overwhelming – really, do there need to be so many, can’t they just make phone calls? – and we found we could get a month-to-month plan and inexpensive phone with what we want so that was a relief.

Here’s how we spent the rest of our time in Bangkok:

On our first day, we were so relaxed in the condo that we just picked up groceries and settled in, spent some time at the pool and enjoyed our flat screen TV: the little luxuries we haven’t had in so long. In order to get ourselves out, we asked about a night market and walked about 20 minutes to the Sala Daeng area where we found some stalls, a mall, and a Red Light District. This was an area ginnie wanted to see just to put an image to all she’s been reading and to have an idea what she is working against when making this transition to human rights law and fighting sex trafficking. Reports state that 60% of visitors who travel to Bangkok do so for sex tourism. It was also quite disturbing to see books sold in the airport promoting sex in Bangkok and making light of finding an Asian wife; even our guidebook pointed out these Red Light Districts and we both have a problem with encouraging a practice that furthers the sexual exploitation of young girls and supports sex trafficking as a means to fill these brothels and sex clubs.

Wandering the bustling markets and streets

We could not visit the city without seeing the massive Chatuchak Market, only open on weekends. This is, by far, the largest outdoor market we have ever seen; we needed a map to navigate through the stalls. Even with the map, we were easily turned around; however, we are proud that we found a stall we wished to return to and wrote down the number and after a few turns and backtracks, we made our way back before leaving.

The items for sale were much the same as anywhere else, there was just a lot more of them along with some areas devoted solely to books and one for live animals. We have also read a lot about illegal animal trading and this region is notorious for its involvement, but we did not see anything suspicious until we found the squirrels. Hmmm… there were a lot of dogs who seemed to be way too hot and a lot of rabbits – some even wearing dresses. In fact, there was an entire row of shops devoted to dog clothes and accessories (and we thought only Americans did that!).

The heat, the crowds, and the tight spaces were enough after a couple hours, so we made our way to another major shopping area – the Pantip Plaza. This is famous for electronics and techie gadgets, so we had to check it out. We did not make any major purchases, but easily could find ourselves picking up the latest if we knew what was what! ;) They did not have the game systems like we found in Cambodia, which was a tad surprising, but better for us.

Along the way we found more street vendors and got a photo of a t-shirt that quickly became our favorite of the many, many for sale all over the world! We can both easily see Maya thinking this very thing... :)

Visiting Old Bangkok

We spent a day exploring Ko Rattanakosin by foot. We took the SkyTrain to the Chao Phraya River where we got on a ferry taxi that took us out to the old area of Bangkok where several important Wats and the Grand Palace reside. Due to the entry fees and being at the end of our budget, we opted out of the Grand Palace, but were able to get some photos of the tops of the chedis from the outer courtyard. Instead, we selected to visit Wat Pho, where Thailand’s largest reclining Buddha is housed.

This Wat is the most beautiful we visited in our entire temple tour in Asia. It spans a city block, easily, and has several ornate chedis covered in mosaics and carved flowers.

There are several statues as well as beautiful landscaping that make it a peaceful place to explore.

We found ourselves surrounded by Buddha statues everywhere we turned and entered various rooms with Buddhas in different poses. This is also home for official training for Thai Massage, an ancient healing method of stretching and kneading muscles that the king who established this school did not want to see lost.

We visited the reclining Buddha at the end of our time in the Wat and it was absolutely amazing! It’s kept inside a building with elaborate murals covering the entire wall and the Buddha itself is covered in gold and is stunning to view. We were one of the few people walking through the Wat areas, but in here there was a constant stream of visitors (those who did not go into the Wat really missed out).

We both felt we could end our temple tour here as it was so incredible. However, since we had a walking route mapped out, we continued on to a few other Wats in the area.

We stopped by the Giant Swing, then onto the Temple of the Golden Mount, which is a temple built up as a hill. We climbed the spiral staircase to the top, pausing along the way to ring a bell and bang the gong. The views of the city are amazing from the top – we can see the tops of the tin roofs with large skyscrapers behind them and the temple chedis scattered among it all. We enjoyed the views for a bit before making our way back down the other side of the spiral walkway. Further along the road, we came to the Democracy Monument and then to Khao San Road.

Since we were not staying in the budget area, we were curious to see this well-known “backpacker” street. We were so glad we were not staying there! It’s insane – lined with billboards trying to cover the next and filled with bars and street vendors selling flip flops, t-shirts, and fake IDs. We picked up a meal at the highly-reviewed May Kaidee’s Vegetarian Restaurant and then made our way back to the river to catch the ferry and return home.

After visiting Wats, travelling to Ayuttayha and shopping, we were in need of some relaxation, so we booked a two-hour Thai Massage at the place recommended by our concierge. It cost us $36 US for this experience, total – we love Thailand! A Thai Massage is like nothing either of us has ever experienced. There is a lot of firm kneading, pulling and stretching and bending and cracking. It’s painful at times, but also relaxing. We were sore at the end, it felt like we’d been through a yoga routine that someone else controlled, but it was well worth it. We were pretty relaxed and took the masseuse’s advice to do “only shopping” afterward and just went on over to one of the giant malls for a bit.

On our last day, we relaxed in the condo, took our final trip out to a mall to just walk a bit and search for a bedrunner that we hoped to find (we ended up finding one we agreed on and Anthony negotiated quite well for the price we could work with). It was a good way to close out our 5.5 months of travelling and prepare for another full day of airports and planes as we made our way to our final relaxation stop – Waikiki, Hawaii!

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Siam's Ancient Capital

Our final World Heritage Site visit was to the city of Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of old Siam. The city has several temple and palace ruins where visitors can take a walk into the past and marvel in the architecture of the ancient Thai rulers. There is one temple with an Angkor-style top, but the most have their own style. Once again, we were fascinated by the beauty and history of this peaceful and astounding ancient world.

We traveled in and out of Ayutthaya by train from Bangkok so we had just over 3.5 hours to explore what we could. We were able to hire a tuk-tuk for the day at a good rate and went straight to the Tourist Authority of Thailand (TAT) office to get a map and plan a route for the day. We had read about the various Wats and the Palace and had a list of those we wanted to see. We visited 4 of the sites and were able to see much of others as we passed. They are quite spread out, so we felt good about what we selected and managed in our time frame.

The first stop took us to the Grand Palace area and a modern Wihan in which Buddhists still come to make merit and honor the Buddha within. We traveled over to Wat Phra Si Sanphet to wander through the crumbling brick structures and observe the temple chedis pointing toward the sky. The ashes of kings are kept in these chedis and they still stand tall and impressive over the grounds of the temple. There are beautiful plumeria trees surrounding the area as well, making it a gorgeous and peaceful place to walk.

One of the areas we wanted to see for months was Wat Mahathat, where a Buddha head is surrounded by tree trunks growing into a temple foundation. Pictures of it are commonly seen in many places and we saw it on a travel show as well as in a featured article in one of the in-flight magazines along our travels. It was a magnificent look at the way in which nature reclaims space. Someone had left offerings of soda cans (Mirinda, in case you were curious) so that left an interesting composition to the scene! The entire Wat itself was actually quite impressive with 100s of seated Buddha statues surrounding the outer walls of the central complex and several large Buddhas within. The seated statues are primarily headless by now, but still made for an impressive sight. We spent the longest amount of time here walking through the maze of the temple structures and imagining how it might have looked before the destruction of wars and time.

Next we selected Wat Na Phra Men because it was said it had beautifully painted ceilings. While we found the Wat and the Buddhas within to be beautiful, the ceiling looked much like several others we have seen in Wats throughout our travels. There were some really detailed paintings in Cambodia, so we expected something along those lines. At any rate, it was a nice stop and gave another style of Wat to explore.

Our final stop was to see a reclining Buddha, so we selected the one at Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon. Ginnie read this was one of the largest of the area and most significant, it also happened to be closest to the train station which was a bonus as we only had 30 minutes until we needed to get back for our tickets. This Wat was really impressive, the reclining Buddha brings revelers who come to pray and make merit as well as those interested in seeing the statue up close. We were again astounded with the beautiful site and the peace of the statue and the gardens. Another feature here is a central chedi up which we climbed to see the views of Ayutthaya, as well as the grounds of the Wat. There are numerous Buddha statues clothed in saffron surrounding the walls outside the chedi as well as a beautiful courtyard with several Buddha statues facing one another. We would have loved to spend more time quietly enjoying the Wat, but our train would not wait.

The train ride itself was another adventure. It’s quite simple to do, we hopped on the SkyTrain in Bangkok then transferred to the Metro Subway which went straight to the train station. The train ride cost less than $1 US for both of us (cheaper than each of the SkyTrain and Metro tickets!) and took 2 hours since it stops a lot (we’d call it a “bred kyat” in Belize!). We took the 3^rd class train, so that meant a bit of an uncomfortable seat with open windows providing our relief from the heat and humidity of Thailand in June. On the way home, evidently an earlier train was delayed and somehow we ended up on that. We asked station masters before getting on and they said to go on even though it was earlier than our scheduled departure. The conductor definitely looked twice at our tickets, but didn’t say anything. It turns out this was the best mistake we made on our trip. The train we got on was not one that stops at every point along the way, so we were back in just over an hour! After a long day of traveling and exploring through one of the hottest and most humid of days, it was nice to be back to our condo for an early night and time to relax!

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Wan Lotta Wats in Chiang Mai!

We spent five days in the northern city of Chiang Mai, Thailand during which we took many walks around the city and visited numerous Wats (over 300 exist in the city!) when we were not cooking or hanging out with large animals. Chiang Mai provided us a nice introduction to Thai culture and allowed us to meet some of the super-friendly Thai people. The city is in a more mountainous area and many people who visit do a lot of trekking; however, the heat and humidity precluded that for us - we were fine with walking throughout the city and then returning to our great guesthouse for a/c breaks (not to mention the fact that we walked so much in Vietnam and Cambodia we felt we deserved a break)!

We spent our time exploring the Old City, surrounded by a moat and remnants of a city wall to explore many of the Wats and enjoy the city sights. With so many Wats we simply chose various paths throughout the city streets to wander the many sois and popped into Wats we saw along the way. There were those recommended on the walking map we picked up and others we just happened upon. Join a mini Wat tour of your own through our photos!

Wat Bupparam

We stumbled upon this Wat when walking outside the Old City area and touring Ta Phae road and heading out to a major electronics plaza well known for super deals. This was our first day exploring our neighborhood during which we also found the large Night Bazaar area and a great supermarket where we stocked up for the week!

Wat Chedi Luang

We explored Wat Chedi Luang to see the Chiang Mai City Pillar and the ruins of the Great Stupa in the center. It's right in the middle of the Old City, so was a convenient stop as well. As we walked around the compound, we passed by a stall selling books where a group of monks sat at one end and beckoned for us to come and have a Monk Chat. These chats are a great way for the monks to practice their English and for travellers to learn more about the monk's life and Buddhism. We spoke to a couple monks who just wanted to work on English before our final monk came over to have the more traditional monk chat. When we finished, he asked if we could take a photo together so we each have a memory of our visit. This was also the first Wat where we saw a large reclining Buddha (this pose represents Buddha's final passage into nirvana).

Wat Pra Singh

This Wat is the major temple for Lan Na art and architecture in the Chiang Mai province. The temple complex is large containing a school, library, and monastery along with the other structures (Viharn, where the Buddha resides, and chedis and ubosot - we are still learning the various names for the areas within a Wat). We met another group of young monks here who requested to speak with us for a few moments and practice their English, so we had another nice chat during our visit. When we entered the Viharn, we were immediately struck by the meditating monk sitting before the Buddha. We kneeled for a bit as we marveled at the beauty of the space and the peace of the meditation. In a courtyard within the Wat (which we saw at other Wats as well) is a quote garden where Buddhist quotes surround the beautiful greenery and serene setting. The quotes send a very important message to all (please remember, they are translated so the English is not perfect).

Two Wats Whose Names We Do Not Know

While walking along the outside of the Old City on our final day we stumbled upon these two Wats right next to one another. We did not see any Latin characters to let us know the names of the Wats and since our Thai reading skills are non-existent, we simply call them Wat 1 and 2 on Sripoom Road! Each had more of the stunning architectural elements that keep us returning to visit Wats whenever we see them! What's most interesting is how different and unique each is from the next - with the variety of various Asian influences and styles there is always something new to see, yet still there exist enough similarities to represent their Buddhist connection.

Chiang Mai's Night Market

Beyond the Wats, the animals, and the Thai food, we found the Night Market (okay, well there is a lot of Thai food here and some animals and even a few Wats nearby...) and spent a few hours on several evenings perusing the stalls. It's a fairly large complex covering several city blocks and including two inner shopping complexes and a full food street. Considering we have come to the end of our round-the-world tour, we suddenly seem more inclined to pick up a small souvenir here and there since we don't have to carry it as far! We've committed to only buying items we can use to decorate our home and represent the local culture/area so we still focus on art that we wonder where to hang. However, we planned on picking up a Buddha statue for our home and fell in love with the lanterns, so went on the hunt for these. Fortunately, as it is promoted, Chiang Mai is the place to find great Thai and general Asian items. We also managed to pick up very low cost flip flops that are sold for way too much money elsewhere (they are just plastic flip flops that happen to have a brand name label) and saw expensive designer handbags for less than $5 - too bad ginnie doesn't think many of them are attractive and we really have no space to carry them anyway. Chiang Mai also has a street filled with used book stores which was perfect for finding a good read to have for our upcoming pool and beach time during the next portion of our journey. We also took advantage of our time and took care of some important errands - ginnie got a free eye exam and 1-year supply of contacts at one of the numerous opticians (there may be as many of these as Wats!) and Anthony could no longer stand his long hair so we found a good barber who gave a nice trim. We debated dental cleanings since they are so affordable, too, but ended up running out of time.

It was a challenge to determine where in Thailand we would make our stops since we had only 11 days remaining and previously booked 6 of them in Bangkok with the timeshare (yeah, we saved the luxury stay for our last week abroad as a special treat - and it is so worth it!!) so with only a few days, we opted for the north when we heard such good things from several travellers we met along the way and we are so glad we did.

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