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 4th 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!
ความสงบและความรัก!
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