October 13 - Thailand: Bangkok
This morning we had a much deserved sleep-in. We are getting tired of the constant go-go-go required as part of sight-seeing. It's also very expensive. Today, though, there would be very little sight-seeing as we had a few errands to run.
Administrative Stuff
Breakfast was included in the price of the hotel. We had coffee, tea, toast and eggs. Then we logged into the internet to see if there was any correspondence about the Bali tickets. Dad, the angel that he is, not only faxed our note but also followed up with a phone call to Helen to talk about it. Hopefully, all will turn out for the best. We did a bunch of other email administrivia on line, some of it lease-related, some of it personal, but all of it long overdue. So it was nice to get these little items out of the way and crossed off the "To Do" list. By this time it was time for lunch so we grabbed a quick bite to eat in Mah Boon Krong.
Miss Duang and the Train Tickets
Before we left Beijing, Grant had e-mailed a contact in Bangkok to get us train tickets to Chiang Mai. We rang Miss Duang to see if she had the tickets ready, and she did. So we followed Grant's directions on how to get there. We took the Skytrain to the end of the line right on the river. Here, Grant said to take the free water shuttle to the Oriental Hotel, and from there catch a "yellow flag" water taxi to Banglampu.
Unfortunately, the yellow flag water taxis only run during morning and evening rush hour. There were orange and red flag water taxis, but we weren't sure if they stopped at Banglampu or if we should even take them. We saw one big ferry-boat pull up, and we got on. However, this was the cross-river ferry instead of the up-river taxi service. So we got off and found the free shuttle to the Oriental Hotel. When we were on the shuttle, I looked behind us and saw an orange-and-red water taxi pull up to our dock and everyone waiting there got on. Obviously, this is the taxi we wanted. We got off at the Oriental Hotel (which is a REALLY swanky hotel, by the way) but just missed the north-bound water taxi. So we sat and waited for the next one which arrived 15 minutes later.
The water taxi service in Bangkok is alleged to be the fasted mode of travel around the city. It can apparently take an entire hour to get from one part of the city to the other via taxi cab. Also water taxis give a lovely view of the town and the sights to see. It's an interesting operation. The boats are long and narrow, and seem to have no maximum for the number of people they can take. Each taxi has a driver who drives, a conductor who collects money, and a "directioner" who stands on the back of the boat to signal how close the driver is to the pier. Each time the taxi pulls up to a taxi stop/pier, it has to maneuver backwards, forwards, and sideways so passengers can get off and others can get on. The "directioner" has certain whistle signals for backwards/forwards/idle/time-to-go, and all signals are whistled efficiently enough so no time is wasted in the docking process.
After a 1/2 hour boat ride, we arrived at Banglampu pier, where we followed Grant's directions to Miss Duang. We picked up our train tickets and discussed where we should go to do some sight-seeing from Banglumpu. We wanted to go to Wat Phra Kaew, but it was 3:00 and Miss Duang said the Wat closed at 4:00. So we decided instead to see the Wat Po. We headed back out to the pier to catch a water taxi going south to Tha Tien. By this time, we were pros at the water taxi scene and could easily tell the difference between the cross-river ferries and the north and south-bound water taxis. (How in the world could it ever have confused us?)
Wat Po
A Wat is a Buddhist temple-monastery, and there are many of them in and around Bangkok. For our short visit to the city, we wanted to visit the main ones. The Wat Po is the oldest and large wat in Bangkok, and has the largest reclining Buddha and largest collection of Budda images in Thailand. But what was most striking when we walked into the Wat were the chedis, which are large stupas (monuments) erected to house Buddha relics. The best way to describe a chedi is to imagine a steeple but picture the sides of it rounded and concave (turning inwards). The chedis were covered in gorgeous tile and porcelain designs, and were about 2-3 stories high. The colors and designs were amazing, and this was a theme throughout the entire wat complex. I miss my camera.
We went inside the temple which houses the famous reclining Buddha. We had to take off our shoes and I had to cover my shoulders out of respect. The statue is 46 meters long and 15 meters high, and is modeled out of plaster with a gold leaf overlay. On the feet of the Buddha is a huge design of inlaid mother-of-pearl displaying 108 different characteristics of Buddha. (108 is some sort of auspicious number for Buddhists). The temple was undergoing restoration, so most of our views of the Buddha were obstructed by scaffolding, and we couldn't see the ceiling or much of the walls, which was unfortunate because they were covered in beautiful artistry. But watching the restoration process was actually very interesting. There were at least 20 artisans at work on the walls while we were there. They each had pencil-thin paintbrushes and were painstakingly re-painting every picture on the columns and walls. The restoration was so precise that every outline had to be re-traced and re-painted. It was pretty amazing.
We also wandered into the central bot, which is the central sanctuary in the wat used for official business for the monks. The bot was surrounded by galleries featuring 394 gilded Buddhas. Inside the bot was a temple which had a lovely Buddha statue and some stunning artwork on the walls. Because we were inside another temple, we removed our shoes and sat down in the carpeted area which was crowded with tourists and Buddhists praying. Some of the monks had taken their seats for the evening prayers. It was so peaceful, and we'd had such a long day, so Jon and I just sat there enjoying the peace and quiet. As it neared 5:00, which is when the front gate to the wat closed, most of the people in the temple left but Jon and I were content to stay for a while. By this time, more of the monks had shown up to take their places and - at 5:00 on the nose - began their prayers. Jon and I were the only other people in the temple and we just sat and listened. It was great.
At 5:30, we decided to quietly leave and head back to the hotel. We walked out to the Tha Thien pier and caught a water taxi south to the Skytrain.
Back at the hotel, we had dinner at a little Thai restaurant down the street from our hotel called the Pisces Bar and Restaurant. The tables were all outside and we sat and enjoyed the warm weather and the sunset.
Here's a random comparison: no one honks their car horns in Bangkok. It's the complete opposite of Vietnam!