SE Asia’s Dollar Menu - Bangkok

After waiting at the MTR station for everyone to show up, we finally left campus at 6 for our 9:40pm flight.  We took the MTR to Shatin, where we boarded a bus that got us to the airport in about 45 minutes.  We grabbed some dinner at a Japanese place, got a couple beers at 7-11 and headed over to customs.  I’ll note that the food pricing at the HK airport is not even close to the exorbitance that we see at US airports.

Everything went smoothly and because we took our time eating, we made it onto the plane just as they were about to close the doors. Flying Emirates was wonderful.  It was a flight from HK to Dubai, with a stopover in Bangkok, so we were in a big Boeing 777 with everyone getting a personal TV with hundreds of movies, TV shows and music along with a full meal.  All this for only a 2+ hour flight.  Needless to say, I was happy with my accommodations and the empty seat next to me.  This trip was starting well.

We arrived in Bangkok at around midnight (it’s one hour behind HK) and got outside.  Bam! 85 degrees and humid at midnight – I was sweating immediately.  This would be a continuous trend for the rest of the trip, but no worries, I was happy to get out of the balmy 60 degrees of HK.  We got into a taxi with our traveling group of 5 (plus one other guy who was flying out the next day) and made our way to the illustrious Asha Guesthouse.  First off, the woman taxi driver had no idea where she was going, even though we gave her an address and phone number for the place.  I guess that stereotype holds true internationally… hehehehe.

(Kaitlyn, Josh (USC), Kelvin (USC) in Bangkok airport)

(Discussing taxis and maps)

Let me introduce my traveling group.  There is myself plus 4.  Charlton is from Tennessee, has a real thick drawl, and might be lacking in some common sense department, but overall a fun kid to be around.  Kent is from U of Miami (in Ohio) and from Akron originally.  Really cool guy, who is the athletic version of myself and fun to travel with for sure.  Alex is from Barcelona and is hilarious.  Kaitlyn is from UNC Chapel Hill (but not on the big GLOBE program) and is also really fun and interesting.  Overall, really good group that I’d love to travel with again.

After our hour-long drive to the outskirts of Bangkok, we arrived at Asha around 2am, and happily there was an elderly Brit there to greet us.  Apparently, he and his wife have owned this place for nearly 20 years, serving the backpacking foreigners of the world.  Props to him.  I was in a two-person room with Charlton, with two twin beds and AC – the AC being the most important feature of the room, as the bugs and humidity would make for a non-existent sleep otherwise.

(Our taxi's gas tank...hmmm)

(View from the balcony of our room... all that for $5 a night)

(FIsh and fountain outside Asha)

Got to bed around 3, and we all woke up at 7, headed downstairs for our $2 all-you-can-eat continental breakfast (carb it up yeah!) and headed out by around 8:30. We got the hostel to get us a taxi because we were kind of far out.  We found out later that it would’ve definitely been cheaper to use a metered cab – always use the meter in SE Asia.  And when I say we got ripped off, I mean that everyone had to pay about an extra dollar US, but still when it’s 100 Baht, it sounds worse.

So our “taxi” was actually a pickup truck where 3 of us were inside, and myself and 2 others were in the truck bed.  What an adventure.  Some interesting things – first, there are taxis that are motorbikes, all the ones wearing orange vests are legit taxis, but no meter, so you have to negotiate.  Also, the car stopped in the road, and then we noticed a guy come back to us and open up a binder full of ads for massages, “massages”, tours, jewelry, suits etc. Jokingly, we talked for a bit, and then said no thanks.  The best part was that he closed his binder, and walked back up to the front of the car and got back in and started driving.  Not even at a red light or anything.  I love Thailand.

(Alex in the "taxi")

(Charlton in the streets of Bangkok)

(Motor bike taxi - note the vest)

(Our favorite taxi driver.  Fun fact, he's a talented Michael Jackson singer - who'da thunk it?)

 

                (First pic of the King and wife)             (Nice picture frame - these are everywhere in Thailand)

(Pink taxis!)

We arrived at the Grand Palace, bought our tickets and went inside.  It’s important to understand that at just 9-10am it’s already in the 90’s and scorching.  Add to that, that we were required to wear pants to go into the temples.  To say that I’ve never sweat more would be an understatement.  It’s a good thing a 2 liter of water only cost 0.30 US.  One thing I’m not used to when traveling is not knowing what I’m looking at.  This was my first encounter when I wasn’t with a guide of some kind – human or recorded.  Thus, I was a little disappointed walking around seeing these really amazing sites and not having a clue who it was for, when it was made, what’s all over it etc.  Thank goodness for Wikipedia when I return.

(Iconic picture of the Grand Palace)

So, the Grand Palace was where the King of Thailand lived since the 18^th century, except for the current king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, who is the longest-reigning current monarch at 54 years. There are these “picture frames” all over Thailand with pictures of the king and his wife doing various activities.  Some of them are pretty funny, like the King on vacation with his Cannon.  The Palace grounds, which are enormous might I add, more like a city unto itself, include many temples, most notably the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, which we could go into, but not take pictures.  Otherwise, the buildings are spectacular on the outside, and a little more dull on the inside, sort of an inside-out version of a Catholic church.

(I'd like to describe these next photos, but I'm not sure how)

(Mammoth)

(Nice jeans, Jake - oh thanks guys!)

(L to R: Kent, Alex, Charlton, Kaitlyn, me)

(Cool looking garden and shrubs)

(Zoom in if you can to see the incredible detail on these guys)

(Guy doing some restoration on the outside of a building)

(Purification by dripping holy water off of a lotus.  These are at every temple.  Also, a very nice way for the non-devout to cool off on a hot day)

(Royal guards, and some guy in a white hat haha)

After we sweated off a few pounds, enjoyed some ice cream and coconut juice, we headed off to some of the weapon rooms.  These were definitely not as cool as medieval torture/weapons and I was somewhat disappointed. Either way, it had an excellent fan that we enjoyed more than you’d think.

(Fresh coconut, yummy)

We then exited and looking lost, a man who worked at the for the Palace approached us and basically helped us plan out our day with sites to see.  He even arranged us a tuk tuk to take us around the whole way.  We bargained and got it down to 50 baht for two tuk tuks, which is just under $2 US.  And this took us around for about 2 hours.  This is the epitome of what I mean when I saw Thailand is Asia’s Dollar Menu.  It’s cheap, delicious, and your full afterwards.

Let me explain a tuk tuk.  Take a motorbike, hook up a rickshaw to the back of it, add a sound system, a crazy driver, and no doors and there you have it.  This is a really cool experience flying through the polluted streets of Bangkok, ignoring lanes and sides of the street in order to make good time to the next light. Another cool part of the transportation system is that all the taxis are hot pink and green Toyota Corollas – very nice Bangkok, very nice.

(First tuk tuk we saw going into Bangkok)

(Our driver)

(Getting nice and close to traffic)

First stop was to see the giant standing Buddha statue, Wiki tells me it’s called Wat Intharawihan, which is just as it sounds, a massive f’ing, gold-leafed Buddha (100 feet high, 33 wide).  It was surrounded by a beautiful temple that had some interesting statues.

(Big Buddha)

(Cool stuff)

(Kinda reminds me of Ghandi, but wrong religion)

(Temple at the Big Buddha)

Then we got a much-needed lunch nearby at a place “recommended” by the tuk tuk drivers, aka I’m pretty sure they get commission.  But hey, I wasn’t complaining about my 40 Baht, deliciously prepared, spicy Pad Thai dish with seafood.  Mmmm mmmm good.  FYI for all you WU people out there, the Thai food in Thailand shits on Thai Pizza Kitchen.  Everything is at least 10x better.  I may not be able to go back to Thai Pizza.

(First meal in Thailand - seafood with rice and fried egg - super spicy like Howie gets it)

Next stop was Wat Pho.  Quick thing about the Thai language, “th” and “ph” are pronounced with the “h” silent, so “wat po” or “koh pangan”.  Wat Pho is the site of the largest reclining Buddha.  For clarification, Buddha can be in any of some 10+ positions, reclining is one of them (see below for more).  The Buddha is 46m long and 15m high, plated in gold-leafed and has eyes and feet with mother of pearl.  Pretty fantastic as far as I’m concerned. Fun fact, it is the birthplace of the famous Thai massage.  Enjoy that.

(Guarding the entrance)

(The lighting doesn't do the colors any justice)

(So intricate and large and beautiful)

(The sun came out)

(Click on the pic and it will blow up some more to see the positions)

(The Reclining Buddha)

(Alex and feet)

(Get some perspective on the size of it)

(All of that is mother of pearl inlayed.  Unreal up close)

Then we got on another set of tuk tuks to take us to the Golden Mount.  But first, we had to be taken on a detour to the Export Center where there was a “great promotion that ends today!” on precious gems and jewelry, so we were told.  Clearly this was just a commissioned stop to get us to buy stuff, just a waste of time since nobody buys anything, but still, I think they should realize that the sweaty college students aren’t going to be buying any fine jewels today.  Oh well, next they had to get gas, which forced us to sit in traffic going the opposite direction for 20 minutes.  No worries, I’m on vacation.  The bad part there was the sheer amount of exhaust from all the cars got a little overwhelming.

The Golden Mount is a temple sat atop a mountain which we climbed about 300 steps to get to.  We were “templed” out for the day so didn’t bother paying the miniscule 10 Baht to enter, but enjoyed the relaxing time and great views as the sun set on Bangkok.  We then went back down, rang some bells (below) and played around with some kids playing soccer.  

(Click it for better detail)

(Bangkok skyline)

(There were probably a hundred of these on the way down.  We are pretty sure that writing says to ring it, so we rang a lot of them)

Then we saw these two older guys playing this sweet Thai sport called sepak takraw, which is basically volleyball, with a smaller ball, and you play with your feet.  They were doing some crazy moves.  Then we decided it was time to relax a bit, and got on one of the canal “boat” taxis that run through the canal of Bangkok. It’s a really long boat and the guy drives pretty crazy.  Also cool is that the roof lowers automatically when you go under one of the bridges.  From here I got a chance to see a more real version of Bangkok: laundry hanging off the side of the windows, crowded tin-roof houses and lots of lush plants.  This is probably the poorest place I’ve ever been, but I can’t say I was very shocked.  I guess this will be a good comparison for later on when I (hopefully) travel to Vietnam or Cambodia.

(Canal taxi)

(Ticket collector walks on the outside ledge of the boat)

(Somehow, they all manage to have some nice gardens)

We got off at a random stop, helped by a friendly English-speaker, and walked around a street market for a couple hours, and enjoyed another excellent Thai meal. At around 8 we headed back to Asha to gather our bags and get on the overnight train.  We picked up some snacks and beers at 7-11 – the local Archa beer was pretty good actually, but not as good as Chang which I tried later – and got over to the train station.

(You know you're in Asia when there's a 7-11 on every corner)

(Thai beer)

The overnight train to Surat Thani (southern Thailand) cost us about $15 US for the 9 hour ride in 2^nd class, which afforded us comfortable seats (not sleepers) and AC. A really exhausting two days led to some pretty easy sleeping considering the conditions.

Take a look at the next post for the rest of the trip