Buzzing Bangkok

As our plans to go to Argentina didn't materialize as well as we had hoped, we took the opportunity to go to Thailand, another one of our top travel "must-sees".

With only one full day in the country's capital, we met our guide, Ms. Nikki, early and set off to explore Bangkok for the day.  

Our first stop was the Grand Palace which has been the official residence of the Kings of Siam since 1782.  The Palace is made up of numerous buildings, halls and pavilions centred around lush lawns and greenery.  The Palace has evolved organically over the years, boasting numerous types of architecture and styles.  King Rama V injected the largest architectural variations by erecting many buildings that reflected his close relationship and extensive travels in Europe and the Western world.  In addition, Thailand's close relationship with China can be seen throughout the Grand Palace, with many of the buildings designed in the Chinese style.

As a side note, there were lots of Chinese tourists at the Grand Palace. Chinese tourism apparently skyrocketed this year after the movie, "Lost in Thailand", became a hit in Chinese culture, grossing more than $1 billion yuan since its release.

Although it is a working palace and hosts several royal events, the Palace is now primarily a museum and has become the most visited tourist attraction in Bangkok, with 50,000 visitors a day.  The large number of tourists, paired with the mid-30s "winter" temperatures in Bangkok, made for a very hot visit. It was difficult to appreciate the magnificence of this Palace when fighting so many other tourists who were also making their way around the site and stopping for photos in some very inconvenient locations.

Even still, we had a chance to take a look inside the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (and see the small emerald buddha who had recently had been changed into his "winter wardrobe" by the King himself),  the Coronation Throne Hall, the Royal Reception Hall, a miniature replica of Cambodia's Angkor Wat (which looked remarkably like the real thing!), and of course the Palace's weapon rooms.

Bursting through the hoards of tourists, we made our way over to the canal dock to board a long tail boat for a tour along the bustling Chao Phraya River and the quieter Klongs (canals).  The boats in the harbour all sport bouquets of flowers on their bows to bring good luck.  In addition, the boats have recently added plastic surrounds to protect passengers from the unwanted splashes of some pretty dirty river water.

The Klongs themselves are quiet, with houses lining the sides of the river.  As grandfathered houses in this area are exempt from taxes, little has been done to update these old buildings and, as a result, many are incredibly run down, with sunken roofs, holed walkways and some very suspect looking electrical wires running above them. We still cannot figure out how they would ever know which wire did what!

After a short boat stop to feed the fish in front of the Buddhist temple (to promote health and the sanctity of life) and a short dam transfer to the higher part of the river, we hopped off the long boat for a short lunch break before an ambitious afternoon of activities.

Our afternoon itinerary began with a trip to Wat Pho to see the Reclining Buddha.  The Reclining Buddha is enormous - 46m long - and is covered with gold leaf.  Its feet alone are 3m in size!  The temple is actually fairly narrow, considering the size of the Buddha it houses, making it difficult to see the entire Buddha in one panorama.  Nonetheless, looking at the Buddha from its various angles is striking, and made more intense and spiritual by the constant clanging of donation coins being dropped into the monk collection pots that line the side of the temple.

For our final stop, we squeezed into a local tuk tuk and headed to the local flower and vegetable markets. We were struck by just how fertile and lush Thailand is, being able to grow a very wide variety of vegetables and fruits and make a multitude of different spices and other delicacies.  Although many of the Thai fruits and vegetables are smaller than their Chinese or international counterparts, they are known to have much more flavour and use far fewer pesticides than these other locales.


As we headed back to our luxurious (and very affordable!) hotel, the Oriental Residence, we were exhausted from the stimulation overload of the day and opted for a quiet, but delicious, vegetarian dinner feast at Na Aroon restaurant .