January 20, 2010 - One day and night in Bangkok

I slept a bit better on the bus this time, although we still didn't have VIP seats. But, we arrived in Bangkok before 6am and took a bit of time getting our bearings.

We took a taxi to our hotel, the Great Residence Hotel. The driver was really good; even though he didn't know where the hotel was and we had an incomplete address, he called them from a pay phone when we were in the general area and found the place no problem after that.

We had decided to splurge; even with the 250 baht early check in fee, it ran me only about 1100 baht for the swankest room I've stayed in Thailand. That's still less than $40 for a really nice room and free transportation to the airport in the morning.

The only hitch I've run into so far was getting locked on the balcony by the sliding door, which automatically locked behind me when I closed it. Luckily, I was able to wiggle it open and get back inside.

Now, with things ready to go tomorrow, it's time to check out Bangkok. First, though, I'm getting the card for the hotel with the full address, and the access code for the free Wifi.

We hired a driver, Pun, for the day. He was a great guide around Bangkok, taking us to a lot of good sights that met everyone's interests and guiding us around one of the wats - Wat Pho. before this, though, he took us to a small plaza so we could grab breakfast. While Anton and Vanessa grabbed food at a McDonald's, I grabbed a quick waffle at a coffee shop.

Pun had been a monk for 3 years when he turned 20, and helped us to understand better the monastic way of life, the wat, its buildings, and really anything else we were curious about, like the history of the monarchy in Thailand, and the good that King Rama IX has brought to the country.

 

When we first entered a temple section, he prayed to the Buddha, while we took pictures of the inside of the temple.

Many of the statues in the temple were gifts from China, and reminded me of the Guardian of the Tao in dress and stance.

Housed in this temple was the massive reclining Buddha. The size of the Buddha was such to make even giants seem small.

Inside the temple that barely enclosed this statue I could hear a sound as of metal clinking. The only thing I could see that might cause this were the flakes of gold leaf, moving in the light breeze through the building.

Walking the length of the Buddha's front, it was impossible to visually take in the full length, both because of its size and the pillars supporting the building itself.

Arriving at the feet I first noticed a swirling pattern on the toes, almost as if to simulate finger prints. Moving to the flat of the feet, I saw that they were actually an elaborate tapestry of black stone and mother of pearl inlay.

Walking along the back side of the Buddha, I saw at last the source of the sound I was hearing. There were small coins available for purchase for 20 baht, and 4 monks bowls lined up along the wall. People would buy a small dish of coins and walk along this row, placing the coins in the monks bowls. As I watched, a lady came by, collecting the coins from the bowls and placing them in a larger bucket. The sound of this was very rhythmic and musical.

Next, we saw the chedis built for kings Rama I-IV.

After the wat, it was time for a canal cruise. We got on a longtail boat and rode a ways up the main river, passing by palaces and wats. this river collects the waters from the 5 Northern rivers in Thailand, taking them to the Thai Sea.

We turned down a side channel in the canal, seeing the houses on the canal and the people, just a few, who still sold goods out of dugout style boats, which they would paddle to the people on the longtail tours.

We then went for a drive down the Khao San Road. It was mild insanity, but it was actually kind of interesting and see and was nowhere near as bad as other markets I've been to in the last week or so.

Our driver told s about a large gem market, and that he will get 200 baht if he brings us there. We wanted to check it out, so we asked him to bring us there, so we could begin our shopping adventure.

Vanessa's eyes went wide the second we stepped in the doors, seeing the sparkle of all of the diamonds and other jewels.

The crafting of the jewellery was exquisite, although many of them were quite gaudy and overdone. In the gallery there were also some aquariums with a variety of beautiful salt water fish, and dead coral.

After Vanessa spent some money on a new ring (but not the diamond one that was calling to her) we went for more shopping, to the wholesale market, to shop for inexpensive, mass-produced goods.

After dinner, the day pretty much ended.