Five Nights in Bangkok (and the World's Our Oyster)

Bangkok was the first stop on our Asia trip, and our third and our fifth! We stayed a few days and then used Bangkok as our base when we went on some other trips. What makes Bangkok interesting is that it is both a big city and small village at the same time, a paradox of sorts. There are many different angles to this city and we got to see just about all of them. This photo represents some of the different sides of Bangkok, where we see a religious building in the center, in the forefront a small river house, and in the background a more modern office building. Multi-dimensional.

Whenever we have travel involving crossing more time zones than you can keep track of, we like to try and emerge ourselves in whatever time zone we are in at the moment. So that meant the minute we got to our hotel, we dropped our bags and went right out to explore the city. Bangkok is built on a river, the Chao Phraya and there are many canals that branch off it. We decided that we would take a boat tour down the river and through the canals, sort of an overview. It was a great introduction to the city, the culture and some of the things we had in store for us over the next few days.











The next morning we went over to the Grand Palace complex. In addition to the palace itself, there is quite a bit to look at in the complex, many statues, buildings - all incredibly ornate. The Palace isn't used as a royal residence any longer but quite a few of
the ceremonial events and royal rituals (coronations, weddings, funerals etc.) are still held here. And as with any palace, no matter how ceremonial, there are guards to make sure that everyone stays where they are supposed to and doesn't touch anything they aren't supposed to. Apparently these guards are ceremonial too, as we noticed there was no ammunition clip in the gun. I guess they don't expect any trouble!!

The palace grounds are full of statuary, each more interesting than the next. Looking at some of the statues I think I see an inspiration for some Disney characters. Don't some of these guys look Disneyesque?






Also on the temple grounds is the Wat Pra Kaew. Basically, a wat is a monastery temple complex in Thailand, Cambodia or Laos. In its strictest definition a complex can only be called a wat if it has a minimum of 3 resident monks. No trio of monks, no wat. However, over the years the term has been used to generically describe just about any temple in these countries, sometimes even temple ruins in which obviously no one lives. We saw many, many, many wats (both real and faux) in our almost 3 weeks here. Much like churches and temples, I am fascinated by them. This particular wat housed a very famous Buddha statue, the Emerald Buddha, thought to be nearly over 2000 years old. There are very strict rules when visiting a wat; usually no speaking, no shoes, you are not supposed to stand in the presence of the Buddha, you can either sit or kneel and when you are sitting or kneeling, the heels of your feet cannot face the Buddha. It is considered a huge insult to show the bottom of your feet. It is really tricky to sit down "Indian style" or crossed leg and not point one of your feet to the Buddha. You have to be pretty aware. This particular wat did not allow photography inside so I had to take the photo outside of the temple doors, which explains the fuzzy focus. It is interesting to remember that while many of us are sightseeing and touring, these are still active places of worship for many local citizens. We came across quite a few people praying and making offerings to the Buddha. It is important to maintain a respectful distance while people are worshipping in the place we are traipsing through.

Pretty much right next door to the palace complex is Wat Pho. It is one of the oldest wats in Thailand and houses the very famous (and very large) Reclining Buddha. Wat Pho is also the original birthplace of Thai massage and even before its founding in 1788, it was center for Thai medicine. You can still see some tablets on the walls that depict different muscles and bones in the human body. The reclining Buddha itself is pretty amazing. It is about 150 ft long, approximately half a football field long.a The bottoms of its feet are inlaid with mother of pearl.

Bangkok is a city struggling with its image. It has so many incredible historic and religious sites yet it is quite well known for it's tawdry side. In the evening we went by several bars that seemed only to have Western men as their clientele, apparently waiting for special "company". We often saw much older, less attractive men with very, very (very) young beautiful women. Chizz and I had quite a few discussions on whether these were two adults indulging in consenting behaviours or examples of desperate people being taken advantage of, on both sides. We never solved it. One evening, late, we were walking back to our hotel(remember,every vacation with Chizz contains at least one leg numbing walk or most likely several) and we walked past a bus stop. Snake pointed out that there seemed to be quite a few people waiting for the bus that evening. When we looked over, we saw probably about 20 mostly young women, in very short skirts and even higher heels. They could have been waiting for a bus, but I don't think so.

One evening we went to Cabbages & Condoms, a local restaurant in Bangkok. It is owned by the former minister of health in Thailand. A percentage of the profits are given to a non-profit organization that promotes birth control, aids awareness, rural development, and environmental conservation. While I think the food is passable, it's decent,not knock your socks gourmet, but good, you don't really go there for the food you go there for the other stuff. Such as "condom man", this man in a suit made of condoms! I am not sure what his super powers are, or at least I don't want to think about it.



They even used condoms in decoration, like this tabletop.


Or this lamp.


They also give out lots of free condoms. In very inventive ways.





If you have older kids, it is definitely worth a trip. If you have younger kids, unless you want to explain LOTS of things, you might want to save it for another time.

All in all, we enjoyed Bangkok and learned something from all of its various aspects. Next stop! Island hopping!!