Bangkok & Beyond

Bangkok is a large, loud capital city.  Thais we met told us three days in Bangkok was enough and they were right.  It's just enough time to explore the city, visit some temples, and get a taste for street food and shopping.  We traveled by tuk tuk, ferry, Skytrain, and Metro to get to the main sites and shopping areas.  The Skytrain is ten years old and the Metro is five years old and both are clean, fast, and cheap.

Here's A in the tuk tuk we hired to take us to some sites around the old part of the City.  We had planned to see the Grand Palace and Wat Pho in the morning, but we met several Thais who told us it was closed due to a Buddhist holiday.  Now, we read in our guidebook about Thais who try to thwart tourists from going into the Palace by telling them it's a holiday and the Palace is closed, but this time the Palace really was closed to tourists!  The guards stopped us as we tried to enter.  So we hired a tuk tuk who took us to a few wats (temples), as well as the tourism office which helped us book flights for the rest of our trip.  We obliged our tuk tuk driver by letting him take us to a tailor so he could get a token for gas for his tuk tuk.  We entertained ourselves with the tailor for ten minutes and got to experience their well-spoken sales pitch (and escaped sans suits or shirts).

The Chatuchak Weekend Market is the largest market in Thailand.  With over 5,000 stalls and 36 acres you can buy items ranging from clothing to housewares to pets.  We spent the day wandering and getting lost within the stalls and sampling assorted food items from the vendors, including dried fruit, mini donuts served on skewers,  thai iced tea, fresh squeezed orange juice, and khao soi (yellow curry).  We also had our first Thai foot & neck massage, a somewhat painful yet still relaxing experience.  Though the shopportunities were endless we managed to leave having purchased only a few shirts.

Our last day in Bangkok took us on a 90 minute train ride to Ayutthaya, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Ayutthaya was the royal capital of Siam for over 400 years until it was conquered and destroyed by Burmese forces in 1767.  The historical park, which we toured via bicycle, contains ruins of the old capital such as dilapidated brick structures and beheaded Buddhas.  The Buddha in the above picture has been encapsulated by a nearby tree.  Though it was interesting to see the number of temples in such a small area the brick walls and Buddhas did start to blend together.  We had lunch from a cart by the side of the road.  Later we treated ourselves to an iced tea and iced coffee served in plastic bags (see slideshow for a picture) and chatted with school children who knew little more English that "bicycle" and "girlfriend". 

More Bangkok (and food!) pictures can be seen in the slide show below.





Stay tuned for more from Thailand.