Bangkok – Day Three
Day three in Bangkok was probably our most “touristish”. Except for an absolutely miserable dinner experience (read on), the day was quite fabulous.
We woke up at a reasonable hour, had some breakfast, and once again got some help from the people working at the hostel. Today was our day to go around and see some of the temples, as well as the Grand Palace.
After about 5 minutes of advice, we headed out to the SkyTrain again where we rode it out to the pier at the Chao Phraya River which winds its way North-South(ish) on the Western side of the city.
There are a dozen or so piers along the river which are frequented by “express boats” that are a form of commuting and transportation for the local Thai people. For the tourists, there is a “tourist boat” that you can take up and down the river that stops at 6 or 7 (can’t remember exactly) piers, and you can happily get on and off as many times as you like throughout the day. Once the tourist boat stops running, you can continue to use the commuter boats that everyone else uses, which is also quite a good time, especially during rush hour. But I digress…
So we took the boat as far North as they went, listened to the commentary, snapped some pictures along the river (which was brown…dirty…wow…) and tried to remain as close-mouthed as possible for not wanting icky river entering any of our facial orifices.
On the way back down, we hopped out at the pier where the Grand Palace was located, and headed on in. From a distance, I have to say, there are so many colors on this place that one almost things he must be walking into a gaudy life-sized piece of plastic touristy trinket thing. But man, once you get inside, whole other ballgame. This place is ornate. It is architecturally astounding. So much detail, absolutely fabulous statues, and murals painted all along the outside walls depicting epic battles, interesting creatures, fabulous masks, and brilliant landscape. I particularly liked a lot of the statues; I’m not sure why the masks appealed to me so much, except for maybe feeling that I look a bit like them?
You could probably spend an entire day in the palace area, and look at things over and over again, but we were on a tight timeline, and pretty soon everything starts to feel a little overwhelming. We would highly recommend this as a “must-see” type stop to anyone visiting Bangkok.
After our tour of the Grand Palace, we wandered back over to the pier and grabbed a boat to Wat Pho. This was another temple that Carly and I wanted to stop at, mostly because it also happened to be the location of a Thai massage school inside the temple grounds. The grounds here were a lot less crowded that that of the Grand Palace, and it was quite relaxing to just walk around, see the monks walking around, and not feel like we were running off anywhere in a hurry. This is also the location of a massive reclining Buddha that is housed in a building not much bigger than the statue itself. The statue is quite impressive to see, 45 meters in length, it makes Carly look short. This dude’s smile is 5 meters wide. That’s a lot of smile.
Along the back-side of this Buddha are 108 little pots where, if you so desire, you can throw a coin in each for good luck and long life and all that other stuff. We figured we didn’t need any luck, and I enjoy pizza too much to live too long, so we happily skipped that part and carried on with our meandering.
The statues here at this temple were also super-cool. They were not elaborately painted like those at the Grand Palace, looking a lot more like plain grayish concrete. But what made them kind of funky is that they almost all had western/European style top-hats.
Onto the Massage school; Carly and I chalked ourselves up for a 1 hour full-body Thai massage that set us back 300 Baht each (give or take CDN$8.50). The building in which they provided the massage was quite different than one might expect in that it was very communal… Yes, communal massage. You lay down next to John Smith on your left, and Jane Bob on your right, as your masseuse happily gives you your massage on what might as well be huge beds. Not an uncomfortable feeling, great smells wafted through the place from some type of flower they were steaming, and you could just lie down and relax. Now, Thai massage (this is the first massage I’ve ever had, so I have nothing to compare it to) is apparently quite different from a “normal” massage. They tend to use a lot of pressure points and manipulation of the joints and stretches. I rather enjoyed it, but Carly ended up sore and bruised (bruises easily from pressure on her skin).
After our massage, we were both starving (again) and wanted to head out to a place called All Gaengs (Gaeng is phonetically translated from Thai as “curry”), so we managed to get to the restaurant, but it was closed. We were horrified. Instead of going to one of the other Thai restaurants we passed along the way, we were for some reason dumb enough to go to a “recommended” restaurant that we passed about ½ a block up the street. It was a seafood place, and though neither of us are hugely into seafood, we thought we’d give it a shot. The place was called Somboon Seafood, I tried some Crab Curry (which was mediocre at best) and Carly had some chicken curry (which I think she classified as repulsive). Our appetizers were a deep fried Tofu (really…bad…idea…) and some spring rolls. The service was probably the worst we’ve ever experienced. I’m pretty sure that the worst service I’ve had at McDonald’s was still better than what we had here. C’est la vie.
After dinner we bailed back to the hostel and packed up our bags. It was gonna be an early morning (5:45am) to get to the airport for our flight to Krabi. More on that soon.
Bangkok – Day Two
Next morning, we woke up bright and early to grab a bite to eat, and then we caught a ride from our hostel to the famous weekend market (Chatuchak market, more commonly referred to by the Thai’s as JJ Market). We began our wandering, and after a while I didn’t know which end was up anymore. Carly, however, seemed to know exactly where we were at all times as we zig-zagged through endless reams of merchants, food, clothes, bags, antiques, trinkets, lamps, decor, etc. etc. Knock-off North Face, Oakley, Abercrombie, American Eagle, Levi’s, and
We stopped to try a bit of food, grabbed some noodles from Mr. Noodle man here, and also managed to find some home made coconut ice cream, and probably some other stuff I’ve forgotten by now.
After a few hours of this meandering we were easily convinced by a lady offering foot massages that she could sign us up. So Carly and I sat in some nice comfy chairs and got about a 40 minute foot massage for about 140 Baht each (S$5.50). No complaints from me in the peanut gallery on that one.
This is when the english-speaking-taxi-driver-of-love-joy-and-all-things-pure-and-good magically came to our rescue. We hopped in and asked him to take us to the other restaurant, and then on a whim I just asked him if he knew where Lemongrass was. He said “Yah, right down Soi 24 here”, and he took us to the front door of the place. The street we had been walking up and down was not on my map, and was called Soi 24/1. I don’t know what the heck that means, but it was a mean mean trick that the engineers of Bangkok had played on us, we wanted some freakin’ food.
At any rate, Lemongrass was fabulous. Absolutely awesome. We sat in a quiet corner of the restaurant right by a large window that opened onto a beautifully lit outdoor garden. We enjoyed some Coconut chicken soup, and some super spicy chicken skewers that were fantastic, as well as some fabulous green curry. This restaurant is super highly recommended. Although it is exhorbetently expensive by Thai standards, Carly and I paid 1300 Baht (~CDN$36) for all our food, and we had each had a drink (Gin and Tonic for me, Rum and Coke for her).
So with some excellent food in our bellies we headed on back to the hostel to rest up for tomorrow’s day of sight-seeing. More to come!
Bangkok – Day One
Ok, it’s going to take a little bit of time, but we’ll get a bunch of pictures and commentary up here about our little trip to Thailand. So um, here comes “Bangkok – Day One”.
We jumped on the MRT (train) to the Airport in Singapore and had an uneventful flight from Singapore to Bangkok. Getting through customs at Bangkok was breezy, albeit time-consuming. Long lineups, but once you were up at the front, it was “smile, stamp stamp, smile some more, enjoy Thailand, bye”.
From there, we took a piece of advice that we got from the proprietor of the hostel we were staying at in Bangkok, and went OUTSIDE of the airport before trying to catch a taxi. Drops the prices from around 800 Baht (S$32.00) to about 200 Baht (S$8.00). Trying to communicate with the Taxi driver was almost completely useless. When you see “Thai words” written using our English alphabet, it doesn’t tend to do you much good, because the Thai’s have their own alphabet, so English symbols and letters mean nothing to many of them. On top of that, the phonetic sounds made by our language does not tend to even remotely capture what the words are supposed to sound like when spoken in Thai. Nonetheless, our Taxi driver pulled through, and we arrived at the Asha Guest House without any problems, I just had to keep pronouncing the English version of the address over and over in different ways until the driver figured out what I was saying. He was a good sport.
The guest house was great, pretty cheap (~USD$9/night), clean rooms with shared bathrooms. The owners and employees were fabulous and absolutely full of useful information and tips on what to do, where to go, how to get around, and how not to get ripped off.
After throwing down our bags and getting organized, we were out the door on a walk to Saphan Kwai SkyTrain station which was about a 10 minute walk from where we were staying. Our guest house is located in a very Thai area of town, and so if you ever had a desire to try stuffed pigs intestines from a hawker on the side of the road, look no further. Getting used to the many different cultural things and many strange smells of Bangkok is just part of the fun I suppose 
We noticed that a lot of Thai words translated into their pseudo-phonetic-English are really quite funny. With SkyTrain stations like “On Nut” and “Mo Chit”, and about 200 other funny examples we found while in Thailand, it made for a good chuckle now and again.
So, we got off the train and happened to pass a Starbucks, so we treated ourselves to Espresso Frappucino’s to accompany ourselves on our walk. One thing that we noticed here while we had to cross a Very Large Intersection™ to carry on to our destination, is that traffic lights seem to have a mind of their own here. Either that, or something is just Really Messed Up. The little flashy green light that in North America (and Singapore for that matter) means that you as a pedestrian are safe to walk across the street – well – in Bangkok – if you listen to the little flashy green man, you’re dead. DEAD. We almost started to walk, and subsequently almost got hit by 78 motorcycles, 45 cars, and 18 buses. Caution was the word of the day.
At any rate, we continued to walk towards the Joe Louis Puppet Theater and the Night Bazaar where we wandered around some of the shops and also grabbed a bite to eat for dinner. We must have been feeling a bit Nostalgic, because I had a hamburger, and Carly had a club sandwich. All good – we would get our fix of Thai food yet. Following dinner, we walked past what I am pretty sure was the Rama V statue, and then Lumphini Park (quite a nice looking little park) and on to Lumphini Boxing Stadium. If we were in Bangkok – I was going to see some Muay Thai.
Next time, if there is a next time, I think we’ll try to get a local to buy our entrance tickets, because I think the tourists get ripped off on the entrance fees to see the boxing. We paid 1500 Baht each, and that just isn’t an amount that makes sense. It’s also significantly more than what any of the guidebooks (Rough Guide, Lonely Planet, etc.) have laid out as the prices (although they could be out of date).
Here is a good picture of some extremely good translated English. It’s still probably gooder than my English. Not sure if you can quite read it in the picture, so to quench your curiosity it reads “Any can and bottle does not allow to bring inside the stadium.”
The boxing was not quite what we expected. The fighters were young, REALLY young. Probably anywhere from 13-18 years old, and weighing in somewhere between 105-116 lbs. We did notice that there is a certain amount of ceremonial reverence in Muay Thai for the Thai people. Flowers around the necks of all fighters, and a bit of ceremonial dance before each fight. The music accompanying the fight was in a traditional Thai style by a small band, and is NOT what we would consider to be pump-you-up fight music. It was more like when-is-this-music-going-to-stop-because-it-is-making-my-ears-bleed type music (in our opinion, anyway).
The sportsmanship demonstrated between competitors was also fabulous, and when one kid got kicked in the head and carried out on a stretcher, his opponent was genuinely concerned about his well being. All-in-all, a good experience, and not quite as brutal as we had expected it to be. We did notice, however, that after training in mixed-martial-arts for a couple years (kickboxing/jiu-jitsu/boxing/muay thai) – that Muay Thai by itself seems to become a bit repetitive. A good experience nonetheless.
We bailed after the 7th fight (there were 8 scheduled) and headed to our hostel to bed. Tomorrow would come quickly – and there was still plenty to see.
Walking To and From School
I thought a nice way to share one of my experiences in Sinapore, namely my routine walking, would be to capture it through photographs. Here is what I see as I walk between our condo and my school.
Our street: Hillview Avenue.
A Nature Park
The Canadian International School of Singapore
United Nations Week
During the days of October 3, 4 and 5, CIS celebrated United Nations Week.
October 3 – Opening Ceremonies
October 4 – Food Festival and Passport Day
October 5 – Cultural Performance and Closing Ceremonies
There was much preparation involved in the weeks and days leading up to these special days. Many parents came into the classroom to share cultural stories or objects with the students, some even read and told these stories in different languages before translating into English. The Junior Kindergarten classes were busy painting t-shirts the children would wear for the second day of events, Passport Day. These t-shirts were decorated with a flag or flags of choice.
For the Opening Ceremonies, students wore something from their cultural background. I was uncreatively in a red tanktop and cream skirt though walking proudly for Canada. The students from grade one and up marched in with their flags during the Parade of Nations which marked the beginning of UN week. Many ambassadors from the different countries represented at our school were present as special guests.
The Food Festival was certainly a highlight for students, parents and teachers alike. During this time students traded in their tickets for various food items they’d selected from the plentiful tables around them. Sweets were certainly the most popular!
Daniel came to meet me for lunch as he couldn’t vary well miss out on excellent food prepared by parents from all over the world. Here is a look at our lunch, complete with the great tasting maple leaf cookie from the Canadian table.
Many classrooms were visited for special activities during the afternoon on Passport Day. I stayed in my classroom to receive groups ranging from Senior Kindergarten to Grade 5. They all seemed to enjoy my origami story telling.
By the end of these three days everyone was exhausted. It was a great time to head into our October Break.
