Bangkok
I met my American friend Caron in Rome. She's my age and loves to travel so much she started her own travel business. https://caronguillotravel.com Basically she designs custom trips and tours for small groups, which means she can work from anywhere. When she invited me to join her on a 3 month trip around SE Asia, I didn't hesitate. Our stops include Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Borneo. It's the trip of a lifetime.
After a long 10 hour flight, we arrived in Bangkok. Right outside our hotel was a huge street market. I though how lucky are we, till I realized they were everywhere. Our first night we did The Bangkok Food Tours, https://www.bangkokfoodtours.com. Turns out it was a very smart idea, because we were able to identify what we were eating from then on out. It was a really fun group and the tour was excellent. None of us could understand our Thai guide, but we got the gist of what he was telling us. We made about 8 stops, most of it was street food. We sampled an assortment of meat dishes with rice and noodles, a really bitter drink that was supposed to make you younger, some delicious fried bananas, a sample of fresh fruits, omelet, chicken on a stick, some kind of snack that looked like it had an egg in the middle, duck, and green curry. By the last stop we were stuffed. I'm a pretty picky eater, but I did try everything and actually liked most of it.
There were street vendors literally everywhere. Along every street, in every market, on every corner was someone selling some kind of food; a huge variety of soups, rice, noodles, and vegetables, which they put in a little plastic baggie, cut up fruit, and grilled meats or seafood on a stick. Our guide said that people commuted a long way and traffic was very congested. Most people would stop at a food cart and pick up something to hold them over till dinner. My favorite dish was roti, which is basically a banana crepe with sweetened condensed milk drizzled on top. We also ate a lot of sticky rice with mangoes. One fruit we were warned about is called durian. It's a pretty large fruit, about the size of a small round watermelon. We saw signs in the hotel warning us not to bring it in. Apparently it has a horrific smell. We Googled it and found many videos of people smelling and tasting it. We never got up the nerve to try it ourselves.
Wednesday we slept in and awoke to pouring rain. By mid afternoon it had stopped enough for us to venture out. We took a longer stroll through the market, this time we had an idea of what kind of food we were looking at. It seemed to be a maze of different vendors selling the same things you typically see in a market; clothes, shoes, purses, kitchenware, the ubiquitous food vendors, etc. What we didn't see were tourist trinkets like magnets, selfie sticks, souvenirs, t-shirts, or hats. A lot of the clothes however, were geared toward tourists, specifically elephant pants. These are really comfortable baggy pants, almost like sweatpants, only very thin. Most have elephants on them and everyone we saw were wearing them. Except the Thai people of course.
I heard it was very cheap to have clothes made, so I found what looked like a good tailor and commissioned a skirt. I was a little hesitant to have something made and pay for it before I even saw it and it turns out I was right. Lesson learned I guess, at least I talked him down from €80 to €50. It's OK and I will wear it, but I don't love it. The markets had a great selection and both Caron and I went on a bit of a crazy shopping spree, especially considering that we only had one small carry-on bag each. Once I bought some pants and skirts of course I needed tops to go with them. I left Malta with 5 outfits. By the time I left Thailand I had 12 and could barely close my suitcase. OMG! That was only the first country; I'm going to need a bigger bag. After our market tour we needed a massage. As luck would have it, there was one on every corner. I got the first of many, hour-long foot massages for about $5.
Thursday we went all out pamper mode and just relaxed, after getting our hair and nails done and of course another massage.
On Friday I thought I better get in some sightseeing. Bangkok has a fantastic metro system called Sky Train, which I hopped on for a short trip to the river, getting off at the Saphan Taksin stop for the Sathorn Pier. I found a tourist boat called the Chao Phraya River Express, basically a long narrow boat that zips through the water. The river (Chao Phraya) is a very busy commercial thoroughfare. There are boats of every shape and size including huge chains of barges tied together and pulled by a tug boat. It can be confusing at the pier, to know which boat to take. Basically, look for the flag. Blue - tourist boat (100 baht all day). No flag - stops at every pier (20 baht). Orange flag - main piers (15 baht). Yellow and green flag - limited stops, rush hour only (29 baht)
My first stop was the Buddhist Temple of Wat Arun or Temple of the Dawn. Trip Advisor says it's the most famous and photographed temple in Bangkok and I believe it. You get a pretty decent view of it from the river, but once inside it's too massive to actually take a good photo. There are 4 colorful prangs or Khmer style towers and a much taller central prang. The entire temple is covered in tiny pieces of porcelain in the shape of flowers. The central prang is 70 meters tall and has a series of very steep steps leading to the top. You climb the stairs and find yourself on a narrow terrace on the first level, which runs all the way around the temple. At the base are many statues of animals and Chinese warriors. On the 2nd level you find Hindu statues. The detail in the porcelain work was amazing and the view of the entire compound from that high up were pretty nice too.
My next stop was Wat Pho or Temple of the Reclining Buddha. This is supposed to be one of the largest temple complexes in Bangkok. It was so big I couldn't even find the 46 meter, giant Buddha. This Temple has the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand, over 1000 of them. They all look very similar so it's easy to get lost. Wat Pho is also a school for massage, dating back to the mid-nineteenth century. There are number of pavilions, gardens, rock gardens and smaller temples on the grounds, so there is a lot to see. There are also are quite a few Chinese statues. I'm sure I could have Googled the reason but they were very interesting to look at.
I finally found the reclining Buddha, and he was indeed, reclining. You walked into a building carrying your shoes and just walked the length of it, looking at him from different vantage points. There were 4 monks trying to get a picture of themselves, but tourists kept getting in the middle of them, to have their pictures taken with the monks. I took the camera from the monks and motioned them to get together. They couldn't figure out what I was doing, but finally enlightenment touched their face and I quickly got a few photos before anyone else could squeeze in. I wondered how much of their life involved people snapping photos. I have seen some very aggressive tourists here, and am happy to say, Americans are in fact, not the worst tourists out there. There were many more temples to see in Bangkok, but I chose to call it a day after these two. I did thoroughly enjoy walking around and seeing so many wonderful sights. As it turned out, the tourist boat was a bad deal. The ferry takes you to the same stops for a fraction of the cost, but at 100 baht, I only spent $3 vs the ferry for 15 baht or .50.
Caron and I met up for dinner and a trip into Chinatown. We thought Bangkok was very densely populated; Chinatown was even more jam packed. It's basically one long brightly lit street with people shoulder-to-shoulder on the sidewalks. There were the ubiquitous street food vendors with what looked like the same foods but with a Chinese flare. There were shops selling Chinese products like dried fish, herbs, tea, Chinese clothing and the like. We saw more interesting food choices here such as fried bugs. He had giant grasshoppers and smaller beetles and scorpions as well as larvae of some type. As we were standing there looking at his goods, a group of three guys walked up. We offered to buy them whatever they would try but they laughed and said no - we understood. It was an interesting evening, but it's basically just a street packed with people.
On Saturday Caron joined me for a trip to the flower market and the Indian market. It's at the Saphan Phut Chao Phraya pier, just past the Memorial Bridge. All over Bangkok you see flower garlands, or strings of fresh cut flowers called phuang malai. Most look like marigolds but other flowers were also used. Malai are said to bring luck and show respect. You see them everywhere; draped on scooters, food trucks, every market stall, in all the businesses, even hanging from car mirrors. A visit to the flower market showed us they were made simply by stringing flower heads together, like popcorn for Christmas trees. They are hung in the car to help avoid accidents, in businesses to attract prosperity, given to monks and visitors as a sign of respect, and placed in spirit houses to stay in the good graces of departed loved ones. As you walk along the stalls in this market, you would see large trash bags filled with thousands of the yellow or orange flowers, ready to be sold wholesale. There were men and women sitting bare foot and cross legged on the ground, sewing string after string of Malai. We had a little less luck finding the Indian market although we know we were in the right area. Everywhere we looked we saw stalls and shops filled with the most beautiful bolts of fabrics. They also had plenty of Indian street food.
On Sunday we split up because we had different interests. I opted to ride the ferry to the end of the line. It was quite a beautiful day and being on the river was interesting. The center of Bangkok is very busy with boats of all shapes and sizes navigating the river. There are temples, as well as many many colorful houses along the river bank. They were up on stilts and came in all different conditions. Some were clearly high-end and some were mere shacks. There were people fishing along the riverbank, and locals going home after a trip to the market. They had bags stuffed to overflowing with vegetables and other necessities. I feel like I got a little glimpse into how people actually live by getting away from the typical tourists sights. The ferry ended in a small village that had a massive market. There were many more street food carts selling everything from the most delicious corn on the cob to all kinds of skewered meat including pork knuckles. A little deeper into the market and you find a huge assortment of different vegetables; a bigger variety than I had seen previously. Most of them I could not identify, but it looked like several varieties of squash, cucumbers, and more types of greens than I've ever seen in my life. A little further on and I came to the seafood section. What was interesting about this is all of the fish were still alive. They had buckets and buckets packed with squirming fish of all shapes and sizes, tiny shrimps, eels, crabs, prawns, and squid.
On Monday Caron and I checked out one of the huge malls. MBK was 8 stories high and had three massive International food courts. The lower floors basically sold fashion and cosmetics. The third and fourth floors were crammed wall-to-wall with camera and phone kiosks. They were selling new and used cell phones and tablets, batteries, SIM cards and every accessory you could think of. They also had camera shops selling cheap disposable cameras next to very high-end super specialized zoom lens, the kind you see the National Geographic wildlife photographers using.
My overall impression of Bangkok was absolutely amazing and I would definitely go back, hopefully to stay for longer period of time. I found it very easy to get around as the train system is self-explanatory and took us everywhere we needed to go. You can take a tuk tuk, but we found it easier to go by train as we weren't stuck in the ever present traffic. I found it very easy to eat healthy as there was such a wide range of fresh fruits and vegetables. The people were quite friendly and most spoke English. I wish we had more time as there were more sites I wanted to see, more temples to explore and learn about. Traffic was something else. It is large city and you certainly would expect a lot of traffic, but what was so amazing were all the motorbikes. We saw scooters with entire families riding together, mom dad and two or three kids. We saw people transporting huge bags of produce, boxes duct taped to the seat that were taller than the rider. Many of the bikes were used as taxis and you would see people young and old sitting sideways. I guess it was easier to get on and off in a hurry that way. We saw many many children riding in front of their parents with no helmet on. At a stop light, all the bikes would come forward. So you could have 40 or 50 motorbikes ready to go when the light changed. They were also plenty of tuk tuks. These were little carts, mainly for tourist, being pulled behind the motorbikes. We did take one but we found it a bit awkward as you climbed in and kind of reclined in your seat. I thought it was very uncomfortable and you couldn't see where you were going.
I was fascinated by the food carts. They were just tiny push carts, but were amazingly self contained. The vendor had the raw food in little bins and would cook an entire meal there on the spot. The ones selling meat were easy enough, they had a small grill and just plopped the skewered meat on them and handed it to you once cooked. The ones selling an assortment of food were more interesting. They had a few basic soup bases or curries already poured into baggies, filled with air and sealed, like a balloon. You then chose from an assortment of meat, vegetables, and toppings like cabbage, nuts or bean sprouts. You buy a separate baggie of rice or noodles and mix it all together for a nice little meal on the go. The vendors had a bucket of water for washing dishes. I have a pretty strong stomach and just tried not to think of germs, undercooked food, cross contamination, them handling my food and the money etc.
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