to the river,
on a boat
and up the river to the Grand Palace. The Sky Train is representative of all things new in Thailand. Clean, efficient and air conditioned. The river and its boats are all things of old in Thailand. The Chao Phraya, now that’s quite a river. It’s the color of liquid chocolate, full of boats sized from small long tail boats to huge barges all going about their individual business, which is usually trying to get our business. We took the public ferry which resembled those boats you see on the news, you know the ones, overstuffed with people and sinking somewhere with not enough life jackets? Luckily ours didn’t sink but delivered us safely to the Grand Palace. The dichotomy on the river was amazing. Rickety shacks built of rusting corrugated sheet metal next to shiny new dwellings, amazing. Amazing really because families lived in those dilapidated shacks.
Anyways, the dock at the Grand Palace was full of those colorful vendors plying us with bottled water (10 Baht!!! 10 Baht!!!) (the Baht is the money here) to stands with fans and hats (Mom got attacked by a woman trying to sell fans, Grammie’s consistent no’s resulted in an offer that escalated from 1 fan for 100 baht to 4 fans for 100 baht. Alas, the vendor still didn’t make a sale!) to fruits and other foods to tables full of fake sunglasses.
The Grand Palace and the Wat Phra Kaeo were amazing. I remember Carlos saying that he had to find another word, but amazing keeps falling from my mouth too. The opulence and lavishness that was at this temple was strongly countered by the poverty we just walked through at the market. But it was amazing. Gold and gold and gold and jewels and jewels and jade and, well, you get the picture. This temple is the home of the Emerald Buddha, carved sometime in the 14th century, this little 2 foot tall Buddha perches on a tall altar made of gold. It was an awesome site. Apparently, his clothes get changed each season – a new outfit made of gold – so we saw him dressed in his Hot Season finery. You will also see in the photos that we are dressed in our hot season finery with modifications since men have to wear pants into the temples and women have to be in skirts, dresses or pants. There are no pictures of the emerald Buddha himself as you could not take pictures in the temple (nor wear shorts, nor have food or drink, nor point your feet to the Buddha – lots of rules!)
After the Emerald Buddha and Grand Palace we went for lunch at a Thai restaurant near the dock and then headed off to the next temple down the street, the Wat Pho, home to the reclining Buddha. Again, wow, amazing, astonishing, incredible, astounding. This is a 150 foot long golden Buddha laying down housed in an ornate temple full of fresco walls and painted ceilings. It was so impressive, mom and I fought the crowds to go around a second time. Actually, the whole thing is not gold, but made of brick and mortar then covered in gold leaf, but that’s still a lot of gold leaf!
From there we wanted to head back to the hotel for we were HOT and tired, but that was another adventure. The guide books here warn you about the scams that are plentiful in Thailand including warnings of heading off in tuk-tuks (basically a motor cycle with an open aired cabin on the back) and being strongly encouraged to take “private” tours of the city. Guess, what? We almost got suckered into one! We were innocently trying to get to the dock to get the ferry when we were ushered into a tuk-tuk to take us there. Except the tuk-tuk took us to a small dock where the guy’s friend tried to sell us a ride on a long-tail boat. We quickly recognized what was going on and walked away. On the good side, that was one fun tuk-tuk ride! All six of us crammed into a cabin made for 2 flying off down the street! Forget seatbelts and car seats – I was just hoping that we would fall out going around a turn!
From there we started walking down the street to the next dock, which we found but only to be told that the boats don’t stop there on a Sunday and we needed to walk another “5 minutes” down the street to the next dock. I wish I had my camera out at this point because we were in an area full of local color and action – looked like the vegetable market, and I mean like a huge vegetable exchange with Thai’s carrying massive baskets (think 3-4 foot high) of vegetables and chili peppers around. Alas, I was too hot and too worried about getting the kids back to the hotel to snap any pictures.
So we finally hailed another tuk-tuk just to take us back to the train station. Stevie negotiated and negotiated and got a great fare, except this guy too took us on a wild goose chase, over the river and into the non-touristy area of Bangkok, but in the end we did end up at the station! Whew! Later when we returned to the hotel I read in the paper about the red shirt marches that had taken place on Saturday and remarked to Stevie that the area looked a whole lot like where the tuk-tuk driver took us…
So one last adventure for the day, after a swim at the pool and a massage for me!, we went out to dinner. The concierge recommended a Thai restaurant and it was awesome. We all piled into a cab (me, Grammie, Cannon, London and Emmy in the back!) and went to this restaurant that was like an out door market/restaurant. When we got out of the cab we were escorted to the stands of fish and lobsters and shrimp and squid, etc. We picked out a nice flounder and some giant shrimp and then ordered them to be prepared BBQ and Thai chili sauce, respectively. The tables were set up under a tree with lanterns hanging in it and there were three men softly playing Thai music on xylophone type instruments. Later some were some ladies who came out and performed traditional Thai dances. It was an awesome atmosphere and a peaceful way to end our first day in Thailand. And, of yes, the food was amazing!
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