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Bangkok, Thailand…a city of contradictions
What to say about Bangkok? I noticed on the plane out of Vancouver a quietness, a calm energy amongst the passengers, quite unlike the bustling energy on the way to India last year. We’ve been here since Tuesday around noon Bangkok time (that’s about 9 pm Vancouver time) & we’re leaving this eveing for Ventienne, Laos, an 11 hour bus ride north (plane tickets were expensive & the 1st class train was fully booked; they said Don was too tall for a 2nd class upper berth).
We’ve loved the neighborhood we’ve stayed in, called Phra Nakhon, at the Rajata, a quiet family hotel with friendly staff & interesting laneways to explore & eat in. Life revolves around the street, with kids playing near their parents & small businesses & living space often in the same set of rooms. We’re about a 15 minute walk from the Chao Phraya River, & on the east side of it where most of the city is. We can get a long ferry ride through 15 stops for 13 Bhat (~52 cents). Sometimes the ferry is pretty crowded with Thais going about their daily business along with many tourists, but it’s a great way to travel.
A few stops down the river from us is the enormous & very beautiful Wat (temple) Phra Kaeo & Grand Palace where the beloved King & Queen used to live (they’re in their 80′s now & reside elsewhere) & many markets. Yesterday we took the boat further along to the Central Pier, & had one of those weird tourist experiences.
We ran into a lovely Thai woman who is an English teacher. She recommended that we take a tuk tuk (auto rickshaw) to the Thai market to see local Thai products. It took ages to get their in very busy traffic & when we arrived we saw not the marketplace we expected, but a very upscale wholesale showroom with one floor of high end jewellery displays & the other dress clothes. I did see one thing I liked, a small, rather heavy turtle with semi-precious stones on it, but wasn’t willing to pay the discount price of 1400 Bhat (~$56).
Our ride to the craft place was very cheap, but when we tried to get out of there, it took many tries to find the right driver to take us. The 1st tuk tuk driver said he’d charge less than what we paid to get there but insisted that we make “1 stop” on the way back at a store so he’d get a commission, so we got out of his tuk tuk (suprisingly he let us). Then we crossed the street where we saw a lineup of cabs, but it was the taxi yard; some of the cabs were out of commission being repaired, & several very friendly drivers said they could drive us after they ate lunch, in about 1 hour (one invited us to sit down & share the meal, but we politely declined as we wanted to get back downtown. The men helped us a bit & finally we found a tuk tuks driver willing to take us back to the Central Pier area downtown for 70 Bhat (because the traffic was getting so heavy). When we finally got back there I took off my pristine white hat & it had quite a bit of black soot on it.
All for now – next installment from Laos hopefully.
How exciting that you are traveling in far away exotic places! I hope you are taking some pictures to share of your experiences.
Be happy and safe!
Rita
Rita: Thanks for taking the time to read & comment on my Bangkok entry. Just wrote another blog on Laos. We’re having an excellent time.
FYI: There’s been a delay with the release of the book as one of my team has been ill.
Cheers
Ellen