Bangkok Weekend 3: Beware of The Lost Shoes

Another weekend in Bangkok down. Since Bangkok is a hub of fine dining venues, I decided to step out for something near and dear to my heart: cocktails and jazz. I moseyed down to the Bamboo Bar. The atmosphere was completely on point, reminding me of a high end tiki bar sans kitsch.  The drinks are very well thought out but the cocktail just missed the mark. However, the fancy mocktail was delicious.  The house band was very good and the vocalist had a great set of pipes.  I stayed for 3 of the 4 sets and thoroughly enjoyed myself.  However, I am not longer built to see the far side of 1AM.  That meant Saturday was a bit of wash.

Sunday was more temples.  With idea of scoring a great lunch afterwards, I hopped a cab over to Wat Suthat Thepwararam.  By a stroke of luck, the taxi driver dropped me off in the back of the compound which meant I got to  visit the ordination hall first.  This section of the grounds was deserted and it was interesting the see the the statues of monks/disciples in the front of the hall.  The walls are covered murals depicting scenes from the life of Buddha. While most murals that I’ve seen are black and gold lacquer, these are fully colored and very detailed.  I enjoyed the difference in styles and subject matter. Large sections of the temple were under renovation, likely for the upcoming royal coronation, hence the scaffolding.

The main temple was busier, with several guided tours coming through but still impressive.  The air quality was took a turn for the worse which made taking photos challenge.  It’s the first time I’ve noticed it while trying to take photos outside. The portico around the outside was nice and several groups were having a session with the monks. The inside of the main temple continued with the colored mosaics and another large statute.  They start to blend together after a awhile, unless they’re the next temple I went to.

Before calling it day, I snuck over to The Golden Buddha Temple. From the quiet of Wat Suthat, this was packed with tourists.  For very small temple, there level of activity isn’t surprising…when the centerpiece is 5.5 ton, 10 ft. tall solid gold statue. The story behind the statue is fascinating, this might be the real Maltese Falcon.  I also found the the wall decorations very different than any other temple.  I would highly recommend it as a stop but you’ll only spend 20-30 minutes maximum.

At both temples, there were plenty of signs warning about shoe thieves, in almost proper English.  I definitely like this sticker the best.

I’m a bit templed out for the moment.  Next weekend will be something different.  More pictures here.

Bangkok Weekend 2 pt 2: Cooking and Temples

I couldn’t spend a whole two days lounging around the hotel! I’d scheduled a morning cooking class (before going out to Silom) and then decided to visit some of the temples around Bangkok to round out my weekend.  The cooking class turned out to be interesting, if a bit basic. I went through the Silom Cooking School and was impressed by how well they managed a group of nine adults with different languages, tastes, and skill levels.  The menu was tom-yum, pad thai, masaman curry, and finished off with mango sticky rice.

I did spend a day in between learning to cook and getting soaked to take care of some basics but ventured back out into the heat to visit a few temples.  First up was Wat Saket and the Golden Mount.  Wat Saket was gearing up for the last day of Songkran but I got there before the crowds. I found the memorial Buddha statues lining the court yard an interesting tribute to deceased loved ones. It was a nice and quiet start to the day. Immediately next door is the Golden Mount.  It’s hard to say if I felt the Golden Mount was too touristy or not.  Certainly everyone there was taking pictures and enjoying the views of Bangkok but many visitors were attempting to pray and showing their devotion.  It was worth the trip to see something that has become so iconic to Bangkok and I would have liked to linger a bit longer but the heat was starting to get to me and I wanted to stop one last place before heading back.

Wat Ratchanatdaram is just across a canal from the Golden Mount but no one was there.  It took me by surprise how few people ventured the 10 minute walk to this amazing temple.  I didn’t have time to explore all the grounds but I found the architecture of the main temple interesting. The grid layout got smaller on each floor but was designed to foster a different type of learning.  I’m definitely considering going back to explore more of the grounds later.

At this point, the heat won out and I had to head inside for lunch and then back to the hotel.  Photos!

Bangkok Weekend 2 pt 1: Songkran

Four day weekend! That means extra exploring hence two posts. Why you might ask? The Thais celebrate New Year’s on April 13th in a festival known as Songkran.  It’s a national holiday which means most small shops and restaurants are closed.  I’ll skip right to the chase, this is the craziest, city-wide water-gun fight I’ve ever seen. Younger people roam the streets with overpriced super-soakers ready to spray anyone. Kids out in front of their houses with buckets of water prepared to dump them on anyone who walks by. Bright Hawaiian are the proper attire but anything that dries fast is also acceptable since you’re going to get wet.  Well, there are some rules.  Don’t spray monks, people in the face, or any of the city’s countless people on mopeds.  In general, if someone looks like they want to stay dry, leave them alone.

Bangkok has a couple of main areas that are known for their water fights.  Down near the Central World/Erawan Shine, the side walk is packed with revelers just waiting hose passersby down.  There are giant tubs to refill your squirt gun for a ~5-10 baht  and if no one is filling up, the vendors will toss a bucket full into the crowd.  There was a small market sell street food that people would duck into for cover.  Being on the side of a major road, it wasn’t uncommon for a tuk-tuk to pull to a stop and everyone inside to start spraying anyone on the side walk.  After a few minutes there, I was drenched and engaged in a serious back and forth with a group of four other guys.  After maybe 20 minutes and a couple of reloads, I was wet enough and headed back to the hotel.

The first day did nothing to prepare me for the craziness in Silom.  The Silom neighborhood is water fight central for Bangkok.  The police shutdown a two block section of road under the elevated subway.  It is wall to wall with people and water vendors.  Everyone is shouting, completely soaked, and wildly spraying anyone.  Even people on the stairs going up to the train platform are squirting down at people in the streets.  The water vendors here, one about every 5 feet, hauled in giant blocks of ice to keep their supply through out the day. This means it was a nasty shock to get hit with a pail of ice water when I wasn’t paying attention.  I did two laps around the road and decided I’d had my fill. This is definitely an event to go with friends, act silly, and then go out for drinks afterwards.

Why no pictures? There was absolutely no way to keep a camera or cellphone dry. However, this BBC article has some good ones. I did get one photo at Lumpini park. There were fewer people there, mostly kids, playing near the water tanks.  A quarter mile away 1000x more craziness was going on but the park was relaxed and pretty chill. It made a nice last stop before calling it a day.

Part two is here. As always, other photos from the trip are here.

 

Bangkok Weekend 1

Woah, it’s been a while! Not that nothing exciting hasn’t happened but nothing that should end up here. But we can’t go forever without a good adventure so one of us has up and traveled to Bangkok for a couple of months!

The 20+ hours of flight time between home and Bangkok generates a helluva lot of jet lag so the first weekend in town  was going to be light. First stop was Lumphini Park. The park is nice.  The flowers are blooming the park is impressively quiet despite being located right near some major intersections.  And giant lizards. Turning the corner to find this guy moving like a dinosaur through the median was amazing.  Between the heat, lizards, and topical foliage, the atmosphere felt wonderfully complete.  Did I mention it’s hot? Someone had the crazy idea that they should walk to two museums the next day. Mother Nature decided make sure she brought her A game for that day. First stop was the Suan Pakkard Palace.  The museum is an odd conglomerate of several different exhibits, some good, some just ok. There is a large collection of historic artifacts from the Iron Age from across Thailand that are well persevered and have educational descriptions. As a counter point, there are several rooms of mineral samples, from Thailand? They didn’t make much of an impression or seem to fit with anything else.  The highlight was definitely the Lacquer Pavilion which has stunning black and gold mosaics depicting the life of Buddha. There was also a great gallery of musical instruments.  However, the staff were strict about enforcing the no photos rules in the galleries so I was left taking pictures of the grounds.

The second stop was to the Jim Thompson House.  The house was home to the expat who made Thai silk a hot fashion commodity and dressed Yul Brenner (and the rest of the cast) in The King and I.  The Italian marble floors in the entrance felt both like they belong in an entrance hall andand very out of place but the rest of the house was a very nice museum.  It’s guided tours only but the guide spoke good English and made the tour very enjoyable despite the heat.  Again, photos were only allowed on the grounds.

More photos here where all the photos from this trip will be uploaded.