Bangkok: Mar 18: Departure

On Thursday, our last day in Bangkok, we had only the morning free before we needed to leave for our flight back to Hong Kong. Rather than attempt to rush a visit to someplace new and exciting--we'd already visited all the tourist destinations within a reasonable travel time of our hotel--we decided to have a large, leisurely brunch at the hotel, eating enough so that we'd survive until the plane fed us around dinnertime. The buffet was extensive (meats, cereals, pastries, congee, dim sum, the usual hot Western breakfast foods, fruits, roasted mushrooms, baked beans, pork with chili, veal sausage, etc.), but the food generally was only okay. I took many pictures of the food. It's a good thing we ate so much, as our plane took off over an hour late.

In Bangkok's international airport I noticed the baggage carts: in addition to having a hand-brake, they're magnetic, so you can let go of the cart when going up a ramp escalator and the cart won't roll away. A neat advance in technology.

As on the flight to Bangkok, our plane was almost empty. One section of the plane was entirely empty. Nevertheless, even in the sections with people, I rearranged to have a row of four to myself -- that's how few people there were.

Incidentally, Di Yin also took pictures this day. The link goes to her first picture from this day (picture #385). When you see a picture of captioned "Hello Hong Kong" (picture #410), you're done with her pictures for this trip. I'll link to her Hong Kong pictures in another post.

Bangkok: Mar 17: The Royal Barges Museum and other adventures

I had grand plans for Wednesday. I didn't get to do most of them, and some things I did get to do weren't good, but some places Di Yin and I found by accident were.

As always, I took pictures, though nowhere near as many as usual. Di Yin took many more, often of different things. The latter link goes to her first picture from this day (picture #279). When you see a picture captioned "our view from the hotel the morning we left Bangkok" (picture #385), you're done with her pictures for the day. I'll link to the next day's pictures in the following post.

After taking our hotel's ferry across the river, Di Yin and I began the day by wandering through some streets and markets at random. This area was definitely part of the city, though it can't be said to be central. After an hour or so, we located a pier and headed north, disembarking near the Grand Palace. Di Yin wanted to buy me a hat we spotted yesterday. We also took the time to grab a meal. After lunch, while we were still walking around this area, a crazily intense rain arrived. Luckily, most of the street carts have umbrellas; we huddled under a spot where a few overlapped. The rain left fairly quickly -- it couldn't keep up its incredible pace for long!

Next, we began our quest to find the Royal Barges Museum, housing (you guessed it) the barges used by the royal family. It's most accessible via boat, but we decided not to hire an expensive boat taxi ("longboat") and instead took the public ferry to the pier closest to the museum and figured we could find our way there on foot.

The museum is on the opposite side of the river from Bangkok proper and from most of the tourist attractions. The district's known as Thonburi. Disembarking at the Wang Lang Pier, we found ourselves in an area nearly entirely populated by locals and in by far the greatest street food market we'd seen yet (and would see) in Bangkok. There were blocks upon blocks of carts and vendors. Even though we just had lunch ( :( ), we nevertheless often stopped and watched and even found stomach space to buy some items to eat then or later. Streets branching off from this main food street (leading to the pier) sold clothes and the like. We wandered down some of these streets too.

Proceeding onward but lacking a good map, we had trouble finding the Royal Barges Museum. We attempted to ask people to no avail. I'm not sure whether this was a language issue or a lack of knowledge. Happily, we ran into a French student studying in Bangkok who knew where the museum is. He walked with us most of the way there (the route was on his way home), and we talked about how he ended up in Bangkok and where he was before. He was a really nice guy.

He pointed out the sign for the museum. (He hadn't been before but had seen the sign.) He left us. From the main sign on the road, the museum was harder to find than the Shanghai Propaganda Museum, which was pretty hard to find and I found last summer. We followed arrows, heading down dirty paths sometimes alongside garbage piles or canals with stagnant water. Ugh.

The museum wasn't exciting. (I was going to preface the sentence with "worse yet", but even if the museum didn't exist, it wouldn't have been worse than the walk.)

After the museum, we followed the same path out of the ill-maintained neighborhood to the road, walked along the road to and through the giant street market to the ferry pier, and headed home to our hotel (via a cross-river ferry to a river ferry to our cross-river hotel ferry).

Near dinnertime, we ventured out into the heat and headed to Silom Complex. Di Yin and I showed her parents the food festival we found on Monday. Her parents (well really her dad) went crazy, buying bags and bags of snacks (mostly Chinese), mostly to bring home. I tried a bunch of the items they bought: freshly-cooked squid (spicy and good), fresh guava juice (good, like a funky apple), seaweed sushi (fine), dried fish (meh / not as good as the kind I get in Shanghai), dried crab (decent/good). I also, after much language confusion, got a mini-sausage to try, but found it dry. (The language confusion was because the woman sold the mini-sausages in large bags by weight. I only wanted one to try. After she finally understood, she just gave me one for free.) Also in the mall, we wandered into a supermarket wherein I spotted a dozen different types of mangoes. I knew there were a few varieties, but didn't know there were that many.

Di Yin's parents went to one of the mall's restaurants for dinner. I still wanted more street food, so I headed out, following a tip, and walked the handful of blocks to Soi Convent (Convent Street). Di Yin decided to follow me. The experience of walking down a street with cheap street food-carts outside comparatively expensive sit-down restaurants makes one think. Details of what we ate are in the pictures.

Bangkok: Mar 16: The Grand Palace and Various Temples

We spent Tuesday seeing the highlights of the royal and religious aspects of Bangkok. It was a busy day, or at least as busy as one can be in heat that necessitates breathers and a mid-day rest.

I took a ton of pictures this day (over a hundred!). Di Yin took even more. The latter link goes to her first picture from this day (picture #91). When you see a picture of me nodding off in a ferry at night, wiped out from the day, (picture #278) you're done with her pictures for the day. I'll link to the next day's pictures in the following post.

After snacking a bit for breakfast in our hotel room, the four of us took the hotel ferry to the main ferry pier, and then the tourist boat ferry (complete with narration) to the pier nearest the Grand Palace.

The Grand Palace is opulent, pretty (look at all my pictures!), and interesting with its unusual blend of architectural styles.

Also in the complex, we visited Wat Phra Kaew (the Temple of the Emerald Buddha), the most sacred Buddhist temple in Thailand. It also has a lot of attractive buildings. Oddly, in the main temple building, all of us somehow missed seeing the Emerald Buddha itself. It turns out the Emerald Buddha (which is made of jade, not emerald) is tiny--less than three feet tall! No wonder we missed it in a temple with so many larger religious statues.

We also visited the Emerald Buddha Museum (elsewhere in the Grand Palace), which covers the history of the Emerald Buddha and displays many pretty offerings people have made to it over the years (mostly little statues). The Emerald Buddha has been fought over between Thailand and Laos. I also learned the Emerald Buddha has different outfits; the King of Thailand changes its robes at the beginning of each of Bangkok's three seasons: summer, winter, and rainy. The final feature of the museum worth mentioning is the models of the Grand Palace and of Wat Phra Kaew. The museum has models of the area in the late 18th century and others of it in the modern day, allowing one to visually see how the area has changed and grown.

We also walked through the Weapons Museum (also in the complex). It contains a variety of weapons: swords, spikes, spears, pikes, tridents, hooks, lances, knives, revolvers, rifles, shotguns, percussion guns, flintlock guns, and more.

Finally, we explored the Museum of Regalia, Royal Decoration, and Coins. It contains an unusual assortment of items: betel nut trays, water pitchers, kettles, spittoons, and lip wax boxes. There are also royal swords, royal accessories, medals, etc. Finally, it displays Thai money and how it's changed over time.

After all this, Di Yin's parents headed back to hotel to hide from the heat.

Di Yin and I, meanwhile, ate lunch and continued exploring. In addition to street markets, we stopped by another famous temple: Wat Pho (the Temple of the Reclining Buddha). It's another photogenic temple, partially due to the incomprehensible number of towers (a.k.a. chedis or stupas). (Actually, according to one guide book, there are 91 chedis, but why it has so many is incomprehensible to me.) Thus, it would've been well worth the visit even if it didn't have one of the largest (if not the largest) reclining buddha in the world.

At this point, Di Yin was exhausted from the heat and so we retreated (via the series of boats) back to our hotel.

In the evening, we ventured out again, this time to the Suam Lum Night Bazaar/Market. As with everywhere else we went today, the captions by the pictures document the experience rather well. I have nothing to add here.

Bangkok: Mar 15: Arrival, Lumpini Park, and Food

Our trip to Bangkok began in Hong Kong when we awoke at 5am and took a shuttle to the airport. Our plane was mostly empty, likely due to fears the large protests in Bangkok (by a group commonly referred to as the red-shirts) would turn violent. (They did not, at least while we were there, but people were worried they might. For instance, the Hong Kong government issued a "red alert" against travel to Bangkok, suggesting that its citizens not visit the city during the protests.)

We grabbed breakfast at the airport and on the plane. I had a baked bbq pork bun in the airport and ate on the plane a lychee pudding, chicken-flavored peanuts, and a bready thing (with ham) that looked like a croissant but didn't taste like one. The plane food wasn't particularly good; the peanuts were remarkably nasty.

When we touched down in Bangkok, I took out my camera and took my first of what would be the day's many pictures. Di Yin also took pictures. The latter link goes to her first picture from her album for this trip . When you see a picture captioned "the ferry lights up at night" (picture #90), you're done with her pictures for the day. I'll link to the next day's pictures in the following post.

We took the airport shuttle to the public bus depot, the bus to the skytrain, the skytrain to another skytrain (transfer) to a ferry dock, and our hotel's short distance ferry service to our hotel (it's a short ride across the river). I took lots of pictures from the skytrain and from the boat.

We checked-in and enjoyed our hotel room's amazing view. It really makes one feel like king of the world, or at least king of the river.

After settling in our hotel, Di Yin and I ventured out for lunch, which we had at some street food stands we found. Next, we went to a bank to withdraw more local currency. In the process, we noticed that Lumpini Park, one of Bangkok's largest and supposedly most pleasant parks, was right across the street. We took a winding path through it, pausing often in the shade. (It was a hot and sunny day.) The park's a pleasant place, with a variety of small gazebos with interesting architecture. There are also animals, including crows and pigeons. The water was dirty, so it was hard to tell if there were fish. We also saw some people exercising. I can't believe they do it in this heat. On the other hand, it makes it easy to build up a sweat.

On the way home from the park, we wandered into the Silom Complex mall for an air-conditioned break, only to find a food festival on the ground floor! :) There was lots of strange stuff, things I didn't recognize, and no English labels. I would've taken a ton of pictures, but photography was prohibited and the security guard was actually enforcing the rules. :( Nevertheless, I had fun wandering and looking and occasionally trying.

Then, we headed back to the skytrain to the ferry to our hotel.

In the evening, the four of us emerged to take the ferry to a taxi to Chinatown, which is known as one of Bangkok's good street food areas. We walked down its main street, Yaowarat, ate, and stopped by a temple that surprisingly remained open at night. On the way home, we got taken for a ride by a taxi (so to speak), but we got out (not in the right place) without paying so it wasn't so bad.

Bangkok Overview

I traveled to Bangkok with Di Yin and her parents from Monday, March 15, 2010, through Thursday, March 18.

Bangkok is an interesting city and different from any other I've been (Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Siem Reap, and Malaka, to list those in Asia). I enjoyed exploring it and what makes it different. I'll remember three main features. First, the street food and street shopping is vastly more present in Bangkok than anywhere else I've been. Second, the city layout and its transportation system are quite varied, making it necessary in the normal course of events to take river ferries in addition to, for instance, elevated trains and taxis. Third, the famous temples and palaces have a distinctive, different flavor than anywhere else. More on each of these later.

Bangkok is a mostly developed city. It's certainly more developed than Siem Reap (Cambodia) but less developed than Shanghai. The roads are paved and major highways, many elevated, criss-cross the city. There's a complex transportation system. There are some air-conditional malls and restaurants. But, it's not as clean as, say, Shanghai (nearly fully developed) or certainly Hong Kong or Singapore or Western cities. (And the places in Bangkok out of sight are particularly bad: the back alleys near canals have sizable piles of garbage.) Also, as in Shanghai, people obey traffic signals, but lane dividers are treated as easily ignored suggestions.

People I met were polite, like those in fully developed countries. For instance, when boarding the subway, people let everyone off first before attempting to board. In addition, the people boarding form lines, and obey the line order. Indeed, queues anywhere are respected. Also, when the train or bus appears full, people don't attempt to push on (even if there actually is room). Finally, if someone is blocking the narrow (due to the street carts) sidewalks, people tend to wait rather than pushing the person aside or exclaiming angrily. These behaviors regarding the train are nothing like Shanghai and are, in fact, perhaps more polite than those in many Western cities (e.g., London, New York).

Food
Bangkok is a street food city. Sure, there are restaurants in many places, but street stands are nearly omnipresent in every part of the city. They're perhaps an order of magnitude more present than in New York City, the city I think has the most street food carts of any other city I've visited. Incidentally, I know I talk a lot about food hawkers in Singapore, but these are grouped into food centres and the feel is entirely different. For one, eating on the street just isn't as comfortable as in a hawker centre. Also, the variety in Bangkok on one street isn't as great as in a Singaporean hawker centre, but obviously the food in Bangkok is much easier to find because so many streets have stands.

But as for the food itself, I was a tad disappointed. Perhaps it's because the bay area has many good quality Thai restaurants, but most things I ate I've had better at home. It's also partially (but only partially) a difference in tastes: many dishes (mostly noodles) were a tad sweeter than I'd prefer (which wasn't particularly bad for me, as I generally like sweet than more than most people I know). Even accounting for the sweetness, the quality difference remained. That said, the food wasn't bad; in terms of how much I appreciated it, I think it might be comparable to the average Thai restaurant in the bay area.

The selection of food wasn't as I expected. What surprised me the most was that the most common street food stand was for Chinese-style noodle soup! The locals seem to eat it (and soup in general) a lot. Personally, I can't deal with hot soups in such a hot climate. Regarding other differences, I was also surprised to see few curries; I had expected to see many of them, given their omnipresence at Thai restaurants in the states. In addition, I spotted many colorful kuehs (sweetened rice cakes) that I saw often in Singapore. In retrospect, as these spread from Malaysia, which borders both Thailand and Singapore, I shouldn't have been surprised to see them. Finally, one feature of Bangkok food that I definitely appreciated: there were stands of freshly cut fruit everywhere. Freshly-blended juice stands were also easy to find: great for hot weather!

Incidentally, I noticed Thai people generally eat with just a fork and spoon, with the spoon in the right hand and the fork used to push things onto the spoon. There's no knife and no chopsticks.

Transportation
The transportation system is a bit of a mess. There's an elevated train system, called the "skytrain" by tourists, and also an underground metro system. The elevated and underground systems connect occasionally; the one connection place we used required quite a walk (half outdoors in the heat) between them. But these systems don't reach a good fraction of the city, especially the Old City and Chinatown. Those are actually best reached by boats that run up and down the river. There are also cross-river ferries that we sometimes found necessary. Furthermore, we also found taxis necessary sometimes, as the up-and-down-river boats stop running around dark. And none of these connect to the international airport -- for that you need a bus or a shuttle. Finally, there are some modes of transit we never tried: water taxis (so called long-boats) that are quite expensive, tuk-tuks (though who'd want to travel in an open vehicle on a road, breathing the fumes), and motorcycle taxis.

I found navigating the transportation system easier than I imagined given its variety and enjoyed the opportunity--nah, need--to try many of these options. Needing to take the boat everyday was fun. Nevertheless, even if it weren't true, I felt as if I needed more time than I should've to get places (maybe because the boat doesn't go as fast as I wish it could, and the transfer times between modes of transit is longer than I'd hope).

Pollution is bad. It feels similar to how Shanghai feels during the summer.

Language
Language was sometimes difficult. Bangkok is a tourist destination so some people speak English, but it also does significant non-tourism business as well, meaning most people never learn. (Contrast this with entirely-tourist-focused Siem Reap.) Thus, guest-facing employees at our hotel speak English, as do the people who run the tourist boat and the people at ticket offices for tourist destinations. On the other hand, people who drive buses or captain the public ferries don't speak a word. Only rarely do street food people speak more than a couple of words. In the spectrum of being able to use English to get around, Bangkok is easier than Shanghai and Beijing but less easy than Hong Kong, Siem Reap, Singapore, Oslo, and Bergen. I can't compare it with Barcelona because I never tried to use English there.

Weather
The heat, at least when I visited in March (the beginning of the hot season), was tough. We'd end up sticky from walking around. I found it harder to bear than Singapore's heat, which surprised me. (The temperatures are rather similar, with Bangkok perhaps a couple of degrees C hotter, at highs in the mid-90s F.) I think it's because everywhere in Singapore--or at least everywhere tourists go--have air-conditioned venues (malls, subway stations, etc.) that are easy to jump into if one needs a break. This isn't the case in Bangkok.

Political Unrest
While I was in Thailand, there was a series of large protests by a group known as the red-shirts. (These continued and escalated for the next few months.) Some commentators worried about the protests turning violent, although they did not while I was there. We decided to plan our outings so as not to visit places where the protesters were; this turned out to be no big deal, as they weren't near the most famous tourist sites. (They were near a few tourist sites, places with names such as the Democracy Monument, but none of these were high enough on our list of places to visit so that we didn't even get around to considering visiting any.) I appointed myself the reader of news to keep track of the state of the protests. However, I needn't have worried: if I hadn't been reading the news, aside from a note from our hotel warning us about traveling (both for safety and simple traffic reasons) to certain areas where the protests were happening, I never would've realized anything was going on.

Sites
Unlike other times I travel, I'm not going to make a list of sites I missed that I should see next time because, while we saw a lot, we missed even more, including some top tourist destinations. (For instance, there are about eight districts that tourists visit; we didn't set foot in / see a single sight in four of them.) It'd be much better to consult a guidebook from scratch rather than make a list of the numerous sites I didn't get to see in Bangkok, which includes famous temples, museums, monuments, and markets.

Misc
Interesting fact: Thailand is one of the few (the only?) country in its region (south/south-east Asia) that wasn't at some point a colony of a Western power.