Adventures in Asia: Bangkok, Thailand

Today we ate breakfast at our hostel, where it is included in our room price, and then headed out around 8:00.

We'd originally planned to cab to the Phra Nakon district of Bangkok, which is where many of the famous sites and tourist areas are.  But the bus had been such a good experience yesterday that I suggested we try it again.

In a few minutes the number 53 came by, mostly empty, and we got on.

It was not air conditioned as the other one had been, but at this time of the day it was nice, because we could hang out the windows and see everything as we went by.  Bangkok seemed a bit sleepy, presumably because its a holiday (New Year, or Songkram), and maybe everyone was out partying last night.

A big part of Songkram is to have water fights and throw paint as well, and we've seen lots of people, mostly young, totting around water guns.

But there were no water gun-totting young people at this time of morning.  It was about twenty minutes to our stop, and the attendant nicely indicated to us that we should get off.

We were just outside the famous Wat Pho compound, but we headed towards the Chao Phraya River instead and caught a shuttle ferry for 3 baht each (about 12-15 cents).

On the other side of the river is Wat Arun.

Sadly, its main spire is under reconstruction, so the sight was marred by scaffolding.

We had a pleasant time here anyway, and there were virtually no other tourists, only monks, worshipers, and people preparing for Songkram celebrations.

We stayed about half an hour here before catching the shuttle ferry back across the river.

On the other side it was a short walk back to Wat Pho.  Wat Pho is famous for its enormous reclining Buddha, although we quickly realized it is a lot more than that.

The compound covers 2 acres, and the reclining Buddha is just in one corner.  Since he was the priority for us to see, we beelined to his building, stuck our shoes into blue bags to carry with us, and entered.

Immediately I was amazed at how absolutely massive he is.

I knew he was large, but had no sense for just how massive.  It was difficult to take it all in.

On the other side (Buddha's back), there are 108 bronze bowls representing the 108 "auspicious characters of Buddha," according to Wikipedia.  For 20 baht you can buy a bowl of coins to put one in each bowl.

We did this and tagged out halfway so that each of us could experience it for 54 bowls (or so--we may not have swapped perfectly halfway).  I assume swapping out means we miss out on the good fortune, but it was a neat experience anyway.

Once outside we encountered more Songkram festivities, including monks blessing people with ice cold water.  We queued to experience this, as well.

From there we picked up a bottle of free water with a Wat Pho label.

And I got some street food to snack on.

Then we visited some other parts of the monastery/temple/school.

I think it was about 10:30 when we left Wat Pho and started walking northward, past the Grand Palace.  There was lots of activity along here, as well, and it looked like a parade was expected.

Unfortunately the sun was really intense and the heat becoming awful by now, so we were hurrying along.

We tucked down a little street along which vendors sell amulets.  It was quite something to see older people sitting on newspaper with amulets spread in front of them.  These amulets ranged from wood to stone to gold, with the wood ones often in piles and the gold ones nicely arranged.  Sometimes a single vendor was selling as few as a dozen amulets.

Eventually we reached Khaosan Road, which is famous as the epicentre of tourist activity.  Here we found a coffee shop to cool off in.  Then we ate some Thai food for lunch and watched the world (mostly tourists, white, Asia, black, brown, etc.) go by.

After lunch we tucked down an alley for a foot massage.  This was quite the experience!  We were taken upstairs into a cool, dark room full of other masseuses and clients.  Despite the number of people (at least thirty) the room was as quiet as a library.

Andrea and I lay in chairs beside each other and a male masseuse worked on me while a female worked on her.  The "foot" massage consists of a lot more than just massaging the feet.  I suppose 20 mins of the half hour were focused on feet, but I feel like I got most of my legs massaged, and the massage ended with a upper back and next massage as well.  It was my first time being massaged and I found it pretty uncomfortable (I sat reading Wikipedia articles about Thai royalty on my phone most of the time because I had to distract myself), but it was certainly a fascinating experience! (all for 150 baht each, or roughly $6 Canadian).

We caught a bus back to the hostel after our massage, passing Bangkok's famous Democracy Monument (site of various protests and demonstrations) and the Giant Swing--a strange Buddhist contraption that historically served as a mechanism for people to swing, until the activity was banned almost a hundred years ago.

We spent the hottest part of the afternoon in the A/C of our hostel, and then went out around dusk to walk to Chinatown.

This was another surprisingly interesting experience.  We enjoyed some freshly squeezed pomegranate juice from a lady with a cart.

Then walked by a restaurant which had tables on the sidewalks and right out into the street, absolutely teeming with people.  Crowds waiting their turn to sit down and eat.  They were serving seafood of some sort, and it smelt and looked delicious, but I'm not sure why it was so popular.  We opted for satay skewers and spring rolls at a little place further down the block.