Adventures in Asia: Bangkok, Thailand

My final layover on my trek around the globe is Bangkok, whence I will fly to Vancouver and then Edmonton. So, since January 10 I will have flown from Canada to Europe to East Africa to the Indian Ocean to the Middle East to Southeast Asia and back to Canada--literally right around the world. It is the first time I have traveled around the world and the first time I have crossed the 90° east meridian.

My Qatar Airways flight from Doha landed around 19:30, but it took awhile to get through the airport, which was packed. I had booked a hotel close to the airport and I arrived there around 21:00. I briefly considered trying to go into the city, but I was tired and decided I would just eat dinner and go to bed. So, after checking in, I walked a couple of blocks to eat dinner at a rooftop restaurant. Of course it was well after dark, but I still enjoyed the Bangkok vibes, and I ended up eating two plates of pad Thai, a wonderfully cold Singha beer . . .

. . . and some mango sticky rice for dessert.

Adventures in Asia: Bangkok, Thailand to Yangon, Myanmar

First thing this morning I headed across the street and around the corner to Hua Lamphong station to buy our train tickets to Don Muang airport, Bangkok's secondary international airport.

They are 20 baht each, about 86 cents.  We ate breakfast at our hostel and then went over to the station for 8:00 to catch the train at 8:20.

At the airport we caught our Air Asia flight to Yangon, Myanmar (Burma).

It was our first time flying Air Asia (of deadly flight QZ8501 fame), and we were pleasantly surprised.  

Once in Yangon we changed money and caught a taxi to our hostel, called Pickled Tea.

After settling in, we went out in our neighborhood to get drinks and were accosted by multiple parties of water throwers, both kids and adults.  We got completely soaked.

Then when we went out for dinner it happened all over again.  They take New Years--Thingyan, here--very seriously!  It was fun, but made going out a challenge, since we had to put our valuables into plastic bags to protect them.

After dinner at a local place called "Fingers," we walked down to the Shwedagon Pagoda.  We didn't bother with our phones because of the water, so we have no pictures, but we'll go back tomorrow during the day and take lots.  It's quite the place, and even photos won't provide a sufficient description.  

Tonight we were able to ring gongs, pour water over Buddhas, and have the pleasure of feeling warm tiles under our bare feet.  I also spoke to a friendly monk, probably about my age, who asked me to take his picture and was eager to practice a little English with us.  

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.

 

Adventures in Asia: Siem Reap, Cambodia to Bangkok, Thailand

Yesterday we spent the day in Siem Reap, simply relaxing, getting laundry done, and doing a little shopping in the Old Market area.  Here's some street food I ate (fried noodles with an egg and fresh coconut milk) for $2:

This morning at 9:00 we caught a bus from Siem Reap to Bangkok.

We used Nattakan, which I think is the only company that does the full route direct to Bangkok, instead of having to transfer at the border.

The ticket is $28 USD, a bit more than other ways of doing the trip by land, but it sure saves a lot of stress, because it takes you direct, and your bags stay on the bus as you cross the border (you, the passenger, have to get off and walk it, however--you just meet the bus on the other side).

Upon departure the attendant man handed out a package of snacks to each of us and a bottle of water.  The snacks included a juice box, a canned coffee, and a wrapped pastry.

It was about two and a half hours to the border at a place called Poi Pet.  The highway was decent, and the bus seemed to make good time.  As with out tuk-tuk trip north of Siem Reap, there was lots to see, although it did not seem quite as "real life" when seen from the bus window compared to the open air tuk-tuk.  We stopped for the briefest amount of time in a city called Serei Saophoan to switch drivers, but otherwise it was straight through to the border.

Poi Pet is a gambling town.  Apparently for some reason gambling in Cambodia is attractive to Thais (I assume casinos are illegal in Thailand), so there are several if not dozen of casinos right by the border.  

One was so close to the actual border that we mistook its lobby for Thai passport control!

The bus let us off to get our passports stamped by Cambodia, and then we were told to walk 300 metres across the border to Thai passport control.  This was surprisingly challenging and confusing.  Like I said, it lacked clarity to such an extent that we wandered into a casino lobby thinking it might be where we were supposed to be.  Anyway, eventually it was clear we were crossing the border.

Once across it was pretty easy to figure out where to be and what to do, but it was a long, hot wait with hundreds of tourists in a queue.  I think we were there in a room creeping along in line for two hours.  The room was actually much cooler than outside, but nonetheless everyone was very hot and many of us were sweating profusely the whole time.

Eventually we were through (the officers were working very quickly and efficiently, I must say), and on the other side of a welcoming Thai gate.

From there it was not too hard to find the bus again, and once the last passenger was through we were moving.

I think the town on the Thai side of the border is called Aranyaprathet, and we stopped for gas there and a 15 minute break.

This was the bathroom I used there:

We were also given lunch at this point, a heated package of rice and salmon, which I found surprisingly delicious, but Andrea wasn't keen on (so I got to finish hers!).

A couple hours later we stopped again about two hours east of Bangkok.  This was an even nicer rest stop, with wifi and a peaceful artificial waterfall.

Also, more open air urinals.

We arrived in Bangkok just before 18:00, at a north end bus terminal called Mochit 2.  I had a decent plan for taking a city bus from here, but finding the bus stop proved a remarkable challenge!  We must have wandered for at least twenty minutes before finding it, and this was very, very frustrating. 

Anyway, once we located a bus I managed to make the attendant understand our destination, and everything worked out fine.  The bus took us to the metro, which was pretty easy to figure out, since the ticket selling machine had an English option.  It was also a surprisingly gorgeous system!

The 35 minute metro ride took us to exactly outside of our hostel, the @Hua Lamphong Hostel.  Hua Lamphong is the main Bangkok train station, and our hostel is basically around the corner.

We are very pleased with our room, although it is a bit on the pricier side ($50 Canadian).