Asia Adventure 2012: Bangkok

It was a free-day for us to spend as we wished. So it started out with a leisurely breakfast at the hotel’s Colonade restaurant where were pondered our options for the day. A delay to setting out occurred when we could not open the hotel safe, so we decided postpone dealing with it until we returned.

We walked west along South Sathon Road to the Surasak Skytrain stop where we purchased day passes and headed towards the Central Pier. We also purchased tourist day passes for the boats which allowed us to ride on any line until 7:30pm. The Chao Phraya river is swarming with many varieties of water transportation. We travelled along the river passing many temples including Wat Kanlaya and Wat Arun (one of Bangkok’s most famous temples). The Rama bridge, an amazing yellow-cabled suspension bridge caught our attention.

Greg was fascinated by the longtail boats which he recognized from a James Bond movie “Man with the Golden Gun”. So we got off at Phra Arthit pier and hired one to take us around the smaller canals. This is the “real” Bangkok where temples are plentiful, canal homes stand on stilts, laundry blows in the wind, people both feed and fish catfish, and floating markets appear. The longtail boats pass each other within inches in the narrow canals, so be sure to keep your hands in the boat! We purchased a fan and an ice-cold coke from one of the floating boat merchants. She suggested we purchase a beer for the captain so we did. Well okay, it’s is Bangkok! It was a shame to see some damaged areas from last year’s flooding. Unfortunately, our longtail boat had engine problems and every time the captain tried to go fast, it would cut out, so we had a slow ride (better for pictures though).

Hopped on the tourist boat again at Phra Arthit and took it and got off at Tha Phra Chan Pier for a very short walk around the Royal palace, just to say we did it. We heard from others that the entry line ups were very long and we really didn’t want to wait around to go inside. Mostly, I wanted to go back to the hotel to lounge in the pool rather than melting in the heat.

Unfortunately, a “police officer” told us that the Royal Palace was sealed off today due to the celebration of a Monk’s birthday attended by a high level foreign leader. He suggested that we visit the solid gold Buddha because it’s only open one day per week and also suggested a wholesale shopping mall if we had time. Then he flagged down a tuk tuk for us and away we went. A few minutes later the tuk tuk pulled over as it needed a spark plug to be changed. The called to a passing “stranger” to translate. So this nicely dressed gentleman said the tuk tuk driver wanted us to get out of the tuk tuk in case any fluids were to splash on our clothes. While he was fixing the tuk tuk, the nice gentleman said he taught history at the university we were walking beside. What a coincidence. In our conversation with him, we told him we were on our way to see the golden Buddha. He was all excited about that and told us of other places of interest including the wholesale shopping mall where he bought his wife a beautiful ring to celebrate their 20^th wedding anniversary. On the way to the temple, there was a procession of police motorcycles and high end cars so we thought it might be the dignitaries arriving to celebrate the Monk’s birthday. When we arrived at the temple to see the golden Buddha, it was an awesome looking temple, but did not have English signage, as many do not. Greg wondered why this incredibly expensive solid gold Buddha did not have security guards. Inside the temple, we met another nicely dressed gentleman who had worked for the United Nations in the area of commerce. We had a wonderful chat with him and he took us to see the golden Buddha, which was being cleaned by a Monk. How impressive and completely unguarded was this expensive statue. When he learned that we might visit the wholesale shopping mall next, the nice gentleman was very excited to hear that and talk about jewellery he coincidentally had purchased for his wife and mother from there. Greg became even more suspicious but thought we should really check out this place out of curiosity. We were greeted in a lovely high-end air-conditioned building by a salesman who offered us a cold drink and showed us to the washroom to freshen up. The greeter/salesperson showed us how the jewels were, sorted, classified, and manufactured by hand, and how the facility was certified by the government. Then he led us into the showroom where they had the most awesome pieces of jewellery and if you asked me (a jewellery connoisseur), they were indeed the real deal. We didn’t buy anything because I know jewellery and prices and how to get good deals and there are these pieces were overpriced. So we did not buy anything.

Later when we analyzed the whole series of events we really didn’t know what to make of it. Do Monk’s really celebrate their birthdays? The golden Buddha is actually in Chinatown, not near Wat Arun where we went. A lot of people have to be in on this very strange promotion technique and in our case, the only one who made any money was the tuk tuk driver. We also read on line warnings about similar situations experienced by others. I suppose some people do purchase the over-priced jewellery: we did see some happy couples buying pieces there. At any rate, no harm was done to us and we did get to see a lot of Bangkok in the tuk tuk, including Anantasamakhmo Palace and the white elephant gates. Plus, I took pictures of everyone involved except the police man, so why pose for pictures when involved in a hoax. Very strange indeed.

Since we saved so much money on jewellery, we thought we’d break the bank a bit and have dinner at the Lebua restaurant at the State Tower. It was very French gourmet and very tasty. I had the Arctic Char, Challans Duck, and Thai Mango. Greg had the Wagyu Beef (tartar), Sole, and Selection of Cheese. After the meal, they gave us chocolates as a gift, plus the menu as a souvenir. Then we went to Sirocco roof-top bar downstairs to take pictures. This is where one of the scenes in Hangover 2 was shot. There was a band playing, it was a clear night and we got some okay pictures.