This past week Kat and I took a week vacation to Thailand. Our classes weren’t too busy and neither of us had exams, papers or presentations so it was an okay week to miss classes. We left Hong Kong Saturday (Oct. 2) at 9:30pm. The journey from Lingnan to the airport wasn’t too bad- it took about an hour on the MTR; and there were no lines at security (though they did take my toothpaste because it was over 3oz- I was pissed because I bought not only for this trip but also the rest of the semester) so it was all a breeze.
The flight to Bangkok was just about 3 hours. We flew Air Jordanian and the flight was continuing on to Amman after stopping in Bangkok. During the flight we were served dinner and I watched “Glorious 39,’ which was a movie about a woman in WWII who found out a secret involving the Nazis and how it impacted her life. It was quite interesting even though I had never heard of it before.
Landing in Bangkok was easy. Since we landed at 11:30pm, the airport was pretty empty and we had no problem getting through customs. We then got a taxi and went to our hotel, The Evergreen Place. The hotel was about an hour away from the airport but the taxi ride was filled with excitement, the driver had a radio station with American music so we were jamming in the backseat. There were so many new sites, lights, signs and languages that attracted our eyes- it was great. Our hotel was on a side street/in an alley so there was a point when we were both like ‘what the heck/where are we going?’ But we made it there with no problem.
Sunday, we planned to visit the famous floating markets but when we asked the front desk about getting there we were told it was too late to go (it was only 9:30!) and that the tours usually left around 6:30am. So we decided to visit the temples instead.
We quickly changed (since your legs must be covered to at least your knees before entering the temples and you aren’t allowed to wear sandals) and went on our way. We arrived at the Grand Palace first and walked around. It was gorgeous. Everything here is gorgeous. The buildings are so ornate, elaborate and filled with so much detail and gold. It’s amazing. The Grand Palace is an area of many buildings and used to be home to the King, until he moved his residence to Chitralada Palace. Inside the Grand Palace is the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, otherwise known as Wat Phra Kaew, which was built in 1782 as the Monarch’s personal place of worship (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Palace). In order to see the Emerald Buddha, or inside the majority of the buildings you are required to take your shoes off, so there were all these racks and cubbies outside the buildings for you to put your shoes. It was quite interesting.
After the Grand Palace we walked down the street to Wat Pho to see the famous reclining Buddha. It was HUGE. There were so many little buildings and statues around Wat Pho, all decorated in great detail.
Once we left Wat Pho, Kat asked a guy on a street how to get to another place where we had free tickets. The guy told us it was too far to walk but he would get us a ‘tuk tuk’ to drive us there as well as the bus station to get tickets to Ko Samui and a few other places for only $20bhat. So we had our own personal chauffeur for the day for less than $1USD. What an experience this was. Tuk tuks aren’t afraid to drive on the wrong side of the road to pass other cars or drive horizontally (does that make sense) through traffic.
Our tuk tuk drive first took us to a lucky Buddha. It was basically just a statue of Buddha in a room with some other things. The place was empty, we were the only people there. One of the workers (not sure who he really was) started talking to us and explained that people came here asking for luck and such.
Then our tuk tuk driver took us to a tailor. Yep. This is when we realized it was going to be that kind of day; the day where in between the things we want to see, we are dropped off at other places where our driver gets compensation in forms of gas we later found out. We were warmly welcomed in the tailor’s shop and shown all these catalogues with things we could buy and personalize. Um, thanks, but no thanks. We politely turned them down after giving them about ten minutes of our time.
Our next stop was the Marble Buddha. It was very similar to the lucky Buddha; a room with a Buddha and other trinkets and pictures surrounding him (writing this only a week later I am having such a hard time distinguishing one Buddha from another, or at least the Marble Buddha- thank God for pictures).
Then we went to another tailor shop. Yep. Haha. Once again, warm welcome, walked around, gave them about ten minutes of our time and peaced out.
Our tuk tuk driver took us to the standing Buddha next. On the way in there were all these street carts selling different types of Thai food and souvenirs; we decided we would get food before we left because we were starving. The standing Buddha was impressive, I forget how tall it was, but it was huge. Kat fell into a tourist trap and got these birds in a cage and released them inside the temple for luck. It was great and hysterical. We stopped for food when we left. We have no idea what we got, but it was DELICIOUS. Seriously, so good I wish I knew what it was. We ended up getting two servings; even better, it was cheap- one dish was only 10bhat (1USD=30bhat) so two dishes was 20bhat, so less than $1USD for lunch!
Before dropping us off at the Vimanmek Mansion Museum(what we had the free ticket for) our tuk tuk driver brought us to a diamond factory and encouraged to buy lots of things! He was really like “Buy two- three-four things! Spend lots of money!” When we walked inside, we were once again warmly welcomed and shown around the factory before bringing us to the shopping area filled with diamonds and other stones and gems. Everything was gorgeous but I didn’t want to buy anything. Kat got a great pair of diamond earrings for only $20USD though!
Our tuk tuk driver then dropped us off at a monastery/temple (?) and told us the Vimanmek Mansion Museum as right down the street. We wandered around the temple- it was a shopping day because it was filled with little booths with various souvenirs, trinkets and food.
We finally reached the Vimanmek Mansion Museum about 4 hours after leaving Wat Pho. We weren’t allowed to take our purses or cameras inside so I don’t have any pictures, but it was a museum of royal things, including thrones, silk and smaller replicas of carriages. And everything was in gold. It’s amazing. Everything is in gold, or at least painted gold.
Exhausted after a long day, we headed back to the hotel and had dinner at the hotel’s restaurant.
[While we were driving around today, as well as during the rest of the week, I realized there are pictures of the King and Queen EVERYWHERE. Literally, on the street corners, highway overpasses, walkways, on the sides of buildings. I am amazed; I’ve never seen a political figure so publicized like that.]
Plans for Monday: Ayutthaya!
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