Hot, hectic and humid – these were my first impressions of Bangkok as I flew in on Wednesday just after midnight. – and a city which doesn’t seem to sleep much. I arrived at my hotel, the Grand Ville (in the Chinatown area), at 2.30am and managed to stay awake for another hour before getting a few more hours’ sleep. My room is on the 23rd floor, so I awoke on Thursday (24th Jan) to bright sunshine and a great view over Bangkok (see bottom photo). The hotel is not actually that far from the Grand Palace but trying to get around Bangkok with a map with English names is a bit of a nightmare, as a lot of the street names do not seem to correspond with what is on the map (with the maps not being to scale).
I arranged to meet my friend Martina and her friend Irmi from Munich, who by coincidence, happened to be in Bangkok for the same few days as me. We met at Wat Pho, officially named Wat Phra Chetuphon, which is the oldest and largest wแt (temple) in Bangkok. It features the largest reclining Buddha (which is 46m long and 15m high, covered in gold leaf and the back of its feet are inlaid with mother-of-pearl (see photos above)). The grounds also contain the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand and it was the earliest centre for public education. It dates back to the 16th century but the original monastery was completely rebuilt in 1781. There is also a massage school just outside the grounds, which is the oldest in Thailand. If I hadn’t been meeting up with Martina, I would nearly have fallen for an age old scam, which involves blokes outside the temples telling you that the temple is currently closed and not open for a couple of hours but he will gladly take you in his tuk tuk to another temple until that one opens for an agreed fee, which is suddenly increased when the journey starts.
We then took a boat over the river to the Thonburi side to Wat Arun, a striking temple named after the Indian god of dawn, Aruna. From afar, the temple looks as if it had been carved from granite but on close inspection, there are intricate tiles covering the structures. The present wแt was built on the site of the 17th century Wat Jaeng, which served as the palace and royal temple of King Taksin when Thonburi was the Thai capital. It was the last home of the Emerald Budhha before Rama I brought it across the river to Wat Phra Kaew (another temple in the Grand Palace grounds).
The prang (Khmer-style tower) was constructed during the first half of the 19th century by Rama II and Rama III. Its brick core has a plaster covering embedded with a mosaic of broken, multihued Chinese porcelain. You can climb the stairs to a lookout point halfway up the prang from where there are fine views of Thonburi and the river. Holy moly – it was a bit scary going up and down those steps and some people were coming down them on their backsides. My legs were shaking even more than when I did my skydive! (See photos)
The weather in Bangkok was hot and after a few hours’ walking and sweating like pigs, we were in dire need of some TLC and air conditioning, so we took a boat down the Chao Phrayer river towards Martina’s hotel, which is in the financial district, and headed straight for a very nice spa to have a Thai massage and green tea (anti-ageing) aromatherapy facial. The massage was carried out my a very small Thai women in a private room. It is like a kind of deep tissue massage – i.e. the prodding can hurt but Thai massage reminds me of yoga – lots of weird contorted positions. How these tiny women can apply such hard pressure amazes me but at one point the woman was sitting on my backside and I was expecting her start walking up and down my back. Strangely enough, though, we really felt relaxed afterwards. The hour long Thai massage only cost 500 bath (about 8 quid) and the facial (also one hour)( was 1400 baht (about 22 quid). You can, however, find much cheaper places which do Thai massage for 200-300 baht but if you only have a foot massage, you are lined up in chairs in front of the shop window, which does not make for as pleasant an experience when every man and his dog are gawping at you.
After dinner (Thai curry, of course), we found ourselves in Patphong Street, which has a night market. Here you can buy every conceivable conterfeit good you can think of – I wonder if Louis Vitton, Tiffany and Lacoste have ever sent any of their counterfeit spies to Bangkok. Bangkok should also be named the Capital of Crap – I have never seen so many people selling all sorts of junk – used cameras, phones, TVs, bits of scrap metal and even false teeth! Being on Patphong Street, we also could not avoid the number of bars with dancing go go girls. There are some absolutely stunning Thai women but it is a real shame that dancing to dodgy music and letcherous fat balding blokes is how they earn a living. This is the seedy side of Bangkok which is quite off-putting.
On my way home I had my first experience of a tuk tuk in Thailand (the first time was in Delhi a few years ago where the driver tried to rip us off by increasing the price. When I argued vehementlly that we would stick to the original price, the driver said I looked Chinese because I argued so much and that consequently, I would make a bad wife! Well, bad but at least not boring). Unfortuantely the Thai drivers didn’t really have a clue where my hotel was and giving them the map didn’t seem to help, as they can ‘t read English. I did get there in the end.
I arranged to meet my friend Martina and her friend Irmi from Munich, who by coincidence, happened to be in Bangkok for the same few days as me. We met at Wat Pho, officially named Wat Phra Chetuphon, which is the oldest and largest wแt (temple) in Bangkok. It features the largest reclining Buddha (which is 46m long and 15m high, covered in gold leaf and the back of its feet are inlaid with mother-of-pearl (see photos above)). The grounds also contain the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand and it was the earliest centre for public education. It dates back to the 16th century but the original monastery was completely rebuilt in 1781. There is also a massage school just outside the grounds, which is the oldest in Thailand. If I hadn’t been meeting up with Martina, I would nearly have fallen for an age old scam, which involves blokes outside the temples telling you that the temple is currently closed and not open for a couple of hours but he will gladly take you in his tuk tuk to another temple until that one opens for an agreed fee, which is suddenly increased when the journey starts.
We then took a boat over the river to the Thonburi side to Wat Arun, a striking temple named after the Indian god of dawn, Aruna. From afar, the temple looks as if it had been carved from granite but on close inspection, there are intricate tiles covering the structures. The present wแt was built on the site of the 17th century Wat Jaeng, which served as the palace and royal temple of King Taksin when Thonburi was the Thai capital. It was the last home of the Emerald Budhha before Rama I brought it across the river to Wat Phra Kaew (another temple in the Grand Palace grounds).
The prang (Khmer-style tower) was constructed during the first half of the 19th century by Rama II and Rama III. Its brick core has a plaster covering embedded with a mosaic of broken, multihued Chinese porcelain. You can climb the stairs to a lookout point halfway up the prang from where there are fine views of Thonburi and the river. Holy moly – it was a bit scary going up and down those steps and some people were coming down them on their backsides. My legs were shaking even more than when I did my skydive! (See photos)
The weather in Bangkok was hot and after a few hours’ walking and sweating like pigs, we were in dire need of some TLC and air conditioning, so we took a boat down the Chao Phrayer river towards Martina’s hotel, which is in the financial district, and headed straight for a very nice spa to have a Thai massage and green tea (anti-ageing) aromatherapy facial. The massage was carried out my a very small Thai women in a private room. It is like a kind of deep tissue massage – i.e. the prodding can hurt but Thai massage reminds me of yoga – lots of weird contorted positions. How these tiny women can apply such hard pressure amazes me but at one point the woman was sitting on my backside and I was expecting her start walking up and down my back. Strangely enough, though, we really felt relaxed afterwards. The hour long Thai massage only cost 500 bath (about 8 quid) and the facial (also one hour)( was 1400 baht (about 22 quid). You can, however, find much cheaper places which do Thai massage for 200-300 baht but if you only have a foot massage, you are lined up in chairs in front of the shop window, which does not make for as pleasant an experience when every man and his dog are gawping at you.
After dinner (Thai curry, of course), we found ourselves in Patphong Street, which has a night market. Here you can buy every conceivable conterfeit good you can think of – I wonder if Louis Vitton, Tiffany and Lacoste have ever sent any of their counterfeit spies to Bangkok. Bangkok should also be named the Capital of Crap – I have never seen so many people selling all sorts of junk – used cameras, phones, TVs, bits of scrap metal and even false teeth! Being on Patphong Street, we also could not avoid the number of bars with dancing go go girls. There are some absolutely stunning Thai women but it is a real shame that dancing to dodgy music and letcherous fat balding blokes is how they earn a living. This is the seedy side of Bangkok which is quite off-putting.
On my way home I had my first experience of a tuk tuk in Thailand (the first time was in Delhi a few years ago where the driver tried to rip us off by increasing the price. When I argued vehementlly that we would stick to the original price, the driver said I looked Chinese because I argued so much and that consequently, I would make a bad wife! Well, bad but at least not boring). Unfortuantely the Thai drivers didn’t really have a clue where my hotel was and giving them the map didn’t seem to help, as they can ‘t read English. I did get there in the end.
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