We headed into the city to see the sites on our first day here. We hailed a taxi and asked to go to the Grand Palace…ok I kept saying Green Place and they had no idea. Finally the 3rd taxi understood where we wanted to go after Mike directed him and I showed a picture from the travel book.
He dropped us off in front of the National Museum and we walked around looking for food. It would be so much easier if we could eat the street food, as there were plenty of vendors selling fresh fruit, fried chicken, pork, beef, noodles, and things we did not recognize. But being here a limited about of time means playing it safe and looking for Western style eateries. We located a place on a boat that was serving a buffet. It was catered to tourists and therefore was expensive and not authentic food. They served spaghetti with tomato sauce, rolls and fruit. We did find some fried rice and shrimp rice crackers that were good. The price of a bottle of water inside the eatery was 40 baht while outside it is 10 baht for the same brand and size. We were entertained as we ate with small children jumping naekked off the boat ramp into the canal.
We then wandered the walking tour listed in the Lonely Planet. We came back to the Bangkok National Museum and entered paying 200 baht each. The exchange rate is $1US to 32Baht. The museum is very well done and informative and we would have learned a lot if it was not so bloody hot and humid. We were melting fast.
You were not allowed to take pictures inside the building so here are photos from the outside.
BUDDHAISAWAN CHAPEL
The chapel was built in 1787 to house the important Buddha image, Phra Buddhasihing. Inside the chapel, the mural paintings depict scenes from the life of the Buddha.
THE SAMRAN MUKHAMAT PAVILION
This pavilion originally belonged to the Dusit Palace and was moved to the Museum during the time of King Rama VII.
THE PATIHANTASANAI PAVILION
This pavilion was moved to its present location from the palace of King Vajiravudh, Rama VI, in Nakhon Pathom.
Other images that I thought were interesting but do not know the significance.
We then headed down to the Green Place or the Grand Palace to check it out. It was closed for the day and we were out of luck. A nice man told me that even if it was opened I would not be allowed to enter as I was in capris and I needed long pants. I was prepared as I had a long skirt in my bag that I could wear over my capris. He offered to take us a round to the things that were still opened for 20 baht, less than a US dollar. The standing Buddha, the city centre, and the Golden Dome. We said sure as we were too tired to walk far.
We jumped into a Tuk Tuk and speed off. You get awfully close to other traffic. Often we were driving down one ways the wrong way in the break down lane with hundreds of other Tuk Tuks and motor bikes.
Some of the things that whizzed by.
We arrived at the 32-meter (100-foot) tall standing Buddha of Wat Indrawiharn (Wat means temple) and was amazed that you could not see it from everywhere. Newer buildings have surrounded the Buddha so you cannot even get a full picture of it. It was not as impressive as I had hoped as it is flattened and thus very unrealistic.
The temple was founded by King Rama IV in the mid-19th century. There were several people paying homage when we arrived but were driven out by a tour group who wanted their group picture taken. Remember NO PHOTOS allowed inside temples! But we came so far to see and take pictures. Ugh! We will take them anyways.
The doors are beautifully decorated with gold leaf and colorful pieces of glass.
“People take advantage of special events such as a birth day or New Year day to gain good luck and get off to a good start. As Thais strongly believe in Buddhism, one of the most popular things to do to gain good blessings is making merit and donating at temples or paying homage to a sacred place like temples and shrines in order to gain luck, and clean their spirit.
Thai devotees see that paying homage to nine temples in a day will bring prosperity and good luck for their lives. Why it should be nine? The reason is that Thais pronounce number nine as “Kao” like the word “Kao” which means to progress and to step up. Therefore, belief in Buddhism and superstition is combined and worshipping nine sacred places will bring success and prosperity to the devotees.” From a Thai website.
Street vendor getting ready to feed the masses.
We head back to a Tuk Tuk half expecting him to be gone but he is there drinking his soda out of a bag with a straw. He excuses himself to go to the loo.
A man sitting next to the taxi asks us if we are tourists and from where. Very common question. We answer America, they ask NY we say no Massachusetts due to the fact they have no idea where Maine is. He rambles on about the New Year and the good sales the stores are having on jewelry. Our drive comes back and off we go.
We pull into the curb and are told the next thing to see is in there. We have no idea what we are suppose to be looking at. There is no giant Buddha nor a temple. We are in a jewelry store. So the gimmick is they show you some sights and mix in a few stores. We leave and head to another one that is a tailor shop. We say no thank you but our driver informs us that he gets gas from the shops if he brings people in. So in we head and poke around. 6 shirts for 10,000 baht about $75US a shirt. No thanks Mike does not dress up for work any more so out we go.
He tells us that he will take us to our place after if we stop at 2 more stores. Ugh! Another jewelry shop for me and a tailor for him. The shirts here are 5 for 7,500Baht. Same deal but will make them in 2 days instead of 7. We haggle for 6 shirts for 3,200baht. They look disgusted and release us. It was funny to see the Tuk Tuks lined up as all the sucker tourists were taken by their drivers.
Now on to the last stop the golden domed temple. I think it was called the Sikh temple. It was a lot of stairs and a lot of bells. Mike and I were exhausted, had headaches and a wee bit of jet lag. As we climbed up people kept ringing the bells and our heads were about to exploded.
If you are a faithful reader you know I love bells and flowers… so here they both are.
The climb gave us a great view of the city. It was neat to see the old and new combined.
Tombs
We head back to the gate where our driver dropped us off but he is not there. Others offer to take us to where ever we want to go. We politely decline as we look for our driver. We are offered by other drivers to take us for 200baht with no stops to 40baht with 2 stops. We explain we have done enough stopping for the day. We get a metered taxi instead and get a ride for 63 baht to the Shangri-La. We want to see if we can check in earlier as our friends place is a wee bit far out and we are not even sure we will be able to find our way back later tonight.
We then head out for super and eat at an Indian restaurant. Nan (Indian bread) is awesome as was the Chicken Tandoori. We grab a cab and try to explain where we need to go. An hour later we are back to the flat and are in bed by 10PM. Not bad for the first day.
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