It was our last day in Bangkok, and Southeast Asia for that matter. We wanted to show the girls the modern side of Bangkok, as we'd spent most of our time around the budget tourist area that is close to many older tourist spots. It was a late morning as the girls tried to catch up on sleep from a late night last night. They slept so long we missed breakfast so we had to fend on our own.
The closest pier was an easy twenty minute walk, but since we went via Khaosan Road, shopping added another 20 minutes to that tally. Eventually, we made it to the pier and got tickets for the public water bus. The boat was a great way to see the Chao Phraya, as we zipped from side to side about 5km down to the downtown area. The number of boats all trying to navigate around each other, combined with the swift pace of the river, really makes the river churn and bump quite a bit. The on/off process at each stop is pretty quick, so I'm glad we weren't riding at rush hour, as it may have been a bit of a challenge.
We took the sky train to the National Stadium - we were to start our exploration from there. Then it was sidewalk, mall, sidewalk, mall, repeat. Bangkok has so many huge modern malls, all right in a row and all smack in the middle of the downtown core. Strolling through the various malls, all with their own unique architecture, layout and store mix, really shows you that Bangkok is trying to make a run at Singapore. The street we were on was kind of an uglier, steam punk version of Orchard Row or Harajuku.
By the afternoon, we were ready for a distraction, so we went to the theater in the Siam Paragon Mall to see the Man From U.N.C.L.E. We could not believe how fancy the theater was - the bathrooms alone looked like very high end bathrooms that you might see in a five star hotel. The hallways had twenty foot ceilings and were so elegantly decorated that we kind of felt out of place in our self named line of clothing: "reflections of a backpacker".
After the movie, I asked if Robin understood everything. She said "oh yeah, no problem!". I asked it she had any questions, and she said "yeah, what was the point of whole thing?"... Just the one minor question then?
We wandered around some more and hung out for a while until it started to get dark. It was pissing rain, but it was time to head towards the river to visit one of the many skybars for a view of the city. Skybars are all the rage in Bangkok - basically they are upscale bars or clubs that offer a high up view of the city lights, mostly found along the Chao Phraya. We negotiated with a Tuk Tuk driver to take us across the river to the Hilton Milenium hotel. After weaving through traffic and side streets for a long time (still brutal traffic at 7:30!), he dumped us just across the river from the hotel. That wasn't the deal, and the kids were starting to panic a bit (hey, I thought they were trying to get scammed yesterday... This was pretty close!), but the driver was saying we needed to take the ferry across. I argued a bit, but knowing the ferry was 3 baht each (12 cents) and having checked my GPS and confirming we WERE right across the river, we coldly bid adieu to the driver.
The view from the 360 bar on the 34th floor of the Hilton Milenium was very cool. We got our drinks and enjoyed the sights.
Too bad they had blue lights in the interior of the bar as they reflected off the observation glass windows.
Well, it's going to be an early wake up tomorrow, followed by a long day of travel. We have had a bunch of comeback feelings for Bangkok, especially from Beth, as she had been pretty down on it after the "troubles". Thailand overall has been fantastic - it's a very easy place to travel, with affordable food, really nice people and lots to see. We could have easily spent a couple of months here with plenty of beach and trekking opportunities, but we see it as mission accomplished: a good introduction for the kids, and a refresher course for the adults.
Back to Bangkok! Well, we all had pretty good sleeps in the train, with Robin taking first prize!
Apparently trains are not immune to traffic. We got to the Don Muang airport stop at about 6:30, and didn't get to the main station in Bangkok until 7:45 - just 10 kilometers away. In Bangkok, it's cars delaying trains delaying cars.....
We got to our hotel at around 8:30, and they were nice enough to have already prepped our huge family room for our arrival. Top notch service and very nice people! We basically just ditched our stuff and went over to Khaosan Road in search of breakfast.
The kids had wanted to see what a "scam" looked like (the one where a Tuk Tuk driver will drive you around to a couple of sights for a strangely low fee, then drop you off at a jewelry shop or something), so we tried to indulge them. We found a Tuk Tuk driver with a vague plan of taking us to some sights for an hour or so for 50 baht ($2) for about an hour.
The kids have some videos of the result of the "scam", which they'll post separately. The short story is that we didn't really get scammed.... The driver pretty much did what he said he was going to do. He did drop us off at a tourist information office (ie a private tour company), but they seemed so disinterested in us that we couldn't even feign any interest and left. Then, the guy had the nerve to actually drive us back to where we wanted. Come on Bangkok, you're getting soft on us!!!
We went back to the hotel after lunch for a little Walking Dead and a nap that none of the females complained about - and it was a long one. It was time to finish the food tour that we'd started last Friday and that had ended prematurely....
We were on the early side, so we took a cab to Central shopping mall - the 6th biggest mall in the world. It's just one of the many malls in the city that have a skating rink inside. The place was so huge and very upscale - it was really hard to believe that the seemingly poor Klong neighbourhoods that we'd motored through last week were just about 5km from there.
We met our guide, Phang, at just before 8pm. We were joined by a young American couple from L.A. - he was an immigrant from Hong Kong, and she had immigrated to the U.S. from Hi Chi Minh when she was five. The girls were very proud that they'd been to both of those places, and they started chatting the couple up. Beth and I are so pleasantly surprised at their ability to engage and hold a conversation with these people we meet. Very nice.
We started the tour with the same delicious chicken rice, pork salad, mango salad and mango and sticky rice at the first place. Yum. Then it was back in the Tuk Tuks (Robin was my partner, Abby was Beth's) and off to Chinatown. We tried some deep fried wontons and a really delicious fried egg, chicken and broad rice noodle dish. I love how the Thai places all have sugar, salt (soy sauce), spice (dried chilli peppers and small sliced chillies in vinegar) and often sour limes so you can individually flavour your dishes "as you like".
The really interesting part was when we walked through the back of the restaurant to check out the "kitchen". The whole setup was in the back alley. There were other stations, but these two guys were at the station preparing the same noodle dish over charcoal flamed grills. Each guy produces 300 to 400 custom noodle dishes per night... Wow.
We needed a walk, and we got it. We went to "Papa fantasy land", otherwise known as one of the biggest orchid markets in the world. The wholesale flower market in Bangkok is just huge - it's mainly there for supplying hotels and weddings with flowers, while also servicing all of the temple offering suppliers. It runs 24 hours a day and apparently really heats up after midnight, though it was quite busy at 9:30.
We were pretty shocked at the prices - 80 Baht ($3) for a huge bunch of long stem roses!!
After about 20 minutes at the flower market, that bled into a huge fruit and vegetable market, we took a short ride over to Wat Pho - the Unesco Heritage site that is famous for its many stuppas and for the giant reclining Buhhda statue.
We were the only ones at the property (the main shrine was closed, but the grounds were all completely open) and it was totally zen. Standing in the cool breeze around the dozens of funeral pyre stuppas that were beautifully lit up, on landscaped grounds that were empty of the thousands of tour bus throngs was nirvana.
Phang walked us through some of the history and facts and figures of the objects around the grounds. Then she dropped the bomb that Bangkok is actually not Bangkok - the real name is in the Guiness Book of World Records and is as follows..
กรุงเทพมหานคร อมรรัตนโกสินทร์ มหินทรายุธยา มหาดิลกภพ นพรัตนราชธานีบูรีรมย์ อุดมราชนิเวศน์มหาสถาน อมรพิมานอวตารสถิต สักกะทัตติยวิษณุกรรมประสิทธิ์ About this sound (listen)
The name, composed of Pali and Sanskrit root words, translates as:
City of angels, great city of immortals, magnificent city of the nine gems, seat of the king, city of royal palaces, home of gods incarnate, erected by Vishvakarman at Indra's behest.
On our itinerary for stop 5 was the word "Secret". Our Tuk Tuks took us on a short drive to a restaurant by the river. We climbed three flights of stairs, then a tight metal spiral staircase up another two stories until we arrived at a very chill rooftop bar. The night was breezy and the view of Wat Arun, lit up across the river, was serene. The kids ordered some mocktails and took in the view.....
....as did my date and I....
Here's a shot of the group, including little Phang on the end.
Our last stop of the night was a very famous place for locals. Apparently, a customer went to this reststuant and enjoyed his Phad Thai so much that he sent a letter in to the Guardian newspaper in the UK. They wrote an article which got picked up by the BBC, who sent some really brave reporters to come to Thailand to try this Phad Thai. Several weeks later, this place gets a letter from the BBC stating "congratulations, your Phad Thai is the best in the world!". The rest is history.
Phang explained that we were lucky we didn't have to queue up - since the bomb last Friday, businesses had been slower than usual.
There were two types - the one I ordered was wrapped in a thin egg sack that you would mash up with the noodles inside. This one had a nice, spicy, red sauce. It was really good.
The one the girls ordered was very good, but not the best. It was a little too sweet for most people at the table. I still think "Craig's Yummy Phad Thai" recipe knocks it out of the park, but I'm not complaining!
My partner and I zipped back to the hotel in our Tuk Tuk - we had a blast (a good one this time!) on the food tour tonight. Phang was excellent, the food was great and the little diversions and extras were well timed and fit well. Since we got back earlier than we thought, we watched one more episode of the Walking Dead - for someone that swore off zombies a long time ago, Beth has really shown a savagely addictive side of her personality. I'm not convinced yet that she'd do well in the inevitable Zombie Apocolypse, but she's learning fast.
Today we were hoping to get scammed to see want it was like, so we found a tuk tuk driver who was willing to take us on a 1 hour tour for 40 Thai Baught (about 2 dollars). We thought that was pretty cheap, and too good to be true, so we did it.
Our first stop was to the giant Buddha temple. When we got there, it was cool, but not that impressive.
Next, the tour offered a stop at another temple. We didn't bother going inside, because it wasn't very interesting. Our driver called it the "Good Luck Buddha Temple", but we didn't exactly see any Buddhas!
We then made our way to the next stop, which was a travel agency. We weren't really sure what was going on, but we just went with it. We thought for sure we would be scammed here - maybe someone would try to sell us something at his friend's shop or something.
It was a disappointment when we didn't actually get scammed for anything. The girl at the desk of the travel agency was a bit bored, like people drop their customers off at the travel agency all the time.
We decided to go back to Khosan Road, a bit disappointed that we didn't end up getting scammed. I never would've thought I would say that in my life! I would rate this "scam" a 1/5 because the stops weren't very good, and we didn't end up getting scammed at all. I thought for sure he would drop us off at his friend's ruby shop or something, but he didn't. He was pretty honest, and didn't try to rip us off.
On Saturday, we departed from the hotel and headed up north to the Elephant Nature Park (or ENP). I had an excited feeling in my stomach, and I thought it would be so strange to see so many elephants in one area and treat them how you would to, say, horses. I've only seen 1 or 2 elephants together in a zoo. At ENP, there were 64 elephants! Not only that, but over 400 dogs, almost 200 cats, cows, and buffalos! The Elephant Nature Park was one of the highlights of the trip by far. The elephants were so cute, (especially the babies!), and after 1 day of being there, 64 elephants roaming around kind of seemed normal. We were especially lucky, because the founder of ENP, Lek, only came to talk once a week, and that happened to be the day we were there! Lek had a whole 2 hour presentation set up for us, and told us at the start that this might be too sad for people to watch. I now know why she said that, because the presentation was quite sad. She told us all about how ENP started, and how badly the elephants had been treated. Most of the elephants at ENP have physical or mental injuries. Her speech was really moving, and I could've listened to her for hours. She was a real hero and never gave up on saving the elephants. I really, really enjoyed Elephant Nature Park, and Lek's speech made it even better. I got really attached to the elephants, and it was sad to leave. It's so sad that people treat these animals so badly, and I'm glad ENP helps save them.
On the overnight train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok for two nights before flying to Colombo, Sri Lanka on Friday. Lots of people we have met have asked us what were our favourite countries, places, highlights etc. of course it's very challenging to pinpoint just a few, but I thought I'd post a highlight list...Abby is listing her memories and has over 200 up to Mulu in Borneo!
In no particular order...
1. Everywhere in Japan Tokyo, the magome to tsumago walk, staying with Koda-San, the day in Osaka, Kyoto, travelling with Stephen and Kris. (Japan)
2. Phong Nha farm stay (Vietnam)
3. Hoi An (Vietnam)
4. Hong Kong food tour (Hong Kong)
5. Singapore
6. Meeting up and hanging out with the Mudfords after 18 years and our road trips (Vietnam)
7. Everything about travelling with Kim, Alex, Jeffrey and Matt. (Borneo)
8. Mulu National Park (Borneo)
9. Seeing the orangutans in Sabah and Sarawak (Borneo)
10. Watching the turtles lay eggs on turtle island (Borneo)
11. Hiking in the Cameron Highlands (Malaysia)
12. Siem Reap and Angkor (Cambodia)
13. Elephant Nature Park weekend (Thailand)
14. Chiang Mai and the hike to Doi Ithanon (Thailand)
15. Waking up in the treehouse with the incredible view and hearing gibbons sing (Laos)
We had a pretty chill day today... Waking up late in anticipation of riding the overnight train to Bangkok tonight. Other than sneaking out for breakfast, we didn't even make it out of the room until 1:00pm, when we stored our bags and set out for lunch.
Beth had booked a spa for 2:00pm, and I told the girls I was going out for a walk, so they naturally opted to go get pedicures rather than ruining their precious feet with a walk :-).
I went over to Wat Chedi Lang which was actually very close to our first hotel. The grounds are huge. Just inside the entrance was a very large temple.
There were all kinds of ways to part with your money worship there, with various kiosks all up and down the sides of the inner temple. This is more of the "money side" of Buddhism that reminds me of Siya in Angkor describing the empty million dollar temples there.
Behind the more modern temple was a huge, impressive monument that has survived several earthquakes largely intact. I'd seen the place lit up from our hotel balcony a kilometer away over the last couple of nights - it towers over the rest of the inner city. It was quite impressive for a building of that size built 600 years ago.
Behind the structure were a number of other smaller temples in a serene setting.
We had a nice afternoon swim, though I get a bit claustrophobic in the pool with the girls - whenever I'm in the pool the girls are on me like little octopi and I can barely breate. My only option is to alternate picking them up by their armpits and throwing them away from, which they love, so the cycle starts all over... I guess they've become my upper body workout.
At 5:00, we took the hotel car to Chang Mai rail station and made our way to our car.
The setup was a little different than the Vietnam overnight train, at least it was in our 2nd class section (I always trust the train advice from the Man in Seat 61 and he was right, 2nd class was just fine!). Each double berth is on one side of the train. Later they would convert them to the overnight sleeping configuration. In Vietnam, we had 4 seats in one little cabin, though the "seats" were the lower beds and the upper beds were permanently fixed, looming above your head. The Thai train was more open and offered bigger viewing areas out the windows.
I set up my little office to get some blogging done....
...Abby and Beth played some cards...
....and Robin began a, I'm sure to be short lived, written blog that she said will be useful in case we ever lose our blog. Not sure on the logic of that one, but she was occupied for a good 10 minutes!
After dinner was served, the woman who was responsible for converting the beds came by and switched it all up. Robin was in heaven in her little fort...
...while the other two ladies continued to play some cards.
We chose the overnight train more for the experience than the cost savings or convenience of getting right to downtown Bangkok. The beds were pretty comfortable and before we knew it, everyone had crashed and were sleeping to the gentle rock of the Southbound train.
