First stop in Asia: Thailand!

January 9 - 14

Our flight to Bangkok, Thailand, was looooonngg and drawn out. We knew of our connection in Singapore, but our flight details never mentioned about the preceeding  one and a half hour stop over in Hong Kong!! On top of it all, our flight from Hong Kong to Singapore was late and we had to rush to get to our connecting flight!

We were extremely happy upon landing in Bangkok and after taking a little time to obtain Rakesh's VISA, we were even happier to be welcomed by my friend, Julie (a friend who I have known since the age of 6!). Julie kindly offered up her apartment to us to stay in throughout our time in Bangkok. The apartment is in the middle of the city and in a very convenient location. After Julie dropped us off, she showed us around a little and then left to return to her house just outside of Bangkok.
Initially, it was difficult to figure out what to do. Not only were we a little overwhelmed by this big city, but we were exhausted from the long trip and overheated from the hot and humid weather. After wondering the streets for just a few minutes, we ended up returning to the apartment and quickly fell asleep in the cool, airconditioned room. We woke up later than anticipated and had dinner at a restaurant, nearby.

Day 2:
Unlike, our trip in South America, which was mostly about exploring nature, etc., we knew that our trip in Southeast Asia, would take on a slightly different twist- visiting LOTS of temples!! Our tour of some of these temples, began right in Bangkok's old city!

After a long local bus ride through thick traffic and bussling Chinatown, we arrived at our first stop - the Grand Palace. It was fun to ride the local bus and we were two of very few tourists on it. I was impressed by the bus conductor who walked up and down the bus to collect passengers money and give out tickets. He or she held a long metalic tube with a flap over the top. With extreme agility he/she opened/closed the tube with the same hand, while the other hand handled the money. The tickets were pre-printed rolls of paper inside the tube (along with coins) and cut using the flap of the metal tube. Paper bills were folded and placed between the fingers of the hand holding the tube, in a fan-like fashion! I was mesmerized! It's an art and I wondered how long it takes one to master it!! A little detail worth remembering :)

Once at the Grand Palace, Rakesh realised that he forgot to bring the bottom parts of his shorts (zip-ons). In order to visit sacred places of any sort, shoulders and legs must be covered. There was already a long line of people waiting  to borrow a sarong to cover up with. Standing in the heat and sun was unbearable and after 5 minutes, we decided to move on and return to the palace the next day.
We walked along sidewalks and a market crammed with people selling food or touristy items etc. and eventually we arrived at Wat Pho. Wat stands for temple. Wat Pho is best known for its Temple of the Reclining Buddha. This Buddha is 46 meters long and is covered in gold leaf. The feet themselves are 3 meters long and the soles are exquisitely decorated, with illustrations, in mother-of-pearl.

The complex houses two walled compounds. The reclining Buddha is located in one these compounds, along with the birthplace of traditional Thai Massage. It was interesting to see painted illustrations of human anatomy along the top of an interior wall. The were used for teaching Thai massage.

In the complex, there are several other temples of Buddha in various other positions, sitting, standing and walking. We enjoyed spending some quiet time in one of these temples, as there were fewer people around.  In several inner courtyards, the walls are lined with many replicas of a Buddha statue that were offered and paid for by various families.

The temples here, are beautiful and hard to describe. The prangs, are extremely colourful and covered with broken bits of tiles and porcelain plates which were pieced together to make rows of colourful mosaic-like flowers!! Stunning and very unique!

By the time we made our way around Wat Pho, we were pretty hungry. A restaurant we found listed in our guidebook was just across the road. Perfect! As we walked along the crammed sidewalk, attempting to locate the restaurant, the greatest hint of all was a bunch of westerners sitting at outdoor tables!! They, too, must have gone by a guidebook of some sort! I had my first Tom Kha Gai soup (coconut soup with chicken) since I was last in Thailand and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Next, we walked to the Chao Phraya river, a major waterway and transportation thoroughfare that runs through Bangkok. We took a 2 minute boat ride across, in order to get to Wat Arun, a temple which sits on the bank of the river. Wat Arun, means "temple of Dawn".

Wat Arun is also very ornately decorated with bits of porcelain, tiles, as well as intact colourful bowls. Nevertheless, it is quite different from Wat Pho and is a temple all by itself. Here, we climbed a couple of very steep staircases to get to the base of the central prang. As I was climbing, I wondered how I'd get back down, with my slight vertigo! While at the top of the temple, we walked around the central prang and took in the views of the rest of the temple site, as well as the river and city, beyond. When the time came to go back down, it was definitely a little daunting looking down, the almost vertical, staircase, but wasn't as bad as I thought!

We had our first long ride down the river to a stop, from where we could then take the skytrain back into the center of the city. Since the river Chao Phraya is a transportation route, the 'taxi' boat made many stops along the way. It was rush hour time and quite an experience. More and more people got on at each stop. At one point, the boat was getting pretty crowded and the boat conductor kept on yelling at us to fill up every nook and cranny in order to make room for more people to get on at other stops!! I don't think I've had that feeling of being 'packed like a can of sardines' on a boat before. I was quite glad once we arrived at our stop.

We took the skytrain to a connecting stop. We had to connect to another skytrain in order to get back to the apartment. However, due to the rush hour traffic of people attempting to get onto trains we decided to visit the "Paragon Mall" outside the station, instead of waiting in long lines for multiple trains to go by until we could get on.

Paragon Mall, is absolutely HUGE!! It's bigger than any mall that we've seen in the US!! Although, we are not big fans of malls, we were quite impressed by the design and decor etc. Very nicely done! We could see why it is a great attraction to people and a good way to escape the heat and humidity outside!!

This mall has everything you can imagine. Shops, restaurants, a food court, a movie theater, cafés, an aquarium (!) etc.  When we visited, it even had a fairly big car show of lotus cars!! And...show rooms displaying lamborghinis, maseratis and rolls royces!!! I'd say that this mall completely outdoes any mall we've seen in the states (our opinion??). Even though, there were a lot of people in this mall, it looked like the majority were in the foodcourt and restaurants!! It seems that eating out and socializing (mostly, in bigger groups) is an important part of Thai culture. Easy to do, as food is pretty cheap in Thailand!! We loved this aspect of the culture.

We grabbed some dinner in the food court, as Julie had mentioned that it was a fun experience. An interesting system, you purchase a meal card for an amount that you decide on. You then use the card to purchase food at one or more of the food counters. That way you can have a selection. Rakesh and I, however, ended up with one dish each and that was plenty! You can then give the card in and whatever money that wasn't used is returned.

Day 3:
After a slow start to our morning, we took the skytrain back to the Chao Phraya river boat in order to make our way up the river. This was our longest ride up the river. A little too long for my liking as we were heading to meet Julie for lunch and we were getting short on time. We found our way to the Bank of Thailand to meet Julie, but was pleasantly surprised to be welcomed by her brother, Jan, first! I had completely forgotten that he was also working at the same bank.

They took us to a small restaurant that served Northern Thai food. We let them decide on what to order and all was delicious. Fried chicken, papaya salad, sticky rice, tofu dishes and more.... Some were pretty spicy, but I devoured them, nevertheless. This was probably one of our best meals in Thailand. It always helps to eat out with the locals!!

After lunch, we ventured down a nice pedestrian road that Julie pointed out. It's more of a touristy area, but quiet and shaded. We were on the way to finding a taxi to drive us to the Grand Palace. This time, we were prepared with the appropriate clothing!

It could easily take half a day just to visit the Grand Palace!! The complex is huge and houses all sorts of temples, halls and museums. Again, all buildings are exquisitely decorated inside and out. The palace buildings are more of European style (except for their roofs) and not as ornate as Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha). The palace is no longer used as a royal residence or administrative seat of the government, but continues to hold ceremonial events.

In the evening, we went back to the Paragon Mall in order to see the movie, "Life of Pi". Fabulous cinematography and visual effects. We loved it!

Day 4:
In the morning, we made our way to a huge, and I mean HUGE, market called Chatuchak market. It's so big, that they even provide maps of the place. Here you can find mostly western and Thai style clothing, but also produce, crafts, arts and more! We spent a good two hours or so getting lost around this market. I bought myself a wrap-around skirt with Thai motifs on it and a pair of colourful baggy pants (which I later found out to be very popular, especially among  tourists!). Rakesh bought a nice cotton shirt, hand stitched and designed by the stall owner, himself.

We were keeping track of time, as we had planned to meet Julie near the apartment and didn't want to be late (again)!! Little did I know that my watch had slowed down, however, which lead to us meeting up with Julie 45 minutes after the planned time! We didn't know until started we chatting to her! I felt bad, especially since her parents and Jan were waiting for all of us at a Chinese restaurant!!! Very embarrassing!

It was great to see Julie's parents again, especially her dad who I have not seen for many years! They invited us out for a delicious Chinese lunch inside a hotel. During lunch, Julie's dad recounted the way in which Julie and I became friends (at the age of 6!). It was fun to hear, and neither Julie or I had any recollection of this. Apparently, her dad and my dad got chatting in a bookstore of another school (International School of Brussels) and found out that Julie and I were in the same school and class. From then, we were invited to one another's house to play etc. and it's been history, since that time on!
After lunch, Julie, Rakesh and I made our way to the Erawan Shrine, which is located on the corner of two busy streets near Paragon Mall. The shrine, a four-faced Brahma god,  is actually of Hindu origin  and attracts hordes of worshipers. Both Thais and foreigners come pay their respects to the shrine. It is here that many people's wishes have been granted and as a result continues to be a popular site for prayers. There are also traditional Thai dancers that dance to music upon request and when an offering is provided by one or more people.

Rakesh, Julie and I also partook in purchasing some goods to, each, make an offering. It involved praying and placing a garland of flowers and an incense stick in front of each one of the four heads of the Brahma shrine. We'll see if our prayers come true!

After that, Rakesh and I ventured around the area. We ended up in "mall land"! Although, Paragon mall may be one of the biggest malls (I don't actually know), there are at least 3 other malls around. What's crazy, is that one doesn't even need to touch the ground in order to get from one mall to another. As long as you know the correct exits, you can find yourself walking along a 'skywalk' which interconnects the malls and one or two skytrains in the vicinity!! Quite a sight to see!

We somehow ended up in another mall (Central World), where we sat at "Coffee World" and, unlike the name suggests, had some tea! We then ventured over via skywalk to Paragon mall where we ended up having dinner at a Northern Thai restaurant. We were hoping to have similar food to that which we had with Julie the day before, but were a little disappointed. Somehow, the food was very different.

Day 5:
We had hoped to go to a floating market in the morning, but due to our lack of knowledge of how to get there (we had a hard time accessing wifi and our guide book did not have enough detail) it did not pan out. Instead, we made use of our time by  getting a Thai massage! Julie had told us about a place called Healthspa, which was a short skytrain ride away from the apartment. The massage was definitely not the most gentle!! A very interesting experience, however, and during which we had to remind ourselves of the motto "no pain, no gain!". We definitely felt the ensuing "gain" - a state of total relaxation!
Following our Thai massage, we made our way by skytrain to meet Julie and her husband, Alex. They picked us up from the station and drove us to a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch. Another delicious meal and all dishes were ordered by Julie and her husband.

We then went to Julie's house on the outskirts of Bangkok, yet in a neighbouring district. She and her husband designed the house and had it built. Wonderful! The bonus is that they also got a dog with the house (a cute story of how a stray dog ended up with them) and now a friend to their second dog.
It was lovely to hang out with Julie and Alex. We also discussed with them, our plans of going to Chiangmai, in the north of Thailand. Julie kindly called and reserved bus seats for us over the phone. Alex, got in touch with his friend, Chang, in Chiang Mai and connected us with him.

Day 6:
Since our bus to Chiang Mai wasn't until the evening, we had just enough time to visit the Teak Palace. As the name implies, the building is built from Teak wood. It is actually known as the Vinmamek Mansion and used to be the royal palace by King Rama V. It is the world's largest teak wood palace, consisting of 72 rooms!!! Many of the rooms now showcase furniture, paintings, photographs, pottery, rifles etc, all of which belonged to King Rama V.

After visiting the mansion and some of the grounds, we took a taxi back to the apartment and shortly after left for the bus station.