Four Days in Bangkok

We arrived in Bangkok on Tuesday afternoon from Siem Reap, Cambodia. We hired a taxi to take us to the Royal Orchid Sheraton, which is located on the Chao Phraya river. Our room had a nice view of the river, which is used extensively by the city. Boats move up and down carrying passengers and cargo in every direction. We couldn't wait to get our first massage (one of the key things about Thailand that we have been looking forward to are the cheap massages. The going rate in Bangkok is about 200 Thai Bhat for an hour, or roughly $6. In Chaing Mai, we've found places as low as 100 Bhat/hour) We headed out to dinner at a restaurant called the Mango Tree in the Shilom area of town which was recommended in some of the travel guides and also by the hotel. It was indeed very good. We had crab curry, pineapple fried rice, sweet and sour shrimp and April had her favorite soup Tom Kha Ghai. After dinner, we walked down the street and checked out the night market before choosing a place for a foot massage (which includes some work on the shoulders, neck and back). We also both had manicure's and pedicure's. Total bill was $12 each.

We woke up Wednesday and headed out to see some of the sights in Bangkok. We took a river taxi up the river a few stops to the area around the Royal Palace, which is where we planned to go first. As we were walking up to the palace, a man came up to us and told us that the palace was closed until 2pm for a royal ceremony, and suggested a few other places we might want to see nearby, pointed them out on our map and told us how much we should pay the Tuk Tuk (three wheeled taxi) driver to take us to all of them (about $1.50). We turned to the street & got into a Tuk Tuk to go and see one of the temples that he recommended. It was the sitting Buddha temple. While we were there, another tourist couple overheard our conversation and came up to us to tell us about some of the scams that they had experienced.

It turns out, that we were in the middle of a scam (a bit of a strong word to use since we were not in any real harm). The guy at the Palace (who looked official) was not an employee, and the Palace was not closed. It is a very common scam to get tourists to go other places by telling them that the place they want to go is closed. The tuk tuk driver then takes you to a couple of places and insists that you also stop by a couple of shops to check out jewelry, clothes, souvenirs, and the like. Each of the shop owners pays the driver a “commission” for bringing potential customers (this is what they use to buy gas, etc and is why the initial rate quoted for driving us around was so low).

After visiting the first temple (of three stops that were originally recommended), we told our driver that we wanted to go back to the Palace instead to see what he would do. We wanted to test the scam theory. He insisted that we go by a couple shops on the way back, just look, and they he would take us back. We did as it only took a couple minutes, and then we were taken back to the Palace (which had been open all along). Believe it or not, he was a bit surprised when I didn't tip him! Besides feeling like we were scammed, it wasn't really too big of a deal, but we learned our lesson.

We've found traveling around Thailand now a week, that there are all kinds of kickback's paid by merchants to taxi drivers, hotels, and the like for bringing in customers. This really has two effects. First of all, it causes you to question everywhere you are going and wonder if indeed it's the “best” place to buy something or just the place that pays the driver the most. Secondly, the prices at many of the places that they take you to to buy things are inflated to cover all the commissions (up to 30%) that they pay. So, the challenge is finding places that are off the beaten tourist path to buy things.

Back to the Royal Palace in Bangkok. The buildings are all adorned with gold and intricate carvings, paintings and statues. Buddhism is such a part of the culture and is pervasive throughout. It's often hard to separate what is religious vs government, etc. The Palace is right next to a set of Buddhist temples, in particular one that houses the Emerald Buddha. Men and women need to have their shoulders and knees covered to enter the area. April thought her capri pants were sufficiently below the knees, but she was asked to cover up a bit more and had to borrow some clothes when we entered. She doesn't like the pictures of her that we took there as a result. We walked around the grounds for about an hour and then went to find some lunch on the street. We shared some fried rice.

Our next stop was to the reclining Buddha temple, Wat Pho, which is just a few blocks down the street. This temple houses Thailand's largest reclining Buddha, which measures 150 feet long and 49 feet high and is plated in gold. His toes are huge! :)

Afterwards, we headed home on a water taxi and took a short nap before watching the sunset from the patio behind our hotel and on the river. It was very beautiful. For dinner, we headed to Chinatown and had a rather unexciting dinner – we choose the wrong place. Anyway, immediately after we headed out to get Thai massages before turning in for the night.

On Thursday, we went to the Jim Thompson house in the morning. Jim was extremely influential in bringing back and further developing the Silk industry in Thailand. He first came to Asia in his Army service during WWII and then was discharged after the War, but decided to stay in Thailand. It was during this time that he launched his business and revolutionized the Thai Silk industry. Unfortunately, he disappeared mysteriously in 1967, but left a wonderfully decorated traditional Thai house which we toured with an English speaking guide. It was very nice...April was in heaven so to speak, as she has known of and purchased Jim Thompson fabric for her Interior Design clients for years.

In the afternoon, we decided to move to another hotel in the center of the city for our last two nights in Bangkok. We used points and stayed at the Westin Sukhumvit. It was quite a bit nicer than the Sheraton we were in, and also a lot closer to the action of the city. We ate at the hotel's dinner buffet which was fantastic. Afterwards...you guessed it, another massage.

Friday we walked and shopped around town, and satisfied one of April's cravings from back home – Starbucks! It's amazing what an Iced Grande Vanilla Latte will do for a girl! Notice the traditional Thai decoration on the building – very cool!

On Saturday morning we got up early and took the Metro/Train to the Chatuchak weekend market. We heard this was the best place to buy the local handicrafts at a good price, but it didn't really meet our expectations – as it was kinda a lot of junk. The amount of vendors at the market was amazing though (about 9,000), and we got some exercise in before our next flight that afternoon!

Overall we found Bangkok to be interesting and fun, but we didn't need 4 days. 2-3 would have been better for us.

On to the North in Thailand to Chiang Mai!