One Night in Bangkok...but it felt like 2

After our taiko performance and the parade, Laurel and I got ready to head to Thailand!

I had to go back and finish cleaning my apartment because I was letting my friend Nick and his Mom stay at my apartment while I was out of the country so they could tour Kyoto.

To save money, Laurel and I signed up for red-eye flights into and out of Bangkok. We left at midnight on the 3rd (4th?) and arrived at about 4 am on the 4th. It's a 6 hour flight but Thailand is 2 hours behind Japan. We flew Thai Airways, which actually turned out to be really nice. I have never been on such a colorful plane before. All the seats were purple, yellow, or pink, and the flight attendants wore uniforms of the same colors.

Even the food was pretty good. They offered breakfast, either Japanese style or an omelet, and had a bread service.

Laurel bought a guidebook for Thailand and we made copies of the important pages for me, so we both read up a lot on what to expect before we got there. Warnings about scam artists dominated most sections: don't get in a tuk tuk (3 wheeled taxi) if the driver quotes you a price; if someone tells you a tourist attraction is closed and offers you a tour to a different site, say no; if a taxi offers to run off the meter, get out, etc. So when we arrived, I was all prepared to avoid a repeat of Europe. I would NOT get caught in a scam. I would wear the goofy money belt that goes under your clothes. I had a list of English speaking hospitals in case Laurel nearly died on me or if I got food poisoning again. I was prepared.

We got off the plane and went through customs (yay more passport stamps!!!) and decided to take a taxi to our hotel since it was 5 am and we had NO idea where we were going. The moment we walked out of the airport I noticed 2 things: it was HOT and there were taxi drivers trying to get our attention from every direction. We were approached by a man in a yellow uniform asking where we needed to go and Laurel showed him the map to our hotel while I stood nervously, trying to make sure it wasn't a scam. He quoted us a price so I shot a look at Laurel who laughed and said that there wouldn't be scams this close to the airport, nor would the airport taxi service scam us. That is when I noticed that the other taxi drivers were on the other side of a partition yelling to us...so I relaxed and got in the cab.

It took maybe 45 minutes to an hour to get to our hotel. 45 minutes of soft rock...yep I'm talking Celine Dion Titanic theme song...My Heart Will Go On...Some things transcend language I guess???? question mark.

We drove through Bangkok at sunrise. I was shocked at just how busy the city was so early in the morning. People were out setting up markets and making deliveries. Traffic was already getting busy, with motorcycles and tuk tuks weaving in and out. We got to a rather slummy looking part of town and the cab driver pulled over and said we were there...

Um what? There were a lot of trees and random buildings and people sitting on the curb smoking. It looked kinda dirty and I didn't see our hotel, which from the pictures looked like a tall building. So I was hesitant to get out of the cab, lest he leave us there wandering the slums of Bangkok. I was internally cursing Laurel for trusting the taxi's at the airport. The cab driver got out and started walking so we slowly got out. I walked around to the front of the cab and that is when I saw the hotel sign, covered in foliage.

Whew. We made it.

We checked in and decided to sleep a few hours before we started sight seeing. We booked a room for the 3rd for that purpose. The hotel was really cheap so we didn't mind paying for the convenience of taking a nap. Even at 5 am Bangkok was HOT and HUMID so thankfully the room had air conditioning.

When the alarm went off 3 hours later neither of us really wanted to get out of bed...but we were in Thailand so we motivated ourselves to get up and go sightseeing. We checked the guidebook and decided to follow their suggestion for Bangkok in a day.

We got dressed and I put on the money belt my parents bought me. Yep, I became one of those tourists who wear their money under their clothes...but after being robbed once, I decided I would rather feel dorky than lose my money again. I learned that lesson...no more being pickpocketed for me...it was kind of like a fanny pack, though unlike Becca, mine went under my clothes so it was a bit less lame (^_~)

We grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel before venturing into Bangkok. Compared with the hostel food in Europe, the free breakfast wasn't bad. They had eggs and toast and Thai style salad. The only bad part was the creepy guy sitting a few tables over. He was one of those guys who had a Thai girl with him, but he doesn't speak Thai...and she doesn't speak English. I thought it was bad in Japan, with people getting together for "language exchange" or the charisma-man phenomenon, but it was nothing like Thailand. They sold books at the airport all about how to pick up Thai women and there were a lot of older guys with these young Thai women with tramp stamps and prada/gucci/chanel. Ugh.

After escaping his company at breakfast we set off for the Grand Palace. We didn't really understand the map, and Thailand has about as many street signs as Japan (ie. not many), so we soon got a bit off track. Thank God Laurel has a good sense of direction. As we walked, Tuk Tuk drivers would pull over and slowly follow us..."Where you go? You want Tuk Tuk? 40 baht. See standing Buddha."

So to fix this problem, Laurel and I devised a plan...Whenever we saw a Tuk Tuk driver coming, she would start speaking in French and I would start speaking in Japanese and we would just pretend to understand each other.

This came in VERY handy. At almost every corner someone would stop us saying..."Grand Palace close today...close today...no enter. You go see standing Buddha?" I still have no idea what the standing Buddha is, but they all wanted me to go see it.

We got a bit lost and ended up at Wat Pho first instead of the Grand Palace, but that didn't matter. Wat Pho is the home of the reclining Buddha. It is a huge golden statue, it's size rivaling that of the great Buddha in Nara, depicted the death of the Buddha, or rather, the Buddha's entry into Nirvana. The statue takes up most of the building in which it is housed. The walls have paintings of different scenes from the Buddha's life and the bottoms of the Buddha's feet are decorated with more scenes in mother of pearl.

The complex of the temple was actually quite large and it took us over an hour to wander around the whole thing. There were a bunch of smaller temples/worship sites, and some really beautiful flowers. I think was impressed me most was how different Japanese temples and Thai temples are. I have seen Korean temples, and they are very similar in design and shape to Japanese temples. But Thai temples, though they are also Buddhist, are completely different. They are taller and much more colorful. The roofs of Thai temples are covered with bright red, yellow, and green tiles and decorated with gold and jewel like stones. Every inch is covered in some kind of decoration, whether it be tiles set up in the shape of flowers or demon looking figures. I was impressed with just how much effort they put into decorating their places of worship. Japan is special because of the beauty in the simplicity of the design but Thai temples are special because of the detail. It is much like the cathedrals in Europe...huge monuments to God (though politics, of course, also plays a huge role).

When we first entered the temple a man approached us offering us a tour in English. I have learned several things during my recent travels...

1. If you speak English, you can survive ANYWHERE
2. If you have a white face, people all assume you speak English

Laurel and I weren't interested in a tour so we reverted to our little scheme of speaking Japanese....when he asked where we were from we painstakingly stuttered over the word Jyaapan. Then we just kept repeating "I don't understand...I don't understand" and ran away.

But while we were in the main temple the tour guide came by with a tour and overheard us speaking in English and called us out...

"I thought you were from Japan? How are you from Japan, you aren't Japanese."

Whoops.

After we got done with Wat Pho we tried to head over the Grand Palace which was just across the street...Unfortunately we were again stalked by the Tuk Tuk drivers and people telling us the place was closed (a lot of times they tell you a place is closed, get you in their cab and then take you somewhere where they get a commission).

Though this time it turns out they weren't lying. The Grand Palace was closed for a few hours and we couldn't get in. We walked around the entire complex trying to get in at various entrances, not trusting anyone who told us no (the scam artists ruin it for everyone else).

Finally we gave up and went to get food. We crossed the street to where there were a lot of vendors and as we stepped up onto the sidewalk, we were approached by a lady carrying bags of raw corn. She was really nice and offered us a bag to feed the pidgeons. She wouldn't take no for an answer saying it was a gift. I dodged her, but poor Laurel ended up with a bag of corn in her hands (that the woman shoved at her). So Laurel really had no choice but to go along with it, because every time she tried to give the bag back, the lady dodged away. She was quite agile. So Laurel fed the pidgeons and the lady shoved another bag in her hands. I was laughing, knowing this would end with us having to pay her a couple baht. But she asked for 150 baht per bag...300 baht. That's about 10 bucks.

As Laurel nicely tried to refuse to pay for the second bag, since the lady had tossed it at her and it fell, the woman's personality suddenly changed. Rather than being the nice lady wanting to help the foreigners enjoy feeding the birds, she became mean...telling us we had to pay her.

That's when I stepped in. I started in Japanese but then couldn't yell enough in that language so I switched to English....something along the lines of...

Her: You use 2 bags...2 bags. You pay.
Me: Huzakenna. Nanda sonna koto? So we have to pay you because you accosted us? We were just crossing the street lady. We didn't want your damn corn and we don't want to deal with you. I'm sorry you make your living accosting foreigners but we aren't paying for that second bag!

The look on the lady's face was priceless. It was resentful, but resigned. They can't force us to pay but rely on our desire to avoid conflict. But she still got 150 baht.

So after we were violated by the corn lady, we went in search of food. We found a nice stall with an English menu (Thai cannot be, or at least rarely is, romanized...so we couldn't read anything). We got some Pad Thai and sat on the curb watching traffic. We noticed that the people walking up and down the streets selling things left you alone if you were eating, which we thought was nice. Though they had an English menu, the woman didn't understand any English, so she called over the man she works with who did. We ordered through him and he translated for us.

Now I don't usually like Thai food, but yum. Real Thai food is delicious.

After eating we wandered off to find Wat Arun, the Temple of the Rising Sun: the tallest temple in Bangkok. We ended up on a pier and decided to take a boat trip along the canals that run through Bangkok, which took a 15 minute stop at Wat Arun.

Bangkok is actually like Venice, and is called the Venice of Asia, in that canals run through the city and they are used for travel and for setting up markets. We didn't get to go to the markets, but taking a boat tour was a nice exchange. It was really hot so the boat ride felt really good...and we got to see more of the city and people's homes and how they really live.

We got off at Wat Arun, which is a really impressive temple. It has one really tall spire and the stairs to get to the top are extremely steep. I am not afraid of heights at all, but going down those stairs was scary.

Wat Arun, like Wat Pho, was really ornate. It was decorated with a bunch of different colored tiles. From the top we could see out over the canals and to the Grand Palace and Wat Pho. We could also see into downtown Bangkok.

After the boat ride we decided to try the Grand Palace again before heading back to the hotel to relax before Muay Thai.

We stopped and got apple and kiwi smoothies, which the Thai add salt to, and walked over to the palace entrance. Salt in a smoothie? It was actually pretty good and very refreshing.

We got into the Grand Palace this time, and it was worth the wait. The main attraction is Wat Phra Kaeow, which houses the Emerald Buddha, a small jade statue of the Buddha which has been the cause of more than one war. Apparently it was originally covered in plaster but the jade inside was revealed when it was dropped. It was later stolen by Laos and then Thailand fought to get it back.

The rest of the complex also had beautiful buildings, all very similar to those from Wat Pho, with red, yellow, and green roofs and tall demonic statues. What really made Wat Phra Kaeow stand out was the detailing of the outside of the building. Every inch was covered in gold, red, or blue jewel-like stones.

We wandered around looking at the murals depicting war scenes and the various temple buildings in the complex until we suddenly realized that there were no other visitors...we were completely alone....in the Grand Palace.

So we start hurrying toward the exit. The workers cleaning the palace in preparation for the king's ceremony the next day saw us and started yelling, not angrily, that we needed to get out. So we just kept bowing, very Japanese style, and apologizing as we ran out the door.



We went back to our hotel, after getting a bit lost, to relax for a bit then went to grab dinner before we were being picked up by our tour guide for the Muay Thai event. We actually went through a Japanese company so our tour guide spoke Japanese, but not English.We couldn't find a good English Muay Thai tour, and after watching the movie Ong Bak with Laurel, Muay Thai was something I wasn't going to miss.

We tried to find a restaurant nearby but since we can't read any Thai we just had to look til we found something with English. We found a small stall along a little river/canal thing. Again the cook didn't speak any English but she had a friend who did so we ordered through her.

We ate and then they laughed at us because we brought them our plates instead of leaving them on the table...we just thought it was good manners...

Back at the hotel I waited in the lobby for our tour guide while Laurel went to grab some stuff out of the room. The tour guide came in and he seemed a bit confused because I am not Japanese. He had guessed that I was a "white person" by my name, but still was shocked.

He took us by taxi to the arena and explained about the festival happening tomorrow. It is the anniversary of the coronation of the king.

Muay Thai was amazing. I have watched boxing and UFC before but it was nothing like Muay Thai, and watching it live was even more exciting. We had 2nd row seats in a roped off area. The fighters would enter the ring and then go through a warm up ritual that looked almost like a dance.

When they started they would spend a bit of time feeling each other out before getting into the fight, but once they started it was intense. If they kicked and missed you could really sense the amount of power they put behind their moves. One of the fighters was knocked out not by being hit in the head, but by being kneed in the chest so many times. He just crumpled. It was really odd to see these men, without a single ounce of fat on them, covered in muscle, just pass out. They seemed so strong but after a few too many hits their bodies would just give out.

There were 11 fights and at least 5 of them ended with KO's. Those that didn't were judged by a point system that I did not understand.



After the fight we went to the 711 to buy some snacks (including something called Pepsi Green, which was disgusting)...and then pretty much passed out. Having arrived in Bangkok at 5 in the morning and then touring all day we were exhausted.