Summer 2011 - Bangkok

I went for a short trip to Bangkok at the end of July with my bestie, Summer. Also met our dear Maripasu/Karen there :D Went there for 3 nights and 4 days, but we only had 2 full days for sightseeing and SHOPPING!

Air Asia.. I love the motif..The "kerbau"/buffalo/carabao.. :D

First destination we went was to the Grand Palace.. it was a spectacular place. The weather was sunny and bright - we were very fortunate as the weather forecast predicted heavy rains..

We took the BTS (SkyTrain) from our hotel to the river boat cruise. The BTS is very convenient and cheap. I believe it's the best mode to travel around Bangkok.

(In the BTS) our stop would be to Saphan Taksin

We're here!

There's a tourist river cruise that you can take. It only costs 250baht (~RM2.50, $0.80, Euro 0.60). On the way, there is someone giving commentary on the buildings we pass by. The ride is about 30 minutes but it feels short because we were having fun :)

Sights on the way to the Grand Palace

We've arrived at the Grand Palace

Majestic architecture

That entire golden pagoda-like building is covered with this little pieces of gold tiles. Imagine the time and labour cost

Thailand has beautiful intricate artwork, and you can see them in their architecture.

Replica of the Angkor Wat (The original one is in Cambodia) I eavesdropped on a tourguide who was telling some Spanish tourists in Spanish that King Rama loved the story of Ramayana (– the world famous Indian epic, and the setting was in Angkor Wat) so much that he decided to build a replica in his palace.

However, I checked online and it said that "The Emerald Buddha was in the possession of the Khmer, and in 1432 the Thai conquered Angkor Wat and took the Emerald Buddha with them.

So in the 20th century, the construction of this miniature model was started as a reminder of how far the Kingdom of Thailand once reached."

Not sure who to believe!

Dudes holding up the building. The demons with shoes are the good ones and the ones sans footwear defines the baddies.. Overheard this from a tourguide too! hehe

He doesn't look too pleased, does he?

Beautiful artwork is drawn on the walls depicting stories. I believe this is the Garuda bird.

Moved on to another section of the palace, the Chakri Mahaprasad Hall. This area is still used for important occasions. The building is fascinating; it has a western and Thai fusion architecture which is gorgeous :)

My lunch - Pad thai and Coconut water (100 baht/RM10/USD4/2.70 Euros). Had lunch nearby the Grand Palace. Now I've read about scams happening in Bangkok and our hotel had also warned us about it, but I never expected to see one happening right in front of my eyes. The usual trick is that these con men will tell tourists that the Grand Palace is closed for some reason and that the government is having a discounted rate on gems and they should follow them to purchase it. Unsuspecting tourists would follow and the gems are sold at exorbitant prices.
What I witnessed when I went to buy my coconut drink was that there was this family who were asking the way to go to the Grand Palace. There was a local man who asked them where they were from and the woman answered England. One glance you could see that this family was well to do. The local then said that the palace is closed now as it's lunch time ( =.= yeah even the buildings need a break!) and it'll be open at 3pm. The lady was a little bit skeptical saying that her taxi driver said it should be open. The man then tried to convince her that it was closed. I couldn't bear it, so as I walked pass I told the lady that the Palace wasn't closed, as I just went there. Then I guess she got the drift and said oh really..and walked away. If looks could kill, I would've been dead at the coconut stall. hahaha the man's accomplice was staring at me. I just acted nonchalant and carried on. So please be careful when you travel. There are people (everywhere) who will try to squeeze you just to get some money.

We walked to Wat Pho - also known as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. This is where traditional Thai Massage started. It has another name too, a tongue twister - Wat Phra Chettuphon Wimon Mangkhalaram Ratchaworamahawihan (!)

King Rama 1 noticed there were 2 old wats near the Grand Palace and ordered for them to be restored. Wat Pho also holds a monastery. I just read through their official website and understood more of this historic place. Note to self: Read up before visiting!!

One of the oldest wat (temple) and largest Reclining Buddhas in Thailand.

According to the site, The image is made of stuccoed bricks gilded with gold leaves. This statue is 46 metres long, with the dimensions at the face of 15 metres high and at each foot of 3 metres high and 5 metres long.

His feet is huge! His single toenail is larger than my head..hehe Once reaching the end of the walk, we turned and saw that he had the most amazing sole ..check it out below~

It's coated with mother of pearl and it depicts 108 auspicious signs. Site mentioned that The mother of pearl inlay at the feet of the image is of Thai-Chinese style, as indicated by 108 auspicious signs portraying natural scenes of both Indian and Chinese influences.

I also read for the site that there were mural paintings of “Mahawong” (Historical annals of Ceylon) up the windows; “13 Savida Atadagga Disciples (Priestess)”, “10 Upasaka Atadagga Disciples” and “10 Upasika Atadagga Disciples” between each window. Although I did not understand the murals, I thought it was very beautiful.

We went to the main chapel next, Phra Uposatha. We are not allowed to take photos inside, as a sign of respect. I took this picture when I was outside.

The entrance door panels depict episodes from the Ramakien (the Thai version of the Ramayana) (thank you website!)

According to the site (again!) some ashes of King Rama I are kept under the pedestal. I didn't have a close look on that one..

We walked on and came to a square, and there were rows of Buddhas.. It's called the Phra Rabieng. I overheard(Again!) that each Buddha were built by different Kings. (ranging from Rama 1 - i'm not sure ;p )

Phra Chedi Rai, surrounding the cloisters you can see a great number of 71 small pagodas in a similar style to that of the single based chedi. Built during the reign of King Rama lll, the purpose of these pagodas was for keeping ashes of royal descendants

Upclose - Chinese ceramic tiles decorate these pagodas. Reminds me of Gaudi's trencadis! ;)

Now these 4 chedis took my breath away. There they were, standing up high reaching towards the heavens..(42meters high!)

Phra Maha Chedi Si Rajakarn , you can't really see it clearly, but these 4 pagodas have different colours. In the foreground is the medicinal hall.

The green one is called *takes a deep breath* Phra Maha Chedi Sri Sanpetdayarn. The white one (Phra Maha Chedi Dilok Dhammakaroknitarn) represents the reign of King Rama II, and was built by his son, King Rama III.

He also built the yellow tile mosaic pagoda, Phra Maha Chedi Muni Batborikharn, for his own reign and for the praise of Buddha.

The blue one represents the reign of King Rama IV or King Mongkut. It was built in the same style as Phra Maha Chedi Song Phra Srisuriyothai of the Ayudhya period with the purpose of a praise for the Lord Buddha.

King Mongkut also ordered all four pagodas to be enclosed and surrounded with the boundary so as to leave no space for more pagodas, as these four Kings of the Chakri Dynasty were alive and met each other in the same period of time, and no more pagodas were required.

Upclose (as you can see, it started to get cloudy..so we had to leave to our next destination before it poured!) Good thing was that it only drizzled..

Took a local bus to the city. The fare according to the information personnel (they had a tourist information booth near the bus stop) it cost 70 cents for a trip. Once we boarded the bus, we couldn't find anyone to pay our fare to! And everyone who came up, did not pay. We waited till our stop to pay the driver, but once the bus stopped, we departed with everyone else, without paying! I do feel a little guilty..I'm sorry!!

We stopped at Siam - the central of Bangkok. They have many shopping malls in this area and night markets. A shopper's haven..

We stumbled about this Street Art by accident and were pleasantly surprised by their cultural/semi cultural performances!

The human puppet - Enchanting

We read that there was a Madame Tussauds Museum in Bangkok. Now Oreja just returned from her Hong Kong trip with pics of the wax museum there. I was excited and wanted to visit the one in Bangkok. Unfortunately, we were on a tight budget, and we decided to give it a pass (reluctantly)..but there was a pleasant surprise at the mall.. they were doing a promotion of the museum and I got to meet Tom Cruise :D

Ta-dah!

Bangkok really comes to life at night. The lights and hustle of the night markets are so evident. Despite the rain that we had to endure, we manage to walk among rows of stalls selling clothes, toys and tech gadgets.. All those red roof like thingies are the roadside stalls!

Ronald McDonald is really cultured here. I'm lovin' it!

The next day - we allocated our morning and evening to conquer the humongous Jatujak (fondly called JJ) market!! It has ~5000 stalls and is about 35acres large. It's only opened during the weekends.

It was very easy to get to (I LOVE THE BTS/Metro!)

The map! This market covers food & beverages, clothes, art, flowers, home deco, books and even PETS!

BOOKS! oh how I love thee

Local dessert - the coconut ice-cream. Good, but a little sweet as they drizzled it with condensed milk.

Lunch at one of the stalls. According to Summer and Karen, it was good ;)

Patpong - Bazaar at the Red Light District

Overall, it was a good day shopping, but our feet and pockets were sad!

Our DAMAGE

Aah nothing like the movie channel and comfy beds to end the evening with..

We departed Bangkok with the knowledge that we will be returning. It's a truly wonderful place with the right amount of modernisation and culture. However there is also the downside of Bangkok, you do see people begging at the sidewalks and also well, the women/men who are forced into prostitution. We didn't get to view that as we didn't go out till late at night during our stay (shopping and walking the whole day REALLY wiped us out!)

The people of Thailand are very well mannered and helpful (apart of some bad apples). Generally they do help you out if you need help and they are very courteous. Beautiful place & people :)

This is not goodbye!

Came home with RM18 left! lol

I didn't eat any Tom Yam when I was there (and yes I got an earful from Oreja on this) - I had a peculiar craving for Laksa when I touched down. That's what I had for dinner that day!

Congratulations Laksa for being #7 in the CNN Survey for CNNGo International Food Survey as “foods worth traveling the world to gorge on".

Useful sites:
BTS
Grand Palace
Wat Pho (really good site)
Jatujak Market
Pad Thai
Thai Gem Scam
Take a Nap Hotel