Bangkok 01/12 – 01/17

Peter is excited to be at the delicious food market.

Meat on a stick everywhere.

Temples upon temples.  Bangkok has tons of temples.

The giant reclining Buddha at Wat Pho.  Interior is solid brick with plaster exterior and gold finish.

A big, modern city, Bangkok was just what we needed after the last couple of weeks. Seems like we needed a bit of a vacation from our “vacation” in India. Don't get me wrong, India was a fun and exciting place to visit. However, our itinerary, constant illness, the cold weather at the end, and the general dirt and hassle were exhausting. So, we stayed longer than we intended in Bangkok. Peter found some sweet deal on a fancy hotel and we just didn't want to leave the never ending hot showers, the huge comfortable bed, and the rooftop pool. We explored the city some, visited some temples, but for the most part we just hung out, ate, and relaxed at the pool. We also learned about the death of our dear friend and family member, Reks. Reks was a great and loving dog and we were very sad to learn of his passing and that we were not there for his last days. We will miss you baby Reks.

Bangkok is a lot like western cities. We felt almost like we were at home except for the delicious street food, temples, and fried bug carts. Supposedly the city is pretty dense, but all the people must be in their cars stuck in traffic jams because the streets are fairly empty. Bangkok is huge and pretty hard to get around unless you are on a metro or skytrain line, which we were. We took a taxi a few times as well and it took forever. The other option would be to take a scooter taxi so you can weave between cars. Also, Bangkok is so clean. The guidebooks say it's dirty, but after seeing Madurai and Varanasi it seems to sparkle with cleanliness to us.

We were so relaxed that we actually managed to get scammed. I couldn't believe it after all those times we managed to avoid it in India! The difference in Bangkok, though, is that there are actually very few rickshaw-wallahs and touts hassling you so you forget about them. There many not be many, but the few that are there can be very organized and elaborate. Here is how the scam went. We were heading over to the city palace, walking and looking at our map, when a very friendly man approached us and told us that all the sights are closed for lunch. (First sign of a scam. Guidebook says to never listen to anyone who approaches you because they are touts and never trust anyone who tells you a sight is closed. Duh.) But, he said there are plenty of other sights to visit which he pointed out to us on our map. He even wrote down which bus lines to take to get to the sights. “But, it's much easier to take a tuk-tuk which only costs 20 baht.” (Second sign of scam - Tuk-tuks are not that cheap.) “Oh, here's a tuk-tuk right now. That's a good tuk-tuk because it has a yellow card which means its legit. You don't want the tuk-tuks with white cards.” (Third sign of scam - I have read nothing in our guidebooks about yellow vs. white-card tuk-tuks. Fourth sign of scam – his English was too good.) He explained to the driver where we are going and told him to charge us 20 baht. The friendly driver happily agreed and we were on our way. That's when I turned to Peter and said “I think we're being scammed.” But, we were already in the tuk-tuk. It all happened so fast. So we decided to see where this goes. First stop was some Buddha temple. Yes, this is where the guy said to go. It was pretty nice, but no other tourists there. We were approached by a very friendly “engineer” (Apparently in Thailand scammers are called “engineers”). We talked about where we are going. He told us about himself and offered to take us into the temple. He asked us where our next stop was. We told him it was the “National Textile Museum”. “Oh, how wonderful. I was just there with my wife last week. She bought so many dresses and suits because it is very cheap. This week is a special promotion. There are extreme discounts and no taxes charged. The quality is excellent and so inexpensive compared to the US. You have heard about famous Thai silk, yes? Famous Thai cashmere, yes?” I said yes, but no I have never heard of famous Thai cashmere. (Scam!) This guy was obviously working with the fist guy. I wasn't sure about the tuk-tuk driver though. But, now we were even more interested in where we were headed next. So, back to the tuk-tuk we went. We showed the driver on the map where he was to drive us. (LOL. As if he didn't know.) He took us to a shop called “National”. We went inside and it was a shop with cashmere suits....pretty much the kind you would get at Jcrew. We took a look around and walked right out. Onto our next stop we told the tuk-tuk driver. No big deal. He didn't seam distressed that we left so quickly and purchased nothing. We showed him where we were to head next and off we went. A few minutes later, he stopped and asked for our map again. He said he wanted to take us to another shop. His English was very poor so all I got was “shop” and “you give me 500 baht” and “no buy, just look”. We got out of the tuk-tuk and paid him the 20 baht, not so much for the ride as for the entertainment and the reminder about how careful to be with the touts. They're not dangerous, but they will definitely waste your time taking you to places you don't want to go.

Inside one of the temples.  This one had three levels, each level had a different framed architectural view.

So, after recharging on some much needed rest and delicious food (we sure have gotten skinny in India) we were ready to return to our vagabonding this morning. Last night we ended our stay with a Thai massage – one in which hands, feet, and elbows are used and stretching is involved. Mmmm...got to have more of those when we come back to Thailand. As I write, we are on a bus to Aranya Prathet, a Thai city at the Cambodian border. From Aranya Prathet we will try to locate the border where we will attempt to avoid minefields (just kidding) and visa scams and enter Cambodia. Then we will take a shuttle bus to Poipet (Cambodian border city). Here we will catch a shared taxi or bus to Siem Reap, home of the Angkor Temples which are supposedly the seventh wonder of the world (not sure if that's true). Once this is posted, you will know that we have safely reached our destination. Yes, it would have been easier flying in to Siem Reap....but what would be the fun in that?