Bangkok Temple Marathon

After our bus ride from Ayutthaya to Bangkok, we felt the need to just basically chill out, so we decided to spend what remained of the afternoon by the rooftop swimming pool.

For dinner, we decided to try a real Bangkok institution, Krua Apsorn. It doesn't seem like a particularly enticing place at first glance - a bit like a canteen, full of locals. But actually it's the kind of place we often like to visit - eat where the locals eat, as they say (do they?). And we were not disappointed - rather the opposite. Hands down the best meal in Thailand - the food was just absolutely delicious (and just spicy enough to tickle the taste buds, without killing them). I very much recommend this place - both for the excellent food, and for a chance to experience some local vibe in a very touristy area (Kao San Road is just a couple of blocks away...). After a short evening stroll around time, we headed back to our hotel to catch some sleep.

Tuesday was our last day in Bangkok, and we had quite an ambitious program for the day - after all, we'd not actually seen any of the main attractions of old Bangkok yet. We started with the big Kahoona - the Royal Palace, and the adjacent Temple of the Emerald Buddha. We started with the temple (after all it'd been nearly, what, 12 hours since the we'd been to a Thai temple?). The Buddha statue after which the temple has been named is rather diminutive, measuring only 66 cm, but it makes up for its size with its impressive history (originating in India, it's also turned up in Sri Lanka, Ayutthaya, Chiang Rai and Cambodja, and Buddha knows where else...).

The Buddha statue may not be very imposing, but the rest of the temple complex certainly is! The central ubsoth (ordination hall) and the collection of buildings surrounding it really are rather splendid! Hard to put it all into words... Unfortunately the place does suffer from the same unfortunate phenomena as say the San Marco Basilica in Venice - the hordes of tourists that overwhelm the place means it really doesn't feel much like a place of worship. But, that doesn't take away from the undeniable beauty of the place.

The royal palace itself is a bit of a disappointment, in contrast. It certainly looks very impressive from the outside, but unfortunately it's not really possible to visit the place (apart from a few rooms containing collections of weapon and armour). The king doesn't actually live in the palace anymore, but it's still used for official ceremonies and similar, apparently...

Leaving the royal palace, we checked out the nearby amulet market - basically the streets near the royal palace is full of stands where amulets are sold to bring luck and blessings to people's endeavours...

Our next stop on the "temple trail" was Wat Pho - a.k.a. Temple of the Reclining Buddha. The place is a major tourist attraction thanks to the impressive reclining Buddha for which the temple has gotten its nickname. The 43 meter long, and 15 meters high Buddha, is certainly the biggest and most impressive statue of Buddha I've seen! Apart from the Buddha statue, Wat Pho is famous for being considered the birthplace of Thai massage. To this day, it houses a very prestigious massage school, and is apparently one of the best places to get a traditional Thai massage... All in all, I really liked Wat Pho - as opposed to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, you really get the impression of visiting a holy place - much less camera-wielding tourists about! (hmm, I should talk, I'm probably one of the more active camera-wielders...)

From Wat Pho, we made our way to Chinatown - the idea being to have a bit of lunch. Now, Singapore's Chinatown may be the "real thing", but it seemed a little bit to neat and organized. Not so for Bangkok's Chinatown - this is definitely the real thing without quotation marks! People sending stuff (everything imaginable from fruits, vegetable, flowers, car tires, CD's, DVD's, you name it...), nice street food aromas and that hustle and bustle (seemingly so chaotic yet so functional) - everything you expect from a self-respecting China town. In short, we really loved the place.

We ended up having lunch at an Indian restaurant (in a part of Chinatown populated by Indians) - another excellent meal. It's been a while since I've had a real, proper, Indian meal. Excellent stuff. After lunch, we ended up walking along what must be one of the longest shopping arcades in the world (I won't say longest since apparently we already went to that one in Japan last year...). Quite a fascinating place, all in all...

Our final destination in Chinatown was (of course!) another temple, Wat Traimit. The templs is famous for housing the world's largest solid gold statue. 3 meters high, it weighs 5,5 tons (at the current value of gold, that makes it worth about 250 million dollars). A bit heavy to carry out of the temple though, I suppose, for any prospective thief....

The evening was approaching, so we decided to head back towards the old town - this time travelling on the river. One thing about Bangkok is that it's actually quite hard to get around the place with public transport. For example, there is no metro connection to the old town, and the modern Skytrain doesn't go there either. The river boats are one handy way to get around - so before leaving Bangkok we certainly wanted to try that at least once. So we took one back to the Royal Palace - and it's certainly a quick way to get around (and the views along the river are pretty nice as well!)

One more major tourist attraction to tick off the list - and yes it's another temple, Wat Arun (the temple of the dawn). It's one of Bangkok's landmarks due to its rather stunning setting by the Chao Phraya river. The main feature, and the reason people come here, is the ornate central prang (a Khmer-style tower). From far away, it doesn't actually look that impressive, but upon closer inspection, the ornate details and sculptures covering the building makes it a really beautiful sight. And what's best, one can actually climb all the way to the top. The views are, unsurprisingly, stunning, especially as the sun was setting...

Phew, enough temples for one day, I reckon... For our last meal in Bangkok, we had a nice, western burger in a place recommended on Tripadvisor near the hotel.

And the next morning, time to catch the flight back to Singapore. Our impressions of Thailand and Bangkok, then ? Our first stint in Bangkok (when we stayed in Sukhumvit) left us a bit indifferent, but I have to say Bangkok grew a lot on me over the days we stayed there. I mean it's a big, chaotic and noisy place, but it's also an extremely fascinating place. And there is loads to see, for sure, much of which we didn't have time to check out...

Back in Bangkok and onwards to Ayutthaya

Back in Bangkok, but this time, at a different hotel, located in the old part of town, near the legendary Kao San Road. After checking in at our rather classy hotel (the good thing about Bangkok is that you can stay at pretty cool hotels for very reasonable prices...), we headed out to check out the neighbour hood (with the specific objective to have dinner). We got a hot tip for restaurant serving Thai food by the receptionists, and after quite a lot of hassle (which did mean we did quite extensive exploration of the neighbourhood - we even ended up at a Thai boxing rink!), eventually found the place. Quite a classy little place, with an amazing view over the river, and no complaints about the food either (even though it was a bit more expensive that what we'd been used to so far - the price to pay for a nice view I suppose!).

Our stomachs filled, we decided to head off and check out Kao San Road. Kao San Road is the focal point of the huge backpacker community that is constantly present at Bangkok... By night-time, it's basically packed with youngsters, old hippies, regular tourists of all imaginable nationalities (make an effort and you can spot a few locals, even...) partying and having a good time. It's quite an interesting place to walk around - but not really our cup of tea (we prefer a more local vibe, and at least I may be getting a bit too old for that backpacker partying scene!).

The next day, we decided to head off to the famous Chatuchak weekend market. The place is absolutely massive, covering 35 acres (it's the biggest market in Thailand), and pretty much everything imaginable can be bought there. It's a great place to stroll around, and certainly a more pleasant experience than walking around markets in India or middle-Eastern countries in that you are actually allowed to walk around in relative peace... (without having people try to sell you everything from their grandmother to cheap tourist trinkets). So even though I'm not generally a big fan of shopping, I have to say this place is definitely worth a visit! And no complaints about the value for money either - I even bought a couple of tee shirts!

In the afternoon, we decided to visit some of the touristy sights near our hotel. Which, being old Bangkok, mostly means temples... (there are probably more temples in Bangkok than churches in Florence!). We started with Wat Bowoniwet - not one of the most famous temples in Bangkok, but one that benefits from a Royal status (the current king was ordained a monk here).

We then carried on to Wat Ratchanaddaram. The temple is best known for its  Loha Prasat, a multi-tiered structure 36 m high and having 37 metal spires, signifying the 37 virtues toward enlightenment. Apparently it's only one of three of its kind in the world (the other ones being in India and Sri Lanka). We hiked all the way to the top of the Loha Prasat, and were treated to some nice views over the surroundings... It's quite a nice and peaceful place to walk around - as opposed to the more famous temples in Bangkok, there are hardly any tourists here...

Or next stop on the temple trail was the legendary Golden Mount. Wat Saket is one of the biggest and most historical temples of Bangkok - dating back to the Ayutthaya era (14th to 18th century). In the 18th century, construction of a huge cedi (a big hemisphere containing religious relics?) started, but unfortunately it collapsed. Left to abandon, it formed a hill of sorts over the years. A small temple was built on top of this hill (now known as Golden Mount) in the 20th century. The temple itself isn't that impressive (compared to some of the other temples in Bangkok), but the views from the top are certainly worth the hike...

By now, we were starting to suffer from Temple fatigue (a phenomenon similar to Church fatigue, which we sometimes suffer from in Italy), but decided to check out one more temple, as it was on the way back to the hotet - the Wat Suthat. The main highlight of this temple (once again, we quite enjoyed this  place not only since it's a beautiful place but also due to the absence of tourists) is the huge bronze Buddha statue - the largest of its kind conserved from the Sukhothai Era.

For dinner, we decided on some Japanese -  we'd seen a nice-looking little Izakaya (a kind of Japanese drinking establishment which also serves food). Excellent choice - we really enjoyed the food and vibe of the place.

The next day, we decided to head off to nearby Ayutthaya (it's some 80 km's from Bangkok - an easy minibus ride from the Victoria Monument).

Ayutthaya was the capital of the Siamese kingdom (bearing the same name) that reigned this part of Asia between 1351 and 1767. In its heyday, it was one of the richest and most powerful cities in Asia. These days it's a decent-size modern city, which still preserves an impressive collection of temples in various degrees of disrepair. It's kind of like a small version of Angkor Wat, if you will (in fact, Angkor Wat and Ayutthaya were often at war with each others).

The temples are quite widely spread out in Ayutthaya, so the best way to visit the place is by bike, so we rented one at a hotel we found near where the minibus dropped us off. After some mechanical difficulties with Mathilde's bike (thankfully we found a friendly local who helped us out!), we arrived at the first temple of the day Wat Phra Sri Sanphet. This impressive temple - the most important at Ayutthaya, dates back to the 15th century. It was basically the royal temple, as it was located just next to the Royal palace (which no longer exists). The temple is dominated by three impressive, bell-shaped, well-preserved Chedis (which contains the remains of three kings). A most impressive little place to visit - and not too badly overrun by tourists either. 

After a quick visit to the more modern adjacent Wihan Phramongkhon Bophit (with its impressive Bronze Buddha), we jumped back on the bikes and cycles over to the next must-see temple - Wat Mahathat. It's one of the oldest temples in Ayutthaya, and less well-preserved than the first temple we visited (due to the fact that the Burmanese army badly damaged the temple in the 18th century when they invaded Ayutthaya). The main sight at this temple is the Buddha head that is entwined in tree roots - certainly an interesting sight! Nobody quite knows how the head ended up in the tree - there are naturally plenty of theories (the most likely - and boring - explanation is that the tree and its roots simply grew around the Buddha head during the centuries it lay abandoned.

To finish off our visit at Ayutthaya, we decided to visit one more temple -  Wat Ratchaburana (temple fatigue was hitting us again). This temple is mostly known for its well-preserved Prang (a tall spire-like tower, a typical feature of Temples of the Khmer empire). Unfortunately, the prang was being restored, but I was able to visit a tomb located in the structure (which required some acrobatics I'm not really accustomed to - the staircases and chambers were certainly built for smaller people than me....).

After lunch at a nice little restaurant we found across the road, we headed back to town centre, from where we took a minibus back to Bangkok. All in all, we rather enjoyed Ayutthaya, even if it can get a bit intensive temple-wise... (not sure there is much else to do in Ayutthaya, apart from visiting temples and possibly having an elephant ride).

Via Bangkok to Koh Samet

From Singapore, our South-East Asian Odyssey next took us to Bangkok. I've been to Thailand a loong time ago (15 years ago it must be now- jeez I'm getting old!) - but I didn't make it to Bangkok this time. And it was Mathilde's first visit to Thailand - so we were both very keen to explore Bangkok!

After arriving at the airport, we jumped into a taxi and tried to guide our taxi driver to our hotel. Not the easiest of tasks due to a bit of confusion with our address. Some confusion between the main Sukhumvit Road and the streets off Sukhumvit which are called  Sukhumit Soi's... Anyway, to cut a long story short, we eventually arrived, and hit the bed pretty much straight away....

The next day, we got up bright'n early, and eagerly set off to explore Bangkok. Sukhumvit didn't strike us as a particularly interesting area to explore (unless you're into, let's say, a certain kind of of late-night tourism Thailand has a bit of a reputation for...). It is kind of interesting to walk around the area to get an idea of everyday life of Thai people - but I think there are nicer places in Bangkok for that.

Anyway, we decided to head towards Siam square and the modern part of the city, and visit Jim Thomson house. Now, Jim Thompson is what I would call an interesting character. Trained as an architect, he ended up working for the OSS (the predecessor of the CIA) during World War II, and was sent to Thailand. After the war, Mr. Thompson stayed in Thailand, and decided to get into business, co-founding the Thai Silk Company. It turned out to be a very lucrative business, and the money he earned allowed him to build this fascinating house we were visiting. Mr. Thompson's death was at least as unusual as his life - he mysteriously disappeared in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia (there are plenty of conspiracy theories relating to his disappearance - including that it was the CIA that had him killed, of course!).

Anyway, the house... Located by a Klong (a canal), the house, or rather collection of houses) was reconstructed form 6 ancient Thai houses in 1959 (built using traditional Thai methods and so forth). Apparently the complex is the most authentic example of a traditional Thai house in Bangkok. Mr Thompson was also a very keen collector of Thai art and antiquities, and there is a very impressive collection of items on display. (one theory about Mr. Thompson's disappearance is that the Thai government had him killed since he wanted to ship all his stuff back to the US).

Having checked out Mr. Thompson's house, we headed across the canal for a random walk in the streets of Bangkok. We picked a pretty good spot to check out "everyday life" - people getting about their business, the streetfood vendors, small family-run shops (nice change to the Western worlds standard high-street shops that seem to invade all cities...). I even managed to find a nice little, decidedly un-fashionable barber shop where a nice lady agreed to give me a haircut.

My hair nice and short, it was time to grab some lunch, so we decided to make our way to a shopping mall next to Siam square, where we found a nice food court recommended in our guide book. Excellent choice - I've rarely paid so little for such excellent food! Our appetite sated, we headed off for a spot of shopping, yippee!!

After visiting the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (a nice little museum a bit similar to the Guggenheim museum, with an interesting-ish photgraphy exhibition), just across the street from the shopping mall, we jumped on the skytrain and made our way back to our hotel, where we enjoyed the rooftop pool for a bit (we definitely needed it, the heat in Bangkok was pretty oppressive!). For dinner, we decided to try some Korean food nearby, in the Korean quarter. (Bangkok is an excellent place to have all sorts of Asian cuisine). We had a Korean BBQ - pretty good!

The next day, it was time to leave the hustle and bustle of Tokyo and head for Ko Samet. We figured a visit to one of the Thai islands was pretty much mandatory - and Ko Samet is the closest one easily accessible from Bangkok. We grabbed a minibus from Bangkok to Ban Phe, on the mainland, from where we jumped on a boat to Ko Samet.

After arrival, we decided to head out on foot and try to find our hotel. Not an easy task, given the oppressive heat and the luggage we were carrying around, but after a few wrong turns and some helpful locals, we finally managed to find the place, the cheerfully colourful Baan Supparod, and took possession of our bungalow. We didn't feel particularly ambitious this afternoon, and basically just headed down to the nearby Sai Kaew beach. A pretty nice spot to catch some rays and have a swim - even though it's pretty heavily developed, with restaurants lining the beach which no doubt was pristine and paradise-like some 10-20 years ago...

For dinner, we found a nice little beach-side restaurant, where we had some freshly caught (apparently) fish. The setting was pretty much perfect - pretty nice dining barefoot in the sand... And let's not forget about the entertainment either - some young entertainers put up a nice fire show on the beach. The food was a little bit disappointing, but all in all, we had a very nice evening!

After a pretty nice breakfast at our hotel, we headed off to explore the island. We were a bit more ambitious this time, and decided to take the coastal footpath which follows the Eastern coastline (the Island is about 8 kilometres long in total). A pretty nice walk, it must be said, we stopped on the nicer beaches to cool off in the sea (well, not sure it cooled us down much, the water felt almost as hot as the air!), or to have a refreshing coconut. Our lunch stop was pretty disappointing (I had a rather plain Phad Thai...). We did see some of the less glamorous aspects of Ko Samet during our hike, too (the waste disposal activities of some of the resorts looked decidedly dodgy - of the kind "let's dump all the rubbish behind the resort where the tourists won't go and look anyway")

Anyway, we finished our odyssey at a very nice beach called Ao Kio, towards the southern tip of the Island. Now this beach was paradise - hardly any tourists in sight, amazing sand, clear water, and hardly any signs of civilization to be seen. So we spent quite a while chilling out at this lovely beach, enjoying the sun & sea... One nasty little discovery - either somebody ripped us off or the factor written on the sun screen oil is measured on a different scale compared to Europe (we both got burnt in spite of covering ourselves up in factor 50 sun screen on several occasions!). Feeling lazy, we decided to take a taxi back to our resort...

After another nice dinner on the beach (the best meal we had on the island...), it was time to hit our beds. And then the next morning, 'twas sadly time to leave Ko Samet and head back to Bangkok, after a couple of leisurely hours spent on the beach by the hotel.

Ko Samet was a pretty nice, relaxing break after quite a few intensive days in Singapore and Bangkok. But signs of over-development are pretty evident, unfortunately... Still, just what the doctor ordered!