Having spent a wonderful four days in Chiang Mai, we caught a morning flight from there and reached the Don Mueang International Airport, Bangkok, during the mid morning. We had already had a good breakfast at the Furama Hotel before leaving so we were okay. We picked up our bags back from the left luggage bureau and took a nice big Innova cab to the Frasers Suites Hotel at Sukhimvit. The hotel – now a dazzling modern structure – is owned by a prominent Indian, and he and his entire family are old friends of Nira, going back to the days when Nira was living there. Nira has made several trips to Bangkok even after leaving Thailand and has kept in touch, maintaining the strong bond. We had a good cozy well furnished apartment waiting for us when we reached the Hotel, and we were able to freshen up. We left the hotel once we were ready, headed to the Nana Metro Station (BTS Line) which was just 750m away – the hotel courtesy Tuk Tuk dropped us – and took a BST to Saphan Taksin Station. From there we planned to visit Asiatique, a riverside shopping enclave, where we would roam around, see the sights, watch the sunset, have a meal and make concrete plans for the remaining days that we were in Bangkok. Nira had already let us know that having seen Bangkok several times over, she was not that keen on joining us for the tiring walking tours but would use the time to start prep for her course and catch up with her former friends in Bangkok, so we were going to be pretty much on our own in Bangkok.
Unfortunately, our Hotel lacked a good travel desk, which was surprising and sad, because we had counted on doing all our sight seeing tours with them, a policy we pretty much follow wherever we travel. But as luck would have it, we spotted a good travel agency at the Saphan Taksin Metro station and in spite of language problems, were able to pick up some information on tours available, their costs, arrangements for hotel pickup and drop and so on. We would review and revert. For our return from Asiatique, we decided to spare ourselves the walks to and from the metro stations and take a cab door to door. A journey that would have taken us 20 minutes at most by BTS took us 2 hours plus, most of it just sitting in the cab, stuck in the rush hour traffic. The traffic lights were on manual control, and sometimes the wait at a light was almost 20 minutes. But there was lane discipline, patience, no criss crossing, and the traffic would move when it would move. Quite unlike Delhi or many other cities of India.
At the hotel, while I was almost half asleep, Tiny did her research on the various tours and for the next day we decided on the city tour, i.e. a visit to the Palace and to some of the major temples. A proper tour by bus was available from the tour company, but we realised a major portion of such a tour would mean just sitting in the traffic jams. Tiny did some more research and discovered that the same tour could be done by boat as well. The Long Boats which form the boat taxi service take off from the Sathorn Pier which is basically under the Saphan Taksin Station, so we could get there by BTS. Both of us are accustomed to walking so the walks here and there would be no bother. We were advised to start early, especially for the Palace tour – which cost a whopping THB 500 each as entry fee – to avoid the huge crowds which would start gathering once the bus loads of tourists started reaching there. We did make it early but not early enough and still had more than enough company. Whereas a taxi last evening from the same location had cost us nearly THB 400, a boat ride on the Chao Phraya Express Boat to the Palace would be just THB 15 per head, and no more than 10 minutes. I had intentionally left my camera behind today, not knowing what we would be subjected to and didn’t want any encumbrance I could do without. Still, between the two us, we managed to get some very memorable pictures on out phones. But more than the pictures, the memory of our visit to the Grand Palace, the King’s residence, will stay with us for a long time. Here are some pictures of the visit to the palace
After an exhilarating tour of the Grand Palace, our next halt was going to be the Temple of the Reclining Buddha or the Wat Pho as it is locally known. It was less than a Km away from the Palace and one could either walk the distance or take one of the exorbitantly priced Tuk Tuks waiting for ill informed tourists. We walked the distance and spent about an hour in the beautiful Wat. There is of course an entry fee of THB 100 each, but one doesn’t mind that, seeing how the place is so meticulously up kept and the people so orderly and well behaved as they go round. There is even a selfie spot near the Reclining Buddha where you can take proper pictures of the entire length of the statue. And people wait their turn, quickly take a picture and leave the place for the next person. You feel so humbled and at peace as you look at the beauty of the temple. In India I think the temple staff intentionally whip up a frenzy to create an atmosphere of chaos so that people jostle, push, step on each other’s feet as they try to get their darshan of the Gods. Some pictures of the Wat Pho are below:
Our next port of call was going to be the Temple of the Golden Buddha or the Wat Traimit. We seemed to have gotten our bearings slightly wrong for this one because we felt it was again walking distance from the Wat Pho where we were. But, as we discovered, it was not that close so we negotiated with a taxi driver who seemed friendly enough and spoke enough English to understand where we wanted to go. And indeed, it was a good distance away, tucked away in Chinatown, and he brought us there. The Golden Buddha is located on the 4th Floor of the temple and it is a good steep climb up the stairs. Very daunting. But having made so much effort in getting here, we braved the climb and paid our obeisance of the Golden Buddha. Some pictures are below :
Our next and last port of call was going to be the Wat Arun, one of the most beautiful temples of Bangkok. It was on the waterfront, and on the way to the Taksin BST Station from where we would return to our hotel at Sukhimvit. But we would need a taxi to get us to the waterfront. We finally found one and tried to explain to him where we wanted to go – the Waterside. But there was a communication gap and so he brought us to a Hotel bearing the same name located quite far from where we actually wanted to go. Could hardly blame him, but now we showed him on the map and got him to understand where exactly we wanted to go and he finally brought us there. In fact it was not far at all from where we had started, so this unnecessary detour was a waste of time and money. What was worse was that the weather had turned dark and rain seemed imminent. Still, we made it to the Wat Arun and were able to see the temple quite comfortably before the heavens came down. Pictures of Wat Arun are below :
We were able to get a Long Boat from Wat Arun back to the Pier but by this time the rain had become torrential and showing no signs of letting up. The walk from the Pier to the station too was mostly under cover but we were hungry and didn’t know if we would be able to find some place suitable at Sukhimvit in the rain. Fortunately, we spotted a McDonalds right across and charged into it. Good Old Mcdonalds can always be counted upon for a No Brainer meal..
And then it was back to the hotel at the end of a tiring but fruitful day,.