Spring Festival III: Bangkok - Who says you can't have it all?

The Grand Palace

When planning our trip to Southeast Asia for our 6 week holiday, I felt sad to leave China, a country I have grown to understand and even love parts of. But the tides change and by our last day in China, I was more than ready to jump on a plane for another country. I knew Thailand would have different food, scenery, and language, the latter of these I was quite worried about. I mean, we have struggled day in and day out to get by in China, and we now even speak a bit of Chinese. What were we thinking traveling to a country where we knew nothing of the language and had no friends?! Much to our surprise, Thailand was prepared for us and all the other tourists who didn't speak Thai. The airplane attendants spoke English, the airport signs were in English, and then we got in our taxi cab and even the taxi driver spoke English. In fact, Thais study English from primary school. Thailand has one of the highest education rates in the world (around 97% of their population are educated). I was impressed. We made it to our hotel and again, I was impressed. It was clean, there was a bell boy, they had a soft bed and air conditioning. 7-elevens on every corner sold Ritz crackers and name-brand toiletries (even floss!) and the pharmacies sold western medicines. We even visited one of their many hospitals to get vaccinations we would need for the remainder of our time in China. The hospital might as well have been a 5 star hotel. They documented everything and spelled our names right. We even have ID cards, if we ever need to go back. I truly have never seen such a nice hospital in my life, complete with garden courtyards, free beverages, and comfy couches. Sadly, I broke our camera on our second day in Bangkok, but no fret, there were hundreds for sale at the shopping mall down the street. Bangkok has it all. I honestly felt like I was in Houston.

So what is Thai about Bangkok? Yes, the people are loyal citizens of Thailand subscribing to their nationalism and religion. Buddhism is the main religion of Thailand, and you could not avoid seeing temples if you wanted to. They are everywhere, in the cities and in the countryside. Many shops and homes have a "spirit house" set out by their front door to appease their deceased relatives and even evil spirits so they would have no need to haunt their businesses and homes. Food and drink offerings were left daily at these bird house-like miniature temples. We always saw locals visiting the temples to pay their respects to the monks. Orange-robed monks could be seen out and about in nearly every setting and every city in Thailand. As for nationalism, it is almost an equal rival to religion for it's place in the Thai's daily life. Thais are very loyal to their country and their King. The king is 81 years old and has been "in power" for over 60 years. He is pictured on billboards, t-shirts, and banners. Daily, the local news reports on what the royal family did that day/week for a good portion of the news program. While we were there, there was news of a reporter being sent to jail for making negative comments about the King. Yes, you can be jailed for such treason! He is a slightly awkward looking man who holds no real power over the country, but his opinions are highly respected. The true "legal" authority is the prime minister, a young Oxford-educated man newly appointed to power after the airport holdups in December. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, but there were actually many more pictures of the King in Thailand than Mao in China. While travelling outside of Thailand, we learned of some possible scandals within the royal family, but we didn't hear any of this within the country. The Thais truly love him and one of his daughters. Apparently, they are not so fond of the oldest son who stands in line for the crown (again, we heard this while travelling outside of Thailand, Thai's would never admit this publicly)...so we'll see what happens with that.

The King and Queen pictured alongside the freeway

I think my favorite part of Thailand and Bangkok was the street food. They love their food even more than the Chinese. The Thais are known to eat all day long. Any flavor (sweet, spicy, salty) is okay by them for any time of day. Coconut cream was added to half of the dishes we tried. They make these snacks that are a cross between a mini muffin and a pancake made with flour, coconut cream, and chives. They are fried in a round ball so the middle is still runny and the outside hot and crispy. WOW! The street food stands were incredible, whipping up pad thai, pad see ew, stir fries, curries, and fried rice. A wedge of lime came with everything ( we have NO limes in China - so this was refreshing) and it all washed down perfectly with an ice cold orange Fanta from the bottle. Ahhh! Bangkok was so busy and soooo hot. We were in heaven. A smoggy, dirty, loud heaven that is.

So Thailand comes quite close to having it all; culture, religion, food, and modern conveniences. I would be leading you astray if I didn't mention some of the pitfalls of Thailand and Bangkok in particular. There is no social security system (surprise, surprise!) and there has been a lot of turnover in the government. While it is safe, it is not incredibly stable. As a result, people are anxious to make a buck any way imaginable. The tuk tuk drivers are particularly annoying, offering a great deal on a "tour of the city" only to drive you to a gem shop or the wrong hotel where they receive commission from the shop keepers. They are anxious for your business, hollering at every passer-by, "Where are you going?" These scams and high-quoted prices for foreign shoppers are something I have not seen in China. Maybe it's the character of the people, maybe it's because Thailand has SO many tourists, maybe Thailand has higher expectations after seeing all of the westerners come in with their pricey clothes and accessories, or maybe it's just more noticeable because they ALL speak English. If you get your game-face on and learn to ignore these annoyances and bargain with a vengeance, you'll make it through Thailand unscathed.

We spent many days in Bangkok throughout our trip, as it was the launching point for several of our journeys. Besides eating, we did cross off several sights on our "must see" list. We took a ferry down the Chao Phraya river, offering glimpses of both daily life and magnificent river-side temples. We visited Wat Pho, an impressive and colorful temple that rivaled all others we saw in Thailand (wat means temple in Thai). Wat Pho was the first university in Thailand and is an important educational center for traditional Thai medicine, which included massage and yoga. In fact, you can see statues depicting Thai massage and yoga throughout the temple grounds to serve as visual aids for the students at one time. As a result, Wat Pho was and still is today the premier school for Thai massage students. The temple consisted of stupas (large cone-like shrines storing relics of old kings, monks, and some even claiming the relics of Buddha himself), several worship halls, and rooms holding Buddha statues. One of the most famous Buddha statues is the reclining Buddha, which was in a room at Wat Pho much too small for it's size. This Buddha was HUGE. His head rested on his hand at one end of the hall, and his feet at the other. What an impressive statue! Of course, when we had exhausted ourselves from walking around the temple and the Grand Palace all day, we headed to the massage school where we both received the best massage of our lives. Thai massage is like passive yoga; the massage therapist is on the mat with you, using her feet, arms, and whole body to manipulate your body into stretches and pulls that twist your spine and leave you feeling incredibly relaxed. These small ladies could put a lot of effort into your massage. I am hooked on Thai massages. What a way to end a day!

Wat Pho

The Reclining Buddha, Wat Pho

The Reclining Buddha, Wat Pho

Wat Pho after dark

Thai Massage at at the temple

Of course, we spent a large part of a day visiting the Grand Palace. It is true to it's name, it is grand. The palace seems to never end and consists of more buildings and statues than seem necessary for one palace. As with Wat Pho, it was very colorful, made of mosaic tiles and gold leaf on almost every other inch of the complex. The Palace consisted of a library, housing for important guests, housing for the king (no longer in use), meeting halls, and it's own sprawling temple. There were frescoes depicting ancient Thai folktales and statues of characters from various cultural stories. There is a monkey king in one of the stories that is depicted often. Apparently the evil monkey king does not wear shoes. You can find one bare-foot monkey among the others. It was interesting to notice the lions decorating doors and gateways. Depending on who the builders were, they looked different. Some were Cambodian style, with square-like faces and more geometrical patterns. Others were influenced by the Chinese style. I was told it depended on who the artists were - they came from all over the region.

The Grand Palace's temple

Guard at the gates of The Grand Palace

Monkey Kings around the Stupa, The Grand Palace

One day, we took a day trip out of town to Damneon Saduak floating market. This village on the water has adapted to use the canals as roadways. Their morning produce market, and now tourist souvenir shops, can all be found floating along the canals in longtail boats. The vendors sell a variety of interesting fruits I had never seen and they were all delicious. Some vendors cooked entire meals or fried bananas on their small boat! We hired a boat for an hour and a half to carry us along the canal and beyond the market, into the quieter parts of town where you could see daily life existing on the water. Older women did laundry in their swimming suits in the canal, others bathed with soap as we passed by. While bits of this trip were touristy, you could still see a way of life that suited this particular town quite well. We really enjoyed our time there.

The floating market

A local at work cooking on her longtail boat- the floating market

We took a tour of the less-touristy parts of the city to get a feel for the true Bangkok. We had to see Chinatown of course, and as I had been warned, it was like every other China town in the world. Except, the shop keepers we saw were speaking Thai. It was crowded, with small streets and wholesale shops. Street food stalls blocked your way through the alleys and red lanterns hung low between the old apartment buildings. We moved on to find Thonburi district, where we saw the retired men chatting away their lazy late-afternoons. Back on the ferry we noticed a group of young school children, dressed in short-sleeve white dress shirts and pleated red skirts, catching the ferry home after a day at school. (I do think this dress looks nicer than the sweatsuits the Chinese students wear). Then we went on to Thewit, the district where the national library and the King's quarters can be found. This is a quaint tree-lined district for families and the elite. You couldn't get a great look at the King's home as it was well fenced in and guarded, but we did witness the Royal motorcade (a group of about 20-30 cream colored Mercedes Benz sedans) speeding down the street and into the palace, for which the police ensured that I did not take any pictures. We can only assume we saw the King drive by, but maybe it was the Prince or Princess. I guess we'll never know! We also walked by hanging orchid markets. Orchids grow like weeds here. They are beautiful and can be seen nearly everywhere!

Orchids for sale in Thewit, Bangkok

Back on backpacker's row, where we stayed in a guesthouse for two nights, we enjoyed more cheap street eats. Even fresh fish and seafood could be found on ice waiting to be grilled over an open flame. Two of our favorites were desserts (of course). Roti (unleavened flat bread) were fried like a thick pancake and filled with egg and banana, then topped with condensed milk and sugar. We later found that these pancakes could be filled with savory fillings for a delicious lunch. Finally, we enjoyed eating sticky rice with mango (and condensed milk on top). In fact, we enjoyed all kinds of fruit. You could buy fresh, cold, cut up fruit at nearly every corner.

We really enjoyed our time in Bangkok and quickly found ourselves becoming accustomed to the comforts of the life we once new. Already, we could tell it would be difficult to go back to our home in China. But first, we had 4 weeks of vacation left!!