Thailand
July 27, 2007
Note: click on the thumbnails for a bigger and clearer picture. You can also skip my commentary and head directly to the pictures too.
July 14
Bangkok was to be our stepping stone onto Siem Reap. The lady’s company has a branch in Bangkok and she has been corresponding with people there for years. She’s also known Japanese nationals who have been sent there for five year stints as well. While she’s been communicating with them via phone and email, this would be her first time meeting most of them face to face.
Bangkok is about 6 hours away from Osaka but Bangkok Airways made it much easier to bare. They have personal entertainment units in each seat. The remote control doubles as a phone and video game controller. You can choose when to start any of the dozen or so movies available. Also you can even customize playlists from the different music tracks but as always, the music selection was sketchy, at best.
When we got there, the heat and humidity really hit. It was at least 30 degrees when we arrived around 6:30pm and the humidity was around 80% supposedly. The lady’s friends jokingly told us that in Thailand, there are three kinds of weather: hot, hotter, and hottest. They weren’t kidding.
Her friend Parinya picked us up from the airport and took us to our hotel. It was an awesome hotel with a great lounge with live Thai music. The service was excellent and it was located in a very interesting part of town – Siam Square. Right away you can notice the different bars and clubs and the presence of foreigners. Some of the rather shady looking clubs had scantily-clad girls sitting outside in rather… provocative ways. They all called out to guys… in Japanese. Unfortunately I now know what Japanese travelers do in Bangkok.
Afterwards, about half a dozen people from the company and some family members came out and met us for dinner. We went to a nice Thai restaurant near the hotel and having that beer after a long flight really hit the spot. Unfortunately my stomach wasn’t in the best of shape and I couldn’t enjoy all the awesome Thai food that was placed before me. The spices were making my stomach scream for toilet. We thanked them for their most gracious visit and dinner and we parted ways.
Later that night the lady and I walked around the area. I noticed a lot of people hanging out on the streets. Some of them sat in make-shift food stands and ate and drank. Others just sat on the street speaking, or trying to pawn off crappy goods. Everyone seemed pretty relaxed. To our surprise, I saw a guy walk by with a baby elephant in tow! Unfortunately I couldn’t set up my shot right so it came out too blurry and dark. After that we were too tired to do anything else and the scantily clad ladies were calling out so we headed back to the hotel and got some good rest.
July 15
We got up early and had breakfast at the hotel. I must say I am beginning to fall in love with these hotel buffet breakfasts. They serve a bit of every kind of breakfast I can think of and offer limitless portions. More importantly a hot cup of coffee is just soothing to a wary traveler, especially one with stomach issues already.
Parinya met us with the company car and he took us around town. We drove past many neat looking places – the current palace grounds, the city spire, many gold-colored buildings, and many huge pictures and paintings of the King. Of course the roads were full of cars, motorcycles, and the infamous tuk tuk – imagine a motorcycle and a horse drawn carriage had an extramarital affair: a tuk tuk would be its illegitimate lovechild.
Eventually we survived Thai traffic and ended up at Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace. I think Phra Kaew means golden mountain if I remember what Parinya said. The main attraction is the big golden spire in the middle of the area. There are several pavilions in the complex and reconstruction continues in several parts of the temple. The Grand Palace is no longer inhabited by the royal family but I guess they move around every few years.
Thai temples really differ from Japanese temples in a few big ways. Thai temples tend to be much more colorful than the humbling colors of Japanese temples. The carvings and decor seem to be more outspoken and bold, with statues in man kinds of positions, whereas the Japanese counterparts seem to be more reserved. It was also interesting to see influences from different cultures. Noteably Guan Yu statues protect a few buildings.
When we finished it was only noon but the sun and the humidity was beating down hard. We had a nice lunch and Burin joined us along with a couple of other very friendly and smiley people and then visited the National Museum. Unfortunately most of the buildings in this complex were not air conditioned. This made for a very uncomfortable stroll through stuffy buildings. I was too exhausted to even take pictures here. The artwork and historical pieces were very nice to look at but the only thing on my mind was, “get out of this heat”. We put up the white flag and asked Parinya if we could move on.
We had one last request before heading back to the hotel. There is a huge reclined buddha statue in Wat Pho – made famous by Streetfigher 2 (remember Sagat’s level?) and the many Japanese travel shows to Thailand. We just had to see this very comfortable-looking buddha.
Even though it was so hot it was well worth the visit. The statue is huge. You can see its toes just tower over me. There was also a ritual where you pick up a pot of copper coin-looking pieces and slowly but methodically throw a few of them into these pots lined against the wall. Your goal was to have enough
After that we were done. Parinya and Burin dropped us off at our hotel and we exchanged very fond farewells. I honestly felt my experience in Thailand was so fantastic because of these guys. Thank yous!
July 16
Waking up early again and enjoying another great hotel buffet breakfast, we make our way to the airport and get on a a tiny airplane, the smallest I’ve ever been in, with propellers instead of those big barrel shaped engines. The ride itself wasn’t too bad but turbulence really hit the plane. There were no cool personal entertainment units in each seat and I think there was only one washroom too. No matter! We were about to embark on the next leg of our trip: onward to Cambodia and onward to Siem Reap!
