The next day we hoped that Daniel's sister, Christine would meet us, but she got stuck i
n Narita, Japan. After I pouted for a half day, we walked around Bangkok waiting for our night bike tour of Bangk
ok. We have never been to so many malls that are exactly like the malls in America, nor have we been attacked by so many scam artist. Bangkok is a complete capitalist town. Everything is for sale, and it is negotiable to boot. We had some lady, from the "tourist police" try to tell us that we needed to go see the temples in downtown because the mall was closed and so was the market. She would get a good rate for a Tuk Tuk for us (which wasn't really a great rate at all). Daniel kept telling her we just wanted to walk around. She could not understand the concept at all; finally we just had to walk off. Finally, we took a cab down to the temple area. It cost us two hundred fifty Baht because of traffic and our cab driver got lost twice. I was mad because a quick twenty min cab ride ended being an hour and half and we were getting close to missing dinner or our bike tour. The cab driver pulled over one more time and I said we were getting out. I didn't care where we were; we could find ourselves on a map and work from there. We took all of the cab driver's change because we only had a thousand baht bill on us. We ended up only paying two hundred of our bill. I was so happy because part of the reason I was so upset was because I knew that we were getting ripped off. We had to walk kind of far to get to our bike tour, but we found it, and had our first street vendor food. It was noodles and it was completely awesome.
Now our bike tour was by far the best part of Bangkok because we finally got to see something. Plus we had some awesome tour guides that explained things to us so we weren't so clueless. We first went through Thailand's oldest University, which it was graduation night which was why all of the traffic was so nasty, we crossed the old river into what is known as old Bangkok. Old Bangkok was were the city started, but then crossed the river for all of the industry and modern buildings. We saw how pumelos were preserved in this family's back yard that had been doing it for centuries on the same street.
We then continued onto Wat Arun, Temple of the Dawn. It was the first temple that King Rama I restored in Bangkok. He found the temple at Dawn and used it as the most important spiritual center in Bangkok until the city grew across the river and the royal palace became it the most spiritual place. It was a beautiful temple we got to see the famous guards from the Thai Epic, Ramakien.
The best part was that all the temples were deserted because they are closed to tourist, and payment after 5pm, but are open to the locals. The next place we went to was the largest flower market in the city and was open at night. We had to bike through some tenements to get there. It was pretty cool and a little disturbing to cycle through and see people watching their TV on little chairs and cots.
We crossed the bridge and was in the flower market. I have never seen so many flower in one area. The London flower market was nothing compared to this. It was cheap too two dozen baby roses for less than a dollar. It wasn't just roses, but orchids and jasmine and daisies. Any flower under the sky (or practically). Most people came here to get their flowers for their religious ceremonies.
We then went to Wat Pho which houses the four Stupas that the first four kings of Thailand's ashes are housed. This temple also houses the Reclining Buddha (largest in the world), it also was where monks practiced yoga before it became a public temple. There are all these statues with different yoga moves you can learn to do. It also has a wall where the massage students would come and learn the massage moves for Thai massage. There were over a hundred and fifty different moves and what they were suppose to help the body. The Thai school became so large that they had to move it outside of the temple, but they will have field trips to look at the wall to understand the history.
My favorite part of this temple was the fertility statue. Daniel and I kept looking at the stupas and thinking they were phallic. But the fertility statue there is no mistake that it is phallic, since it is a penis. It has Buddha's face on it, and women who aren't getting pregnant or are about to start trying would pray over it and then pour water over top of it for symbolic obvious reasons. I took twenty pictures trying to get Buddha's face, but he is rubbed very smooth.
Nok was our tour guide. She was great because she had a great sense of humor and told about interesting things. She was training another guide. Daniel finally got to ask all of his political questions he wanted to because they actually knew English. He asked them if they like Burma and how they really felt about it. He got one of them to say that they liked Burma was fine, but they had a deep seated hatred and weren't really okay with them. They told us that the current king was born in exile in America. Daniel just responded with, "So, your king is American then...hmm I guess then America owns Thailand!" The other tour guide didn't get that he was joking, but Nok busted up laughing.
n Narita, Japan. After I pouted for a half day, we walked around Bangkok waiting for our night bike tour of Bangk
ok. We have never been to so many malls that are exactly like the malls in America, nor have we been attacked by so many scam artist. Bangkok is a complete capitalist town. Everything is for sale, and it is negotiable to boot. We had some lady, from the "tourist police" try to tell us that we needed to go see the temples in downtown because the mall was closed and so was the market. She would get a good rate for a Tuk Tuk for us (which wasn't really a great rate at all). Daniel kept telling her we just wanted to walk around. She could not understand the concept at all; finally we just had to walk off. Finally, we took a cab down to the temple area. It cost us two hundred fifty Baht because of traffic and our cab driver got lost twice. I was mad because a quick twenty min cab ride ended being an hour and half and we were getting close to missing dinner or our bike tour. The cab driver pulled over one more time and I said we were getting out. I didn't care where we were; we could find ourselves on a map and work from there. We took all of the cab driver's change because we only had a thousand baht bill on us. We ended up only paying two hundred of our bill. I was so happy because part of the reason I was so upset was because I knew that we were getting ripped off. We had to walk kind of far to get to our bike tour, but we found it, and had our first street vendor food. It was noodles and it was completely awesome.
Now our bike tour was by far the best part of Bangkok because we finally got to see something. Plus we had some awesome tour guides that explained things to us so we weren't so clueless. We first went through Thailand's oldest University, which it was graduation night which was why all of the traffic was so nasty, we crossed the old river into what is known as old Bangkok. Old Bangkok was were the city started, but then crossed the river for all of the industry and modern buildings. We saw how pumelos were preserved in this family's back yard that had been doing it for centuries on the same street. 
We then continued onto Wat Arun, Temple of the Dawn. It was the first temple that King Rama I restored in Bangkok. He found the temple at Dawn and used it as the most important spiritual center in Bangkok until the city grew across the river and the royal palace became it the most spiritual place. It was a beautiful temple we got to see the famous guards from the Thai Epic, Ramakien.
The best part was that all the temples were deserted because they are closed to tourist, and payment after 5pm, but are open to the locals. The next place we went to was the largest flower market in the city and was open at night. We had to bike through some tenements to get there. It was pretty cool and a little disturbing to cycle through and see people watching their TV on little chairs and cots. 
We crossed the bridge and was in the flower market. I have never seen so many flower in one area. The London flower market was nothing compared to this. It was cheap too two dozen baby roses for less than a dollar. It wasn't just roses, but orchids and jasmine and daisies. Any flower under the sky (or practically). Most people came here to get their flowers for their religious ceremonies. 
We then went to Wat Pho which houses the four Stupas that the first four kings of Thailand's ashes are housed. This temple also houses the Reclining Buddha (largest in the world), it also was where monks practiced yoga before it became a public temple. There are all these statues with different yoga moves you can learn to do. It also has a wall where the massage students would come and learn the massage moves for Thai massage. There were over a hundred and fifty different moves and what they were suppose to help the body. The Thai school became so large that they had to move it outside of the temple, but they will have field trips to look at the wall to understand the history.
My favorite part of this temple was the fertility statue. Daniel and I kept looking at the stupas and thinking they were phallic. But the fertility statue there is no mistake that it is phallic, since it is a penis. It has Buddha's face on it, and women who aren't getting pregnant or are about to start trying would pray over it and then pour water over top of it for symbolic obvious reasons. I took twenty pictures trying to get Buddha's face, but he is rubbed very smooth.
Nok was our tour guide. She was great because she had a great sense of humor and told about interesting things. She was training another guide. Daniel finally got to ask all of his political questions he wanted to because they actually knew English. He asked them if they like Burma and how they really felt about it. He got one of them to say that they liked Burma was fine, but they had a deep seated hatred and weren't really okay with them. They told us that the current king was born in exile in America. Daniel just responded with, "So, your king is American then...hmm I guess then America owns Thailand!" The other tour guide didn't get that he was joking, but Nok busted up laughing.
2 comments:
What fun! It sounds like you and Daniel have great adventures together. I can't imagine the crazy adventures we'd have if we all traveled together. Talk about world destruction.
You are going to make Christine cry with these posts!!! Sounds like you had an amazing time!
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