We're on day 3 in bangkok and its been a super start to our Thailand experience. After India, Thailand feels like Disneyland! India is the gift that keeps on giving that way. Little things in Bangkok I just appreciate so much like SIDEWALKS!! And no horns:) Everything here just feels so easy.
I will admit I had my reservations about Thailand. It seemed like the ultimate banana pancake tourist trail.
I imagined tacky tourist markets everywhere and back alley Thai massage parlors. WELL, I WAS WRONG, those things do exist here but Bangkok has proved to be so much more. It is charming, modern and just a fun city to explore. The Thai people, particularly away from the tourists traps of Kho San Road and Old Bankok are so hospitable,kind and just full of smiles.
I am also impressed with the public transport, between the sky train, metro and odd ferry it is quite easy to get around.
We did some research and found a charismatic and cozy place called Focal Local in a quiet neighborhood about 15 m/in sky train ride from downtown and its been perfect.(super nice rooms all themed differently!) Family owned cafes and a local night markets are all out our front door and wandering the streets is so relaxing.
Our first day we arrived in Bangkok via the air India red eye which, well my video diary can tell you but we had zero sleep so arrived a little weary. However it was nothing some downtown Bangkok shopping and street food couldn't fix:)
We spent the day downtown wandering around local outdoor markets and shopping malls and just exploring the city. We found a quaint market that was set up by the government to allow small business to have affordable space to sell their wares. It was called the "good place market" and was chilled out, fun and full of friendliness ( its across from the paragon plaza for anyone interested).
On the way home we stopped in for a famous Thai massage at place downtown. It was a little more upscale (after later seeing some of the seedy looking places on Ko San Road)
We each had an hour massage and it was indeed one of the best massages I have ever had. What stood out the most was that there is more focus on stretching your muscles than actually digging into them. I felt sometimes the way she stretched me I was doing Yoga back in Goa again! It was a good experience and after all the bad press Thailand gets for its massage parlors it was nice to visit such a professional and relaxing place.
It's a pretty impressive structure to the eye, though not overly ancient, it is well maintained and the golden lacquer used to adorn much of the buildings makes you feel like your among riches.
However the highlight for me was the museum of textiles which is a museum on the grounds outlining the queens efforts since the 60's to support the textile industry in rural Thailand. The queen was proud of the quality and talent that the rural men and women possessed and after country wide tour in the 60's developed a program to offer funding and advertise the silks of Thailand. One of the ways she advertised was by always adorning herself in locally made garments. This in turn attracted buyers from all over the world including the British Royal family. The garments the queen wore were all on display at the museum along with some truly impressive videos on the processes of making silk right from the worm to the dress. Totally a highlight!
We then hit a little place near the palace for lunch which was a disappointment compared to the street food and restaurant we had visited the day before. But I find touristy areas always have watered down versions of the originals.
We then headed over to Wat Pho (AKA,the temple of the reclining Buddha) it was a pretty unique site as a whole. The temple was built in 1788 and is named after a town in India where the Buddha was thought to have lived.
What is so imposing about the site is that when entering the temple your confronted with a 15 meter high, 46 meter long gold lacquered Buddha shining and staring down in all of his glory. It really showed the power people got from the buddha( and still do). Though there were many tourists there were also many worshipers down on their knees so his power still lives
on.
That night we decided to keep on the tourist trail and we against all good wisdom hit up Ko San Road. If you had in your mind( as I did prior to coming to Bangkok) that Bangkok was just drunk foreigners looking to act stupid, well this street would definitely reinforce that perception. We thought we had better just check it out before judging( we were right!) and though it was everything we thought, it wasn't all bad, it was great for people watching! We ended up having dinner at a restaurant on the street and just watched the circus. There were touts selling pretty much the same trinkets I've seen in every country and a string of tourists walking the strip. We perused the street a little after but aside from night clubs, restaurants and dodgy looking massage parlors there wasn't much more.But its one of those places you have to hit once and check off your list.
Our third day we decided to take in one of Bangkok's famous floating markets. I had been researching them and for the most part had heard many had become tourist traps but after some time and effort I did find one that was a little smaller than some others but was an authentic local floating market. So we took the ferry down the Chao Phraya River and then Tuk tuked the rest of the way to the Taning Chow Market. It was a fantastic market with a smorgasbord of right-out-of-the-kitchen (and water!) food delights. It is just as you would imagine a floating market to be, fisher families had pulled their boats up to the dock and were lined up serving their own personal version of a Thai specialty. We pretty much just snacked for 3 hours straight and it was one savory endeavor after another!
There were also stands selling a variety of crafts,clothing and jewelry and live music set up for all to enjoy. It was a Saturday and it felt nice to be celebrating the weekend with Thai families. When you are on the road for long period of time changing "homes" before you can really nest, there is nothing more comforting and familiar than spending the day with regular people doing regular weekend things. It was a truly wonderful experience.
So after about three hours we decided to head back downtown to a quirky shopping centre we had heard about( Bangkok is famous for its shopping malls).
Well without realizing it, rush hour had spring upon us and getting a taxi was proving impossible. I had approached 2 people on the street to ask if they had wanted to share one to save on costs and they were happy to. They actually were father and daughter on a trip together and were from India! So we bonded quite well the four of us and as luck may have it ended up in a two hour taxi ride in rush hour traffic. The conversation flowed and before we knew it we were downtown albeit there were a few broken english conversations with the taxi driver who I'm pretty sure had no idea where exactly we were going as at one point after an hour in the car passed me a cell phone and had me explain where we were going to his brother!
We did eventually make it to Terminal 21, which is a shopping mall modeled after an airport and with all of the 8 floors being a different city in the world. Each floor is designed with all the architecture and icons of that city as well as clothing stores to match.
A fantastic and just fun place to while away the evening.
Of all the large cities we have been to,none match the ease and style of Bangkok. My preconceived notions of Bangkok as being the banana pancake center of the east were wrong. Mass tourism exists but in a city this size(10 million people) with such superb infrastructure, highly efficient transport and with a little research you can easily avoid that tourist racket. We have loved it so much that we have tacked on 2 more days before we fly to Bali to explore even more of the city.
Off to bed.....peace:)
I will admit I had my reservations about Thailand. It seemed like the ultimate banana pancake tourist trail.
I imagined tacky tourist markets everywhere and back alley Thai massage parlors. WELL, I WAS WRONG, those things do exist here but Bangkok has proved to be so much more. It is charming, modern and just a fun city to explore. The Thai people, particularly away from the tourists traps of Kho San Road and Old Bankok are so hospitable,kind and just full of smiles.
I am also impressed with the public transport, between the sky train, metro and odd ferry it is quite easy to get around.
We did some research and found a charismatic and cozy place called Focal Local in a quiet neighborhood about 15 m/in sky train ride from downtown and its been perfect.(super nice rooms all themed differently!) Family owned cafes and a local night markets are all out our front door and wandering the streets is so relaxing.
Our first day we arrived in Bangkok via the air India red eye which, well my video diary can tell you but we had zero sleep so arrived a little weary. However it was nothing some downtown Bangkok shopping and street food couldn't fix:)
We spent the day downtown wandering around local outdoor markets and shopping malls and just exploring the city. We found a quaint market that was set up by the government to allow small business to have affordable space to sell their wares. It was called the "good place market" and was chilled out, fun and full of friendliness ( its across from the paragon plaza for anyone interested).
On the way home we stopped in for a famous Thai massage at place downtown. It was a little more upscale (after later seeing some of the seedy looking places on Ko San Road)
We each had an hour massage and it was indeed one of the best massages I have ever had. What stood out the most was that there is more focus on stretching your muscles than actually digging into them. I felt sometimes the way she stretched me I was doing Yoga back in Goa again! It was a good experience and after all the bad press Thailand gets for its massage parlors it was nice to visit such a professional and relaxing place.
After all that work getting massaged we were hungry! So we returned to our area of the city and found a little family run place down the street and had some amazing cashew chicken stir fry, totally tantalizing!!
The next day we headed to the old city to take on the sites. We hit the grand palace. It is actually a series of buildings and pavilions built starting in 1792 and was the residence of the kings of Siam and then eventually kings of Thailand until 1925 when the king moved his residence off site and then in 1932 the monarchy was overthrown to allow for a constitutional monarchy.It's a pretty impressive structure to the eye, though not overly ancient, it is well maintained and the golden lacquer used to adorn much of the buildings makes you feel like your among riches.
However the highlight for me was the museum of textiles which is a museum on the grounds outlining the queens efforts since the 60's to support the textile industry in rural Thailand. The queen was proud of the quality and talent that the rural men and women possessed and after country wide tour in the 60's developed a program to offer funding and advertise the silks of Thailand. One of the ways she advertised was by always adorning herself in locally made garments. This in turn attracted buyers from all over the world including the British Royal family. The garments the queen wore were all on display at the museum along with some truly impressive videos on the processes of making silk right from the worm to the dress. Totally a highlight!
We then hit a little place near the palace for lunch which was a disappointment compared to the street food and restaurant we had visited the day before. But I find touristy areas always have watered down versions of the originals.
We then headed over to Wat Pho (AKA,the temple of the reclining Buddha) it was a pretty unique site as a whole. The temple was built in 1788 and is named after a town in India where the Buddha was thought to have lived.
What is so imposing about the site is that when entering the temple your confronted with a 15 meter high, 46 meter long gold lacquered Buddha shining and staring down in all of his glory. It really showed the power people got from the buddha( and still do). Though there were many tourists there were also many worshipers down on their knees so his power still lives
on.
That night we decided to keep on the tourist trail and we against all good wisdom hit up Ko San Road. If you had in your mind( as I did prior to coming to Bangkok) that Bangkok was just drunk foreigners looking to act stupid, well this street would definitely reinforce that perception. We thought we had better just check it out before judging( we were right!) and though it was everything we thought, it wasn't all bad, it was great for people watching! We ended up having dinner at a restaurant on the street and just watched the circus. There were touts selling pretty much the same trinkets I've seen in every country and a string of tourists walking the strip. We perused the street a little after but aside from night clubs, restaurants and dodgy looking massage parlors there wasn't much more.But its one of those places you have to hit once and check off your list.
Our third day we decided to take in one of Bangkok's famous floating markets. I had been researching them and for the most part had heard many had become tourist traps but after some time and effort I did find one that was a little smaller than some others but was an authentic local floating market. So we took the ferry down the Chao Phraya River and then Tuk tuked the rest of the way to the Taning Chow Market. It was a fantastic market with a smorgasbord of right-out-of-the-kitchen (and water!) food delights. It is just as you would imagine a floating market to be, fisher families had pulled their boats up to the dock and were lined up serving their own personal version of a Thai specialty. We pretty much just snacked for 3 hours straight and it was one savory endeavor after another!
There were also stands selling a variety of crafts,clothing and jewelry and live music set up for all to enjoy. It was a Saturday and it felt nice to be celebrating the weekend with Thai families. When you are on the road for long period of time changing "homes" before you can really nest, there is nothing more comforting and familiar than spending the day with regular people doing regular weekend things. It was a truly wonderful experience.
So after about three hours we decided to head back downtown to a quirky shopping centre we had heard about( Bangkok is famous for its shopping malls).
Well without realizing it, rush hour had spring upon us and getting a taxi was proving impossible. I had approached 2 people on the street to ask if they had wanted to share one to save on costs and they were happy to. They actually were father and daughter on a trip together and were from India! So we bonded quite well the four of us and as luck may have it ended up in a two hour taxi ride in rush hour traffic. The conversation flowed and before we knew it we were downtown albeit there were a few broken english conversations with the taxi driver who I'm pretty sure had no idea where exactly we were going as at one point after an hour in the car passed me a cell phone and had me explain where we were going to his brother!
We did eventually make it to Terminal 21, which is a shopping mall modeled after an airport and with all of the 8 floors being a different city in the world. Each floor is designed with all the architecture and icons of that city as well as clothing stores to match.
A fantastic and just fun place to while away the evening.
Of all the large cities we have been to,none match the ease and style of Bangkok. My preconceived notions of Bangkok as being the banana pancake center of the east were wrong. Mass tourism exists but in a city this size(10 million people) with such superb infrastructure, highly efficient transport and with a little research you can easily avoid that tourist racket. We have loved it so much that we have tacked on 2 more days before we fly to Bali to explore even more of the city.
Off to bed.....peace:)
Josh & Niki,
ReplyDeleteI am so enjoying your blog, and the particular mindset you both have as you continue on your fantastic journey. Your description and experience in Bangkok was spot on. I wish you all the best in your travels, and look forward to more of these, very well written, blogs.
I'm sure a song or two will be coming out of all this. Studio's open and free, anytime.
all my love
Michael