After a 24 hour train ride from Beijing to Hong Kong, a quick transfer to the airport, and then a 4 hour flight south, we arrived in Bangkok in the wee hours of November 20th. The bus ride downtown was relatively quick and easy, as was finding a place to stay at 2 am! We had considered booking something, but since no one offered a decently priced airport pick-up, we figured we'd just wing it. So, welcome to Bangkok, or, to be completely accurate, welcome to
Krung-dēvamahānagara amararatanakosindra mahindrayudhyā mahātilakabhava navaratanarājadhānī purīramya utamarājanivēsana mahāsthāna amaravimāna avatārasthitya shakrasdattiya vishnukarmaprasiddhi. That's it's official name (really!) and it means "The city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukam." :)
The warm weather was probably the first thing we notice upon arrival. It was lovely to arrive in the middle of the night and still be able to walk around without a coat. The weather continued to be nice—warm and sunny without being too hot. It was wonderful to rediscover a whole new wardrobe in our bags. Okay, so this consisted of maybe five pieces of clothing, but when you only have about a dozen pieces, rediscovering five is a big thing! The warm weather also made Amanda happy for another reason: it's ice cream weather again...and while we haven't eaten MacDonald's food over here, we will admit to eating their ice cream. Why? Only 9 baht for a cone (or 12 baht for a dipped one.) That's about 30 cents or so, not bad!
For about the first week in Bangkok, we were staying in the Khaosan Road area, the main backpackers hub. It's a fun area! There are lots of guesthouses, little shops, restaurants, and loads of roadside stands selling everything from pad thai to fresh orange juice to fried grasshoppers (no, we haven't tried them yet). :) We ate most of our meals from these stands and, in general, the food was really good. And cheap! Fresh prawn pad thai for 25 baht (about a dollar), mango smoothies for 20 baht, or vegetarian green curry for 30 baht. Mmmm...I just ate dinner, but I'm getting hungry just writing this!
However, the two main downsides to the Khaosan area (in our humble opinions) are the constant 24/7 activity and the huge number of travellers! Okay, so the 24/7 activity is nice when you arrive at 2 am without booking a hostel, but other than that it gets old fast—especially since our room overlooked the street. It was never really loud, but, still, there was always noise, no matter what time it was—it was crazy! Also, it's lots of fun to hook-up with other travellers and exchange tips and stories, but there comes a point that you think you could be at home (albeit home with tropical weather and everyone wearing hippie clothes) and you begin to think it might be nice to meet some Thai people, since you are, after all, in Thailand! :)
Of course there are Thai people in Khaosan road. The tuk-tuk drivers for instance. I hope they aren't representative of the Thai people though! They're all very friendly, but perhaps not too honest. They'll all tell you that the site you want to visit is closed, but they'd love to take you to see the Big Buddha. And the Sitting Buddha. And the Golden Mountain. All for only 10 baht! We finally agreed to this because we figured riding in a tuk-tuk was one thing you should do while in Thailand anyways, and then we found out why the ride was so cheap. It turned out that while they did take you to all the above mentioned sites, they also took you to several stores along the way. “Please just look—just for five minutes! If you look I will get a coupon for my petrol. Just five minutes—if you don't like it don't buy—just look!” We went and looked. But we didn't buy. I guess the set-up must work often enough, though, because every tuk-tuk driver in the area is offering the same deal.
We've actually sampled quite a bit of the transportation here. Besides the tuk-tuks, we've ridden river taxis, regular taxis, buses, vans, the subway, and the skytrain. We enjoyed the buses primarily because we enjoy most things that don't involve too many other foreigners (it's more fun to “go local”). Also because of the price. It was always a surprise actually, half of the time we'd get on a bus and pay 7.5 baht each, and the rest of the time we'd get on a bus and it would be free! It turns out that the government decided to make half of the buses in Bangkok free to help out those who were struggling because of the economic crisis.
The river taxis are the most fun—and the ride up or down the river gives just a taste of what life might have been like a hundred years ago. And, I must confess that even though I am the historian and even though I bugged my sister about doing the movies tour of Europe (Me: I can't wait to visit the Sistine Chapel! Michelangelo painting on the ceiling are... Her: Michelangelo...ceiling...oh right! “Trapped under ceiling in Rome”, that was in
Ever After! Me: *sigh*), despite all that, I admit that I based my historical perspective of Thailand on the movies The King and I and Anna and the King. For all fellow fans, you'll remember King MongKut of course. His statue stands in a park close to where we are currently living (how we ended up moving will be covered in the next post).
King MongKut also, interestingly enough, donated the land for the English Church in 1861. His son donated a different plot of land and some extra funds to the Anglicans when they wanted to build a bigger church in a more accessible location in 1905. His only stipulation was that the church must be open to all protestant denominations and not restricted to just one. Therefore, we are currently attending (and volunteering at incidentally) a non-denominational Anglican church. A bit of an anomaly, no?
After a 24 hour train ride from Beijing to Hong Kong, a quick transfer to the airport, and then a 4 hour flight south, we arrived in Bangkok in the wee hours of November 20th. The bus ride downtown was relatively quick and easy, as was finding a place to stay at 2 am! We had considered booking something, but since no one offered a decently priced airport pick-up, we figured we'd just wing it. So, welcome to Bangkok, or, to be completely accurate, welcome to Krung-dēvamahānagara amararatanakosindra mahindrayudhyā mahātilakabhava navaratanarājadhānī purīramya utamarājanivēsana mahāsthāna amaravimāna avatārasthitya shakrasdattiya vishnukarmaprasiddhi. That's it's official name (really!) and it means "The city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukam." :)
The warm weather was probably the first thing we notice upon arrival. It was lovely to arrive in the middle of the night and still be able to walk around without a coat. The weather continued to be nice—warm and sunny without being too hot. It was wonderful to rediscover a whole new wardrobe in our bags. Okay, so this consisted of maybe five pieces of clothing, but when you only have about a dozen pieces, rediscovering five is a big thing! The warm weather also made Amanda happy for another reason: it's ice cream weather again...and while we haven't eaten MacDonald's food over here, we will admit to eating their ice cream. Why? Only 9 baht for a cone (or 12 baht for a dipped one.) That's about 30 cents or so, not bad!
For about the first week in Bangkok, we were staying in the Khaosan Road area, the main backpackers hub. It's a fun area! There are lots of guesthouses, little shops, restaurants, and loads of roadside stands selling everything from pad thai to fresh orange juice to fried grasshoppers (no, we haven't tried them yet). :) We ate most of our meals from these stands and, in general, the food was really good. And cheap! Fresh prawn pad thai for 25 baht (about a dollar), mango smoothies for 20 baht, or vegetarian green curry for 30 baht. Mmmm...I just ate dinner, but I'm getting hungry just writing this!
However, the two main downsides to the Khaosan area (in our humble opinions) are the constant 24/7 activity and the huge number of travellers! Okay, so the 24/7 activity is nice when you arrive at 2 am without booking a hostel, but other than that it gets old fast—especially since our room overlooked the street. It was never really loud, but, still, there was always noise, no matter what time it was—it was crazy! Also, it's lots of fun to hook-up with other travellers and exchange tips and stories, but there comes a point that you think you could be at home (albeit home with tropical weather and everyone wearing hippie clothes) and you begin to think it might be nice to meet some Thai people, since you are, after all, in Thailand! :)
Of course there are Thai people in Khaosan road. The tuk-tuk drivers for instance. I hope they aren't representative of the Thai people though! They're all very friendly, but perhaps not too honest. They'll all tell you that the site you want to visit is closed, but they'd love to take you to see the Big Buddha. And the Sitting Buddha. And the Golden Mountain. All for only 10 baht! We finally agreed to this because we figured riding in a tuk-tuk was one thing you should do while in Thailand anyways, and then we found out why the ride was so cheap. It turned out that while they did take you to all the above mentioned sites, they also took you to several stores along the way. “Please just look—just for five minutes! If you look I will get a coupon for my petrol. Just five minutes—if you don't like it don't buy—just look!” We went and looked. But we didn't buy. I guess the set-up must work often enough, though, because every tuk-tuk driver in the area is offering the same deal.
We've actually sampled quite a bit of the transportation here. Besides the tuk-tuks, we've ridden river taxis, regular taxis, buses, vans, the subway, and the skytrain. We enjoyed the buses primarily because we enjoy most things that don't involve too many other foreigners (it's more fun to “go local”). Also because of the price. It was always a surprise actually, half of the time we'd get on a bus and pay 7.5 baht each, and the rest of the time we'd get on a bus and it would be free! It turns out that the government decided to make half of the buses in Bangkok free to help out those who were struggling because of the economic crisis.
The river taxis are the most fun—and the ride up or down the river gives just a taste of what life might have been like a hundred years ago. And, I must confess that even though I am the historian and even though I bugged my sister about doing the movies tour of Europe (Me: I can't wait to visit the Sistine Chapel! Michelangelo painting on the ceiling are... Her: Michelangelo...ceiling...oh right! “Trapped under ceiling in Rome”, that was in Ever After! Me: *sigh*), despite all that, I admit that I based my historical perspective of Thailand on the movies The King and I and Anna and the King. For all fellow fans, you'll remember King MongKut of course. His statue stands in a park close to where we are currently living (how we ended up moving will be covered in the next post).
King MongKut also, interestingly enough, donated the land for the English Church in 1861. His son donated a different plot of land and some extra funds to the Anglicans when they wanted to build a bigger church in a more accessible location in 1905. His only stipulation was that the church must be open to all protestant denominations and not restricted to just one. Therefore, we are currently attending (and volunteering at incidentally) a non-denominational Anglican church. A bit of an anomaly, no? 
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