Bangkok, Thailand (1)
- Julie-Anne Justus
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 20 hours ago
It's not the first time we've been to Bangkok.* Still, how much could have changed in 30 years?
We're staying in a hotel on the Chao Praya River. It's 33 °C and humid, which makes a welcome change from Melbourne's chilly winter. (Although we have all come down with congestion, runny noses and coughs in response to our endless battle between humidity and air-conditioners.)
About 6 million people live in the city of Bangkok, the largest city by far in Thailand (population 71 million). The tourist map of Bangkok shows the location of the Big Tourist Sights, not far from our hotel.
This is our view of the river from our our hotel. The violent pink party-boat is one of many that go up and down the river at night, full (or semi-full) of revellers.
When in Thailand, start with the palace and the temples. Our first guide was Mr Preecha ('call me Peter') who had a tendency to repeat himself — not a bad thing because it was difficult to remember which king was which, so repetition helped. The 10 kings of Bangkok did some remarkable things, some more than others. (King 5 and King 9 were the most popular. King 10, the current incumbent, not so much.) The Grand Palace was built from the late 1700s and was the home of kings until the early 1900s, when absolute monarchy was abolished. While the figurehead king lives in a different palace now, the Grand Palace is still used for official events and a major tourist attraction. We're four out of 8 million tourists visiting it annually.
The demons around the palace do (almost) all of the work holding up heavy structures. That's the price you pay for being a demon. My sister developed a passion for the ones with green hands.
Preecha was an enthusiastic photo taker, but his photos have a strange colour. The ones in which we are all neon-coloured are his.
The Grand Palace isn't just one building. It's a complex of many buildings, many gardens, many courtyards ... unsurprising, as it was successively built over 200 years. It was modelled on the Grand Palace of Ayutthaya (which we will visit later this week), the former capital of Siam about 600 years ago.
As time passed, the Grand Palace included some Chinese and Western influences. The Chinese statues that dot the grounds arrived as ballast in ships trading with China hundreds of years ago; on the Western influences, I was blown away by the glass gold mosaic tiles, which we saw only a few months ago in St Mark's Basilica in Venice. Yes, these gold tiles were made in Italy! The building used today for state visits was designed by a British architect favoured by King 5 in the late 1800s.
While we're here, we visited the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. (No photos allowed. And it's not actually emerald, it's high quality jade.) The Emerald Buddha is the most important Buddha image in Thailand, discovered in 1432. It's a small statue, situated in the ordination hall in the palace. Only the king is allowed to change its regalia. Our guide told us, You come to Thailand, you should go into that temple and pray for your luck. Which I did.
We had a long-tail boat ride on the river into the klongs (canals) of the Thonburi district, historically significant and now super-trendy with tourists.
The local catfish are grateful for the tourists, too, who feed them colourful fish snacks from boats and terraces.
Long-tail boats have long propeller shafts, which cope well with shallow rivers and canals. Some of the boats have converted car engines driving the propeller. It's a creative business.
The Temple of Dawn (Wat Arun) is the landmark of Bangkok. It includes the Prang Tower, the highest building in Bangkok.
In the last photo above, you can clearly see how the surfaces of the temple are decorated with broken porcelain from China. It's the most creative and artistic (and largest) mosaic that I've seen.
The gardens are beautiful. Topiary is evident everywhere; the tree branches are not only shaped but also supported to create these 'cloud trees'.
The Reclining Buddha Temple (Wat Pho) has been here for about 600 years. This is one of the biggest reclining buddha images in the world. No, he's not snoozing. The reclining pose signifies the state of liberation, peace and total release from worldly attachments. Life and death flow naturally, the information board tells me, and mortality should be met with inner calm rather than fear. I like it.
The last photo above shows the toes and soles of the Buddha's feet, replete with symbols. Note the 10 even toes, symbolising the equality of all people. (No Mr Big Toe here.) The temple precinct is calm and serene, clean and well maintained. Even on a hot and sweaty day, it's bliss.
This temple was historically the place of learning for health professionals, like masseurs, astrologers and — well, okay — doctors. The photo below shows a student of Thai massage, not a muay thai fight.
In Thai astrology, the day of the week on which you are born influences your character and fate. So here I am! With a tail! Actually, it shows everyone born on a Sunday, as I was. Our birth colour is red. Apparently us Sunday-people are sunny, bright individuals who attract people to our light. (!) The second photo shows health ailments that we Sunday-people are going to experience, so for example I'm likely to have trouble with my left lower leg.
This old School of Medicine has information for people born on every day of the week, so if you're curious about your own fate, check it out at Wat Pho.
There are 108 donation bowls in this temple. Donate 20 THB (about $1), receive your bowl of coins, drop a few coins into every bowl — and you will be lucky. So I did, and I am.
Of course we did a food tour! Led by our guide Ploy and assisted by her fabulous table fighter, we hit the night markets of Chinatown for an epicurean adventure. What's a table fighter, you ask? This is the person who goes ahead to secure a table in the most popular spots.
We ate 15+ dishes from around 10 vendors. Some of these were single-dish vendors, who've been in business for 50 years on the strength of one dish. Some of them have a Michelin star; all of them are locally celebrated. Each vendor has their own special sauces and condiments.
We ate slow cooked pork (single dish vendor), pork satays (sdv), a health-giving green drink (sdv), pork noodle soup, prawn dumplings (Michelin star) ...
... chicken green curry at a vendor who's internationally famous, but has no tables ...
... multiple dishes at a seafood restaurant (I loved the clams) ...
... and to finish, butterfly doughnuts with pandan sauce (sdv) and mango sticky rice (sdv).
Thailand has its own food rating system (like Michelin stars or hats back home) — look out for the green bowl sign. The date below the bowl indicates when the rating was given (the Thai calendar is different to the Western calendar) and the restaurant's best dish is listed on the right-hand side.
I was tempted by the grilled squid but I could not eat even one more tentacle.
After a long and sweaty day, we were driven home by 50 cc tuk-tuks ... piloted by two hoon drivers at top speed.
Next: Bangkok, again
*Photographs from Bangkok in 1997. Luke was 11 and Lee was 8. Ken and I were, well, younger. My favourite photo is the first one, where Luke is sweating and looking grumpy in long, oversized, heavy pants. He was deemed too old to show his knees at the Grand Palace (the dress code for temples is still very, very strict today) so his lightweight shorts had to be replaced by some borrowed men's trousers.
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