The next morning we were up at 4 to get to the airport for our flight to Bangkok. After getting some baht we took the skytrain into the central city. We hopped in a tuk tuk to get to our hotel and were unceremoniously dumped on the street after the driver had asked us four times the name of the hotel and couldn’t get us there despite the fact that we had a map in Thai. Two taxi drivers turned us down until one finally took us. If it isn’t worth it to them, they just say no; that happened other times during the trip too. The hotel was Arun Residence, right on the river and directly across from Wat Arun. Our room was on two floors with wood everywhere—very nice. We were soon off to have some lunch and do some exploring.
Lunch was noodle soup and pork with rice—delicious especially since we hadn’t had breakfast and it was already 2:00. The Thai food was the best of the trip, so this was only the first of many good meals. We walked along the street parallel to the river just taking in the atmosphere. Glenna stopped to take a picture of a display of dried fish, and the next thing we knew we’d been drawn into the shop by the owner who told us his life story and that of his kids. It was hard to get away, but it is experiences like these that make a trip.
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Glenna with store owner who told us his life story
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We continued down the street to the next water taxi stop where we got on board with Thais going home from work just to see life near the river. The views were mildly interesting, but on the way back Glenna got her sunset and night pictures. You’ll see that happens often.
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| The Happy Buddha |
The next day we set off for the Royal Palace near which we were stopped by a man who said we couldn’t get into the palace complex wearing shorts but that he could get us to some places where we could get in--and to a shop. Since it was Buddha Day we thought he might be right. Actually it was a common Thai scam to get you to shopping opportunities. We did see two nice temples (and started to recognize a Thai style), and the shopping at the gem shop was actually fun. We each got a ring. The saleslady was so clearly thrilled that I could tell I had made her day.
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| Happy Buddha temple |
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| Marble temple |
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| Glenna in her Thai skirt |
The tuk tuk driver took us to another shop using the excuse that he could get a free gas coupon if we would just go in. We said ok and didn’t buy anything. Then he did it again, but this time we said that was the last one. So he reluctantly took us to lunch—another good one with shrimp, fish and vegetable dishes cooked as we watched. Then we were dropped back at the starting point. We had seen people coming out of the palace grounds the day before with shorts on, so we thought we’d give it a try. It turns out that Glenna was given a Thai skirt to wear over her shorts. So it was a sort of half lie.
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| Glenna on porch of Emerald Buddha Wat |
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| Holding up the temple |
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| Temples in palace complex |
The palace complex was all gold and color with many temples and throne halls, all elaborately decorated outside and in, spread over a large area.
After returning the skirt, we walked through the market stalls all along the walls and got one of many fresh cut up pineapples.
Back at the hotel we had more drinks in the hotel bar as we watched the sun go down (and got pictures, of course) and then set off for dinner. We were dropped off at the flower market—what a gorgeous place, block after block of vendors selling flowers. I wondered how they could possibly sell all those before they died.
After that came the vegetable market and then a mostly clothes market. We got a snack along the way—a mini waffle filled with chocolate or caramel or fruit. What a great idea. We wondered why no one in our country had thought of that. That night we had our favorite meal—Tom Yum soup, shrimp in a spicy broth with various vegetables—in a restaurant high over the river with a Thai soap opera on the tv.
On our last day in Bangkok we were up early to go to Wat Pho, across the street from our hotel, so early that we saw the school kids in formation in their morning ritual. Wat Pho is a large complex of temples, all beautiful, but we also had fun watching a puppy cavort. The highlight of the complex is a temple housing an enormous reclining Buddha. The Thai style uses lots of gold and color in elaborate all-over designs. It is quite striking, and I liked it a lot.
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Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho
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| Children in morning ritual |
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Flowery style at Wat Pho
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Since we’d been seeing Wat Arun from our hotel window, we figured we had to go there. So after breakfast we got a boat across the river to the dock near there. Wat Arun is different in that the decoration consists of designs made with broken pieces of china—quite striking.
The very helpful French staff person recommended a walk around the town to see the sites. First we stopped at a great little place for lunch right across from the market just down the street from our hotel. We had noodle soup and panang and liked it so much we went back for dinner for pad Thai and red curry.
The old city of Chiang Mai is surrounded by a square moat. The first temple we visited, Wat Lok Moli, was just outside the old city. It had the stone chedi (Thai name for stupa, the place where religious relics are kept) in back and the wooden viharn (assembly hall) in front. This one was my favorite of the ones we saw along the route. With some wrong turns, that was a long walk, and I was ready for one of our five massages of the trip. Mine were all foot massages, but Glenna had one all-body oil massage done in the Thai style which includes a lot of elbow and wrist pushing into the muscles which she said sometimes hurt. They were of varying quality but all cheap.
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| Naga or protective serpent |
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Wat Lok Moli chedi and viharn
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| Front of viharn |
The next day was an all day excursion into the mountains with 8 other people and a guide in a crowded songthaew. Our fellow travelers were from France, Belgium, Australia, the Czech Republic and the US. English is truly the international language now which gives us Americans another excuse not to study languages. But it did allow us to get to know the others which I always find enjoyable.
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| Glenna and Jess on their elephant ride |
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| Beautiful orchids |
The first stop was at a butterfly and orchid farm with plenty of the latter and none of the former. But the flowers were beautiful. We went farther up into the mountains to an elephant hahitat where we got a half hour ride in a bench on the back of an elephant as well as lunch. The ride seemed short but was a lot of fun, and the food was tasty. As we were leaving I walked up to one of the elephants to see what his skin felt like. I was stroking him when he lifted his hind foot as a signal for me to get on. The others said, hey, he likes you.
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Long neck woman weaving
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Next stop was supposedly to see a hill tribe. It was in a lovely setting, but it was nothing more than a shopping opportunity which annoyed some of the others.
The next event was not for me—a hike along narrow and steep trails to a waterfall. So I let the young people do that, and I stayed with the driver who took us to where the hike would end. Awhile into the hike, one of the others commented to Glenna, “Your mom made the right decision.” Along the way to the last event we stopped at a village to see into a typical dwelling—completely filled with sleeping mats.
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| Inside of rural dwelling |
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Cute kids in rural village
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Typical bamboo dwellings
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| Bamboo raft trip |
Last was a gentle ride down the river in a bamboo boat. And then the long ride back to Chiang Mai. “Thai time” is an expression used there which was evident today; we got back two hours later than we were supposed to arrive. Oh well.
Long as the day had been, it wasn’t over. We soon were strolling through the very long Saturday market whose stalls contained most everything including decent street food for dinner. Glenna also had “ancient ice cream”.
We had saved the last morning in Thailand for silk shopping. We got in a tuk tuk with a driver who didn’t understand enough English even to know the word silk which seemed odd since that is their biggest industry. We finally found a place and had fun picking two pieces, one a soft orange and the other a teal. We didn’t have time to get lunch at our favorite little place but did have time for another quick foot massage before we were off to Luang Prabang.
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