Three Wats, Two Tuk Tuks, and One Scorpion… - Bangkok, Thailand
Bangkok, Thailand
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Dates: October 29, 2014 - October 31, 2014
I write this blog a week after it happened as I am currently on a train headed to South Thailand to the island of Koa Tao. But it is the first time I have had a chunk of time; so here goes nothing. Traveling across the world is a very interesting thing as far as time is concerned. I left Hawaii Tuesday October 28 at 11:15 am, flew a total of 16 hours plus a 3 hour layover in Tokyo (had my first local Asian dish) and arrived in Bangkok at 11:30 PM Wednesday traveling a total of 6,699 air miles. I thought daylight savings time was tricky, well it hasn’t got anything on this.
The second I arrived in Bangkok all that kept playing through my head was the song from Chess the musical that I did in college, “One Night in Bangkok”. Although I probably will not do anything mentioned in the song, it still is a great melody to have going through my head. It may have been the jet lag or the fatigue but leave it to me to forget what country I was flying to because the second I stepped into the taxi at the airport I realized that in Thailand, we drive on the LEFT side of the road because the steering wheel was on the right. Oops. Needless to say if the huge backpack and white skin didn’t give me away, the driver sure knew I was a tourist now. We drove about 30 minutes to the main backpackers area in Bangkok known as Khao San Road. I tried to tip the man and he didn’t accept it. After finding this odd I looked online to see and found out that some locals don’t want tips because they are afraid it will raise the overall price of things and tourists will stop coming.
Khao San Road... Well it is a mecca of intensity and craziness to say the least. There are over 50 hostels or guest houses I would say for backpackers within a few block radius. Over 40 travel agencies booking bus tours, motor bikes, trains, planes, and whatever else you may need. At night it is one big party and the road closes off to all traffic and people walk the streets with not care in the world. It was nice, whether I would enjoy it every night, well I guess I will never know because I was only there for two days. When I woke the next morning I went down to breakfast at the hotels restaurant. I went to get seconds and when I realized my table had been cleared and new people were sitting there, I decided to be social and sat next to another single backpacker and begun my first conversation with what i was sure to be many new friends I hope to meet on this trip.
James is from Dublin, Ireland. He and his girlfriend are on holiday traveling through Asia. She decided that spaghetti and meat sauce with salad for breakfast wasn’t her thing, so she decided to go back to bed. James and I chatted for a bit and decided that we should exchange facebooks in hopes of meeting later that evening. And so off I went to explore Bangkok.
As my sister’s friend Chris pointed out after I posted my first picture on Facebook when I got on the plane…"Thieves and pickpockets everywhere. White dude with a giant backpack is a nice target”. Well I did a bit of research and have been careful but I will admit that there is no hiding that I am a tourist. The part the I love most is when the vendors and street sellers try to sell me something. Its automatically, “Hey friend, how you been, you know I know what you want, come here and let me show you.” Excuse me sir but how do you know what I want. Cause it sure as heck IS NOT a ping pong show. (More on that later). I guess it has helped me that I have been to places with vendors like this, I just either nod politely, or play deaf, or just act like I don’t understand, which sometimes works because they have learned to speak some English but not so much other languages. When I want something, then its time to barter.
I will say that most of the places I visit on this trip are mainly due to Ryan Bacchus. My good friend from the Pride of America ship I was just on. He has been to Asia many times and given me many suggestions of what to do and how to survive. His list for Bangkok. Three Wats, or Temples in English. So Off I went. As I was walking I was at a stop light waiting to cross and I guess some Thai person did some thing funny cause I chuckled and so did the other white dude waiting. So we said hello and thus began my new partner in crime for the day. Milo from Sophia, Bulgaria. Milo was also traveling alone and so we just naturally became buddies for the day. First stop was to see The Grand Palace, Wat Saket and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. To get into this temple was 500 Baht ($15.25). This the biggest one in the area because it is the Palace, but a little much for my tastes, although the architecture is breathtaking.
Visiting Temples in Asia I have learned can be amazing if you truly take in all the history, majesty, and awesomeness that they are. And it can also be exhausting because a lot of the time they all look the same. But since I figure part of this trip is to open my eyes and see the world, I will keep going to each and every one and continue to enjoy their sheer amazingness. I mean how often can you see an Asian man wearing a cowboy hat the has the world “ Thailand” engraved on it??? Ok maybe in New York but i digress. We all know that water in Asia is something to stay away from, don’t worry Mom I am not going to say I got sick :-). But to my surprise they to try to cater to those who prefer to drink fresh water. The tourist attractions (IE The Temples) have filtered water sites to fill up your bottles. Now this could totally be a scam and not really true but hey its been a week and Im still standing. I just found thats a good other rather than always having to pay 10 Baht, even though that is only about 30 cents. Since we are on the subject of money. The Currency of Thailand is knows as the THB aka Thai Baht which at any given time is roughly equal to 3 cents or easier to understand 100 Baht = $3.05. So when something costs 200 Baht such as a cab ride to the train station or a full dinner including appetizers and drinks, it is equal to about $6.10. Needless to say it is VERY CHEAP to travel here which can fool you if you are not careful.
The next Wat on the list… Wat Pho. Also knows as the Temple of the Reclining bUddha. It was a very beautiful site to see. The reclining Buddha just as the Emerald Buddha is a common form of statue around these temples. And the also happen to be very large. This one particular was enclosed in a building so it also made it appear larger. After looking at it, it was asked to make a donation to support restoration I suppose. Basically there were 107 metal tins lining the statue on the side and people dropped 1 Baht in each tin on their way passed it. It was kind a sound of sole devotion that will stick with me. Now I like to remember places I go with souvenirs, but I have learned after living in Hawaii, certain things (lava rock) are meant to stay in their original places. So when I found a broken piece of color tile in Wat Pho, even though I wanted to take it, i handed it to a women who was repairing other statues. I felt like it was a form of respect to keep the temple in tack.
They say rainy season of this part of Thailand is over. Well we must have caught the end because out of no where a huge storm came in and we took shelter under a covering outside the temple. It felt a lot like Florida in the summer. Wet for 10 minutes gone the next. While we were waiting under the bridge we took a look at the map to get an idea where to go next. a local man approached us and tried to help and began a conversation. Strike one… he asked us where we were from and we told him (I became suspicious), Strike two. He eventually told us he could take us to ALL 3 places we needed to go, probably about 2 hours worth of sites in his Tuk-Tuk for just 60 Baht ($1.83). Yup there it is! He was trying to sell us something. Well I found hard to believe and of course as things would have it, he was changing what he wanted and trying to add things and blah blah blah. The rain stopped and Milo and I walked away. Before I continue, I will talk about this more in detail later but a Tuk-Tuk is a form of transportation in Asia best compared to an automatic rickshaw. It is a man who rides a moped looking thing that has room for people and luggage in the back but it open to the air. You could compare it to an open taxi on a motor bike.
We learned that in order to get to the next Wat, we needed to cross the Chao Phraya river that cuts through Bangkok. There is ferry that costs 3 Baht (9 cents) so we headed for the ferry. Before that we of courses stopped for some pad thai from local street vendors for 60 Baht ($1.83). This was my first real local dish experience not from an airport, I was not disappointed :-) Among many things Asians take pride in that I see is lacking in cultures I am familiar with is their work. Even the gardner who is sweating and about to faint from the heat, will carefully trim the bushes at the temple into the most amazing shapes with the finest detail while using hand shears. Granted they respect the temples very much and honor them with all their self so this could be a reason but nonetheless it is nice to see this type of devotion in life. Wat Arun or the Temple of Dawn was my favorite temple in Bangkok. It was the most historic and ruin like piece of history I had seen. It had tall steps and amazing views of the whole city. By far on I will remember.
Now I needed to head to the Hua Lamphong station. This is Bangkok’s main bus and train terminal. I wanted to get a train to head north the next day for Chiang Mai, Thailand. This is where I decided to spend the next leg of my journey based of of suggestions from Sodasi, my friend from the ship. Milo and I got into a Tuk-Tuk not before bartering down to 180 Baht ($5.49) from 250 Baht ($7.62). The way you barter is actually pretty simple. First of all you need to know that the price will ALWAYS be jacked up for those who look like tourists. So first of all have an idea of how much it should cost which is actually pretty easy. Either remember from the last time, lol or ask someone local you you can trust who doest have a steak in your tuk-tuk, maybe a hotel or restaurant employee. Then you ask the driver how much, you counter with a lower price, he will always counter and you will as well. If you are not happy then start walking away, sometimes he will follow and accept, sometimes he will not, and 1.5 seconds later someone else will offer to take you. They will either accept your price or you can try the whole thing again. It all depends on the mood you are in and how fast you need to get somewhere. Either way it is a very interesting form of economics in my opinion.
It ended up being that all the trains were booked for Chiang Mai. I didn’t realize that there was a festival happening soon and that it was also a Friday that I would be traveling up. So that left the over night bus. I go into that later. Milo and I headed out and were greeted by another Tuk-Tuk driver. We knew where we needed to go and had an idea of ho much it would cost. We wanted to head back to Khao San Road which was roughly the same distance. before being able to discuss this the driver asked us if we wanted to see a ping pong show. Now if I hadn’t been warned of this before I cam to Asia, I might have said yes. But when I found out that these are shows where Asian women stick things in their va-jay-jay and pop it out like peek-a-boo, I knew it wasn’t for me. Also it is a form of sex/slave trade and is very common in this area. Anyway to told him where we NEEDED to go and thus began our amazing tuk-tuk adventure. He said 250 Baht, we countered with our 180 then he did the most amazing thing… or so Milo thought, me not so much. He said, “ how bout you go for 20 baht each and you stop for 5 minutes for me to get paper signed so I can get gas.” Now I had been warned of this trick that the Tuk-Tuk drivers all work together with tailor shops, or stores of some sort that if they can get customers in in order to buy something then they get a take in the end. Milo said not to worry it will be fine, and hey its only 20 Baht (61 cents). Knowing this was a mistake I repeated SEVERAL times to the driver, “NO STOP, NOT FOR US, YOU STOP FOR GAS NOT US”. He seemed to understand but 3 minutes later we were at a tailors shop and he turns to us and says “You go shop, Hugo Boss, My friend give you good deal”. I said my same saying as previous and he seemed upset yet sad at the same time. Well I wouldn’t budge and he begrudgingly started to drive again. But rather than to the hotel, he stopped at a fabric store and tried the same things again. This happened once more all while I was as stubborn as my mom always says I am and did not budge, Milo was all confused as to what was happening until later on when Informed him of the type of wheeling and dealing. Well since we didn’t go to any stores, I guess we were out of the drivers “work area” and he dropped us off not the side of the street, hailed another Tuk-Tuk and drove alway all within about 5 seconds. Well we didn’t have to pay him and got in the other Tuk Tuk, told him our price and away we went. This driver could have been a driver for Indi 500, cause he was weaving in between with 1/2 inch of space free but it was fun and we got home in no time. I found funny that the second I got in the hotel elevator I saw a sign that read the following; “Warning!! Please be aware of Tuk-Tuk drivers offering rides to discount jewelry stores, tailors, or entertainment venues. You may be deceived into buying fake goods and losing money. Firmly decline and report such incidents to Thai tourist police. ”. I smiled and went to my room.
I went to grab some dinner with Ian, another backpacker I had met earlier that day which turned out to be great because he had plenty of advice on Chiang Mai. Due to that dinner I got to see and experience some awesome things a few days later. I had inherited an old AC plus adapter for overseas electronic from my previous cast when working on the ship. So I figured hey worth a shot. Well Mr adapter worked for about 16 hours of the trip then said bye bye. I realized it when I started to smell burning and realized he had gone caput, thankfully with nothing else happening. I had reached Patrick and his girlfriend Katie, and we had decided to go to drinks because I didn’t make dinner earlier when they went. We met downstairs and headed to grab a new adapter from the 711 for 30 Baht (91 cents) then off to the street craziness of Khao San Road. While drinking make vendors come up and try to sell you things, from bracelets, to food, to toys you name it, but the one thing that always caught my eye was,,,, yup, Scorpions!. I have always been one to take a chance and I furred hey I’m here to see the world and try new things, so I grabbed the largest one, paid the woman, and the rest in history. It was actually very good, I would compare it to crunchy chicken flavored with garlic, salt and butter. Those street vendors know how to cook em. After scorpion time, Patrick, Katie, and I went to an Irish Pub. We figured hey might as well since they were Irish. It was blast, we had great beer, great company, and made lifelong friends.
The next morn was a slow one for the three of us. Breakfast was just me as I later found out Patrick and Katie were not able to make it down since they were still asleep. I on the other hand still have jet lag and am up at 6 am every day no matter what. After eating I finished all my booking for the Chiang Mai trip before meeting up with them. We chilled around Khao San road, ran a few errands, had lunch and ended up just relaxing by the pool at the hotel before packing up and heading to the train station. I had totally forgotten that it was Halloween. Khao San Road was prepping for a huge night and the crowd was gearing up, I wish I could have been there for that.
It has been said that if you get in to a metered taxi and demand they use the meter then you can probably get a better price than if they quote you a rate. But the driver had already packed my bags in the truck and the gang was piling in, so we went with 200 Baht ($6.10). We got to the station and grabbed a quick bite to eat and parted ways. I can’t wait to see them again. The travel company took us in a small bus to another pick up point about 10 minutes away where myself and about 17 other backpackers awaited the double decker overnight sleeper bus to Chiang Mai. It cost around 1000 baht or $30 but if you consider not paying for a hotel and over 10 hours of driving then it is good deal. I sat next to a backpacker named Tony Kuriakose and he gave me some great tips for Australia and New Zealand, then I passed out. We did have to switch busses at the midnight stop because our bus broke down; but we made it in to Chaing Mai at around 7:00 am and the next leg of the yana had officially begun.