Bangkok (Part Two)
Back in town
Second time in town, and we had a big week ahead.
Valentine’s day was coming up, and still most of the city to explore. We were feeling like a couple of Thai experts by now, so nothing felt out of our reach. Of course we were not planning on visiting the entire city, that would probably take decades, but we had a good deal on our plate anyway.
We had booked the same room at Korbua, so we made our way there from the train station, already late in the evening. By this point even the less legit taxi drivers wouldn’t bother with us too much, we were practically local and they can feel these things. We got a metered one and we’re arriving at our home in no time. No need for the written note too, by now we can tell them where we’re headed.
Room 604 is really nice, with the canal view and the breeze blowing by, and we had liked it a lot. No harm in going back to places you love, is there ?
We were glad we were coming back to Bangkok, now for real, with no jet lag and no need to plan and book stuff for next stop. Next stop would be home. It would be really sad to end the trip on that Hua Hin tone anyway, and a week here would have to take care of that. Still a lot left to see, and not a lot of time to do it anymore. We were getting close to the end of the trip.
Still not fed up with wat visiting (can you ever go to too many of them ?) we had to visit Wat Phra Kaew, and check the emerald Buddha. We were saving this for last, as some courage is needed to face the thousands of tourists that go by the temple every day. It’s on everyone’s list, and there’s a lot of everyones visiting Bangkok. Most of them also make a trip to Chatuchak Weekend Market, and we wanted to go there as well.
We had Chinatown calling us for an evening meal, and needed a rooftop view of the city. We had whole neighbourhoods waiting for a visit, and we had to deal with the Sak Yant I had to receive.
And shopping! We had a ton of shopping to do, as we had been saving our backs from the extra weight, and we had to get souvenirs for a lot of people. Well, maybe not a lot of people, but WE wanted some stuff too… ;-)
Bangkok, get ready, here we go.
We had to go for a quick bite, as dinner time had already come and gone. We just wanted to get some well deserved food, and plan the next days.
We went our for dinner (KC we love you), stopped by the 7-Eleven next door to get a couple of beers for later and were walking back to the hotel, bag in hand, when we heard a Neil Young (xxx) cover coming from a bar. We decided to park ourselves there for a while, and stayed far longer than expected. The bar is called Shee Va, but you shouldn’t look for any sign with the name, as there is none. Instead look for the vintage Cadillacs parked outside, and the 50's/hipster look mix on the patrons. We had been through there so many times before, but never made a stop till this day.
But the band, Attanun Plamit, sounded so cool that we had to. And we also had to buy them a drink when their set was done. They had played a few favorites, one after another, they more than deserved it. Great covers too, even with no bassist that night. One thing led to another, and we soon found ourselves in another bar with the lead singer and his friend the bar owner. She was a little crazy and, somehow, seemed the least crazy person in the whole bar. It was a very fun night, and we wobbled back to the hotel, much later than anticipated, still carrying those 7-Eleven beers and their bag.
As no plans were made the night before, and we were feeling a little tired, we decided to start the week the easy way, and check the things closer to Banglamphu. You can find the cool Golden Mount, with Wat Saket on top, and Wat Ratchanatdaram not very far from it.
First we needed some coffee to fuel the walk, and had it in a small hole in the wall, Bamsha, up the road from the hotel. A lot of these cute coffeeshops are showing up around the country, with dedicated baristas who take their time pouring us a cup of coffee and most of the times offer a cup of tea to go with it. Coffee usually is great, and this was no different. It’s also one of the main complaints Portuguese have when they are travelling, so it’s refreshing to find that we’d have no trouble surviving in this country on that front.
We did make it to the Golden Mount, the view from up there is really something special, you get a 360 from the old city in the foreground, and the big skyscrapers far far away, serving as backdrop. At first it’s hard to believe that those buildings, miles away, are still part of the same city, but then one remembers this is a real city, not the kind we’re used to in our country. Not the same kind at all.
We went up the stairs, took in the views, came back down and walked around the neighbourhood. This was the first stop, and we were not sure how long we would be able to endure the heat.
We also found a spot where some artisans still make monk bowls the old way (following a lead from LonelyPlanet), but it was too depressing and we moved on to the next stop, an amulet market near Wat Ratchanatdaram. The wat is under renovation, but the market was super busy.
This is a wholesale market, and you can tell some of the wats we visited probably shop here too. A lot different from those other amulet markets we’d seen so far. There are stacks of stuff piled everywhere you look and a lot of people (monks too) walking the narrow isles filled with all sorts of Buddha images you can dream of, of all shapes and sizes. If you’re looking for religious memorabilia, this is the place to get it.
You get them in keychains, and smaller, to life sized and bigger than that too. You have them with LED lights around them and more traditional ones. Other deities are also available for purchase. We spotted the hermit’s heads we would find the next morning at Ajarn Neng’s place too. We had our fun, big time, but the heat was almost unbearable in the claustrophobic market and we walked back to the area closer to the hotel, had lunch and a little rest.
We did close to nothing for the rest of the day and dinner came at a halal stall down the road.
Waking up early is never a problem in Thailand and on this day we had an appointment, I was getting my Sak Yant, and we had to get there early. This amazing experience has already been told here, so we’re moving ahead.
We left Ajarn Neng’s place and headed to CentralWorld mall for lunch, one of the huge malls around Siam Square. This is a part of town that makes me feel like I’m visiting the future. Walking on the skywalk, the skytrain above us, gridlock traffic down bellow, and thousands of locals and farangs all over the place, each minding it’s own business. Monster TV screens with advertising on one hand, and the fumes of the tuk-tuks on the road. This is one place where the expression ‘you can feel the energy in the air’ surely applies.
I loved coming here and soak it in. Sitting on the stairs bellow the Skytrain a watch the chaos of the city.
The malls are big, as I’ve said, but they’re huge on a scale we’re not used to. Big in Thailand means something different.
Anyway, we’re inside the mall and, as this was Valentine’s Day, the place was even crazier than usual with pink and heart shaped everything all over. The only thing that’s a constant is the amount of people inside these monster malls. It’s something that has to be seen or, better, experienced. I was in awe, and even forgot to get some photos of it.
We went up to the food court floor, and found a place for our meal. It was delicious, as usual, but the service there was not up to par with the street food stalls where we usually eat. The price, obviously, was also a bit more expensive. And by bit I mean over five times what you’d pay outside. No harm done, this was Love Day, so we had to visit a fancy place… ;-)
I did end up getting a shirt at Uniqlo, and a couple of books at Asia Books too. We also got that Nancy Chandler’s map of Bangkok here.
In the evening we had planned dinner at Chinatown. Taking the Chao Phraya Express that night was almost impossible, as the boats were crazy full. So crazy in fact that we didn’t even manage to pay for the ride as the ticket lady couldn’t get to us. It seemed everyone in town was going to Yaowarat Road. This is the same road we had walked by on our first visit to Bangkok, and we couldn’t believe how different it looked now. It was insane!
We had amazing spicy Hong Kong noodles and a couple of beers in a street food stall, and were entertained as usual by people watching. Everyone seems to be having so much fun, and everyone seems a little drunk too. A visit to Bangkok’s Chinatown for dinner is something that should be on everyone’s bucket list, as the experience is like no other. The police tries their best to keep the cars moving, but thousands of people are walking in their usual space, looking for food and drink.
After that we headed, finally, to the rooftop bar we had picked. We walked through Chinatown, looking for the River View guesthouse, as they have a cool place on top of the restaurant with amazing views. That they have, but little else. The view makes up for the worst service we had in Thailand. There were a few couples trying to have a romantic dinner with river view, and the staff kept trying to ruin it for them. They managed to piss off most of the patrons, but I went downstairs and took care of the beers we needed to live through the ordeal. Wa laughed it off and even got treated to a fireworks display on the river. It was a very nice evening.
When we left and got on a cab, the traffic on Yaowarat is still gridlocked.
A different kind of shopping experience can be had at the weekly Chatuchak Market. No high-rise buildings here, this one is all about walking, and maze solving. And the heat. Boy, is this city hot!
We woke up, got on a taxi and headed to the market grounds.
We’ve read somewhere about ‘Chatuchak rage’, and it’s easy to see why people get a little crazy at the market. Information overload coupled with a strange feeling that you’re always lost, even with a map in hand, will undoubtably make you feel a little on edge.
We walked for hours, getting in and out of the narrow stall streets. The amount of stuff for sale is impressive, and the number of people too. You can’t walk freely while under the roof, so you have to come out from time to time. That’s when the sun hits you again, and you have to go back inside the monster’s guts. And repeat. Go in, come out, go in…
Time to stop for lunch, inside the maze. Halal again, before trying to see the rest of the market. It was hard telling which part was missing, as they all seemed alike by now, but we found the gallery part, which you’ll find at one end of the bazaar, and left a little after that.
Tip: if you see something you like, get it, get it straight away. You will never ever be able to find that particular spot again. Unless the shop is on the outer ones, it’s impossible to go back. You’ll probably find the same item in a different one, but you can never be sure.
Anyway, as they say, if something is available for sale, you’ll find it here. After spending hours in there, I have no doubt that’s true.
The sun was almost giving up too when we left for the day, and that taxi’s aircon felt better than any other aircon in the country. We barely made it back to the hotel alive but had managed to get most of the stuff on our gift list ticked off, a definite plus.
By dinner time we had recovered just a little of our energy, so we walked to HK Noodles, just around the corner for something to eat. The HK Noodles guys have no idea what they’re doing, if you compare them to the ones we had the day before in Chinatown, by the way.
A walk around the block, that included a visit to Khao San for some tourist spotting, a quick stop by Phra Sumen fort, and we were back in the room.
Next morning came and the plan for the day was the Dusit area. We were visiting Wat Benchamabophit, the white marble one, with dozens of Buddha images posing with all the different hand positions. We were walking there too, but we needed breakfast and had decided to skip having it at the hotel. We would walk instead, until we’d found another place that would look good for the most important meal of the day.
As we were walking down the street, we spotted a tiny place that looked sweet and, in the end, tasted even better. We were glad with our hotel, as previously stated, but this one will surely get an email next time we’re in town. The [Old Bangkok Inn](http://www.oldbangkokinn.com/index.php) felt even nicer.
People talk about the loss of Thainess, and you can feel it all over, but here it’s as present as ever. The man at the reception is the most welcoming of all the people we met in the country, and as soon as we went in we could tell we had found THE place to have breakfast. We weren’t staying there, obviously, but he made us want to. The breakfast was amazing (sorry, Paolo, but this is an amazing breakfast) and after the tasty waffle and tea and toast and juice and fruit and eggs and bacon we left ready for a day of adventure.
It was, again, hot as hell and walking the wide avenues with less shade makes it double hellish. Mostly ministries in this part of town, so no landmarks in sight. Even the soldiers manning the huge gates at the Army headquarters seemed to look at us with a funny look, as if they hadn’t seen a foreigner walking by in years. No farangs in this part of town (no one is crazy enough to brave that area on foot), but a ton of civil servants having lunch by the canal, in a small floating market.
Thankfully we also saw the first traffic accident in a month. It was just a bumper kiss but it provided enough entertainment to forget about the heat for a second. The market, even though it was nothing to rave about, was also nice.
In the end we made it to Wat Benchamabophit and shared the time there with another bus-load of Chinese tourists. They were being, as usual, a little too chinesy for us, so we slowed down our visit and waited for them to leave before we were able to enjoy the place in peace. It’s a nice temple.
When the visit was over we moved downtown again, lunch at MBK’s food court and tried to find the last gift we needed to purchase, a cellphone cover for our niece. There’s no place like MBK for that, so we wandered through the hundreds of cell phone accessories there, and got the thing. Then we had a wonderful time in Siam Paragon, trying to spend the rest of the bahts left on our wallets. A visit to Superdry took care of that for me and we were, again, on our way back to the hotel. The traffic was crazy, the taxi drivers unwilling, all of them, to turn on the meter. We caved in and decided to pay what they were asking for.
Dropped everything back in 604, and went out in no time for a meal at the epicenter of mayhem, close to Khao San. Tourist food, for sure, but amazing anyway. It’s February and the place is packed with tourists, but we had no trouble finding a place to sit and, yet again, people watch.
Saving the best for last, we went to Wat Phra Kaew on the final day in town.
We did try to catch the Chao Phraya Express once more but we couldn’t manage to do it on this closing day. We stood there as two boats left without letting us in, and decided to walk. It was ok, I guess, as we got the chance of going through the university again, and soon we were standing in line for a pair of trousers. We had perfectly acceptable clothes for every other temple we visited, and they were literally dozens, but we looked like tramps as far as the style police was concerned on this one.
We did leave the money deposit and got our new clothes. They were too hot, and we did see a lot of people showing a LOT of flesh, but we were in no mood to discuss the finer points of appropriate clothing with them, so we went with it and visited the Wat.
This is the only wat where there’s no way to escape the tourists, as the place is always too crowded. It’s a big complex, with a few buildings inside, and all of them are filled with a huge number of Chinese tourists, and a lot of the non-Chinese kind. Just take a deep breath, and go with the flow, as there is no escaping the selfie-taking, loud-speaking lot. There’s a lot to see, and even a model Angkor Wat, reminding us that we are planning a trip there for two years now, and we never made it yet.
We did the the tour, and got our deposit money back from the not-so-nice people who work there, and moved on. Again through the university, the amulet market close by (a regular one, not wholesale) and then a stop at Pua-Kee, the restaurant that serves the finest food in the Phra Sumen area. This place is another one on our recommendation list, for sure. I had two dishes for lunch, as I couldn’t decide which one I’d be eating.
I would do the same at dinner, which we had close to Khao San, at a place appropriatelly called I ❤ Thai Food. This stall was so good that I had two dishes for dinner too. That and another dose of coconut ice-cream.
We were leaving. I felt like crying.
We had one more wat to visit, and we were doing it in the final morning. It was the one close to home, right across the street.
Wat Bowonniwet is right next to the madness of Khao San and we would look at it a dozen times a day, it was impossible to miss when we left the hotel. Little did I know that this is the one I would like the most. A smaller wat, almost farang-free, and dark inside. I could feel something in this one that the others lacked. I feel Thailand is home, and I’m an expat at my own country, maybe I was already homesick, feeling I would be leaving home and returning to my adopted country in Europe and this is when it struck me, or maybe it was something else. But I felt something different.
I know every single person we meet adores Thailand, and feel at home there. It’s impossible not to, as the country has so much to offer that you’ll find something that strikes a chord with you, and they’re experts at making you feel at home. But I REALLY feel I belong here.
This is where I’m the happiest, and this is where I feel I’m me.
Final Bangkok gallery on maiquemadeira.com, if you’re still up to it.
