Bangkok Tour

What a jam-packed day in Bangkok!   Nicole, thanks to her jet-lag, was up at 3am, 5am, etc wide awake (since it was respectively 3pm, 5pm in Omaha).   I, however, slept soundly until 7am, at which time we launched our busy day.

The hostel breakfast is adequate (bread, croissants, banana muffins, toast, jelly, butter, (some weird green spread the texture of pudding) watermelon, pineapple.

First stop was the Jim Thompson house.   At first, I wasn’t interested because it didn’t seem like Thai culture.   Really, it is.   My Grandma J. would have loved it.

Jim Thompson was an architect and soldier who stayed in Thailand and helped grow and connect the silk trade to the rest of the world reaping great economic benefits for the Thais.   He also collected Asian artifacts (the part my grandma would love), and his traditional Thai house is filled with 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th century paintings, statues, imports, and more.   It was incredible!

I learned, among other things,: 1) Why no shoes: The Thai take their shoes off often when entering buildings (in fact, I had to take mine off to come into this internet cafe) because traditionally they eat sitting in a circle on the floor.   For this reason, it is very important to them that the floor stays clean. 2) Thai Buddhas (different from the Chinese Buddhas most Americans are used  to) have long ears because it symbolizes long life. 3) Traditional Thai construction of doorways dictates that you step over a threshold about 12 inches high.   Originally, this kept babies from crawling out of the house when houses were always located on the river and the baby could drown easily.

Conveniently, it down-poured while we were on our tour in the house.   Afterward, while it was sprinkling, we had some delicious business (rice and veggies with lots of good sauce) from a street vendor before hopping   back on the skytrain  to our next destination – Wat Pho.   Wat means temple, of which there are several, probably about 40 large ones, in Bangkok.   Wat Pho is the biggest and has the biggest reclining Buddha (indicating the exact moment of enlightenment) in all of Thailand. We had to take a river taxi to get there, which was less charming than I had hoped.   I pictured a quaint river surrounded by jungle canopy.   Nope.   Just a big rushing slur of muddy water with lilies floating everywhere and skyscrapers right up to the  cement banks.   C’est  la vie!   The taxi was fast and much cooler than a city bus or walking!

The single most remarkable thing about the reclining Buddha at Wat Pho is its size!   Incredible!   After taking our shoes off, we were allowed to walk around the perimeter of the Buddha, almost half a football field in length!   The intricate painting of the walls was remarkable as well.   On the wat grounds, we saw hundreds of other Buddhas.   The intricate detail on everything from the roofs to the windows, the walkways, etc. was really amazing.

After we were wat-ted out (I can stare at mountains forever, but human-made objects hold my attention momentarily), we headed to the backpacker district.   We had chosen not to stay there because it is far away from all the public transport.   We walked the streets, bought some pineapple from a street vendor, window-shopped, and then headed inside for our first Thai massage  (by this time, Nicole was exhausted, it being 5am in Omaha).

The massage  (and the opportunity to rest for an hour) was wonderful.   It was different than  what you’d picture in the U.S.   Here, massages  are given in a roomful of mattress-sized cushions with your clothing on.   We got half reflexology  (foot) massage, and half Thai massage laying side by side on a raised platform.   The reflexology  was nice (and sometimes painful) – your basic foot massage.   The Thai massage is about pushing and pulling and poking and pressure points.   The move around your body a lot, but are always sitting next to you, between your legs, under your head, etc.   A lot of it was the kind of massage I am accustomed  to.   Some of it, however was surprising – like when the guy had me sit in front of him and somehow worked me from that position  to being face first up in the air on his feet like some kind of circus act.   It felt good, though, and it was fun!

We headed back to the river afterwards, but decided to stop at Chinatown to make the most of our all-day boat pass.   Big mistake when tired.   It was dirty, heavily polluted (diesel fumes hanging in the air everywhere), smelled awful, dark, dirty, dirty, dirty, and gross.   After a mile lap around the neighborhood, we hopped our final  boat back to the skytrain and rode back to our hostel.   After some quick “Pad Thai”   (spicy noodles, bean sprouts, green onions, shrimp, egg, cabbage, lime, and peanuts) from a street vendor, we couldn’t help but collapse into our beds (yes, at 8 p.m.!)   I’ll try not to get used to getting so much rest! 🙂