Trip Report: First time in Thailand and Cambodia
Jan 8th, 2017, 02:05 PM
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Trip Report: First time in Thailand and Cambodia
I'm finally getting around to my delayed trip report for our trip to Thailand and Cambodia last November. Thank you to everyone who answered my questions and help with the planning. Just for a little background, we are a couple in our mid-50’s, and this was our first trip to Thailand and Cambodia, and our 3rd trip to Asia, after two trips to Japan in 2014 and 2015. Our itinerary was as follows:
Bangkok – 4 nights
Siem Reap – 4 nights
Krabi – 2 nights
Ko Lanta 4 - nights
We flew Asiana, departing on November 19 from LAX for a 13 hour flight to Seoul, followed by a 6 hour flight to Bangkok. One of my initial questions was whether or not to spend the night in Seoul after landing at 5:30 PM local time, or continuing on for the additional six hours, and arriving at the hotel around midnight local time (which would be 9am LA time).
In the end, we decided to spend the night at the airport transit hotel at the Seoul airport, and I’m very happy that we did. We found that this really helped to break up the long flights, as well as enable us to sleep in a real bed, instead of trying, unsuccessfully, to sleep on the second flight while they were trying to serve a meal during trip from Seoul to Bangkok. We were then able to fly the next day during normal daylight hours, arriving to the hotel by about 3 PM. We pushed ourselves to stay awake until about 8 PM that evening, and actually slept until 6 AM the next morning. I think this got us into the time zone more easily, and allowed us to wake up early every morning, so that we could get an early start before the worst heat of the day.
Arrival in the Bangkok airport went without any major complications, and were able to easily withdraw cash from an ATM while waiting for our luggage to arrive. The line for the taxi at the airport was incredibly efficient, with each person in line taking a ticket from a machine, which would then tell them in which numbered space their taxi would appear. We waited only a few minutes in line, and our entire ride to the hotel took about 35 minutes, at a cost of about $15 US.
We stayed four nights at the Shangri-La hotel, right on the river, and we're very happy with both the location and the hotel. We were a two minute walk to the central pier, good for taking the boat up river to the Royal Palace, Chinatown, or the National Museum, and one minute from the BTS skytrain station, which we used to go to the Jim Thompson house and the Suan Pakkad Museum. Although we managed to get four free nights with points from hotels.com, the room would've been around $200 per night plus tax, which I think is worth it for the location, the quality of the room and the service. We enjoyed watching the river traffic from our balcony on the eighth floor, and the room was surprisingly quiet with the door closed, especially since we requested being on the end of the building furthest from the noisy bridge that goes over the river.
We decided to take a little walk in the area behind our hotel to try to keep us awake until dinner, and found ourselves in an indoor market in a large warehouse that was definitely not geared towards tourists. It was filled with a lot of seafood, especially dried fish, and large vats of some sort of pungent fish paste, which were sitting out with no refrigeration, covered with flies. This was the moment when I decided that maybe I wasn't going to have any street food on this trip, a decision I didn't regret ;-).
Following my plan for the next day, decided to hit the Royal Palace early the next morning. Taking the express boat with the orange flag from the central pier was easy (we paid on board) and we we're at the palace entrace by about 8:15, to find that they had actually opened early and already started letting people in. With the passing of the Thai king a couple months earlier we knew to pack a lot of black clothes, and we're very happy to have done so, as there was a massive line of mourners in all black, waiting to go pay their respects to the king. We were told that the wait in this line was 6 to 8 hours long, and we're very happy that we are able to walk right into the public portion of the Royal Palace without any delays.
Although we were wearing shorts, we had each brought a pair of thin cotton athletic pants to put over our shorts, since we knew that long pants would be required. For those people who did not bring anything to cover up with, lightweight pants were provided, which looked very similar to hospital scrubs.
We decided to hire a guide right at the museum entrance and ended up with a woman who was very enthusiastic and who also took excellent photos. We usually don't end up with a lot of pictures of us together when we travel, so this was a special treat. She was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic and what she described as a one hour tour ended up taking two hours just because we were having a good time, asking a lot of questions and stopping for a lot of photos. I can safely say that the Royal Palace was two of my favorite hours of the entire trip: the palaces, the temples, and the stupas, covered in gold, bright colors or even pieces of broken pottery, were impressive, and the sun reflecting off the gold was dazzling.
Fortunately our guide had a parasol that the three of us tried to huddle under because by 10:30 the sun was beating down and we were starting to feel a bit drained. Normally I can go, go, go, on vacation, but after our two-hour tour in the tropical heat we needed a break inside a cool air-conditioned shop, where we inhaled a large iced tea to recharge us, before moving onto Wat Po, a 10 minute walk away. I will say that I was a bit surprised by my reaction to the climate. I'm used to the dry heat in Los Angeles, where the weather channel will say that it's 93° out, but feels like 83. In contrast, when we checked the weather in Bangkok, the report would say 93°, feels like 103…and it did.
Our first stop at Wat Po was the temple of the reclining Buddha. Although we had read about this and expected it to be big, it is truly massive. This temple was a bit more crowded than what we encountered at the Royal Palace because more people had to funnel into a smaller space, but surprisingly, most people left the area after seeing the reclining Buddha, and the rest of Wat Po was empty by comparison. So we spent the next hour and a half peacefully admiring the massive stupas and the dozens of Buddhas lining the walls of the complex.
For lunch we found a nearby restaurant called the Bitter Deck, which was attached to a small boutique hotel, the name of which escapes me. It had a lovely patio along the river, directly across from Wat Arun, but it was too hot to sit outside, so we availed ourselves of the air-conditioned dining room. I think the temperature in Bangkok dropped a week or two after we left, so it would have been an ideal spot for lunch for anyone there during the cooler weather.
After lunch we took a ferry across the river to Wat Arun which, although covered with scaffolding, was still enjoyable up close. There's a large main stupa in the middle of the complex, surrounded by four smaller ones, one in each corner. It is possible to climb up and get a better view from up above which we did.
By this point we had finished everything on my “must do” list for day one. I did have a lot of optional activities on my left on my list, but the jet lag and temperature were too draining, so we just decided to go back to our room to rest during the late afternoon heat.
That evening for dinner we decided to stay close by, so we went to a restaurant called Salathip, right at our hotel. The teak buildings were in an attractive, traditional Thai style, with seating right along the river. During dinner there was a Thai dance show which was interesting to see, especially the beautiful and ornate traditional costumes, although I've never seen dance performed any slower in my life. When we later posted videos of this, we made a point of letting people know that the video was shot at normal speed, and not in slow motion.
Coming up: Suan Pakkar Museum, Jim Thompson House and China Town.
Bangkok – 4 nights
Siem Reap – 4 nights
Krabi – 2 nights
Ko Lanta 4 - nights
We flew Asiana, departing on November 19 from LAX for a 13 hour flight to Seoul, followed by a 6 hour flight to Bangkok. One of my initial questions was whether or not to spend the night in Seoul after landing at 5:30 PM local time, or continuing on for the additional six hours, and arriving at the hotel around midnight local time (which would be 9am LA time).
In the end, we decided to spend the night at the airport transit hotel at the Seoul airport, and I’m very happy that we did. We found that this really helped to break up the long flights, as well as enable us to sleep in a real bed, instead of trying, unsuccessfully, to sleep on the second flight while they were trying to serve a meal during trip from Seoul to Bangkok. We were then able to fly the next day during normal daylight hours, arriving to the hotel by about 3 PM. We pushed ourselves to stay awake until about 8 PM that evening, and actually slept until 6 AM the next morning. I think this got us into the time zone more easily, and allowed us to wake up early every morning, so that we could get an early start before the worst heat of the day.
Arrival in the Bangkok airport went without any major complications, and were able to easily withdraw cash from an ATM while waiting for our luggage to arrive. The line for the taxi at the airport was incredibly efficient, with each person in line taking a ticket from a machine, which would then tell them in which numbered space their taxi would appear. We waited only a few minutes in line, and our entire ride to the hotel took about 35 minutes, at a cost of about $15 US.
We stayed four nights at the Shangri-La hotel, right on the river, and we're very happy with both the location and the hotel. We were a two minute walk to the central pier, good for taking the boat up river to the Royal Palace, Chinatown, or the National Museum, and one minute from the BTS skytrain station, which we used to go to the Jim Thompson house and the Suan Pakkad Museum. Although we managed to get four free nights with points from hotels.com, the room would've been around $200 per night plus tax, which I think is worth it for the location, the quality of the room and the service. We enjoyed watching the river traffic from our balcony on the eighth floor, and the room was surprisingly quiet with the door closed, especially since we requested being on the end of the building furthest from the noisy bridge that goes over the river.
We decided to take a little walk in the area behind our hotel to try to keep us awake until dinner, and found ourselves in an indoor market in a large warehouse that was definitely not geared towards tourists. It was filled with a lot of seafood, especially dried fish, and large vats of some sort of pungent fish paste, which were sitting out with no refrigeration, covered with flies. This was the moment when I decided that maybe I wasn't going to have any street food on this trip, a decision I didn't regret ;-).
Following my plan for the next day, decided to hit the Royal Palace early the next morning. Taking the express boat with the orange flag from the central pier was easy (we paid on board) and we we're at the palace entrace by about 8:15, to find that they had actually opened early and already started letting people in. With the passing of the Thai king a couple months earlier we knew to pack a lot of black clothes, and we're very happy to have done so, as there was a massive line of mourners in all black, waiting to go pay their respects to the king. We were told that the wait in this line was 6 to 8 hours long, and we're very happy that we are able to walk right into the public portion of the Royal Palace without any delays.
Although we were wearing shorts, we had each brought a pair of thin cotton athletic pants to put over our shorts, since we knew that long pants would be required. For those people who did not bring anything to cover up with, lightweight pants were provided, which looked very similar to hospital scrubs.
We decided to hire a guide right at the museum entrance and ended up with a woman who was very enthusiastic and who also took excellent photos. We usually don't end up with a lot of pictures of us together when we travel, so this was a special treat. She was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic and what she described as a one hour tour ended up taking two hours just because we were having a good time, asking a lot of questions and stopping for a lot of photos. I can safely say that the Royal Palace was two of my favorite hours of the entire trip: the palaces, the temples, and the stupas, covered in gold, bright colors or even pieces of broken pottery, were impressive, and the sun reflecting off the gold was dazzling.
Fortunately our guide had a parasol that the three of us tried to huddle under because by 10:30 the sun was beating down and we were starting to feel a bit drained. Normally I can go, go, go, on vacation, but after our two-hour tour in the tropical heat we needed a break inside a cool air-conditioned shop, where we inhaled a large iced tea to recharge us, before moving onto Wat Po, a 10 minute walk away. I will say that I was a bit surprised by my reaction to the climate. I'm used to the dry heat in Los Angeles, where the weather channel will say that it's 93° out, but feels like 83. In contrast, when we checked the weather in Bangkok, the report would say 93°, feels like 103…and it did.
Our first stop at Wat Po was the temple of the reclining Buddha. Although we had read about this and expected it to be big, it is truly massive. This temple was a bit more crowded than what we encountered at the Royal Palace because more people had to funnel into a smaller space, but surprisingly, most people left the area after seeing the reclining Buddha, and the rest of Wat Po was empty by comparison. So we spent the next hour and a half peacefully admiring the massive stupas and the dozens of Buddhas lining the walls of the complex.
For lunch we found a nearby restaurant called the Bitter Deck, which was attached to a small boutique hotel, the name of which escapes me. It had a lovely patio along the river, directly across from Wat Arun, but it was too hot to sit outside, so we availed ourselves of the air-conditioned dining room. I think the temperature in Bangkok dropped a week or two after we left, so it would have been an ideal spot for lunch for anyone there during the cooler weather.
After lunch we took a ferry across the river to Wat Arun which, although covered with scaffolding, was still enjoyable up close. There's a large main stupa in the middle of the complex, surrounded by four smaller ones, one in each corner. It is possible to climb up and get a better view from up above which we did.
By this point we had finished everything on my “must do” list for day one. I did have a lot of optional activities on my left on my list, but the jet lag and temperature were too draining, so we just decided to go back to our room to rest during the late afternoon heat.
That evening for dinner we decided to stay close by, so we went to a restaurant called Salathip, right at our hotel. The teak buildings were in an attractive, traditional Thai style, with seating right along the river. During dinner there was a Thai dance show which was interesting to see, especially the beautiful and ornate traditional costumes, although I've never seen dance performed any slower in my life. When we later posted videos of this, we made a point of letting people know that the video was shot at normal speed, and not in slow motion.
Coming up: Suan Pakkar Museum, Jim Thompson House and China Town.
Jan 9th, 2017, 03:03 AM
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Greetings from Tasmania. I am enjoying your report and looking forward for more. Glad you had a good time at the Grand Palace; it is one of my favorites. How was the mood in Bangkok during your visit? To what extent are locals going about their business?
Jan 9th, 2017, 06:30 AM
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Thanks for coming along for the ride, everyone!
@tripplanner: Most people were wearing dark or neutral tones throughout Bangkok, and all black at the Grand Palace, but other than that, the people we met seemed to be in good spirits. As this was our first time, we have nothing to compare it to. We didn't go out after dinner to see any night life, so I'm not sure if it was a more subdued usual.
@tripplanner: Most people were wearing dark or neutral tones throughout Bangkok, and all black at the Grand Palace, but other than that, the people we met seemed to be in good spirits. As this was our first time, we have nothing to compare it to. We didn't go out after dinner to see any night life, so I'm not sure if it was a more subdued usual.
Jan 9th, 2017, 06:49 AM
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The next day we headed out about 8:40 for the Suan Pakkar Palace museum, taking the sky train right next to our hotel, and arriving about 9:10. The museum is a private collection of antiquities, the highlight of which is the Lacquer Pavilion, one of 8 traditional Thai houses that have been relocated from other parts of Thailand to the the garden of the museum. The name refers the interior, which is painted in gold on black lacquer with beautiful scenes from the life of Buddha.
After purchasing our tickets, we are accompanied by a young Thai woman who proceeded to give us a private tour throughout the collection. We are very impressed with the quality of the pieces, many of which were up to 5000 years old. She went into quite a bit of detail and answered our questions knowledgeably. We ended up spending about an hour and 20 minutes in the relatively small museum which was thoroughly enjoyable. Heading back to the lobby, we noticed that no one else was getting a private tour, so I guess that must have been our reward for being the first visitors of the day!
As a side note, just outside the museum was a shrine flanked by two enormous rooster statues, with several more smaller ones on the alter. There was no explanation, but when I googled it later, it appeared they were probably there to commemorate King Naresuan from the 16th century, not only because of the symbolic association of fighting cocks with battle and warrior kings, but because a legendary cock fight was a crucial event in Naresuan’s early life as well. If anyone else has any additional details as to their meaning, please feel free to chime in.
After our museum visit we took the sky train back toward the Jim Thompson house, where we had made 12:00 reservations for lunch at the restaurant. Although it was only about 11:15, they gave us a timed ticket for a tour that started at 11:50, so they allowed us to move our lunch reservation back to 12:30, as the tour would last about 40 minutes. While waiting for our tour to begin, we wandered through the lovely, lush jungle-like gardens surrounding the house, and did some browsing in the gift shop, admiring the silk designs.
We enjoyed the tour of the house, which is actually constructed out of several pre-existing traditional teak Thai houses, but with a lot of personal modifications made. We also learned a bit about Jim Thompson’s life, and how he revitalized the Thai silk industry. Perhaps because the explanations at the previous museum were so thorough, I felt that the tour of the Jim Thompson house was a little lacking in detail, but it was worthwhile nonetheless.
After the tour were relieved to be sitting inside the cool Jim Thompson restaurant, where we had a tasty Thai meal and I tried a cold blended drink consisting of ice, fresh mint, lychee juice and lime, which I proceed to order every time I could find it for the rest of the trip. It was incredibly refreshing and I'm planning on duplicating it at home, especially when we reach triple digit temperatures in the summer.
My original plan for the rest of the day was to take a boat down the canal that runs alongside the Jim Thompson house towards the old town area and see a couple more wats, but we were running low on energy again, so we decided to head back to the hotel for a couple hours before a visit to Chinatown instead.
After our break, we took the ferry along the river about 10 minutes to the stop for Chinatown. It was about 4:00 PM at this point, and the narrow pedestrian streets were jam-packed with people going about their daily business, mostly locals, along with a few tourists like us.
Some areas seemed to have a theme, where shops of similar products were clustered; for example, the shops that carried bags of notions used for making clothes or toys, filled to bursting with hundreds of knit flowers or plastic hearts or small, perplexing figures that looked like tiny ears of corn made out of yarn. There were a lot of vendors selling food out of carts on the pedestrian streets, which were overflowing with people. Just when you thought it could not get any more crowded, the sea of humanity would part for a scooter as it barely squeezed through the narrow alleys. It was chaotic, but a kind of organized chaos, which somehow seem to work despite itself.
At this point we attempted to catch the ferry back down the river from a different stop than the one at which we had arrived, but we had quite a bit of trouble finding it, even though we could see it on the map. We found the previous day that if we were lost, people on the street were happy to assist. For the most part we were understood enough to either get instructions in English or at least gestures that we could understand. We had been particularly lucky with the ubiquitous soldiers that seem to be stationed everywhere, especially near the Royal Palace.
In today’s case, there were three or four members of the military standing together talking when I asked for the directions to the Memorial Bridge ferry stop. None of them spoke English, so one of them gestured for us to follow him and he literally walked us 10 minutes to the stop, which we never would've found by ourselves. This was a reoccurring them, where found the Thai people to be quick to smile, exceedingly polite and very helpful.
On the way to the ferry we passed several shrines to the recently deceased king and at one in particular a Buddhist monk, cloaked in saffron colored robes, was arranging flowers in front of a picture of the king which had been placed on an altar. We are very touched to see how loved the king was. Everywhere we looked there was some sort of tribute to him, from enormous billboards along the highway, to small makeshift shrines along the sidewalks, or those found in between buildings along the street.
That night for dinner we decided to venture a bit from our hotel area, so we found a highly rated Japanese place about a mile away and made reservations. The food was good, but not great, and we underestimated the size of the portions, ending up with more than we could finish. This is the only time we took a taxi, other than from and back to the airport, and the ride back to the hotel ended up taking about 40 minutes to go under a mile, which we could have walked in 20. This reinforced our opinion that we had chosen a good hotel location, with great access to both the ferries and the sky train.
Up next: Bangkok National Museum and “Thanksgiving Dinner” at the Mandarin Oriental
After purchasing our tickets, we are accompanied by a young Thai woman who proceeded to give us a private tour throughout the collection. We are very impressed with the quality of the pieces, many of which were up to 5000 years old. She went into quite a bit of detail and answered our questions knowledgeably. We ended up spending about an hour and 20 minutes in the relatively small museum which was thoroughly enjoyable. Heading back to the lobby, we noticed that no one else was getting a private tour, so I guess that must have been our reward for being the first visitors of the day!
As a side note, just outside the museum was a shrine flanked by two enormous rooster statues, with several more smaller ones on the alter. There was no explanation, but when I googled it later, it appeared they were probably there to commemorate King Naresuan from the 16th century, not only because of the symbolic association of fighting cocks with battle and warrior kings, but because a legendary cock fight was a crucial event in Naresuan’s early life as well. If anyone else has any additional details as to their meaning, please feel free to chime in.
After our museum visit we took the sky train back toward the Jim Thompson house, where we had made 12:00 reservations for lunch at the restaurant. Although it was only about 11:15, they gave us a timed ticket for a tour that started at 11:50, so they allowed us to move our lunch reservation back to 12:30, as the tour would last about 40 minutes. While waiting for our tour to begin, we wandered through the lovely, lush jungle-like gardens surrounding the house, and did some browsing in the gift shop, admiring the silk designs.
We enjoyed the tour of the house, which is actually constructed out of several pre-existing traditional teak Thai houses, but with a lot of personal modifications made. We also learned a bit about Jim Thompson’s life, and how he revitalized the Thai silk industry. Perhaps because the explanations at the previous museum were so thorough, I felt that the tour of the Jim Thompson house was a little lacking in detail, but it was worthwhile nonetheless.
After the tour were relieved to be sitting inside the cool Jim Thompson restaurant, where we had a tasty Thai meal and I tried a cold blended drink consisting of ice, fresh mint, lychee juice and lime, which I proceed to order every time I could find it for the rest of the trip. It was incredibly refreshing and I'm planning on duplicating it at home, especially when we reach triple digit temperatures in the summer.
My original plan for the rest of the day was to take a boat down the canal that runs alongside the Jim Thompson house towards the old town area and see a couple more wats, but we were running low on energy again, so we decided to head back to the hotel for a couple hours before a visit to Chinatown instead.
After our break, we took the ferry along the river about 10 minutes to the stop for Chinatown. It was about 4:00 PM at this point, and the narrow pedestrian streets were jam-packed with people going about their daily business, mostly locals, along with a few tourists like us.
Some areas seemed to have a theme, where shops of similar products were clustered; for example, the shops that carried bags of notions used for making clothes or toys, filled to bursting with hundreds of knit flowers or plastic hearts or small, perplexing figures that looked like tiny ears of corn made out of yarn. There were a lot of vendors selling food out of carts on the pedestrian streets, which were overflowing with people. Just when you thought it could not get any more crowded, the sea of humanity would part for a scooter as it barely squeezed through the narrow alleys. It was chaotic, but a kind of organized chaos, which somehow seem to work despite itself.
At this point we attempted to catch the ferry back down the river from a different stop than the one at which we had arrived, but we had quite a bit of trouble finding it, even though we could see it on the map. We found the previous day that if we were lost, people on the street were happy to assist. For the most part we were understood enough to either get instructions in English or at least gestures that we could understand. We had been particularly lucky with the ubiquitous soldiers that seem to be stationed everywhere, especially near the Royal Palace.
In today’s case, there were three or four members of the military standing together talking when I asked for the directions to the Memorial Bridge ferry stop. None of them spoke English, so one of them gestured for us to follow him and he literally walked us 10 minutes to the stop, which we never would've found by ourselves. This was a reoccurring them, where found the Thai people to be quick to smile, exceedingly polite and very helpful.
On the way to the ferry we passed several shrines to the recently deceased king and at one in particular a Buddhist monk, cloaked in saffron colored robes, was arranging flowers in front of a picture of the king which had been placed on an altar. We are very touched to see how loved the king was. Everywhere we looked there was some sort of tribute to him, from enormous billboards along the highway, to small makeshift shrines along the sidewalks, or those found in between buildings along the street.
That night for dinner we decided to venture a bit from our hotel area, so we found a highly rated Japanese place about a mile away and made reservations. The food was good, but not great, and we underestimated the size of the portions, ending up with more than we could finish. This is the only time we took a taxi, other than from and back to the airport, and the ride back to the hotel ended up taking about 40 minutes to go under a mile, which we could have walked in 20. This reinforced our opinion that we had chosen a good hotel location, with great access to both the ferries and the sky train.
Up next: Bangkok National Museum and “Thanksgiving Dinner” at the Mandarin Oriental
Jan 10th, 2017, 09:11 AM
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Thanks, Lolazahra!
Continuing...
We had read before departing for our trip that the Bangkok National Museum, located a short way north of the Royal Palace, has English language tours at 9:30 in the morning on Wednesdays and Thursdays. I had tried emailing ahead of time to confirm if this was correct but never got a response. So fingers crossed, we set out via river ferry for the museum, hoping for the best.
Upon arrival we were told that we should wait for a guide near the bookstore. In the meantime we enjoyed the ornate exteriors of the buildings, which were originally built as a palace in the 1700’s for the King’s brother. Soon a guide holding a sign for a German speaking tour showed up, and we hoped that we hadn’t accidentally come on the German tour day; but after a short wait, the English language guide arrived, introduced herself, and we began the tour.
Our first stop was in the large Buddhist temple, which is the most prominent building immediately upon entering the grounds. Every wall and ceiling of the interior is filled with paintings in red, black and gold, depicting various events in the life of Buddha. It was interesting to learn that the pervasive dark-red color used throughout was considered a “neutral” color, used primarily for backgrounds, as it seems to jump out to our Western eyes. Our guide gave us detailed explanations of a few of the paintings, but we honestly could have spent the entire time just in this temple and still not made it through every image.
The tour took us through the highlights of the museum with some spectacular sculptures dating back hundreds or thousands of years, such enormous bronze or stone heads, Buddha figures covered in gold, or Genesha, with the head of an elephant, one of the best known of the Hindu gods.
For me the highlight of the tour was in an enormous room that housed the incredibly ornate, gold-encrusted royal funereal chariots, built in the 18th century, used to transport the remains of deceased kings and members of their family. It was especially poignant given the fact that one of the chariots would be used in the coming months to convey the recently deceased king’s remains through the nearby area of the city, as part of the funeral procession. The timing of this will be determined by astrological and other signs, and it will be the first time in 70 years that it will have been used for a deceased monarch.
The 2-1/2 tour was incredibly informative, and we were surprised when our guided mentioned that it was actually the first tour that she had given at this museum. We would have never known it based on her detailed explanations.
After the museum we wandered down Phra Athit Road, stopping for lunch at Aquatini, the riverside restaurant at the Navalai River Resort, where we had a delicious whole fish smothered in garlic and herbs, which turned out to be one of our favorite meals of the trip.
Since this area seemed a bit more walkable than most, we wandered past the Wat Chanasongkhram Ratchaworamahawihan, and onto Khao San Road, which is more of a backpackers area. We had heard that it is very lively at night, but it was almost devoid of people at this point, being the hottest part of the day.
We toyed with the idea of taking a long-tail boat tour through the canals, but decided to save it for the next morning. We had to leave the hotel by 12:30pm for the airport to go to Siem Reap, but since they left from the Central Pier right by our hotel, we knew there would be time.
That evening, we had our “Thanksgiving Dinner” at the Mandarin Oriental hotel. This was our splurge meal, and it was a fun experience. As part of the reservation, the Oriental sent a ferry boat that looks like a small teak house on water, which picked us up from the Shangri-la pier. It was pouring rain, so it was fun to be out on the river, completely dry under the wooden roof, for the 5 minute trip to the Oriental. Of course, no one knew were celebrating an American holiday there except us, but we enjoyed our Thai Thanksgiving all the same.
The next morning we got to the central pier about 8:30 and settled on a 1-1/2 hour canal tour. We had our own private long-tail boat, which was festooned with brightly colored flowers hanging from the front of the bow. It was really interesting going past the houses to see how people live and we were greeted with a few smiles and waves as we passed by. There were several temples that we passed, including an enormous, white stupa that we had seen from the balcony of the hotel. Up close was even more massive, and I regretted not taking a longer tour, as we didn’t have time to stop and explore.
At one point we passed a woman in a boat who was selling souvenirs, but it was mostly cheap, plastic trinkets; however, she was sweet, so we bought something cool to drink, and a beer for our “driver”. At the end of a long canal we rejoined the river, near Wat Arun, and headed south back towards our hotel. I asked about the possibility of stopping at the Royal Barge Museum, which we hadn't seen yet, but apparently that is only part of the two-hour and three-hour tours. In the end we were back to the pier by 10 o'clock and had plenty of time to get ready for the airport, so in retrospect we wished we had done the two-hour tour. I guess now we have something to see on a future trip.
To summarize our time in Bangkok, I realize it can be a polarizing city. I would say that we didn't fall in love with it, but we didn't hate it. We thought that the sights were very much worth seeing, and we found that the palace, the museums and the smaller sites were a great introduction to Thailand and its culture. On the other hand, we didn’t find it to be a beautiful city to wander around, which is one of the joys of traveling to a new place. I'm sure we would have seen more of the city if it hadn't been quite as hot, as there was quite a bit more to explore, particularly in the more modern areas, but I'm happy with the amount of time that we allocated and would definitely spend a couple more days there if my travel plans took me through Bangkok.
Up next: Siem Reap and the Angkor Wat temple complex
Continuing...
We had read before departing for our trip that the Bangkok National Museum, located a short way north of the Royal Palace, has English language tours at 9:30 in the morning on Wednesdays and Thursdays. I had tried emailing ahead of time to confirm if this was correct but never got a response. So fingers crossed, we set out via river ferry for the museum, hoping for the best.
Upon arrival we were told that we should wait for a guide near the bookstore. In the meantime we enjoyed the ornate exteriors of the buildings, which were originally built as a palace in the 1700’s for the King’s brother. Soon a guide holding a sign for a German speaking tour showed up, and we hoped that we hadn’t accidentally come on the German tour day; but after a short wait, the English language guide arrived, introduced herself, and we began the tour.
Our first stop was in the large Buddhist temple, which is the most prominent building immediately upon entering the grounds. Every wall and ceiling of the interior is filled with paintings in red, black and gold, depicting various events in the life of Buddha. It was interesting to learn that the pervasive dark-red color used throughout was considered a “neutral” color, used primarily for backgrounds, as it seems to jump out to our Western eyes. Our guide gave us detailed explanations of a few of the paintings, but we honestly could have spent the entire time just in this temple and still not made it through every image.
The tour took us through the highlights of the museum with some spectacular sculptures dating back hundreds or thousands of years, such enormous bronze or stone heads, Buddha figures covered in gold, or Genesha, with the head of an elephant, one of the best known of the Hindu gods.
For me the highlight of the tour was in an enormous room that housed the incredibly ornate, gold-encrusted royal funereal chariots, built in the 18th century, used to transport the remains of deceased kings and members of their family. It was especially poignant given the fact that one of the chariots would be used in the coming months to convey the recently deceased king’s remains through the nearby area of the city, as part of the funeral procession. The timing of this will be determined by astrological and other signs, and it will be the first time in 70 years that it will have been used for a deceased monarch.
The 2-1/2 tour was incredibly informative, and we were surprised when our guided mentioned that it was actually the first tour that she had given at this museum. We would have never known it based on her detailed explanations.
After the museum we wandered down Phra Athit Road, stopping for lunch at Aquatini, the riverside restaurant at the Navalai River Resort, where we had a delicious whole fish smothered in garlic and herbs, which turned out to be one of our favorite meals of the trip.
Since this area seemed a bit more walkable than most, we wandered past the Wat Chanasongkhram Ratchaworamahawihan, and onto Khao San Road, which is more of a backpackers area. We had heard that it is very lively at night, but it was almost devoid of people at this point, being the hottest part of the day.
We toyed with the idea of taking a long-tail boat tour through the canals, but decided to save it for the next morning. We had to leave the hotel by 12:30pm for the airport to go to Siem Reap, but since they left from the Central Pier right by our hotel, we knew there would be time.
That evening, we had our “Thanksgiving Dinner” at the Mandarin Oriental hotel. This was our splurge meal, and it was a fun experience. As part of the reservation, the Oriental sent a ferry boat that looks like a small teak house on water, which picked us up from the Shangri-la pier. It was pouring rain, so it was fun to be out on the river, completely dry under the wooden roof, for the 5 minute trip to the Oriental. Of course, no one knew were celebrating an American holiday there except us, but we enjoyed our Thai Thanksgiving all the same.
The next morning we got to the central pier about 8:30 and settled on a 1-1/2 hour canal tour. We had our own private long-tail boat, which was festooned with brightly colored flowers hanging from the front of the bow. It was really interesting going past the houses to see how people live and we were greeted with a few smiles and waves as we passed by. There were several temples that we passed, including an enormous, white stupa that we had seen from the balcony of the hotel. Up close was even more massive, and I regretted not taking a longer tour, as we didn’t have time to stop and explore.
At one point we passed a woman in a boat who was selling souvenirs, but it was mostly cheap, plastic trinkets; however, she was sweet, so we bought something cool to drink, and a beer for our “driver”. At the end of a long canal we rejoined the river, near Wat Arun, and headed south back towards our hotel. I asked about the possibility of stopping at the Royal Barge Museum, which we hadn't seen yet, but apparently that is only part of the two-hour and three-hour tours. In the end we were back to the pier by 10 o'clock and had plenty of time to get ready for the airport, so in retrospect we wished we had done the two-hour tour. I guess now we have something to see on a future trip.
To summarize our time in Bangkok, I realize it can be a polarizing city. I would say that we didn't fall in love with it, but we didn't hate it. We thought that the sights were very much worth seeing, and we found that the palace, the museums and the smaller sites were a great introduction to Thailand and its culture. On the other hand, we didn’t find it to be a beautiful city to wander around, which is one of the joys of traveling to a new place. I'm sure we would have seen more of the city if it hadn't been quite as hot, as there was quite a bit more to explore, particularly in the more modern areas, but I'm happy with the amount of time that we allocated and would definitely spend a couple more days there if my travel plans took me through Bangkok.
Up next: Siem Reap and the Angkor Wat temple complex
Jan 11th, 2017, 02:59 AM
#14
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Loved your Babgkok report. It is so interesting that there are just wildly different opinions about the city. That is why comprehensive trip reports are essential, as we are all so different and the contrasts are so helpful. You seem to be in the minority -- liked it but didn't love it. Usually people either HATE it or LOVE it. I'm still so intrigued to visit as I don't think there is another city that encourages more dialogue on the Asia Forum! Your details were extremely helpful. Weren't you planning a food tour at the beginning of your reasearch? And I recall you mentioning a few other restaurants you were interested in or people suggested to you. If so, why did you not do the food tour? Also what did you think about the food in general? For most (and I'm hoping me one day!), the food is a highlight. Was it for you? Looking forward to Siem Reap. I left my heart in Cambidia. Unexpectedly it really got under my skin. Thanks for taking the time to share as always.
Jan 11th, 2017, 03:58 AM
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<<<After the museum we wandered down Phra Athit Road, stopping for lunch at Aquatini, the riverside restaurant at the Navalai River Resort, where we had a delicious whole fish smothered in garlic and herbs, which turned out to be one of our favorite meals of the trip.>>>
Enjoying your report. Glad you got to Phra Athit, part of Banglamphu my favourite area of Bangkok. We stayed at the Navalai River Resort when it opened. It's location right on the river and by Pier 13 [for the Orange Flag ferry], and its close vicinity to several major sights make it an ideal place to stay. Now though we usually stay at the The New Siam Riverside, also on Phra Athit but better vfm, and within our not very big budget. Plenty of places to eat and drink too.
Shame that Khao San was quiet, but like many places it comes to life after dark, and enjoyed by many tourists, not just backpackers. And for those who stay clear of the place, it's just a small part of Banglamphu, and easily avoided.
I note what you say about some of the market fresh food being covered in flies, which put you off street food. Some of that food also finds its way into the posher expensive establishments too.....but people don't want to believe that!
More please.
Enjoying your report. Glad you got to Phra Athit, part of Banglamphu my favourite area of Bangkok. We stayed at the Navalai River Resort when it opened. It's location right on the river and by Pier 13 [for the Orange Flag ferry], and its close vicinity to several major sights make it an ideal place to stay. Now though we usually stay at the The New Siam Riverside, also on Phra Athit but better vfm, and within our not very big budget. Plenty of places to eat and drink too.
Shame that Khao San was quiet, but like many places it comes to life after dark, and enjoyed by many tourists, not just backpackers. And for those who stay clear of the place, it's just a small part of Banglamphu, and easily avoided.
I note what you say about some of the market fresh food being covered in flies, which put you off street food. Some of that food also finds its way into the posher expensive establishments too.....but people don't want to believe that!
More please.
Jan 11th, 2017, 09:11 AM
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@Lolazahra: We didn't end up going on the food tour for a few reasons. 1) I was interested in the Chinatown tour, which is mostly street food, so opted out of that; 2) Sam is allergic to shrimp and crab, so we didn't want to run the risk, and thought modifying with a group might be an issue; and 3) We were considering the tour starting at 6pm, but we were exhausted by the end of each day and didn't have the energy. We didn't make it to any of the suggested resaurants, but we did enjoy the food at the places I mentioned. In general, I was surprised that it was more similar to Thai food we can get in LA than I was expecting. I suppose that's good for us!
@LancasterLad: I agree, the Phra Athit area seems ideally located for anyone focusing on the Banglamphu sights, as well as sights to the north.
@Kathie: It's funny, but I feel like we were running at 75% the entire time, so we saw less than I had planned, although, as I mentioned, we saw everything on my "must" list. We don't usually take a 3 hour break in the afternoon on our trips, but this may be the new normal for us. (I have ongoing issues with migraines, which doesn't help). Also, we didn't do anything after dinner, like going to Sky Bar, which was so close to our hotel. I would have liked to spend a bit more time in the downtown area, but maybe next time. I recommend the tour at the National Museum next time you go!
@rhkkmk: We at at the Verandah restaurant at the Oriental. Unfortunately, we had to sit inside due to the rain, but it was still nice. I had several enormous grilled langoustines, which were excellent.
@LancasterLad: I agree, the Phra Athit area seems ideally located for anyone focusing on the Banglamphu sights, as well as sights to the north.
@Kathie: It's funny, but I feel like we were running at 75% the entire time, so we saw less than I had planned, although, as I mentioned, we saw everything on my "must" list. We don't usually take a 3 hour break in the afternoon on our trips, but this may be the new normal for us. (I have ongoing issues with migraines, which doesn't help). Also, we didn't do anything after dinner, like going to Sky Bar, which was so close to our hotel. I would have liked to spend a bit more time in the downtown area, but maybe next time. I recommend the tour at the National Museum next time you go!
@rhkkmk: We at at the Verandah restaurant at the Oriental. Unfortunately, we had to sit inside due to the rain, but it was still nice. I had several enormous grilled langoustines, which were excellent.
