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Bangkok, Pollution, Palaces and Temples
Entry 8 of 75 | show all | print this entry |
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Finally we've made time to visit this huge metropolis of between 10-20 million people depends who you ask), 10 million cars and who knows how many tuk-tuks, motor bikes! The mountains in the north were much cooler, probably 10 degrees, quieter by 100 decibels and the air was purer.
Arrived early morning and went straight out to try out a tuk-tuk who thought he could make some petrol coupons by bringing us to expensive jewelery stores - no luck for him although we did see a nice ring with some saphires. The first real visit was the kings palace and Wat Phra Kaew which are both in the same compound. It's an amazing structure stretching on for what must be 1 km in every direction, I'm sure the photos will not do it justice.
The statues are often quite amusing, fairytale like we certainly couldn't work out any religious conotations, maybe it's because of the marriage between hinduism and buddhism that things get somewhat confused.
The older king's palaces and residences Vimanmek have been opened up to visitors too, these buildings are less fantasy like since they are not married to a wat. In fact they have a European feel dating from the victorian era and also demonstrating some arabic designs in the architecture.
The city hardly ever rests although Sunday is a bit quieter with less shops being open, at least that means less cars travelling through the place and perhaps even the temperature is lower. Tested out the local buses, we're not sure if the conductor knew how to read a map since by pointing at the destination we just got blank looks although she did know the name of the road we wanted. After this attempt at local blending we tried the river taxi and it must be said here you cannot go wrong because the boat only goes up and down the river and it's by far the fastest means of getting around (as long as you want to go up or down stream).
We managed to wander into a ghetto along one of the canals which leads to the railway track then eventually got back to the main road, fortunately before the train arrived. Surprisingly enough even in this poor area some people still speak english which Dom discovered by pasing a dropped apple back to one of the locals but it wasn't tempting to stay around.
The Thais all "love" their king and it seems that the 60 anniversary has been a time for demonstrating this, all over thailand people are wearing yellow tee-shirts, in Bangkok this is most noticable at lunch time when the canteens are a sea of yellow. Apparently this used to be a tradition only on Mondays, with other days being reserved for other colours but during at least this 60th year it has become an everyday feature.
For those who like interesting facts, something we forgot to mention before is that the buddhist calendar is 543 years ahead of the christian (gregorian) one so occassionaly you'll come across signs dated 2550 or some such. A ride into the future by any other name.
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