Bangkok Part 1
Trip Start
Jan 28, 2008
1
23
42
Trip End
May 27, 2008
Bangkok,
Thailand
Monday, April 7, 2008
This was an adventure too. Off early to the airport too. A taxi claimed first to be the son of the guy with 8 kids, then the brother. The GM at Raffles suggests its all a story so that they get bigger tips.
No problems at immigration this time or even getting a cab the 45 km to town. We got the cab with an LNG tank in his trunk so it was a tight squeeze with the help of bungey cords getting 2 bags into the trunk and another in the front seat to get downtown to our hotel. 500 baht (about $17) to the Best Western Swana. Don't go there! It may have seen better days but not recently. The front entrance is shadowed by the approach ramp to the Rama 8 bridge, it's not the best of neighbourhoods (in Ottawa it would be the worst of Vanier) and you had to keep killing the little bugs you found. The walls were all right until you pulled the bed from the wall ( in case of cockroaches) to find the paint peeling and mould. We didn't find this part out until late in the evening, too late to move.
We walked the neighbourhood anyway partly to replenish our baht that we had used getting into Cambodia (see previous blog). A helpful resident suggested interesting places to see and told us that for 4 days, this being the last, the tuk tuk drivers were being reimbursed by the Thai Tourism bureau by paying for their gas whilst taking tourists around. I'm not sure of that. We did visit the temple of the Black Buddha which is only open for tourists one day a year, this being the day. The day yes, but not the hour. We were too late. Another local did explain some of the customs and formalities of visiting a Buddhist temple. Our tuk tuk driver waited whilst we circled the temple and again at the giant standing Buddha Temple then took us to a shop where, had we bought anything, he would have got a commission. As we didn't his mood changed and so the price of the ride. $17.50 for about 2 hours instead of a little over a dollar. We did get him to drop us off at an ok restaurant over the water on the Chao Phraya River. Cheap food, wine not cheap but acceptable.
After dinner we took the express boat supposedly one stop to the dock closest to where we were staying. At our location there were four boats lines with different stops. We were directed to the wrong one and went past our stop. We hiked back to our hotel through some pretty slimey neighbourhoods. Safe though (we are told).
After spraying our room and the corners of the bed we spent a restless night at the (not) Best Western. Best Western, who booked this for us, albeit at our request will hear about it.
For the next morning we had booked a sightseeing tour. $30 for half a day. Again we were the only tourists. We had booked out of the balance of our stay at the Best Western and into the Marriott Hotel in the right part of town. It was a tight squeeze but we were able to load our luggage into the car with the guide and driver for the morning tour and they then took us to the Marriott.
The $30 really only covered the car as we had to pay $8 ea. for entry to see the former Royal Palace, the Emerald Buddha (actually jade) and the Gold Buddha. The temples were very interesting as was the museum. The shine was not from precious stones but from glass embedded in the concrete figures. See Paul's silly poses. We drove around several monuments which they described as we passed and, for another 1800 baht, we got on a high bowed canal boat, picture scenes from an early James Bond movie, through the canals on the west side of the river. At first it looked (and smelled) like we were sailing along the sewer system but it did improve. Both rich and poor live along the sides of the canals.
Again the guide took us to some shops (supposedly our tour, booked at the airport, was subsidized by these shops). We did find a nice ring for Cheryl (happy anniversary honey). April 1st was the 37th anniversary of the day I proposed.
I'm typing from the JW Marriott Hotel (a four star hotel whereas the other might be considered no better than a one star). We're much happier here. Budget be damned. A swim and a delightful Thai dinner complete with Thai music and dance then early to bed to recover from the restless sleep last night. Tomorrow we won't venture far. We'll take the Skytrain 2 or 3 stops to the downtown shopping malls, back for a swim before another schedled tour to the Floating Flower Markets out of town. Sat. we fly out to Phuket.
