I don't know if this'll work or not, but I'm going to give it a try. This is the blog I tried to post about my day in Bangkok. Let me know if you can read it or not. I'll try to post most on my Chiang Mai travels once I get settled here at home. so now, I take you back in time to November 14th, the morning after my arrival in Bangkok.....

I awoke feeling not too jet-lagged, in time to get down to breakfast before 10:00. An acceptable North-American style buffet, but it got me started.

Then it was time to figure out what I was going to do for the day. An acquaintance had just been in Bangkok and sent me an email recommending a guide she’d had last week. I tried him, but not surprisingly, he was busy for the day.

So I went to the desk in the hotel where they have lots of brochures and signs that suggest they could arrange tours. But when I asked the concierge if he cud get me a guide to take me to places like the Grand Palace, he gave me a puzzled look, as if I were introducing an entirely unheard-of concept.

But he gave me a map, circled the hotel and showed me where the Grand Palace was. Then he got me a taxi and told me it should cost 50 Baht (about $1.80). More importantly he told the taxi driver that – something I learned is a must here. Taxi drivers are known for upping the price once you arrive, so people at the hotel and airport will tell you and the taxi driver what the price should be. (more on that later)

When I got to the Grand Palace, I found someone who could give me a tour for 400 Baht. I asked if we could get some others in the group to reduce the price, and as luck would have it, two young women from the Philippines were nearby looking for a guide. So he took the three of us for 200 each. Which was well worth it.

Our guide, whose short name was Sue (don’t ask me for the long one), gave us an interesting view of the temples and of the Thai perspective – or at least his Thai perspective.

He told us about Buddhism, about how the body isn’t important because it isn’t ours, only our soul is ours.

Then he spent much of our time together noting the different features that people had – how the Chinese looked different from the Koreans and the Vietnamese, how marriages between different peoples created a look that was somehow less than desirable. He had very strong views about which looks were desirable. At the same time, he was not in favour of people changing their looks to get a “high nose” or to change their eyes. Interesting contradictions.
He showed us around the Grand Palace, which is not really a palace but a huge area filled with different temples, each made by or for one of the Kings Rama. Each temple was more outrageously ornate than the last.


Most interesting was the Royal Monastery of the Emerald Buddha, where we sat on the floor, shoes off of course, making sure that our feet did not point at the Buddha (that’s very impolite).

The Emerald Buddha sits high above steps of gold and other jewels, and he himself is bedecked in his seasonal garb – a jeweled cloak for the rainy season. He has two other costumes, one for winter and one for summer. No pictures allowed.

Despite some difficulties in understanding Sue, we were glad we’d hired him, and we came away with some greater insights of the palace and the temples and the Kings than we would’ve had if we’d taken an audio tour.

Then, fortunately, the two women, Lisa and Kristine invited me to join them as they continued on to see some other Wats.

Lisa had been to Bangkok before with her husband and she knew her way around. She even knew a little Thai and she wasn’t afraid to ask directions.













So we took a boat across the choppy Chao Phraya River and went to the Wat Arun, which is a kind of landmark, sticking up like a big finger. Although you can climb all the way up, we only went up two levels, and that was enough for us. Very steep and narrow steps, challenging to climb up and treacherous to climb down. It’s called Temple of the Dawn because in the morning light if reflects the sun beautifully (a fact I’ll have to believe, as I won’t be seeing it).

We took the boat back across the river and it started to rain. So we decided to have lunch by the riverside, which was great timing, because soon it was pouring, a great rat-a-tat-tattiing on the metal roof above us. Although it was an open-air restaurant, we didn’t get at all wet, but we had great views of people rushing off the boats trying to shield themselves from the downpour.

The lunch – my first real taste of Thai food here - was incredibly unremarkable, fried rice with shrimp and chicken with almost no flavour – certainly not the Thai flavours I was anticipating.

But the lunch conversation more than made up for it, as I learned about Lisa and Kristine’s lives in the Philippines. They’re both dermatologists and are here for a one-month course in laser techniques. Apparently there’s a lot of expertise in the whole area of “self-improvement” here, a big business for Thais and tourists. They were both very friendly and we had a great conversation.

After lunch, which conveniently coincided with the end of the torrent, we went to the Wat Pho, where the great reclining Buddha lies. This thing is massive! 46-or so metres long, which doesn’t really mean much until you walk in and see the actual size. Oddly, there are pillars all around it, which means you can’t actually see the whole thing from a distance. In fact, the only way you can get a view of the whole statue is from the feet. Which is impressive enough I guess.

From there, we tried to go to Vimanek Mansion, but by the time we got there it was closed. We decided to head to our separate living quarters, and Lisa insisted on waiting till I had found a taxi that would take me to my hotel. (She was quite the motherly type). That proved to be quite difficult. All of a sudden it was rush hour and despite the fact that there were thousands of cars, there were very few available taxis. And finding one that would take me was even harder.

Finally, we got a taxi and I showed him the map, with my hotel, Hotel de Moc circled. It didn’t look far on the map, but he said it would be 300 Baht. We protested but he said it was far. We’d been trying to find a cab for so long, I finally gave in and took it.

As we drove off I felt quite sure he was going to take around-about route. I had no idea!

Of course, I didn't know my way around to know if he was going the right way. But it seemed like a lot longer than I thought it should be. So when he arrived at the Hotel Maxx I was only a little surprised.

I told him it was the wrong hotel. He was clearly upset, because he'd wasted a lot of time and we were nowhere near my hotel ... but that was just the beginning.

I showed the map to him once more and he set out again, but we were just in time for a HUGE traffic jam. We sat at one intersection for literally a half an hour, just trying to make a turn.

Then finally, he pulled up to a hotel and he said "Here it is." But it wasn't my hotel. It was a Ramada!

He talked to the people at the Ramada and they seemed to be telling him where Hotel de Moc was, then he pulled away from there, went around the corner and stopped. I had given him the card from my hotel, and he finally phoned them. He had a very long conversation with them, during which he seemed to be yelling at them, which I couldn't understand - it wasn't their fault that he was lost!

Finally he gave the phone to me and the woman from the hotel told me to leave the cab and pay him. At first she said 600 baht, but when I told her what I'd been through she said to give him 100.

That didn't seem right - even though I knew he was mostly at fault. So I gave him the originally agreed amount of 300. By this time I'd been in his cab for over an hour and a half!

So I walked back to the Ramada and talked to the man outside, who wrote out the name and address of the hotel in Thai, as well as some directions I think. (something Lisa had suggested, and I wished I’d taken her advice).

Then I went and found another cab and showed him the note, and the driver quoted me 500 baht! I protested, and we finally agreed to 400. Which was probably fair because it was another 40 minutes before we finally pulled up to my hotel. What should’ve taken about twenty minutes took nearly three hours!

When I got to the hotel, I asked the concierge about a place to eat and he handed me over to a tuktuk driver who took me for free to a lovely restaurant on the river. So at least I got a tuktuk ride in Bangkok.

The menu promoted such delicacies as Fried Snakehead Fish in Spicy Paste and Charcoal Grilled Black Banded Trivially. I finally went with Spicy Papaya Salad with Marinated Swimming Crab, which I asked for “Not spicy”. When it came I realized two things: First, it was a good thing I ordered not spicy, otherwise it would’ve blown my head off. And second, it was probably called “Swimming Crab” because that’s what it was doing moments before they put it on my plate – they didn’t waste any time cooking it! But once I got used to the texture of the crab, I realized it was quite sweet and actually took away some of the sting of the salad. Finally I felt like I was in Thailand! Well, except for the live band which played such great Thai hits as “Have I told you Lately that I Love you?”. There seems to be a great love of elevator music here. I guess it goes with the gentle Thai nature?

Anyway, enough for one day.

And now, on to Chiang Mai….