A First Glimpse of Bangkok, Thailand
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| Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall, Dusit Palace Park |
The more I travel, the more I want to experience every country and culture I possibly can. Recently, Romeo and I decided it was time to go to Asia. I had never been and he had only been to the Philippines as a very young child. I have to admit I was nervous because big cities in Asian countries seem so intense, full of activity and crowds. Since we like to experience things on our own, I was also very nervous about navigating a country where signs would be in characters rather than letters (or so I thought). But knowing that beautiful locations, vibrant architecture, delicious food, and friendly people awaited us, I tamped down these qualms and planned a trip to Thailand. I chose Thailand as our first Asian destination together because it has a reputation of being tourist friendly and many Thai people know and are willing to converse in English. Plus, I absolutely love and adore Thai food and wanted to experience it in its authentic form.
I learned a friend of mine was heading to Thailand, so I asked him for a full report when he returned. I love cities, so I knew I wanted to spend some quality time in Bangkok. When he expressed regret at not having spent more time in that city, I decided we would spend five nights in Bangkok.
Since we arrived in Bangkok around midnight after traveling for over 24 hours, our itinerary for our first day was fairly light. We decided to travel on our first day by taxi, because we weren’t quite ready to navigate the public transit system (which turned out to be incredibly easy). We asked one of the ladies at our hotel to write our destinations for the day in Thai so we could show them to our taxi drivers. I learned this trick from one of our guidebooks, and it worked perfectly.
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| Abhisek Dusit Throne Hall, Dusit Palace Park |
Our first stop for the day was Dusit Palace Park, which contains various buildings including The Royal Elephant National Museum, Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall, Abhisek Dusit Throne Hall, and Vimanmek Mansion Museum. The Royal Elephant National Museum consists of two small buildings which were former royal elephant stables. There are all sorts of interesting royal elephant related objects, including tusks, tassels of hair, and jars of preserved skin from white elephants. The Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall was unfortunately closed as preparations were being made for the King’s 85th birthday. But the outside is beautiful, we could see the balcony where the king made a rare appearance just a few days later, and we also saw what appeared to be Bangkok’s entire police force doing drills in the plaza in front. The Abhisek Dusit Throne Hall contains a collection of Thai handicrafts. Some of the more fascinating items in the hall were jewelry and other small items decorated with the wings of beetles. That might sound a bit off-putting, but the shimmering metallic green and intricacy were stunning, and we did not encounter these types of objects elsewhere. The Vimanmek Mansion Museum is the world’s largest golden teakwood mansion. It is exquisitely furnished and also displays Thai art, including silverware, ceramics, crystal, and ivory.
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| Malayan Water Monitor at Dusit Palace Park |
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| Pad Thai at Dusit Palace Park |
It was time for lunch and we were yet to have our first Thai meal. There was a cafeteria type place within Dusit Palace Park. I was concerned a meal on museum grounds wouldn’t be the best, but we were hungry, and we weren’t ready to go out exploring for our meal. And so, quite unexpectedly, we had our first mouth-watering meal of the trip. The cafeteria ended up being a small enclosed room in which to eat, with three covered stands outside from which to buy food. A woman was standing behind her large wok, with an array of ingredients displayed, and pictures of various meals for purchase. The grounds and museum employees were ordering their lunches from her, so it seemed like a good bet. I ordered the item I recognized immediately on the menu, and what I saw some of the others order, Pad Thai. In less than two minutes she threw ingredients together, flicking out small portions of tofu, dried shrimp, tamarind, chili pepper, and sugar from their respective bowls with her wok chuan, no measurements needed, scrambling an egg, and tossing in noodles and bean sprouts. Lunch was served, accompanied by a mixed fruit shake from another lady, which consisted of multiple fresh fruits blended to order with ice and simple syrup. These fruit shakes were to become a daily staple for me for the rest of our trip. The Pad Thai was the best I ever had.
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| Wat Benchamabophit |
After lunch we crossed the street and visited our first Thai temple, Wat Benchamabophit, constructed from white Carrara marble from Italy.
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| Buddhaisawan Chapel, National Museum |
We then took a taxi to the National Museum. Unlike most museums, this museum is comprised of multiple buildings as well as a temple, a house, and pavilions. The museum has a fascinating collection of chariots, musical instruments, carved ivory tusks, and royal transportations.
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| Carved Ivory Tusks, National Museum |
We ended our visit at closing time, 4:00 p.m., which also coincided with heavy traffic. This is when we learned a lesson not covered by our guidebooks. Our hotel was in the Sukhumvit area, only nine miles away. Because of the traffic that would be encountered, none of the taxi drivers were willing to use their meters, and some would not even go to that area. We eventually bargained with a taxi driver for something like 350 baht and got back to our hotel. Here are the lessons I learned. 50 baht isn't really worth haggling over. It’s so easy to forget what sounds like a big number is barely more than $1.50. Also, an alternative is to take a taxi to the nearest sky train station and continue from there. Another alternative is to take the express boat to the sky train station, as the museum is on the river.
Thus ended our first day of sightseeing in Bangkok, and this first glimpse left me excited for more.
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| Bangkok Traffic |
A few additional items of note regarding Bangkok and the rest of Thailand. As is true for many places, long pants or skirts and shirts with sleeves were required to be worn in Dusit Palace Park and Wat Benchamabophit. A sarong can be worn over shorts if desired. Also, shoes must be removed when entering the buildings. When kneeling or sitting in a temple, do not allow your feet to point at the Buddha. This is considered to be very disrespectful.