The Kingdom of Thailand – Day 9 (June 22nd 2009)

Our last full-day in Bangkok. This morning's trip was to MBK. Bought a suitcase to accommodate all our purchases. Bought a few more shoes. Made our way to MBK's top floor where there's a Cineplex. There was also a large watch store here – all sorts of premium brands. Dad bought himself a Timberland watch and one by Esprit. Kept quite myself cos my focus was on another possible purchase.



A cool dog we found at the station

Finally Dad succumbed and gave in to my demands for a PS3. We'd already found that the PS3 wasn't officially available from the lack of the console at Sony showrooms in Siam Paragon and Central World. So we looked around MBK for the latest (as of this writing) model of the console – the 160gb one with 2 USB ports (S/n: CECHPxx). Quite difficult to find, though we finally did at one shop – Pro Gamer. Negotiated for a while before buying the console along with Killzone 2.





That's Pepsi in Thai

It was 4.30pm by the time all this was done and we had a snack/ substitute for lunch at Burger King. Came back to the hotel soon after. Our relative was waiting there. After some chit-chat we left around 6.30pm in his car. The traffic jams were soooooo long, right until we got onto an expressway. He took us to The Mall, a big mall – as the name suggests :P - a bit away from Bangkok's city centre. More shopping (more shoes and handbags) and more eating followed.



Drove back to the hotel around 10pm. Was packing all the stuff up till late in the night.

The Kingdom of Thailand – Day 8 (june 21st 2009)

This morning we had a visitor, a relative of ours working in Thailand. He was joined here by two of his friends. So we had a long chat till they left around 12 noon. And then we left for some market called Chatuchak – mainly my Aunt's idea.



Took the sky train to Sala Daeng, where we switched over to the MRT. Don't do this if you just want to go directly to Chatuchak market. We took it just to see how the underground system (MRT) here was. Got off the underground at Chatuchak Park station and made our way to the market. You'll find lots of clothes, ties, furniture, souvenirs etc here. But don't mind coming here to do your shopping. They won't reduce prices one bit, just like I thought. It's no longer like the Thailand of old, the people here don't mind not selling something, they'll let you walk away without making a single effort to strike a bargain. And there's nothing here that you're gonna get really cheap. Had lunch from a stall somewhere in the market. Quite tasty, but the prices were obviously inflated when the vendor saw we were foreigners.



Onto Mo Chit station, and took the skytrain to Siam station. (We had a few gelatos – read: Italian ice creams made from Yoghurt – before we did so) From the station you can walk on elevated walkways all the way to Central world. There's absolutely no need to get down to ground level here. Prominent locations are serviced by such walkways from nearby train stations all over Bangkok.



Central world is another huge mall, lots of stuff to see, lots of window shopping to do. Another tour of the floors of this vast mall. Found another Powerbuy here, and Dad bought a phone for someone. Got myself a proper screen protector. The sales-girl who applied it on my phone new how to apply the thing properly, unlike the monkeys who eff it up here in Chennai. Walked around a bit more. Played with an iPhone on display for quite some time. Liked the smooth flow and navigation, sadly that's pretty much the main draw of the iPhone, a bit down on features for its asking price. Its the 3G version here, the 3GS isn't here yet. Later just near the exit from Central World back to the walkways leading to the station, found a Nokia display with a working N97. Quite a good phone and a decent touch screen but still doesn't beat the way the iPhone's menus “flow” so smoothly.



Guess what store this is - Indian, red background and white text, footwear..

From the station, it was back to Saphan Thaksin on the skytrain. Aunt had a revelation – “Let's go to Chinatown” - at around 7.30pm. So we took a Tuk Tuk (yes, the infamous Tuk Tuk – kinda like an autorickshaw), an essential, if a bit unsafe, experience in Bangkok. As expected, all the major stores at Chinatown were all closed. Walked around looking at all the weird stuff at the Chinese restaurants, then took another Tuk Tuk back to the hotel. For the distance we'd traveled, Tuk Tuks are CHEAPER THAN AUTORICKSHAWS IN CHENNAI. Finally something's cheaper here :D .



Had dinner at KFC nearby and topped that up with ice-cream from Swensen's.

The Kingdom of Thailand – Day 7 (June 20th 2009)

After breakfast, we left early with our guide – a woman named Oey (pronounced Oi) who kept talking a lot (good for me) in a minivan to Kanchanaburi province. Stopped at a store attached to a gas station for breakfast. Got some Fanta strawberry (Damn, why isn't this kinda stuff available in India) that was verrrrrry tasty. Here they add a lot of ice to drinks (hence decreasing the volume of the actual drink) just like they do at Mcdonalds, KFC, Domino's etc in India. But, the difference here is that you can ask them not to put any ice in and they'll leave the ice out and fill the glass right up with juice. Now that's the way they should do it. Shame on our retailers who so cheaply fill half a glass when we say “No ice please”.

Oi showed us some huge homes as we went past them on the highway and told us that a foreigner can't buy a home without marrying a Thai first. Also, to marry a Thai woman, the foreign man must earn atleast 40,000 Baht a month. Looking at me, she said “next time you come... I find nice Thai girl for you... very beautiful... then you can buy house”. I'm considering the offer ;-)



Our first stop was the War Cemetery. Here lie the graves of thousands of soldiers – of all ages, some as young as 20 – who died in WW2, fighting the Japanese forces and several of them being subjected to brutality in captivity, being forced to labour endlessly to build the infamous Japanese railway line – part of which is the famous “Bridge over the River Kwai” immortalised in movies. 115,000 soldiers and civilians died on just this railway line. 11 Indian soldiers are also honoured in this cemetery.





Next stop – the Jeath war museum (each letter of Jeath stands for a country / area of the world from where the soldiers came). War memorabilia of all kinds, as well as an exhibition of Thailand's past wars and great leaders and how Thailand was formed from the Khmer. Got friendly with an Iguana here, for the biologically–challenged its a big lizard 'nuff said. The lower section of the war museum displays Japanese articles – the bikes, airplanes, weapons, bombs that fell here, and the railway carriages used to imprison the POWs in harsh conditions.



Finally saw the remnants of the actual bridge on the River Kwai (shown above). It was destroyed by aerial bombardment and all that stands is a bit of it on the banks at one end. To think that so many died for this. Saw a few Japanese tourists there too, wonder what they would have thought about the handiwork of their ancestors.





After that we visited the new bridge (above) over the river Kwai which is actually a railway bridge. They let you walk across the structure though. But you have to be careful, slip anywhere and you'll fall into the river several metres below. Mum and my aunt decided to stay back at one end while me and Dad took a walk. Followed that up with buying a few silk shirts from nearby shops. At 11.20pm there was a train departing from the bridge's stop. The ride on this train is recommended for any tourist. It goes across the bridge and then passes through lands filled with greenery and mountains. The view out of the window is simply beautiful. A 1 hour + ride later we alighted at a quaint little station. A short walk found us at a restaurant where a sumptuous buffet was laid out, the building was made of bamboo, and the view from near the restaurant included a river flowing around a bend and a mountain in the background - the kinda stuff (apart from the killing) you'd have seen in “John Rambo”.





Yes, they did arrest me... j/k..

Once we were done with lunch, our guide told us that the car was waiting for us at the station we'd got down at. So we took off once more on road, this time to the Tiger Temple a good distance away.



Some of you would have heard about this place on National Geographic or the Discovery Channel. Its a monastery for Buddhist monks, where they take care of a number of animals like goats, pigs, buffaloes, deer..... and Tigers. The cats aren't drugged or anything, if that's what you're thinking. As part of tradition at this “temple”, the monks rear the tigers by hand from birth. So they're less ferocious than they would otherwise be and can be trusted around people. There are lots of tigers here, from small cubs to huge full grown tigers. A number of people volunteer here to help the monks look after the tigers. There was even this little tiger who'd run around a tree (under supervision of his monk master of course) looking at tourists as if he was a little cat ready to pounce on them. And I took plenty of photos with all these cats. Not like you get too many such opportunities coming your way every day now.



From the tiger temple, we headed back to Bangkok. The ride back was a long one, more than 2 hours. Heard the driver use the horn once during the trip (this must be the first time I'm hearing the sound of a horn in Bangkok).



Dad and I got down at Wongwian Yai (a Skytrain station) while the other two went back to the hotel. From Wongwian Yai, we took the train to National Stadium. You guessed it, MBK again!!! More tech shopping followed. More pen drives, one Panasonic HDD camera with a 50x optical zoom and 60gb worth of HDD space, and an Olympus camera with a 20x optical zoom and 10.7mp from Powerbuy. Got back to the hotel late after that.

The Kingdom of Thailand – Day 6 (June 19th 2009)

This is the first full day we spent in Bangkok. After breakfast, we left for The Temple of the Emerald Buddha. This temple complex has a large number of paintings of the Ramayana and statues of Ravana as well.


Somehow Buddhism here is closely connected to Hinduism back in India. The landscape is dotted with towers of gold and studded with rubies and pearls and porcelain works of art. The details are so intricate, so carefully crafted and undoubtedly must have cost a fortune. The ashes of each king are kept in separate towers too. Some of the buildings are off limit to all but the Royal Family of Thailand.



The central piece de resistance of the temple is the Emerald Buddha idol itself. The idol is in a building within which there is a towering gold structure. You can't wear shoes or take photographs inside. At the top of the gold structure rests the Emerald Buddha around 70cm tall. This idol is totally made of emerald. And during autumn, summer and winter the King of Thailand changes the gold dress that the idol wears – there's one gold dress for each season.






Next stop was the Grand Palace. A large group of buildings whose centerpiece is a Palace which has a European style about it but the roof is in Thai style with gilded tiles. There's also a completely European style palace here built by the King Rama V, but this is completely off limits to tourists. Everything's so neat all around, so well-maintained and clean. Not a bit of litter to be seen.


The Marble temple and Reclining Buddha were next on our agenda. The reclining Buddha is a large – I really should say “long” rather than just “large” - figure of the reclining Buddha. A gigantic statue of Buddha which you see part by part from between the columns holding up the building around it.

The same complex also has a number of other gold Buddha idols as well as inscriptions of ancient massage procedures. No wonder the Thais are so good at massage.



From there, we toured the city seeing Chinatown and the Indian section of Bangkok, and the actual palace where the King and the Royal Family were still living day-to-day. Near that palace was a gem showroom sponsored by the King. More Onyx, Aquamarine, Garnet, opal, jade, emerald, rubies, quartz, rubellite, diamonds..... The prices here were much lower than the World Gems Collection at Pattaya. So Mum took a flamethrower to my Dad's wallet again. Poor man.


Soon the damage was done :D and we headed to Siam Paragon. A huge shopping center (actually only one of the many that the same group owns – among the others is Siam Discovery). Had some ice-cream and then took a look around. There's even an oceanarium on the likes of Pattaya / Singapore's Underwater World under the Siam Paragon mall. A whole oceanarium just in the basement. Wow!!!

Took a short tour of the upper floors. Found and took photos of a Lamborghini Gallardo, a few Porsches, Audis, a Spyker, and BMW. Not the kinda stuff I'd buy. Reason ? Shipping it back home would be a hassle (OK, so I don't have that much silly money).



Left via skytrain from Siam to go to National Stadium. Once again, looked all around MBK. More shopping. More clothes. Had dinner at The Pizza Company and came back to the hotel.

The Kingdom of Thailand – Day 5 (June 18th 2009)

Got up and finished the remaining packing. Left Pattaya Hill Resort around 12 in the afternoon in a minivan arranged via the hotel. Looks like my pimples are making a bit of a comeback thanks to the change in the type of food I'm eating over the past few days. Nose is getting dry and scaly too (I mean the exterior).








Along the way we stopped at the Sriracha Tiger Zoo. This facility has the largest number of captive tigers I've ever seen in any one place. All well-maintained, well-fed and kept in spacious enclosures. There are even enclosures with a tiger raising piglets as well as a sow feeding tiger cubs. The Sriracha zoo also houses several species of crocodiles(as many crocs as our croc farm back home) and elephants. The animal shows that they had at half hour intervals were well worth the admission ticket prices. Had lunch there too, a very tasty and filling meal for 4 for just 400 Baht. And no pork in it, which we're avoiding like the flu (sorry for the pun).


We continued on to Bangkok from there. The Sukhumvit road is the highway that goes all the way from Pattay right into Bangkok. It stops when it reaches the expressways of Bangkok. These expressways form a massive network of wide, high-speed roads raised 30-40 feet in the air. This is the kind of network which any city needs to speed up traffic.



From the expressways, we took one of the exits on to the normal roads below. Now it began to look more like the Chennai city we were familiar with. Roads and most pavements were around the same size, but buildings are pretty big, and there are some pretty large malls (like our Spencers) all around the place. The traffic might appear a bit more unruly, but people still walk only on pavements, and the drivers follow every rule to a fault (except two-wheelers which weave in and out a bit) and they give way to pedestrians. And you won't find any people crossing where there's no zebra crossing.

We got to the hotel soon enough with the assistance of my N79's GPS voice navigation, because the driver himself wasn't sure where it was. Settled in to the large deluxe suite we had booked here and started planning where we could go in the next 4 days (excluding this one). Decided to run off to MBK (Mahboonkrong Mall), so we walked to the nearest station from here (Saphan Thaksin Station), from where we took the BTS Skytrain to National Stadium. The BTS Skytrain is again on a track raised to the level of the city's skyline and it runs all over Bangkok. Quite a marvel this, though ticket costs are around 30-40Baht per person for a trip between two stations over a good distance. Still, its far more comfortable and spacious than our crappy trains back in India.



The National Stadium station has a direct exit into MBK, via the Tokyu (yes its Tokyu, not Tokyo) department store. Leaving the store you step into the main section of the mall. Pretty big, and it'll take a long time to see every shop here, and these range from small shops to flea-market type areas to big name brands to huge electronic paradises (yes you silly girls, electronic equipment store = paradise, for me). Bought a few t-shirts and Mum, Dad and Aunt spent a lot of time in watch and clothes stores, so my time in “paradise” was short. Why you ask? Because here all major stores, food courts, international brands... everything just closes down at the stroke of 10pm, just like in the US. So if you want to eat after 10pm, you'll need to be satisfied with McDonald's, which once again like in the US, stays open 24 hours a day. Swensen's is all over Bangkok too, but it closed and we had ice-cream at McDonald's instead.


Left via Skytrain and reached the hotel soon. And so ended our first (half-)day in Bangkok.