Thailand - Bangkok Part Two

The Thailand adventure continues!

We split up a little, with Elizabeth and Eldest heading out to get massages from the famous Wat Pho massage school, and Pat, Dave, Michael, and the littles taking a ferry across the river to see Wat Arun.  Also called "The Temple of the Dawn", Wat Arun dominates the old city skyline to the west and is surrounded by gardens.

The gate was open, so we came in.

Toddler for scale.

It's not obvious, but those are the steepest stairs.

Reunited back on the east bank, we explored the rest of the Wat Pho temple complex.  In addition to the massage school, this temple, also called "The Temple of the Reclining Buddha", houses a (wait for it) giant reclining Buddha!

I like this photo because it looks like a composite of other photos.

This photo may technically be illegal in Thailand.

We took a day trip to visit Ayutthaya, the old capital of the Kingdom of Siam.  It was a thriving metropolis until it was sacked by the Burmese in 1767 and the new capital was established across the river from modern-day Bangkok.  Today Ayutthaya is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with ancient Stupas sprouting out of the ground throughout the modern city like brick-and-mortar mushrooms.  The more complete and significant sites are fenced off with an admission fee, but there were also ruins in peoples' backyards and city parks.

Taken just before they started wrestling on a 500-year-old temple.

Obligatory they-grow-up-so-fast photo of Danger Monkey :

Cute kids are cute.

Peekaboo!

Thailand is pretty.

"Look upon my works ye mighty and despair!"

This picture does a pretty good job of illustrating the layers that have been stripped off of these structures.  Towards the bottom of the photo you can still see some of the original intricate white stucco decoration.  Beneath the decoration was a layer of smooth mortar and stucco, and underneath that fired bricks that made up the majority of the construction material.  The exterior stucco layer would also have been inlaid with mosaics of colored glass and Chinese porcelain.

All of these temples were really meant to be visited by boat, so we took a relatively quick boat tour around the island to get the intended experience.  It was a bit drizzly, but it turns out we'll never pass up an opportunity for a boat trip on a vacation.

More boats!

Back in Bangkok the next day it was still raining so Pat & Dave went off to explore some smaller museums, and the SingaBorcherts took a taxi to a ritzy mall to find an indoor play area.  After running the kids around for awhile we braved the legendarily bad Bangkok traffic to hit one last temple of the trip.   Wat Chakrawatrachawat Woramahawihan is a smaller, functioning temple that has two things going for it.  

Number One: A Crocodile.  The original crocodile was pulled out of the river and kept in the temple to keep it from harassing the people bathing in the river, but by the time it died of old age they had become famous as the temple with a crocodile, so they now keep one in residence.

Worst zoo ever?  Or best temple ever?

Number Two: The best Buddha relic ever.  Similar to Catholic saints, relics of Buddha and devout monks are enshrined in temples and serve as the focal point for veneration and pilgrimages.  And just like Catholic relics, Buddhist relics can also be a bit... suspect.  There was some controversy when a big Buddhist temple opened in Singapore's Chinatown in the 1980's that purported to have one of Buddha's teeth.  But that pales in comparison to this temple, which purports to be in possession of...

Buddha's Shadow.  Decorated with snippets of gold leaf by pilgrims come to pay their respects.  In a concrete grotto.  I love it.

Anyways!  After paying our respects, we strolled to the night market where agricultural products from the surrounding area (mostly flowers) are brought by wholesalers to find their way to restaurants and religious supply stores.  We also found a commercial ice store, where plastic bags were being filled with ice and sold to people that trucked them away in wheelbarrows.  It was a pretty strange operation.

This picture doesn't do justice to the amount of fog rolling out of this place.

After our last dinner overlooking the Chao Phraya river we Tuk-tuk'ed back to our Airbnb.  A fitting end to a great trip.

Tuk-tuks are BYOGPS.

Thailand - Bangkok Part One

After a short plane ride we were in Bangkok! We were staying in an AirBnB on the edge of Chinatown in what appeared to be a mix of working class neighborhoods and backpacker hostels.  We had a couple of corner stores to choose from for bottled water, eggs, and bread and a few restaurants, and a couple of people running deep fryers on portable carts with questionable cooking oil.  We patronized all of these establishments.

To get oriented on our first full day, we jumped on a hop-on/hop-off tourist boat that runs up and down the Chao Phraya river, the main waterway of the city.  It is very much still a working river, with warehouses, restaurants, and residences crowding the river's edge too closely to build any more bridges there are heavily-used commuter ferry lines and ferry crossings to get from one side to the other.  There was also nearly constant barge traffic being towed up and down the river.

The king is a big deal in Thailand.  Their old beloved king,  King Bhumibol the Great, Rama IX of the Chakri Dynasty, passed away a little over a year ago and the official mourning period had recently ended.  Which meant that everyone was putting up paintings/portraits/skyscrapers of the new presumptive king, Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun, although he has yet to be officially coronated.

Unlike previous modern monarchs, Rama X has secured the authority to amend the (interim) constitution, and seems to be aligning with the military junta that seized power in 2014 from the then-provisional government appointed by the prime minister after she dissolved the elected parliament that had been established by the Black May uprising in the 1990's...  It turns out Thailand does not have the most stable national government.  Despite that, people seem to get by, make a living, and raise families.

The next day, we took another boat ride.  I have developed a theory that the quality of a vacation can be measured in how long it takes before you get on a boat.  By that measure, the Boundary Waters is nearly the pinnacle of human experience, and Thailand ranks pretty highly as well.  This trip was out to the west of Chao Phraya exploring the canals and waterways that were heavily settled hundreds of years ago.

We stopped to visit Wat Paknam Phasi Chareon, a temple with a towering white stupa and a stunning interior.  Thailand was an independent buffer state, preserved by the colonial powers so that British Malaya and Burma and French Indochina didn't have to rub right against one another, and the number and grandeur of Buddhist temples is, I think, indicative of how much national wealth was invested in the religious institutions rather than being carted off to Europe.  There were temples and saffron-robed monks and novices literally everywhere we went.

Back in the boat!  We stopped off at a forest temple (not pictured) that was less grand and more contemplative where we got a lecture on Buddhist philosophy from our tour guide, and then went to visit the "floating" market.  Just like the floating village in Ao Phangnga, this is mostly on stilts now though there are some boat-based merchants.  

In the back-water canals there were quite a few legitimate working boats - we bought drinks from a coffee and tea boat, we saw the mailman delivering along the waterfront, and declined to partake in the grilled chicken satay boat.  As we got further from the city center the canals went from being back yards to front yards, with many of the houses and businesses only being reachable by water.

Our tour guide showing Maxwell and Amelia a snack being prepared.  It was a pile of aromatic vegetables and spices and was delicious.

Back at our apartment, we introduce Pat and Dave to WhatsApp...

...So Elizabeth and I can go on a date!  We had tasting portions of roughly 15 different dishes, plus live traditional music (kneeling in the background) and dancing (dancing not pictured).  For whatever reason, we heard or saw the story of the White Monkey that impregnates a mermaid at least three times on this trip.  It is a timeless classic.

Then we went to see Star Wars.  While we waited for the movie showtime, Elizabeth got a tarot reading at a Christmas village that was set up at the mall (this tarot deck included Hindu gods).  We are told she will be happy in 2018, since she will get a good job with her strong brain.

In Thailand, before movies (but after literally 30 minutes of advertisements) they play the King's Anthem and everyone needs to stand.  It was accompanied by one of the most rousing photo slideshows I have ever seen, mostly alternating between portraits of the ascendant king in his finery and images of praising, weeping schoolchildren.

Speaking of the king, we visited his house!  This is the royal palace, seat of both the religious center of Thailand (personified by the Emerald Buddha) and also the monarchy.  The architecture is a liberal mix of traditional Siamese chedi's (pointy towers), bell-shaped Sri Lankan stupas (other towers), and the more cucumber-shaped towers are borrowed from Cambodian temple designs.  It was pretty dang impressive.  

Not pictured is a scale model of Angkor Wat in Cambodia commissioned by king Rama IV in the mid-19th century, as if to say "You think this palace is great?  You should see Angkor Wat!"  Which really only deepens my interest in seeing it in person.

Oooh... Aaaah...

100% of Thailand is covered in tile mosaics

Baby Culture Exchange

This mural telling the story of the Ramakien - Thailand's version of the Ramayana.  It may have been Maxwell's favorite thing on the entire trip.

Changing of the guard.  Maxwell had many questions that were hard to answer without going into a lot of backstory about military etiquette.

Thailand has Tuk-tuks!  They are like the 7-11 hot dog warmer of urban transportation: very convenient, but more expensive and more dangerous than the alternatives!

Bangkok came alive after dark, especially on the main streets.  The sidewalks were lined with food vendors, zipping mopeds, and people selling lottery tickets

Christmas Eve at a Chinese restaurant!  We were nearly the only ones there, but probably just because we tend to eat dinner earlier than basically everyone in SE Asia.

Followed, of course, by Christmas Morning!  We decorated the houseplant with an ornament that Danger Monkey was given by the resort staff on Yao Yai, and Santa left presents in our sandals.  Much legos, duplos, and books were had by all.

Coming up next: More temples!  Some old, some very old.

Thailand - The Beach

Happy New Year!  We're back in Singapore winding up the holiday break after our 12-day trip to Thailand with Michael's parents.  It was a trip with a lot of firsts for various members of the family:

• First trip to Asia for Pat & Dave
• First experience with Asian budget airlines
• First jellyfish sting
• First moped ride
• First moped crash
• First time eating miang kham
• First fire ant bite

We started the trip at a small resort (only 12 rooms!) on Koh Yao Yai  in Phang Nga Bay near Phuket.  We were looking for relaxation and not super into the party scene so tried to get a little off the beaten path.  Although the internet access was spotty at best, we did get a nice stretch of beach and close enough proximity to the nearby Ao Phang Nga national park that we could take a couple of excursions over to it.  Warning: lots of pictures in this post!

To get to Yao Yai we took a taxibus to the pier and then waited for one of the regularly scheduled motorboats that went to the island.  We had a more modern outboard motorboat for our ferry, but there were plenty of long-tailed boats at the pier.  They're basically the "Mad Max" version of a traditional South-East Asian sailboat.

Behind Middle-Child is a re-purposed truck engine on a swivel mount with some custom control extensions for the throttle, with the drive-shaft extended and welded to a propellor.  There were a lot of variations on this design, some with a transmission still attached, some with water cooling and others with exposed fans and radiators.  The thing they all had in common was that they were loud, smelly, and awesome.

The first full day was spent exploring our resort, the beach in either direction, and some of the villages nearby.  We did a fair amount of swimming, but there seemed to be a lot of something in the water that made it feel like you were getting teeny tiny stings by tiny invisible jellyfish.  At least, that was what my Google searches suggested.  They weren't bad at high tide so we were able to get in our quota of saltwater swimming.

Dangerous rope swings are the best rope swings

Posing in front of some long-tail boats in Baan Larm Yai - the village/pier at the end of the road

It's been said that an army marches on it's stomach.  Prawn-flavored dinosaur-shaped crackers and Fanta were probably what Napolean had in mind.

"Oompa" Dave teaching Danger Monkey how to skip stones as the tide comes in.

After we had settled in a little, we took a long-tail boat up to the north end of the bay, which is a national park with stunning scenery: an archipelago of towering islands of limestone cliffs covered in lush jungle.  One of the islands was used in the James Bond movie "The Man With The Golden Gun" and every tour operator was happy to show it to you, but all of the islands (and caves!) were amazing.  A totally alien, inspiring landscape that pushes all my buttons.

Safety briefing

As the rainwater dissolves the limestone it turns the outer edge of the island into these stalactite sculptures.  The ocean eats away at the base, and we're left with improbably shaped rock spires. 

Go home island - u r drunk

In some islands, the running rainwater carved enormous caves.

As part of our tour we also visited Ko Panyi, a famous "floating" village at the mouth of a river.  Most of the village is actually built on stilts and has even spread to the nearby island, but much of the way of life has not changed dramatically from the 18th century when the village was founded.  Although there's a lot of tourism now, the village economy is still primarily based around net fishing in the bay and rivers.

You can't tell from the pictures, but the water was absurdly choppy and we thought we were going to die.

Fish-farming rafts in the foreground

Panyi is all back streets.

We had to cross a big boat to get to our little boat.  Danger Monkey liked boats.

Back on land, we were also exploring the cuisine of Thailand.  I'm happy to report that the good Thai restaurants in Minneapolis are not too far off from the authentic places in the nearby little town that Elizabeth and I escaped to for a date-night dinner while Grandma and Grandpa babysat.  One Thai cuisine staple that I don't remember seeing in Minnesota is the "entire fish deep fried and then covered in various amazing sauces", which was of course delicious.  But by and large, mostly the same curries, noodle dishes, stir fry and spring rolls we knew and loved.  Way more random cats in the restaurants than in Minneapolis, for better or worse.

Every day in Thailand is "Bring Your Child To Work" day. Taxis drivers, ferry captains, restaurant owners, bar tenders, they all appeared to be training in the next generation on the job. They were all super friendly and our kids got on pretty well.  Most of the people we talked to knew enough English that we could compare kids ages and basic biological information.

The international language of "ring around the rosy"

In addition to the scenery and food, we also had a fire-dancing performance on the beach one night. He was pretty respectably good.

Can't go wrong with burning steel wool

Elizabeth and I also rented a scooter (well, it started out as two scooters but that turned out to be a mistake) and explored the island on our own. We found some hidden beaches (not pictured), almost ran over a baby goat, and just barely beat the sunset home. There was a pretty amazing array of homebrew scooter modifications, from sidecars to awnings to wagons and were the main mode of transportation on the main road that ran the length of the island. We saw plenty of 9-year-olds with their scooters loaded up with siblings zipping around, but callously refused to let our children drive one.

It's easy to spot the tourists, since they're the only ones with helmets.

That wraps our time near Phuket! It had been about two years since we'd had an actual relaxing vacation, so this was a great respite from both the day-to-day and also our hard-charging ambitious expeditions.

Coming up: a hard-charging ambitious expedition to Bangkok!