Susan's Shanghai Blog - Week 30

This is week 2 of our Bangkok, Thailand trip.

Travel on the river is essential, since it cuts through the middle of the city. In addition to the various ferries to go across the river, and the express boats that go up and down the river, many of the river-front hotels had their own shuttle ferries. For example, next to our hotel was a restaurant that we ate at the first night, and they had their own ferry to shuttle people from the old-city side of the river to our side of the river. This picture is one of a traditional-looking ferry from one of the major hotels.

We next took an express-boat trip up and down the river, to see the sights that you could see from the water itself. First up was a pagoda, which looked quite nice all by itself, but we have no idea what exactly it was!

Next up the river was the Wat Arun, or Temple of Dawn. Construction of the tall tower and four of the smaller ones was started by King Rama II (1809-1824) and completed by King Rama III (1824-1851). The towers are supported by rows of demons and monkeys. Very steep and narrow steps lead to a balcony high on the central tower. The circumference of the base of the structure is 234 meters, and the central tower is 250 foot high. We got off the boat, took a ferry across, to really experience the Wat.

The entrance is guarded by two large guardians or demons, the white one named Sahassa Decha and the green one named Thosakan Ravana. They are elaborately decorated with glazed ceramic tile.

And of course, a Buddha!

From the river, the Khmer-style stupa looks somewhat grey, but when we got closer, we could see that it was really made up of a mosaic of glass, porcelain, and ceramic tiles. Around the bottom of one of the towers were these smaller demons that look like they are holding up the temple, also made of colorful tiles.

The main stupa is quite tall, and has a set of high vertical steps that we went up. They were not for the faint-of-heart, mind you .... but once you manage your way to the top, you get a fantastic view!

Getting down is another small feat, as you can tell from this picture. We tried to get a good view of just how vertical the stairs were and how difficult they were to go up and down.

The architectural design is inspired by Hindu mythology and here you can see the Hindu god Indra sitting astride Erawan, the 3-headed elephant.

Tom in front of the base of the main stupa, and you can see the colorful tiles behind.

From there, we walked South a bit to the Santa Cruz Church. This beige and pink has a church and convent and was built in 1770 by Portuguese traders although the present church dates back only to 1910.

A bit further was the Wat Kanlayanamit with a 15-meter tall Buddha.

Back on the express boat heading North, and we just took random pictures to get a sense of what is on both sides of the river.

This is Democracy Monument, designed by an Italian sculptor and a Thai architect. Built in the 1930's, it became the rallying point for pro-democracy supporters in 1992.

The Giant Swing! In the 18th century, this giant swing was the focal point of a Brahmin festival. Volunteers would swing back and forth trying to snatch a bag of coins with their teeth. The event was outlawed in the 1930's and the timber frame is what remains.

we walked by this store, a Buddha store I guess you would call it. Buddha's of all shapes and sizes were available for purchase. I'm not quite sure if anyone would buy this 4-foot tall Buddha for their living room or not!

Next came the Golden Mount, which is a Buddhist temple but on an artificial hill. It gives a nice panoramic view of the old city and is one of the only places with such a view, since there is a ban on high-rise buildings in the area. There are 320 stairs that wind up the hill to the top. Along the way, there are Buddhist shrines, a waterfall, along with several sets of bells that you can ring for good luck. There is along a gong that Tom took a whack at.

Tom noticed that there were ALOT of Honda Fit's around town ... lots and lots!

That night, we went for drinks at a roof-top bar to get a view of the city at sunset. It was interesting just getting up to the top. Seems there is a dress code! It's hot and humid, and yet, the bar requires pants for men, pants or a skirt for ladies, and no flip flops or sandals. We showed up in shorts, both of us ...well, that just wouldn't do! However, the bar is quite prepared and they gave Tom a pair of slacks and Susan a wrap-around skirt to wear. You could tell that about 1/2 of the people in the bar, once we finally got there, were all wearing the same pants and skirts, so we weren't alone.

We did dinner at a traditional Thai restaurant and there was live music by this young lady playing what looked like a hammer dulcimer. They also had this cool looking waterfall outside.

Next day, this was Sunday now, and we spent the morning at the Chatuchak Weekend Market. This is only on Saturdays and Sundays and is supposedly the world's largest flea market. They say that around half a million people visit it every weekend, and with the number of people there when we were there, I can imagine that number is pretty accurate. It is up in the northern suburbs but easily reachable by the SkyTrain. There are around 15,000 stalls and covers an area about the size of 5 football fields. It is a total maze of stalls that you seem to be able to find almost anything. There are clothes, plants, household goods, jewelry, shoes, herbal medicine, CDs and DVDs, artwork, food, you name it ... they seem to have it. Here you'll see the bunnies that were for sale, most of then even dressed up with little skirts and tops.

Next up, the puppies! They were all in cages, but they really didn't seem TOO bad off compared to some places. One thing that we have noticed in Shanghai (and seems the case in Bangkok also) is that people really like to dress their dogs up. Especially now in the winter, you'd be surprised what I've seen some dogs dressed in walking around Shanghai. Well, here you go ... where to go to buy clothes for your fabulous little pooch. They have EVERYTHING here ... dresses, jeans, jackets, shoes ... you name it, you can get it for your favorite puppy. The last picture here shows the back-end view of the jeans!

Just pictures from outside. The 2nd photo here is .. there seemed to be someone famous (or we imagine famous) making an appearance to pitch ... I think potato chips ... and there was this huge mob. It wasn't anyone that we recognized.

Then we did lunch across the street at this little "local" place. You walk around this open market, same place you can get your fruits and veggies, and you can buy chicken-on-a-stick cooked over a little hibachi, and fruit. We picked up a few, and it was really good! Lunch for about $3!

Next was the Jim Thompson house. Interesting little story with Jim Thompson, who I had never heard of before going to Thailand. He was an american who was the head of the OSS (what became the CIA) in Thailand in 1945. He fell in love with Thailand and Thai Silk and decided to stay there and start a silk export company. He bought multiple teak houses from around Thailand and had them brought and assembled into a single house in Bangkok. We took alot of picture here :-) He disappeared mysteriously in 1967 and nobody knows what happened to him. His house is now a museum.

One interesting thing we learned as we went around on the tour .. most of the rooms have an elevated door, so you have to step over a threshold to get in and out. I asked about it and it has 2 purposes. One is to keep kids inside, although they must be really small kids to stay inside with just this much of a rise. The second, which I guess makes more sense, is that demons or evil spirits can only travel in straight lines, so if they are outside and cannot go up-and-over the elevated section of the door, then evil spirits cannot come into the house.

Then we headed out to dinner, another traditional Thai restaurant. The first picture is the wine list .. it is literally... a BOOK! The interior was quite nice and rather small. Great food, tho!

That ended Bangkok and we headed back to Shanghai on Monday morning early.