Bangkok

Sat, Jan 9, 2010

I am actually writing this blog post several days after the date shown above and am, in fact, sitting in the middle of Cambodia, far from Bangkok. But we’ve finally gotten to an internet connection that is functional, so here goes…

I’m not sure what I expected Bangkok to be like, but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It was hot and teeming with people, but the chaos was fun to watch. We enjoyed wandering through the markets looking at all the interesting food and stuff that was for sale. We walked through one market that was entirely lottery tickets. There must have been a hundred vendors and all of them had tables of carefully sorted, stapled and bagged tickets for sale. Later we learned that they are the authorized drop point for the national lottery and any merchant who wants to sell lottery tickets in their store has to come to this market first to purchase them. Apparently there is quite an intricate system for calculating one’s lucky number, which can involve consulting with a priest or having one’s palm read, etc, and once a person has their lucky numbers figured, they will only buy lottery tickets that have their lucky numbers.

While at a market near the river, we decided to go on a boat tour after we negotiated a price we felt was suitable (I’m sure we still paid way more than we should have). There are lots of these long boats tied up along the piers and they are all powered by converted automobile engines. The motor is huge and noisy and spews oil like crazy. It also makes the boats go very fast. It’s amazing how much river you can cover in 1 hour in one of those things.

Of course we had to visit the Royal Palace and Temple. We had read ahead of time that modest clothing is a requirement as the temple complex is a holy site, so we made sure we were wearing long pants and t-shirts with sleeves. The dress code is taken very seriously and as we were buying our tickets, we saw people who were standing in line turned back because their clothing was too revealing. Bare shoulders, shorts and/or skirts that were over the knee, plunging necklines… all no-nos. They do offer clothes that can be borrowed, with a deposit, and returned upon completion of one’s tour. We saw an awful lot of Western women wearing the same skirt and scarf combination and a lot of Western men wearing the same pair of poufy pants with an elephant print.
The temple tour was really cool. The entire complex has recently been restored, so the buildings which are covered in gold leaf and thousands of tiny mirrors were sparkling. It’s quite breath-taking really. We hired a guide who gave us a lot of background on the history and culture of the Thai people and the melding of the Hinduism and Buddhaism that comprises the majority religion for the country

We pretty much had one day to see Bangkok, but we managed to fit in a lot of things. I even managed to place an order for custom made trousers. There are tailor shops all over the place – all of them offering custom made suits (jacket, slacks, shirt and tie for men and for women jacket, slacks or skirt, blouse and scarf) for about $50. And that’s for the nice silk-wool fabric. I didn’t really need a suit but though it might be nice to have a pair of trousers that actually fit properly, so we picked a shop and went with it. We were asked to stop back into the shop in about 5 hours time for a fitting, at which point they had the slacks basted together. Our tour left early the next morning otherwise we could have picked them up that day. Instead, we arranged to pick them up in a few weeks when we return to Bangkok. I’m curious to see how they fit.

That’s it for now. Lots more has happened since then and we’ve got some great photos to go along with the stories. We’ll try to get those posted soon.

Love,
Rita