Bangkok from Chao Phraya Express--Local and Tourist TransportThe artist in me cheers this city for its extreme swirl of semi composted colors—tactile, slimy, crunchy colors that would need to be painted with thick toxic paint to accurately present the vibrant, contrasting details of this massive maze. The humanitarian, which we can all agree lives on the side of oversensitivity, screams in agony for the existence of such a sty. I have faith that I will eventually love Thailand, but not yet.
We arrived on a Sunday during an unseasonably horrible heat wave. Despite this, jetlag and many, many annoying stories, we managed to see a significant chunk of Bangkok. We have seen enough—we will not return and will instead fly directly from the south into the airport and then home come December 12. That Thom, or Tom because Bangkok for us was not a story fit for a modern children’s book, tells this tale best not by his usual abundant photographic documentation, but from the lack of it.
Despite all of this we did have moments of great delight. The public river and small locals only canal boats show Bangkok at its best and most entertaining. Chinatown’s truly amazing alleyway market is a magical place where Harry Potter may actually exist. The Flower Market was a wonderful unexpected find: lotus flowers and marigolds everywhere….cabbage, peppers, cilantro….and flower sculptures of crazy size and shape ready to be given as an offer to the Buddha. The Mandarin Oriental Hotel, an extremely up market establishment made a nice spot for an afternoon ginger martini.
And our hotel, the Lamphu Tree House was a perfect sanctuary for us. It is an authentic family run Thai decorated delight. There pool and patio dinners made it hard after our active days to venture out on those first few jet lag nights. And we made lots of new acquaintances from all over the world during afternoon swims and drinks or at the morning complimentary buffet breakfast that could keep us full until dinner. Like the Australian lady, now living in Canada who was on a return trip to adopt her second Thai born son. She was just becoming acquainted with him as we voyeuristically and then personally shared a tiny bit of this somewhat uncomfortably clichéd experience with her and her husband. They adopted him in Chiang Mai, the north, our next destination where apparently many foster homes exist. Tom is worried the night market might sell cute two year olds ...silly Tom. Do they?
The Reclining Patty between flights while still on 'happy' pills 
The Reclining Buddha 
Woman preparing lotus flowers for sale at the Flower Market
Give us strength!
Bangkok has a lot of rift-raft. The guide book can help curb your expectation. But, the orange juice and pad thai on the street behind temple at the end of Khao San Road was a treat!
ReplyDeleteThe heat had me napping in the hotel every afternoon.