March 22nd
Moving day again. The ride to the airport only takes 15 minutes. With so many flights in so short a time, we are getting much more efficient in getting through security. For example, I'm wearing a belt with a plastic buckle so that I don't have to take off my belt to go through the X-ray machine. We were trying to figure out the seating on this plane - Mark and Chris are in 35 A & B and Beth and I were in 35 J & K so we are speculating that we are in a wide-body plane with 2-5-2 seating. But no, it was a plain old Airbus A320 with the seats on one side A, B & C and on the other side H, J & K. In addition, the row numbers jump from 14 at the end of business/first class to 31 at the beginning of coach. We've never seen a seating plan like this before!
We did not want to repeat our bland meal experience, so we asked Mr. Moon to have our travel agents change our food choice to the standard one. This got us a steamed custard bun filled with pandan ( an Asian citrus fruit that has a lovely green color). Winner! The flight to Bangkok is only about an hour. We must have landed at one of the outmost gates of this huge airport because we've got a long walk to baggage claim. Most of the bags for the flight come and go and still no bags for about 100 of us. It looks like not all of the bags fit into the original baggage cart and they had to go back to out to the plane to pick up the remaining bags. My bag is the very last one on the conveyor belt! But hey, at least we all got our bags!
Outside, we meet our guide for Bangkok, Yokie, who is 45-year-old woman (mother of a 6-yr old boy) who began working as a tour guide with her mother when she was 15. She gets us some snacks and tells us that we will go to the hotel to drop off our bags and get a little rest before going back out at 5 PM. The hotel is a beautiful modern building on the Chao Phraya River that runs through Bangkok. When we arrive in our room, this is what we see:
Our travel agent really went all out on this honeymoon stuff. I hope that they got a good room rate! But hey, if anyone reading this is looking for a place to honeymoon, we have some ideas.
Tonight's excursion is a tuk-tuk tour, but this time our tuk-tuks are gasoline powered and apparently don't have mufflers! Our first stop is the temple of Wat Pho. Wat Pho was built while the capital of Siam was still in Ayutthaya on the coast. When the Ayutthaya Kingdom was defeated by the Burmese in 1767, the then King Taksin moved the Siamese capital to Thonburi on the opposite side of the river from Wat Pho. In 1782, King Rama I moved the capital across the river to what is now Bangkok, renovated Wat Pho and moved a lot of abandoned Buddhas from around present-day Thailand to Wat Pho. Renovation was accelerated under King Rama III (Thailand is currently ruled by King Rama X). Wat Pho is regarded as the first university in Thailand and is still a center for learning the art of Thai massage. The highlight of Wat Pho is the 151-foot-long reclining Buddha which was built by Rama III. But there is a lot of bling here no matter where one looks. There is also a lot of Chinese influence as Rama III made a lot of money in trade with China - Thailand would send agricultural products to China and would bring back Chinese sculptures as ballast for their boats. The connections with China and providing troops to the British East India company in their war with Burma helped Thailand avoid being colonized like other countries in southeast Asia even though their military was quite weak at the time. Here are some pictures of Wat Pho:
The sun is setting as Yokie guides us to a park across the street from Wat Pho where the city hall is located and we see a plaque with the true name of Bangkok:
which translates as "City of angels, great city of immortals, magnificent city of the nine gems, seat of the king, city of royal palaces, home of gods incarnate, erected by Vishvakarma at Indra's behest". Just rolls off the tongue, don't you think?! The Thai people call the place Krung Thep or City of Angels. I'm not sure why the locals didn't go with Krung Thep, but you can't have a name as long as the actual one so a shorter one developed. Where the name Bangkok actually comes from is murky, but some think it may have come from Bang Makok (Bang is village on the river and Makok is a local plant similar to an olive).
We walk through the night market in present day China town. This is where Yokie grew up (her mother speaks Mandarin):
We stop for dinner in what looks like a hole-in-the-wall place, but the food is great, and we are successful in keeping Yokie from ordering too many dishes! Back on the street, we pass on a chance for fried crickets from one of the night market vendors, but we do stop for mangosteens which the Thai people call the Queen of Fruits. For those of you interested, the King of Fruits is the durian. The vendor cuts open the tough skin to reveal five or six white segments. It is hard to describe the taste but is a little like lychee, but not as sweet. We all enjoy them. The brown fruit in the back are the mangosteens:
Our final stop for the evening is a rooftop bar close to the river. We are not really bar people, but the view is really worth it. We enjoy seeing Wat Pho and the older Wat Arun (where the old capital was) lit up at night and watching the dinner cruise boats go by on the Chao Phraya River:
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