We arrived in Bangkok late in the afternoon and faced a major traffic snarl into the city. Traffic during rush hour comes almost to a complete halt. Often, it can take hours to go 5 miles. We were surprised to see that there weren’t nearly as many motorcycles, scooters and tuk tuks swarming the streets compared to Vietnam. Our hotel was stunning and in the heart of the upscale shopping district. The views from the top outside deck bar in the evening were magnificent. Bangkok certainly doesn’t look nearly as “third world” as Saigon, Hanoi, or Phnom Penh. Some of the buildings are quite spectacular.
On our first full day in Bangkok, we started by visiting the Grand Palace complex (almost 2.4m sq. feet) along with a 1000+ of our best friends. It consists of not only the royal residence and throne halls, but also a number of government offices and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The entire complex is quite an impressive walled facility and the Emerald Buddha is magnificent. (no pictures allowed!)
Next stop was Wat Pho the largest reclining Buddha around which is also know as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. This was our favorite attraction of the day.
After our temple excursion, we wandered around and were looking for a place to have lunch. (While at the Krabi airport, we were reading (and chuckling) about all the crazy scams that happen to tourists visiting Bangkok.) A very friendly gentleman, who spoke good English, came up to us while we were looking at our map outside the Grand Temple. We told him we were looking for the street toward China Town. He told us that there would not be much activity during early afternoon in China Town and that he could have a taxi “show us around”. If you fall for this scam, the taxi takes you to a watch or silk shop and often the doors are locked once you step in if you refuse to make a purchase! Fortunately, we were on our guard and didn’t fall for it.
We then headed over by taxi to the MBK retail/wholesale clothing market. Taxis are incredibly cheap in Bangkok. A 20 minute taxi ride costs around $3.50 USD! The market was enormous with many floors of crappy clothing. Nonetheless, it was interesting to see the enormity of this market. There were six huge upscale shopping centers near our hotel. We were perplexed how Bangkok could support all this retail when the prices were equivalent to US prices. The vat tax reimbursement to foreigners might be the only explanation.
Our final destination of the day was the Jim Thompson House and Museum. Jim Thompson was an American who decided to settle down in Thailand, where he dedicated over 30 years to reviving Thai silk which was then a dying cottage industry. Thompson introduced Thai silk to the world’s most respectable fashion houses and catwalks in Paris, New York, London and Milan. HIs downtown Bangkok home consisted of six teak building which represented the best in traditional Thai architecture. Most of the buildings on site were at least two centuries old and were easily dismantled and brought over from other regions in Thailand. The tour of his home and antique collection was very interesting. Jim Thompson mysteriously disappeared while on a visit to Malaysia. Not a single valid clue has ever turned up in the ensuing years as to what might have happened to him.
