And Bangkok again

After a couple of days feeling like we had left Thailand, it feels fantastic to be back in Bangkok where the food is delicious, the people are Thai and the tuk tuk drivers beg us to go places with them. I have never really missed any city I have visited but Bangkok is different. There’s something about it that makes me feel instantly at ease. Perhaps it’s the food. Oh how I love Bangkok’s food.

Or maybe it’s the city’s aesthetics that appeal to me. The peaceful temples and parklands that provide respite from the busy umbrella topped alleys ways and cars racing up and down the main streets.

Or maybe it’s the sense that anything can happen here. Like stumbling across the crazy Patpong district where a touristy night bazaar nestles in the red light district under signs screaming of strip shows, brothels and alcohol (which appears to be quite expensive). We wander the red light district politely declining the many pimps who offer us cheap sexy massage and entry to ping pong shows. Many carry photos of their girls as though they are mere chattels. And when we decline, they say, “Boys? You wan’ boys?”. I cannot help but laugh at equal opportunity in action here on Patpong’s seedy streets. For the record, we decline the offer of boys too.

Somehow being back in Bangkok feels like being home. I can’t explain why but it does.

Last time we were in Bangkok, we realised there was so much more to see and do. We only had three days here and barely scratched the surface of this city’s charm. So today we hit the streets in search of more wats (temples). While many people said we would be “templed-out” after the first few days, the temples are a highlight of our days and we often find ourselves walking to just one more temple when we see the tell-tale gold rooflines orchedis poking out from between the houses. And as we walk we find hidden gems like old buildings, pretty window dressings and living canals.

We both love art, so it makes sense that we love the temples here in Thailand. They are each beautifully and uniquely decorated. The amount of work that must have gone into the construction and decoration is amazing. Actually, that’s the word that we use all the time “amazing”.

We spend the day wandering from temple to temple, stopping in between for street food on the famous Khao San Road and to buy incense sticks from the many vendors. It’s the little things that capture our attention. Like the friendly temple cats that will play with your shoes or roll on their backs begging for pats. The beautiful flowers that seem to be everywhere, whether on the ground or in vases or lilies in pots. And the creative ways money is donated at temples.

Our adventure takes us to the Giant Swing, which actually was used as a swing until 1935 when the practice was stopped due to fatalities and structural damage. The swing is enormous and there is no way you’d get me up there on it.

We ended our day with a fast boat ride up a narrow canal to the Siam Paragon shopping mall from where it was not too far to walk home. Naturally, we had to stop for treats and where better than a little cake shop with cute pink couches. The strange underwater looking photo is of us in a mirror room at the Siam Paragon.

By the time we reached home after walking more than 20km we were fairly tired but it was nothing that a good leg massage couldn’t fix.

We board an orange-flagged ferry with no fixed plans. We are just heading upstream until we feel like getting off. It’s 15 baht (60 cents) per ticket regardless of your destination so this gives us the flexibility to decide while on board. And stay on board we did. The wind blew through our hair and cooled our sweaty bodies as we made our way upstream. We passed old rotting buildings and new condos. Bridges passed by overhead, some boring and others elaborate. Large fish jump alongside the boat. We reach Nonthaburi and are told the ferry terminates here. I guess this is where we are going today. People feed bread to the fish near the jetty and the fish are swarming. There are thousands of them fighting for a feed. We had seen Thai fishermen baiting hooks with bread earlier in our trip and wondered whether they caught anything that way. Now we know they probably do.

We walk up the street and notice a large market up near the ferry stop. There’s a whole block filled with lanes and alleys crammed full of stalls selling everything from vegetables and fruits to fish, meat and skinned frogs. You can buy clothes, phone covers and even pet rabbits. Voices ebb and flow across the air as my nose is assaulted by lots of smells (not all delicious). Cats hang out at the market, some with collars and others looking more like strays. The stall holders pat the cats, talk to them, laugh at them as they hide in boxes or shoo them away, depending on what the cat is doing.

There is a small museum in an old colonial style building along the river. It tells the story on Nonthaburi’s past as a major supplier of durian fruit. Personally, I can’t stand the smell of the fruits and hate the taste but it seems they are a delicacy with people speculating on next season’s first crop before they are even ripe. Naturally, we also do some wathunting while we are here.

A short cross-river ferry takes us to another temple complex. As always it’s stunning. There are no other tourists and the locals look at us strangely as we walk around. We buy some fish food and feed the fish. Again they are swarming and well fed.

There’s a large park next to the temple with walking paths and a pagoda in the middle of a lake. There are many people walking around the paths and a group of women are preparing to do aerobics in the carpark. It looks like a fantastic place to end a busy work day in hectic Bangkok. But we can’t stay much longer because we don’t want to miss the last ferry back into the city.

So, as the sun sets on our final day in Bangkok, we stand crammed into a ferry pressed against the side rails with a fantastic view of the city and the people stepping on and off across the gap between ferry and jetty. Tomorrow we leave Bangkok for the last time. I will miss this crazy capital.Read more