Don Mueang

We've only been in Bangkok for three days, but we have covered a lot of ground - literally!

We stayed at the Bangkok tree house (see last post) which is in a very secluded part of the city. That is because it's in the "green lung" district of the city, literally in the jungle. That means it took close to 3 hours to get to the temples, by foot to the ferry, then taxi to metro, then foot again, but it was worth it.

First, we visited Wat Pho, one of the oldest and highest graded Buddhist temples in Thailand. It was built in the 17th century. The temple complex houses the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand, including a 46 m long reclining Buddha! See the pic.

We were lucky to meet my friends here and see the temples with them. That means we had a local hook us up and help us get around, and even be our local guide and translators for the day. Thanks so much, Gordon, for the fantastic memories!

They even gave us a crash course in Thai culture and the Royal family. What's interesting about the culture is that Thailand had a royal family. The recent King, Rama IX, has been in power for six decades but died two months ago. He was revered almost as a god. We even saw a big memorial by the palace and lots of locals dressed in thick black traditional clothing to pay their respects and mourn. Apparently, many night clubs even closed after his death because of how much this country worshipped him.

Having locals with us really helped when we decided to get Thai foot massages. Wat Pho is renowned for its massage school, one of the first and best in Thailand. We were able to skip the tourist lines that had half an hour wait times because our fantastic guide took us around the corner to the student center where the was no line!

The massages at the student center were great. First, they give you these comfy pajamas pants. And after an hour of being twisted, cracked, hit, and acrobatically rotated by the masseuse who used her legs and every muscle in her body to massage us, we still felt super peaceful (no joke... That's a Thai massage!). Marc's pic below proves it.

We also had another friend in Bangkok that we we able to explore with and celebrate Marc's birthday, too: Matthieu! He met us at one of the highest rooftop bars in the city for cocktails, Vertigo. We got a great view of Bangkok by night from the 60th story! And we drank passion fruit cocktails to get the true flavor of the city.

Our last adventure this week in Bangkok (before our stay in Chiang Mai, a northern city) was the floating market. Here, local food and clothes markets are often set up on the river. Some are accessed by canoe taxis, but we walked. We sampled everything from passion fruit smoothies to fish balls on a stick to coconut custard cooked in banana leaves! We even heard some karaoke!

Then we flew to Chiang Mai for an elephant adventure. Stay tuned for the next post about the elephant sanctuary and then another from Bangkok after our trip to Chiang Mai, for Svet's birthday!

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Depuis notre base dans le poumon vert de Bangkok, il nous a fallu prendre un ferry, puis un taxi jusqu'au métro, pour arriver après deux changements dans le cœur historique de la ville. Pas très pratique, mais pas trop mal comparé aux 3h que les habitants passent dans les bouchons en moyenne chaque jour !

Et le trajet vaut le coup ! En compagnie de nos amis qui habitent sur place, on a pu visiter les temples de Wat Arun et Wat Pho (très réputé pour son école de massage, on en a fait l'expérience 😃), et siroter des cocktails sur le toit d'un hôtel de luxe avec vue panoramique sur Bangkok du haut des 60 étages (merci Matthieu !).

En passant près du palais royal, on a vu toute une foule venue rendre hommage au roi décédé le mois dernier. Il y a des mémoriaux partout dans Bangkok et beaucoup de gens portent des vêtements ou un ruban noir. Le roi était très apprécié et révéré : les thaïlandais lui attribuent plusieurs milliers de mesures qui ont contribué à améliorer leurs conditions de vie depuis que le roi est monté sur le trône il y a 70 ans.

Avant de partir pour Chiang Mai, on est allés au marché flottant près de notre hôtel-cabane. Comme le reste du "poumon vert", le marché attire surtout des gens de Bangkok qui viennent passer le week-end à l'écart de l'agitation du centre. Loin des marchés flottants attrape-touristes, ici les étals ne sont pas sur des bateaux mais au bord des canaux. Ingrédients, plats cuisinés, vêtements, artisanat, et même karaoké, il y en a pour tous les goûts ! On s'est régalés de boulettes de poisson frit et de crème de coco colorée au pois papillon bleu.

Prochaine étape : les éléphants !Read more