A short post.
Travel is a funny thing. If you are prejudiced against something, it takes a lot to change your opinion. There are two cities in the world which I have had no interest of visiting - Dubai and Bangkok. In that respect 2012 is turning out to be bad year as I am being forced to pass through both. The former might not happen at all (depending on the political situation in the Middle East) and I could not avoid the latter on a trip to Myanmar. Since, as an Indian I could get a ‘visa on arrival’, I decided to spend 48 hours in Bangkok anyways. Waste of time (and money) anyone?
I got my first taste of the famed Bangkok traffic in the taxi on the way from the Airport to the Hotel. What would have taken forty minutes in other cities of the world took two and a half hours. But I wasn't complaining as I got to catch up on my sleep (it was an overnight flight from Delhi where, despite copious consumption of red wine, I was unable to sleep well). So lots of traffic is good sometimes.
I was not too keen on the sightseeing in Bangkok, but decided to go to the 'Grand Palace' and 'Wat Pho' anyway. To get there from my hotel, I needed to take the river ferry (the Chao Phraya river passes through Bangkok. Dotted with river ferries, it is a bit reminiscent of Venice). As I neared the ferry terminal, I approached this official looking fellow to ask the way to the terminal. He started with the usual ‘where are you from?’ counter question and before long he over-ruled my decision to go to the ‘Grand Palace’.
“It will be very crowded now, go in the afternoon, and visit some Wats now” was his suggestion. I use the word ‘suggestion’ very loosely as he snatched the map from my hand, marked the aforementioned Wats, and before I could protest, called for a tuk-tuk, and negotiated with the driver to take me around to these Wats and then drop me to a ferry terminal. After visiting the Wats, I told the tuk-tuk driver to take me to the negotiated ferry terminal. But, as expected, he refused and instead suggested that I visit an ‘exhibition centre’ which had a jewellery exhibition going on. When I tried to tell him that I was not interested, he lost his cool, stopped in the middle of the street, and dropped me off. And even before I could pay him, he sped off in anger (disgust?)!
So, to cut a long story short, I found my way to the ferry terminal, took the ferry, had a beer before heading off to the ‘Grand Palace’. The palace was built in the 1780s in the reign of King Rama I and has a number of throne halls, temples, and the royal residence. The most famous temple is the ‘Temple of the Emerald Buddha’ (which, given my luck, was closed when I was there). The Emerald Buddha is made from Green Jade and discovered in the 15th century in Chiang Rai. The person who found it, thought that it was made of Emerald (hence the name). After spending a couple of hours in the Grand Palace complex I walked over to Wat Pho which has the largest reclining Buddha in Thailand (for detail lovers, the image, made of , is over 43 metres long – the feet of the Buddha are about 3 metres high and 5 metres wide!).
So that was the only formal sightseeing I did in Bangkok. Apart from that I walked around the city and took in the atmosphere (somehow I was reminded of Chennai, but a cleaner and less haphazard version). Then I met up with a friend and we spent the rest of the time lounging around for lazy beers, meals, and coffees. At least I didn’t have to do any ‘sightseeing’ or get stuck in traffic.
So did I like Bangkok any more after my brief visit? Err….I’ll answer that question over a beer…
