Wednesday, September 20, 2017 – Bangkok
We’re right on time to our meeting place and meet our guide
for the next ten days, Rio. He’s a
delight! As soon as we check in with him
and exchange a little banter over our names not being those on his list, we are
immediately charmed and our spirits improve.
It’s good that he wasn’t here when we arrived last night or the whole
rest of the trip would have been tainted.
Now we’re off on a bright, new adventure, and after one comment that we
should get a refund for last night, since we only used the bed for two hours
(from the same man who was so vociferous last night) nothing more is said.
Rio’s company is Ami Thai, and that friendship permeates
everything. Today we have a long bus ride to our first official stop, a
floating market, and Rio decides to break it up with a stop at a coconut
farm! Along the way he shares a great deal
of information about Bangkok.
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| In the airport |
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| Even the screen at the front of the bus is decorated! |
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| I've never seen so much unusual architecture! |
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| By far the most common means of transportation! |
The two major industries are the exporting of rice and
tourism. Today the tourists are mostly
Asian because of the downturn in the economy.
There aren’t enough Chinese speaking guides. Rio thinks English was easy to learn!!
Thailand is about the size of France and has seventy-seven
provinces. There are seventy million
people in the country. Taxes are very
low, mostly three to seven percent; of
course that means that the people get very little from the government. Bangkok is the world’s second largest
destination for plastic surgery! Mostly
for boob jobs, which only cost $2,500 – 3,000 including two days in the
hospital.
The late king’s photo is displayed everywhere. He died eleven months ago, at the age of
eighty-nine and most people think of him as a father! He spent all his time and money working on improvements
for the people, primarily in the field of agriculture, since that is such a
vital industry. There are currently
4,600 projects being carried out in the palace. He assumed the throne at age
nineteen and ruled seventy years. His
son, King #10, is the new ruler; but the
people are not inspired by him. He is
sixty-five. His father was born in
Boston, MA. Fifty million Thais are
planning to attend the funeral which will be held next month, when he is
cremated a year after his death.
King #5 was the greatest ruler of the country; he was
responsible for westernizing the country.
Thailand is the only country in Southeast Asia, which was never
colonized by a European country. The
government is similar to England’s with a king/queen and a prime minister.
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| I just lucked into a photo of the world-famous train market! When the train comes, five times a day, everyone jumps out of the way! |
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| Eventually I'll tire of taking grab shots of every temple we pass! This is one of the 46,000 in the country! |
Along the way we pass empty fields. During the summer they are sea-salt fields,
after the rainy season. It looks like
the field is covered with snow.
Rio tells us that schooling is compulsory for nine years but
that most children today try to go on to University, even if they must get a
loan from the government. People who
work as laborers only make about fifteen dollars a day. There is a huge divide between the rich and
the poor, with virtually no middle class.
Everyone takes English as a second language; but if you don’t work in the tourism
industry, there is very little opportunity to use it. That makes speaking to people on the street
very difficult.
We arrive at the coconut farm and Rio tells us that they use
every part of the coconut tree. The
fronds are used for thatched roofs and the “stems” are used for lumber to build
houses. The husks are used to polish
wooden floors and when they have extracted as much coconut milk from the meat,
the rest of the meat is boiled for coconut oil
The coconut farmers also process the coconuts for coconut
sugar and we get to see that process, as well as the old house which is
equipped exactly as it would have been “in the old days” with a large central
area to allow lots of cross-breezes in this hot and muggy climate. There is a panoramic photo of all the
visiting royals who came to celebrate the ninth king’s sixtieth anniversary of
his ascension to the throne. This is a
further demonstration of how much the common people loved him. There is also a small shop, a foretaste of
things to come.
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| Spirit houses |
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| The snaky looking plant produces dragon fruit, |
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| They also have chickens. |
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| I'm going with "Coconut Farm" ??? There are 44 characters in the Thai alphabet. |
Back on the bus to complete the journey to the floating
market, which is about eighty miles from the city. We will take the bus just a bit further, then
transfer to long-tailed boats. You might
remember these from the James Bond film, “The Man with the Golden Arm”. Around here they are called James Bond boats,
and the island on which it was filmed is now called James Bond Island by the
locals.
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| They miss very few chances to add beauty. |
When we arrive Rio checks in and says we have about ten
minutes before we can board the several boats it will take to transport all
twenty-two of us. They only hold about
six or eight of us, although they might hold ten Thais! There is a shop in which we can pass the time
which features primarily hand-carved furniture, although there are also other
bric-a-brac and souvenirs. There is also
a carver at work and he is fascinating to watch.
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| It's a rocker!! |
It’s our turn to climb down into this slong and narrow boat,
and sit basically on the bottom of the boat, on our bottoms with our legs out
in front of us. It starts off slowing
and pretty soon we are zooming along the canals that criss-cross this
area. There are gasps and giggles after
each burst of speed. The canals are
lined with homes, some of which are almost palatial and some are considerably
less so. The vegetation is lush and
colorful with flowers we often can’t identify.
I think the boats are called “long-tailed” because they are powered by
what look like a propeller on a stick that extends out behind the boat by about
ten feet.
We arrive at the smaller of two floating markets and Rio
suggests that we just look around at this one for a few minutes, then he will
show us the larger one. It used to be
that traveling by canal was the only means of going any great distance and
Bangkok was called “The Venice of the East”;
but as cars became more popular, roads wer built and th markets have all
but disappeared. There are both boats
in the canal and stall along the edge, which sell fruits and vegetables and
prepared foods as well as clothing, furniture and trinkets. You could spend a lot of time here. Rio has told us that the price for food,
drinks, and water are fixed, but that we should bargain for everything
else. We should probably get the price
down by about 60 to 70 percent.
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| Really?! Is that the most beautiful police station in the world? |
Back on the bus, we are greeted by the bus driver’s wife,
who gives everyone a chilled bottle of water and a packet containing a small
cloth, which has been in ice water. It
is so refreshing to wipe the back of our necks and whatever else is
exposed! A bit further down the road Rio
shares fried bananas, some with honey and coconut in the batter, and guavas,
with everyone. It reminds me of the trip I took with Ginger’s group when Juan
shared the local Yucatan fruits. We also
receive a gift from Ami Thai, a colorful scarf with the company name on it.
We are heading, now, to lunch; but it’s a bit of a drive, so we should be
able to do justice to the buffet that awaits us. Along the way, Rio points out some things of
interest. There are lots of temples and
he assures us that we will be seeing enough temples. He tells us about a British lady he had to
asked him if today was going to be a ABT
tour. When he asked was that was, she
told him it was “Another Bloody Temple”!
It reminded me of the ADC comment in Ireland, Another Damn Castle!
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| So much harder than it looks! |
We pass the oldest and largest stupa in the world, which
houses the ashes of the Buddha. It is
1300 years old and predates Thailand.
The place we are going used to be called the Rose
Garden. It was a very large plot of land
on which the local people all grew roses and the tourists came from everywhere
to see and smell the blossoms. Then a
rich entrepreneur bought up the land and turned it into a resort, the Sampran
Riverside. There are beautiful places to
stay and a huge central facility in which we will have lunch, as well as other
outbuildings and a Thai Village which houses craftsmen who demonstrate their
specialties and allow visitors to try their hand at such things as building
elephants out of clay or stringing orchid petals into hair ornaments.
When we arrive, our bus driver takes us all around the
encampment so we learn the geography, then Rio gives us our marching orders. First there is the enormous and varied
buffet, then time to experiment in the Thai Village, and then there is a
performance which begins at three o’clock and features, Thai musicians,
dancers, and martial artists. After the show we are to make our way back to the
bus. The food is amazing and we all
agree that we are so glad to be out of China where our taste buds were not
really excited, especially after the third appearance of tomatoes and eggs! The Thai Village is interesting and Ginger
and I both make elephants that we could have taken home with us – but didn’t!
and orchid-petal ornaments, which only look good because the artist took pity
on us and “helped”. The show featured
music provided by instruments very like a marimba and drums. The pre-show selections were mostly from the
1940s and 50s and we wondered if even half of the audience could identify
them. The actual performance included
demonstrations of kick boxing, stick fighting, and other martial arts, often
with subtle comic touches, a reenactment of a wedding ceremony, and the Thai
dance stick dance. It was all lovely and
just long enough to give us a taste of the culture.
Back on the bus we receive another of those lovely cold
cloths. This is such a great tour
company! Rio needs to share with us that
Sinorama (apparently they are different companies that have some sort of
arrangement) has canceled the elephant riding experience that had been
scheduled to follow the elephant show.
They feel that it is cruel to the elephants. This has struck a nerve with Rio. He says that he and all the other Thai tour
operators have checked out the elephant experiences across the country and the
ones that they use are run by people who love their elephants and treat them as
part of their family. People ride horses
and horses are much smaller than elephants!
He also tells us that there are fewer and fewer wild elephants and that
these elephants were all born in captivity and couldn’t be returned to the
wild. They also eat A LOT and without
this income, there will be no way for their owners to feed them. It is obvious that elephants are huge part of
the Thai culture and you see them in all aspects of daily life, especially as
motifs in clothing and art.
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| Wedding ceremony |
It’s about an hour and a half drive back to the city and Rio
asks if we will want dinner then.
Everyone agrees that it will be too early and that we’d like to shower
and change and maybe lie down a bit before we eat.
On the drive back most people, myself included, fall asleep
and when I wake up you could hear a pin drop in the bus. When we get back we disperse to our rooms and
reassemble in about an hour. The traffic
is so bad that we could have walked the mile to the restaurant in less than
half the time it took the bus to negotiate rush hour. Happily, no one is starving and we sit
patiently until we arrive at the local hotel in whose dining room we will
feast. The buffet stations must number
at least ten and seafood plays a primary role with grilled shrimp and oysters
and crab legs and grilled fish and sushi being prime players in the
largesse. The beverage station even has
a dispenser for iced coffee and it’s quite a treat! The conversation at our table is lively and
educational, as we have people for around the world in our group. Everyone shares their travel experiences and
compares notes on locations to visit and means of travel. No one talks politics and that’s
refreshing! Rio had told us earlier that
Thais don’t talk politics any more since about ten years ago the controversy
had been so bad that families broke up and there was bloodshed.
As we reassemble for the ride back, there is discussion
about after-dinner activities. Some
people want to visit the roof-top bar from which you can see the whole
city. Rio had told us the experience was
top notch but to only order drinks there.
A drink will cost about ten to fifteen dollars; but it will be worth it for the view and
ambiance. However, he does not recommend
eating there, as it is extremely expensive.
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| Boiled Coke? |
Others want to go to the Night Market or Asiatique. It sounds intriguing. You can take the Shadow Boat from the back of
our hotel and it’s free. It goes to the Central Pier where you get another free
boat to the market. I want to go, even
though it would be grand to finally go to bed, but as we look at the schedule
for the Shadow Boat, we realize that we would just arrive and have to turn
right around and come back home. Maybe
we can do it our last night.
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| At the end of our corridor |
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| Night boats on the river, from our room |
Back in the room we just want to crash. Our luggage has to be outside our room by
9:15 if we don’t want to take it downstairs ourselves. We travel pretty light, so that doesn’t
really matter much. We do have to have
eaten breakfast and brought everything down to the bus by 9:45, so it can all
be stowed in the bus before we leave by boat at 10:00. It shouldn’t take long
to pack in the morning. Ginger’s sciatic nerve is still giving her a lot of
trouble. That fourteen-hour plane ride
has really played havoc with her and I don’t know what to suggest. She’s taking ibuprofen and stretching; but it isn’t getting any better. I hope tomorrow will see some improvement.
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