Thailand - The Most Patriotic Country Ever Part II

After we hopped off the boat, we headed to the Grand Palace. The complex was established in 1782 and houses not only the royal residence and throne halls, but also a number of government offices as well as the renowned Temple of the Emerald Buddha.

It was really hard taking photos of the buildings because they were all built right next to each other. It was also near impossible to take photos without any human heads blocking the way. The place was PACKED with tourists. Suffice to say I was overwhelmed by the place - the sheer opulence of the buildings - or maybe it was the heat... I was literally bathed in sweat. I know, very attractive.

This looks like it is the model of some building but it's life size. The statues were crazy huge.

Had to resort to funny angles to try and take in all the towers...

All the buildings were covered with these gold tiles...

There was a model of Angkor Wat there as it apparently used to belong to the Thai people. There were going to replicate it here but the costs were too high.

Hey look! Dad went to Angkor Wat too!!

Some monument depicting Heaven and Hell if I remembered correctly.

Mum and Dad were very obedient and obeyed my instructions to "Pose as if you are angry like those things behind you"...

This gives you an idea of how closely together everything was:

Like Angkor Wat, there were many hallways with pictures on the walls depicting ancient times.. instead of being carved, these were painted on with gold paint here and there for emphasis.

The Royal Monastery of the Emerald Buddha was a pain to visit because visitors weren't allowed to go inside with their shoes on and no cameras were allowed inside as well. The Emerald Buddha is enshrined on a golden traditional Thai-style throne made of gilded-carved wood in the ordination hall of the monastery. The sacred image is clad in one of the three seasonal costumes (summer, rainy and winter season). The costumes are changed three times a year in a ceremony presided over by the King.

No cameras were allowed inside the hall so I took photos from the entrance to the hall of the teeny tiny Buddha. The Emerald Buddha was carved from a block of green jade and was first discovered in 1434. It was initially covered with plaster and thought to be an ordinary Buddha image. Later, the abbot who found the image noticed that the plaster on the nose had flaked off revealiong the green stone underneath. He thought that the stone was emerald and thus, the name the Emerald Buddha stuck.

Did I mention the three outfits are made of pure gold? Shiny, huh?

Walls and pillars outside the temple....

Another building we visited was the Chakri Maha Prasat built by King Rama V. Looks westernised apart from the roof huh? Word has it that the king was quite westernised and built this, causing a big scandal in the royal courts. He then succumbed to pressure and tacked on the traditional Thai roofs to appease his people. Notti King!

Obligatory group photo which Mum grudgingly agreed to be in.... she was more interested in avoding the sun than touristy photos, ya see... I looked almost conservative here in my dress sense, don't I? You aren't allowed in if you show skin below the knees... pfffft.

Doesn't this look like something out of Edward Scissorhands? That would make me Winona.... shaddup...

I took this gem of a photo during a toilet stop at the palace. To all the couples out there that wear matchy matchy outfits in public, one word of advice. DON'T! Especially when the offending outfit in question involved pants that looked like pajamas bottoms WITH mickey mouse print all over it. Have some dignity, people~!!

Chow time!

Buffet lunch was at some touristy restaurant as usual.

As far as meals on this tour went, this wasn't half bad - pad thai, meat, veges, etc. Say hi to my protection against the crazy heat - my monkey fan.

Dessert - me favourite! Fruits and jelly in ice and syrup. So refreshing! I got a giant bowl of this.

Bangkok was crazy packed with people, cars, etc. Everywhere we went involved at least one hour of car ride.... but the infrastructure seemed pretty good. The spider-web like pedestrian walkways linked all the shopping centres and there were monorails, trains, etc.

Public transport with the passengers all masquerading as sardines in a can:

Cars.....

... more cars...

I spotted this at the supermarket and being a sucker for all new products, I had to try it. Didn't like it as it tasted like lemonade with a weird aftertaste. Probably due to all the colouring.

Swimming pool at our hotel.

View of the city from our hotel room.

Our last day in Bangkok was a free day so we got to wander around all the malls to our hearts' content. From memory, we also had a massage. We had dinner at a fancy vietnamese place that night. Mum was in a sulk because she wanted indian and Dad wasn't keen. So I chose the vietnamese place. The food was nice and not at all expensive for such a fancy looking place.

Pretty furnishings:

Fresh rolls:

Green curry with roti:

Chicken wrapped in pandan leaves and veges:

Fish cakes:

Mussels and vermicelli:

We walked around a bit more after dinner and came upon this Hello Kitty section. It was 10 minutes before closing so I ran around looking at everything like a mad woman for Monica. But nothing was worth buying so I didn't.

We then hailed a tuk tuk to go back to our hotel. It was 50% cheaper than taking a taxi. Mum and Dad were scared for their lives due to the tuk tuk weaving in and out of traffic at a rapid speed... heheh..

Check out the video I took on the back of the tuk tuk.... the driver kept smiling at me like I'm a weirdo... shaddup...

There was Chanel at the airport......... my preciousssssss.

Thailand - The Most Patriotic Country Ever Part 1

Yes, i realise this post is a long time coming... shaddup.... i've been busy impersonating a bum.

We flew from Siem Reap to Bangkok first thing in the morning. Dad was meeting us at the airport as he had arranged to take a flight from JB that would arrive around the same time as our flight. Flight took an hour and we were served food!!! Yay.... just a tad over-excited after endless Air Asia flights where the only inflight entertainment were the voices in my head.. heheh.

*Drum roll*

Once we had landed and reunited with Dad, we went and found the driver. Our tour guide was busy until later that night so the driver was meant to drive us to a restaurant for some lunch before dropping us off at the hotel. The drive took THREE hours... i fell asleep and woke up to this:

This was seriously a room inside an apartment block masquerading as a restaurant. It looked dinghy and dodgy. Mum and Dad threw a fit and we jumped back in the van to go to the hotel. Admittedly this was meant to be a complimentary lunch that the tour guide threw in as we were originally supposed to arrive at dinner time and not lunch time so that was very nice of him. BUT we rather pay for lunch ourselves instead of risking food poisoning at that place. Anyway the ride to the hotel took another hour or so. I think the driver must have taken us to some place far far away from the city for a cheapie meal.

Random pic I snapped while killing time in the van... Lauren would love this pink cab.

After we checked in at the hotel, we headed out to the food court in the shopping centre next to the hotel.

The food court operated on a voucher system... so you work out how much you are going to spend, then go buy the vouchers from the cashier before going up to individual stalls to buy your food. Pain in the a$$ if you ask me.

Hmmmm Logan only costs 10 baht a cup here... bargain!

Mum had logan juice and fresh spring rolls which were tasteless.

Dad had fresh coconut juice and seafood noodles soup.

I had logan juice and mango sticky rice. It was quite nice but got sickening towards the end.

The Thai people are a patriotic bunch. Even in NZ, a portrait of their King and Queen is always present in every Thai restaurant we go to. Must be nice to be so loved and respected. Evidence of their patriotism was everywhere. This was an altar at the hotel we stayed at with a statue of the King... and fresh food and flowers were placed on the altar at meal times everyday. I found it a bit perplexing as the King is still very much alive....

We drove past this on one of our endless car trips.

A giant portrait outside the hotel building.

Also snapped a pic of the car I SHOULD have been travelling in.... note the car number plate.

We were originally meant to have visited Bangkok back in November but there was political unrest due to the yellow shirts taking over the airport in protest of the then Prime Minister. He has since been ousted. The protestors wear yellow as they are royalists while the red shirts are into modernisation and getting rid of the monarchy. While we were there, it was the red shirts' turn to kick up a fuss. A few roads were barricaded off so they could do their thing. We were told that the red shirts were mainly villagers and poor people from other provinces and were motivated by money to show up. They would just han g around until the money dried up and then go back home so they were meant to be relatively harmless. Not so!!! Few days after we left, it escalated into a riot and a few people were killed! Scary!

95% of the population are Buddhists and you can see reminders of this faith everywhere you go in Thailand. First stop for the day : Erawan Shrine where the famous four faced Buddha resides. It is famous because many people swear that their wishes are granted after they prayed here. There was a row of stalls selling flowers, joss sticks etc on the sidewalk next to the shrine.
The Erawan Shrine was built in 1956 by Erawan Hotel to eliminate the bad karma believed to have been caused by laying the foundations on the wrong date. The hotel's construction was delayed by a series of mishaps, including cost overruns, injuries to laborers, and the loss of a shipload of Italian marble intended for the building. An astrologer advised building the shrine to counter the negative influences. The Brahma statue was designed and built by the Department of Fine Arts and enshrined on 9 November 1956. The hotel's construction thereafter proceeded without further incident.

I'm not a believer so I can't vouch for its powers but one thing I can say is that the shrine has great location/shopping feng shui!! Check out Burberry in the background....

... AND Louis Vuitton (and Prada) facing it. Lucky Buddha!

The place was packed with people, both worshippers and gawkers (aka me). The four sides represent specific things, e.g wealth, happiness etc. So you pray to the statue and if your wish is granted, you then have to make a return trip.

These people have had their wishes granted so they had returned to give thanks. They paid for the dancers and musicians to put on a show for the Buddha to enjoy or to add a kick to their thank you prayers I suppose.

Bit of scandal for you : Back in 2006, the shrine was vandalised by a Thai man believed to be mentally ill. After smashing the statue with a hammer, 27-year-old Thanakorn Pakdeepol was beaten to death by angry bystanders. Two street sweepers were arrested and charged with the fatal beating. Witnesses said Thanakorn stood on the base of the statue with a large hammer in his hands, and smashed the hollow statue to pieces. The deity's four-faced head, torso, six arms and weapons were fragmented. Only the part of lap and base of the statue were left intact. Very sad huh? Lesson of the day : Don't mess with an angry religious mob.

After that, we had dinner at a Chinese restaurant inside the shopping centre next to the shrine. We would return here for a second dinner before the end of our trip. Meh, so over tour meals. Yuck yuck yuck.

Obligatory tom yum soup in case we didn't get the memo that this was Thailand that we were in.

Chicken stir fry.

Veges stir fry.... yes, yes dead exciting.
Fatty pork with veges.... this dish always seem to show up whenever I'm in a foreign country eating weird food.....

Dessert : Strangely red watermelon.

Last stop for the night : Night market. It was huge and boring... same old same old.

The shopping centre as well as the market area around our hotel did wholesale trades, i.e if you buy more than 3 items from any one of the shops, you get a further discount on the already dirt cheap items. The market operated from 9 pm to 8 am so that people can shop there at night and then take their stock back to their own shops to sell in the daytime.

The stalls were shutting up shop when we came out after breakfast.

Dude had a very productive night. Lucky he brought his tuk tuk to carry all his purchases home. Shopaholic!

We headed off to Pattaya on the second day and I'll deal with Pattaya in another entry. We spent 2 days there and got back to Bangkok on the 4th evening. We stopped at a steamboat restaurant for their buffet dinner. It was similar to Johnny, a restaurant in KL we went to over and over again when we were there for a week so we enjoyed this meal the most out of all the ones we had in Thailand.

There was a no wastage rule so we had to be careful not to order too much.

Thailand is renowned for its fruits so we walked to the wholesale fruit market near our hotel after dinner in search of mangoes.

Pineapples:

Watermelons:

Corn:

Assorted stalls:

Rose apples... one of my favourite fruits:

Close up:

Green mangoes:

Yellow mangoes:

The next day, we went on a boat ride on the canals that Bangkok was built around.

Nice day.... I need to top-up my tan, darn it!!

We went past the Grand Palace which we visited after the boat ride. More on it in the next post.

Nice bridge:

Museum of the Royal Barges:

Typical landscape on the side of the waters:

The purpose of the boat ride was to visit the famous floating market. BUT we were told that the floating market doesn't really exist anymore... instead, we had ONE boat that came up to us peddling his cheap touristy souvenirs. I want a refund!

We were also suckered into buying a lei (??) each for 20 baht. Apparently they are typically worn by visitors so that the locals can tell they are new to the country and give them a warm welcome. The flowers smelt amazing.

Some giant Buddha statue... reminds me of Gandhi for some reason... must be the bald head.

We visited Wat Arun, the Temple of the Dawn. Its full name is Wat Arunratchawararam Ratchaworamahawihan. Talk about being a mouthful! The outstanding feature of Wat Arun is its central prang (Khymer-style tower). It may have been named "Temple of the Dawn" because the first light of morning reflects off the surface of the temple with a pearly iridescence. Steep steps lead up to two terraces. The corners are surrounded by 4 smaller satellite prangs. The prangs are decorated by seashells and bits of porcelain which had previously been used as ballast by boats coming to Bangkok from China. Around the base of the prangs are various figures of ancient Chinese soldiers and animals.

Once again, you gotta marvel at ancient people's skills, determination and devotion to their god.

Tour guide said this was the statue of the king from King and I. He said Thai people have never watched nor want to watch the two Hollywood versions of the story. Apparently the story has been sensationalised and is totally wrong.