Bangkok - Life in the year 2552

Going to Asia from Europe was a nice change - everything is so much cheaper: meals for a dollar, double rooms for ten, and the food is so good! This posting describes both our sejourns in Bangkok, totalling 7 days and interupted by the trip to Chiang Mai.

We're staying near the backpacker district of Khao San Rd, which has great shops to buy and sell equipment and books, and surpisingly has some excellent thai food. It is also near a 6-way intersection which is terrible to cross, made me get lost about 10 times, marked by this elephant monument.

Our first day there was a day of national celebration (an actual one, not the one tuk-tuk drivers make up every day - more on that later), so we saw a show of music and dancing in front of City Hall.

Half the pics we took were of food, it was all so good and so cheap

Sue decided to be Buddhist while in Thailand, so she prays at all the shrines and many of the temples we pass.

It turns out Ronald McDonald is Buddhist too. I was wondering why he hadn't been seen at church, synagogue, or mosque in North America. A statue like this is outside almost every McDonalds we passed by in the country.

The vast majority of Thai Buddhas are slim, and a few seem to violate the rule of Buddhist statues that says they can't have apparent bones or muscle (one of 32 rules for making images of Buddha). But there are some fat Buddhas.

Juxtoposition of old and new

The Temple of the Emerald Buddha and Grand Palace are amazing, so big and ornate. Obviously, before finding the entrance we were told by tuktuk drivers that it is closed today, but another temple is free today, so we should go there with them. We politely declined, before being told by another tuktuk driver a few minutes later that we're underdressed (Sue wearing a tank top) and wouldn't be allowed in. We finally found the entrance, and though Sue had to borrow a blouse from the clothing-borrowing office there were otherwise no problems.

Me posing as a rat

Our hotel price was absolutely cheap, and it was pretty good

There's a massive night market along the sidewalks in the park in front of the Grand Palace, selling everything from used shoes to jewelery to food. Here is a view from there


Democracy Monument, close to much good food and one of our main landmarks to find our way home