Category: Photo Content

Do not trust wily strangers according to the authorities at the Grand Place and Emerald Buddha Temple. They forgot to mention unscrupulous taxi drivers.

I really enjoy the English message on this sign.

I am back from Thailand now, somewhat sad to no longer be on vacation and somewhat happy to be home. I am really tired, but I think it is more a case of being depressed about the end of vacation, being alone again, and having to work tomorrow. I’ll survive.

There’s so much to show and so much to tell, I hope I have the energy to write it all down in a way that is interesting to people. There’s not so much to report on Koh Samui. We were staying at a resort and we were somewhat isolated from any sort of city. The room was peaceful and we enjoyed good meals and nice massages. Unfortunately, those all came at resort prices instead of Thai prices. We were ready for that, so it was fine.

I see why everyone loves Bangkok. People refer to Japan as a place with organized chaos. Bangkok is just chaos. However, on the chaos scale, it really isn’t that high. If Tokyo has a chaos ranking of 1 and New Delhi has a chaos ranking of 10, I’d put Bangkok at only about a 4. Is it crazy? Yes. Is it packed? Yes. Does it feel impossible? Not at all.

I’m not sure how to organize my thoughts in this blog. I think I’ll just try to discuss in a reverse chronological order and share some general impressions.

 

Bangkok

We had a few recommendations of things to see in Bangkok. Also, Tomo had a good guide book from Japan that listed places to go. I had Time Out Bangkok. I usually love the Time Out books, but for some reason this one didn’t help me out initially. I think when you know the city the book is very helpful.

Our first night in Bangkok was really just a quick turnaround before we went to Koh Samui. We stayed at the JW Marriott, which was very nice. We got in trouble for taking pictures in the lobby, I guess they still had heightened security measures following the Jakarta bombing in 2003. I won’t post a picture of the lobby because I noted that their website did not have an image, but you can google if you want.

We didn’t explore Bangkok on our initial arrival but really enjoyed the Executive Lounge!

We returned to Bangkok Thursday (March 5) afternoon, vowing to have a plan ahead of time so that we didn’t miss out with our limited time. We stayed downtown at the brand new Centara Grand at Centralworld. The location is extremely convenient – close to public transportation and good shopping areas (ranging from exclusive shops to uniquely Bangkok). There is a ton of development in this area, and I’m sure 15 years ago it looked nothing like this, and 15 years from now it will look nothing like it does now. Bangkok still has the feeling of the business pouring out on to the sidewalk, much like Singapore did 15 years ago. The last time I was in Singapore, it didn’t feel that way. I anticipate Thailand to go through the same transition, unfortunately.

 

 

 

Our hotel was brand new, only opening in December of 2008. While I can recommend the location, I have some difficulty recommending the hotel yet. They are definitely having some growing pains associated with the hotel. For example, it took us 20 minutes to check out on an internet pre-paid room. It turns out the room wasn’t charged to my credit card ahead of time after all so we had to sort that out. I’m waiting for the double billing!

Thursday night, Tomo was determined that we were going to get a certain chicken rice meal for dinner. The restaurant is one of the typical open-to-the-street infernos of boiling water, soup, chicken, and beer. The temperature range of Bangkok is hot to hotter.

Tomo’s guide book and his natural guidance got us to the restaurant with little difficulty. Thanks to both. Here’s Tomo waiting for the food.

 

Here’s my dish with spicy sauce drizzled on top…

 

And here’s the whole restaurant and its fabulous decor.

 

I know that I would have gone back there had I stayed longer in Bangkok. Nothing like hot soup to cool you down on a hot night. It is reminiscent of Swee Kee chicken rice in Singapore (apparently a beloved but lost restaurant).

After dinner, we walked the long walk to the Suan Lum Night Bazaar. Although heavily touristed, it is still a pretty cool place. Apparently this too is headed for eventual “redevelopment.” Surprisingly, I took no pictures as we wandered around the shops even though I had at least one camera with me. Why? Here Tomo was able to buy some fisherman’s pants (or Thai pants). We also enjoyed the beer garden, food stalls, and live entertainment at the market.

 

The next day, we planned to visit The Royal Palace, Wat Pho, and Wat Arun, taking a river boat to avoid the congested streets. The river boat turned in to our first transportation rip off, but I’ll leave that for a different section. Bangkok started their Skytrain in 1999 and has been quite helpful getting out of the congested traffic. We took the Skytrain to the Central Pier to catch a river boat.

 

Once we got to Central Pier, we boarded a river boat to go to the Grand Palace. We only spent 120 Baht (about $3.50) for an all day pass as we were told this was our only option (not true). The view from the river was interesting, and the amount of detritus in the water was remarkable. It is always scary to see dead fish floating in a river, but we certainly could along the Chao Phraya river. The boat was very convenient though.

 

 

The Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha

We arrived at The Grand Palace and there you are first directed to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha and the buildings of the upper terrace.

The four main monuments are a reliquary in the shape of a golden chedi; the Mondop which is a repository for Buddhist sacred scriptures inscribed on palm leaves, contained within a beautiful mother of pearl inlaid cabinet; a miniature Angkor Wat crafted by the order of King Mongkut (Rama IV); and the Royal Pantheon in which statues of past sovereigns of the ruling Chakri dynasty are enshrined.

Scattered around the terrace are statues of elephants and mythical beings. The models of elephants are a recod of the famous white elephants acquired during the reigns of the various kings of Thailand.

– Guide to the Grand Palace

Of course, like you, I know the definition of “reliquary” and “chedi.” In case you have forgotten, a “reliquary” is, as you would surmise, a place where holy relics are kept. “Chedi” is the Thai equivalent of the Indian “stupa.” Ah, so it must be clear now. A “chedi” is “A bell shaped monument erected to house a holy statue or an object of a prominent person, such as the ashes of important monks and royalty, or relics of the Buddha. In Thailand they are called phra chedi and are most commonly used as a relic shrine. The bell shaped chedi is a copy of the Indian stupa or cetiya, in Burma known as zedi or pagode, in Vietnam as chua, in Tibet as chorten, and in Sri Lanka called dagoba.” (Source).

Of course, the minute we walked in the entrance of the terrace, the sparkling buildings, colors, and giant mythical beings required immediate photography. I was worn out by the time of the actual Grand Palace.

Here’s a mythical creature …

 

And here’s another mythical creature and a woman with matching hair. I had to get the blue hair and the blue skin together.

 

Images of the Mondop …

 

The golden chedi was previously featured …

 

The model of Angkor Wat, in detail. To me, it looks like the model is made of sand and a good rain would wash it all away. That’s not the case, but it sure looks that way.

 

Some additional mythical creatures.

 

And two of the scariest things we saw – us. Yikes. That’s what happens when you take your hat on and off, wear it frontwards and backwards, and get really hot standing in the sun. Don’t we look good? What is going on with my hairline in this picture? This photo is taken outside the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.

 

On the backside of the temple is, I assume, a protector of the temple.

 

I learned something important as well, there is no skateboarding of roller skating around the temples. You know I was really looking forward to shredding the temples on my board, but the rules are the rules.

 

I took some photos of the Grand Palace, but I find them rather uninteresting so I didn’t post them here.

We were pretty exhausted and rather overheated after our time at the Grand Palace, so we splurged on a pricey tourist meal in an air-conditioned restaurant that must make a killing because it is right near the exit of the temple. Clever. It wasn’t THAT overpriced, and the AC made up for it. Then we decided to wander over to Wat Pho to check out the reclining Buddha and maybe get a massage as recommended by a friend. Before lunch, I could not imagine letting anyone touch my body. I didn’t even want to touch it, so I didn’t think a massage would be in the cards. After lunch though, I started considering the massage again.

On our way to Wat Pho, I took several photos of the area just to get the general feel of Thailand. Here’s one.

 

Wat Pho

Inside the grounds of Wat Pho I took a few more pictures. Here’s one showing off the colors inside the temple.

 

And here is one of the reclining Buddha. A very chill Buddha if you ask me.

 

Here’s a picture of more chedis in Wat Pho

 

We did decide to get a massage inside the temple at Wat Pho. They offer several different massages including traditional Thai massage (fully clothed and focusing on kneading and pressure points), foot massage (reflexology), and other massages. I opted for a traditional Thai message for the first time while Tomo opted for the foot massage. When I got a foot massage in Hong Kong, I could barely walk for 3 days, so I decided it might be a bad idea. I felt bad for my masseuse, who had to touch my kind of wet clothes. Oh well, I guess they’ve touched worse. I got just a half hour massage, but it did help me feel revitalized. We were both ready to go home prior to the massage. Afterwards, we decided we had time to visit Wat Arun. I’ve determined that I prefer an oil based massage that doesn’t solely focus on pressure points. It is nice to have had enough variety now to be able to know which massages I like. I remember one “massage” during the AIDS Ride that actually induced shock. That is NOT the massage for me.

 

Wat Arun

Wat Arun is a single tower that you can see on the Thai coins. We hopped on the 3 baht river ferry (about 10 cents) and headed over for a look. It was not very crowded, and once we were there we noticed that you could climb stairs to a pretty high vantage point on the temple. Here’s a detail of the temple. Doesn’t everything feel like a melting candle?

 

And here’s Tomo climbing the steep stairs. Of course, it is hard to capture the perspective through a camera lens.

 

From the heights of Wat Arun, you can look out over a lot of Bangkok. Here’s a view across the river towards the Grand Palace.

 

Koh Samui

You have a good idea what Koh Samui was about from my previous entry. It is always nice to be on a beach holiday, and I always get a little bored with it as well. We relaxed, went to the pool, swam, walked along the beach, and generally chilled. Here are a few more pictures of Koh Samui.

Here’s a nice advertisement style picture of our couch in our hotel room or “villa.”

 

The rocky beach to the side of the hotel.

 

Fishing boats in Lamai

 

As I child, I hated mannequins. And escalators. You can imagine I was a wreck in department stores. Perhaps the mannequins below were popular when I was a child. They were all over Thailand and were very, very scary.

 

The airport in Koh Samui, built by Bangkok Airways, was very “Fantasy Island.” It was all mostly outdoors, including the arrivals area and the luggage carousel.

 

Compare that to the ultra-modern brand new Bangkok airport.

 

 

Transportation Rip Offs

I’ve got a lot more notes to cover, but I think I’ll take care of those in an additional post. However, I promised I’d describe my transportation rip-off experiences. Taxi drivers are notorious for not wanting to use the meter. I had successfully battled them for most of the time in Bangkok. However, my last night in Bangkok, I was completely discombobulated by a taxi driver. Compounded by the fact that I just wanted to take the Skytrain, the experience proved very frustrating. After dinner on Friday night, we decided to take a taxi back to the hotel to avoid getting overheated since we were leaving really early the next morning. Actually, Tomo wanted the taxi and wanted the train.  We flagged down a taxi who didn’t want to use the meter. I walked away but was called back when he agreed to use the meter. We explained where the hotel was, gave him the hotel card, and were on our way. I noticed we were going the opposite direction of our hotel. About that time, Tomo stated, “We’ve done really well here and haven’t been ripped off” or something to that effect. I said, “We, I’d wait before you say that because this taxi driver is taking us for a ride.” I was paying attention and expected a left turn soon to move a little North and get on a less congested road back to the hotel. Sure enough, we made the left turn, and then as expected we crossed a canal. I was feeling a bit more relieved. But then we crossed another canal that I was not expecting. And then after we went under the expressway, we didn’t come across Wireless Road as I expected. And then we went by the new train station which was DEFINITELY not the right direction. At that point I said, “Where are we going?” and restated the name of the hotel. I think I even gave him the card. The taxi driver mumbled back something close to the name of our hotel. We then started passing metro stations, and I had NO idea where we were. I should have stopped us at that point but I was not sure where we were. Again I asked, and he pulled over. “Oh, you wanted to go HERE?!?” He used the excuse that there are two hotels with the same name as the reason for taking us on the crazy ride. While it is true, there are two Centara Grand hotels, there is only one hotel ON THE MAP WE GAVE HIM. We got him headed the right direction and I sat there fuming. I was very preachy to Tomo, “What is the lesson learned here?” I asked. I think I wanted the answer to be, “You are right and I am wrong.” Of course that wasn’t exactly the answer I got back and I feel bad about getting angry, but the Skytrain was soooo close initially.

In my mind I had decided I would not pay over 100 Baht for the ride, regardless of what the meter said. I would stay in the taxi, complain to the doorman, and make him support our cause with the taxi driver. Once we finally got to the hotel, after about 30 kilometers, our taxi fare was 285 Baht. It is important to know that is less than 10 USD. But that wasn’t the point. I said, “I will only pay you 100 baht” and explained to the doorman what had happened. Thais are not big on confrontation and the doorman definitely didn’t want to get in the middle of it. I think he bought in to the idea that the taxi driver thought we wanted the other hotel. I told the taxi driver he was a disgrace to his people. I doubt he understood that. In the end, I gave him 140 baht for a meter of 285 baht and what should have been a 60 baht ride. Someone else was waiting to take a taxi, and I was incredulous when the doorman loaded him in the taxi. I told them. “Do not take this taxi. This man is dishonest.” The person waiting for the taxi said, “I’m Thai, I can handle it.” I was still stuck on the taxi driver disgracing all Thais and told the guy about to get in the taxi, “He’s a disgrace to your people.” In the meantime, Tomo was photographing the taxi driver’s ID in the cab and the license plate. The doorman was muttering, “Have a nice evening” to every complaint I made as I stormed in to the hotel.

Am I a little embarrassed about my reaction? I’m a lot embarrassed, especially after writing it the way I did. Did the taxi driver really get confused about the hotel? I don’t know. It is possible. But for crying out loud, we showed him the map (a little hard to read in dim light) and more than once tried to relate it to a specific shopping area. Since we at first would not agree to use the meter and then he changed his mind, I was highly skeptical of his motives. In the end we made Americans and Japanese look like raging lunatics and I have a sour taste in my mouth for all things taxi in Bangkok.

For me, the money is not a big deal and that’s what makes it a little more embarrassing. However, honesty is important to me, and I hate the idea that perhaps we were taken advantage of.

I think I was already tweaked because earlier in the day we had taken the river boats along the Chao Phraya. At the central pier, it was very confusing which boat to take and we were told the only way to take the next express boat was to buy a 120 baht single day ticket. Once on the boat, tbe ticket lady came along, selling tickets for 18 baht. How is THAT for a nice little swindle? So we paid almost 4 times more than necessary for our journey up and down the river. Again, it is only about $3.50 that I spent, but the misinformation frustrated me.

Don’t worry, the transportation frustrations didn’t ruin the trip. Hopefully next time I’ll be able to handle that kind of situation with more grace. Even better, I hope I don’t get myself in that situation again.

I still have lots of other impressions to write of, including puffy lips and gender identity. More to come in a post later, but I wanted to get the pictures up sooner rather than later.

In this time of staggering economic troubles, I feel a little odd staying at a resort on an island in Thailand. It doesn’t feel like I should be living so extravagantly, even if my extravagant is not that outlandish. I hope I am getting the appropriate karma credits somehow and the karma police will not punish me. Monday I was reading all sorts of super scary articles in the newspaper as my vacation began.

Today was our first real day on Koh Samui. Since it is an island resort on the beach, it seemed appropriate to go to the beach and swimming pool. I don’t want the kind of tan that I sought as a youngster – and as a matter of fact I am afraid my skin shows a little of that over-exuberance. Still, I am at a beach, I do have free time, and it seems I should get a little bit of a suntan. I lathered up with sunscreen though, telling myself that SPF 20 was more than adequate. My sun block worked well in all the places that it reached. Unfortunately, I have an archipelago of sunburn running from my left armpit down towards my navel. If I had a body to die for I’d take a photo for your amusement. Unfortunately I’d have to do some photoshopping to get the body I desired so I’ll pass on posting (alternately, I could actually work for the body I desire).

We decided to go to Chaweng in the afternoon for a visit to a spa that Tomo had read about as well as dinner at a restaurant there. Transportation around the island is not easy and, quite honestly, the taxi rides are Tokyo / New York prices. All taxis are metered and no taxi uses the meter. All prices are negotiated but seemingly fixed. Since our resort is fairly isolated, it was good to get into the “city.” Chaweng reminded me of a really clean India or a little bit more rundown Greek island.

 

We went to the Is Spa where they specialize in hot stone massages. Hey, if that is their specialty then why not go for it. We ordered two hot stone massages and entered in to a peaceful world of oils and stones rubbed all over our bodies. It was definitely a good experience. I had, “hot, smooth, volcanic pebbles … placed on [my] various chakras (natural body-meridians) by two therapists who combine the use of essential oils and the movement of the stones to stimulate [my] lymphatic system, helping to detoxify [my] body.” It was moderately difficult to emerge back on to the hustle and bustle of Chaweng after the message.

The Is Spa is associated with The Library, a total boutique hotel in the middle of a mess. We wanted to eat at The Page, the restaurant associated with the hotel. The Page is right on the beach and tonight the air was comfortable and we had a nice breeze keeping us feeling good. The food was good as well, and tonight we opted for western fare instead of Thai. I felt like I was at a trendy LA restaurant.

Here’s the sign for The Page. Note all the wires running above.

 

Here’s the entrance to The Library.

 

And here’s the famous red pool (is it filled with blood?) at night.

 

Our resort isn’t too shabby either and I took a few pictures this morning and when we checked in.

And the door handle in our room.

 

That’s all for now. I want to relax!