Thailand: Good Luck for You. - Day 14 (Back to Bangkok - continued)

We went across Bangkok to see Golden Mount temple. Bangkok I think is one of the few capitals where “I live right in the city center” doesn’t sound as such a great thing – once the skyscrapers end, getting back to the parallel world of Bangkok slums can be pretty traumatic.

Golden Mount Temple is a mountain shaped structure with a spiral walkway that brings the visitors to its golden top, the temple itself. On the way up people ring a series of bells suspended on racks and finally strike forcefully a large metal gong with a thick wooden mallet.

Reaching the top one can’t but marvel at arresting 360-degree panorama of the whole old town, an incredible Thai soup of pointed pagoda roofs, shabby huts, trees and faraway skyscraper skyline. I’ll miss this place.

At night a tuk-tuk gave as a refreshing drive through Chinatown and main roads with myriads of shining lights to our favorite bar to crown the day with farewell cocktails and shisha.

It definitely won’t be an ‘adios’, but an ‘HASTA LUEGO’.

Thailand: Good Luck for You. - Day 14 (Back to Bangkok)

We are back to Bangkok’s chaos. Gosh, I missed it!

People praying at a shrine right among skyscrapers

  The plan for the first half of the   day was to take a closer look a Bangkok’s parallel world: its business and commercial center which has nothing to do with the old town, except for omnipresent street food vendors.

Sounds weird but the most exciting part the day turned out to be our ‘excursion’ to an Asian mall. Food courts we found in the malls were not less outrageously unfamiliar as the street food markets with an incredible amount of food with nondescript names and showcases with plastified dishes, even soups!
I ventured on some green tea cake with red bean filling: tasted good beyond any expectations!

toffee makers

Japanese sweets

Many deserts looked quite hideous, like, for example, ice-cones with colored syrops and corn (!). The ones what really caught my attention were matcha desserts, made of green tea powder. Matcha smoothies, matcha puddings and matcha frozen yogurts seemed very popular with stalls over the place offering this green-tea based sweet with jelly, black pearls or sweet red beans.
Asians and Europeans do indeed have very different ideas about what is tasty…

Thailand: Good Luck for You. - Day 13 (New Year's Eve)

Dolce far niente

… On New Year’s eve we arrived at Bayoke Sky Hotel. Fireworks have always fascinated me, but it was something different seeing them light up below around Bangkok from floor 42.

Happy New Year!

Last day on the islands was spent in self-pampering, sun-bathing, palm-watching, indulging in (soft & strong) fruit shakes and dining right on the beach digging our feet into the sand.

Thailand: Good Luck for You. - Day 2 (Bangkok - continued)

Getting back to the morning: it was less adventurous but incredibly beautiful. The Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha Temple is a huge premise, generously embellished with chedi towers, big and smaller shrines,  temples, passages, dragon-faced 3-meter tall guardian statues and bowls with water lilies.

By the way, some signs in English can sometimes be mildly confusing, like ‘Beware! Your belongings!’ & ‘Marry Holidays!’. Another funny sign I saw in the bathroom at the Grand Palace area said ‘Don’t wash your feet in the sink’. How many have tried, I wonder?

Entering any temple one should take off their shoes and do not walk around but rather sit on the floor. Pointing your feet soles at Buddha is disrespectful as well as stepping onto a high doorstep when entering, in fact should be overstepped.

At one of the temples where was a large bowl filled with water, so people grabbed water lily flowers dipped them in the water and then touched their heads with the flower as a sign of a blessing.

It got windier and bell jingling could be heard all around: the bells were hung on the borders of the temple roofs, sensitive to the wind’s mood swings…

After a half-day’s wandering, ahing, ohing, look!-ing and wondering how in the world they created all this beauty we got tempted by the colorful sign at the café door next to the exit, which said: ‘Try the best ice-cream of coconut milk in Thailand!’.  The list of flavors available was impressive and included, among others, corn and red bean flavors! However, there were just a couple of them in the fridge, so I grabbed the first one that came at hand: who cares, I’m sure I’ve never tried any of these! That ice-cream had a durian flavor. As I read the name I was wondering where I already heard this name… It’s exactly one of those cases when no matter how hard you try, you can’t put your finger on it. But as I unwrapped it, I kind of had a bad premonition: the ice-cream smelled awful. So, the light bulb of revelation switched on in my head as I remembered that THAT was the famous smelly fruit that you cannot even take into a hotel room or on board of a plane! I still resisted and ventured to try it… After 3 weak attempts I couldn’t overcome the taste of reminding of sweet rotten onion, so, ashamed of failing so miserably, I had to throw it to trash.

It made me feel a bit better though when I noticed that the trash bin was already full of uneaten durian ice-creams.

Thailand: Good Luck for You. - Day 2 (Bangkok)

Right now my lips pleasantly burn because of the chicken in red curry sauce.  For those who like it spicy, Thailand is definitely your place!

Getting back to the events of the day. Rule number one in Thailand, which was proved once again on our way to Chinatown: cross whenever and wherever you can and save your dear life!  The best way actually is to try to walk slowly if you don’t want to be overrun by a motorcycle or tuk-tuk appearing from behind a car at a crazy speed.

run for your life!

school children crowding for sweet stuff around a food stall after classes 

Chinatown is a pure embodiment of chaos. It’s a clew of crazy traffic, street vendors of all kinds, roasted ducks hanging from outside of restaurants, everything generously wrapped with cables and decorated with neon signs.

Famous Chinese market on Sampeng La is a whole overwhelming street occupied by stalls, selling all imaginable kinds of paraphernalia, mostly tissues, sewing accessories and shining fake jewelry.

Next to a Mangkon Kmalawat Chinese temple I learned the first Thai word: HOP HUNG KA. And I was happy as a child when coming out of the temple I said it to a boy lighting up the candles outside and he answered: ‘hop hung kap’, placing palms together in front of him and smiling.

Chinatown bursting with life

After a long wandering-around Chinatown, as the dark hours set in, we finally managed to get lost. What travelling will be like without occasionally getting lost? What an experience it is to lose any idea of where you are at night right in the middle of creepy slums with tired-looking Thais eating on the road and observing you as you go. I guess at that moment a got a true of being a black sheep. Or rather… a white one. ‘Farangs’ (Thai word for foreigners..) are too conspicuous.  However, this experience once again proved (it was proved with an audible sigh of relief): Bangkok is safe and Thais are peaceful.