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.

Thailand: Good Luck for You. - Day 1 (Bangkok - continued)

The first temple we came across is the famous Wat Pho. Luckily, it was quite a late hour, so it wasn’t so invaded by tourists. I don’t remember seeing typical Thai temples in pictures and got absolutely enchanted by the immense quantity of elaborated ornaments carefully clad in ceramic tiles, shining pointed roofs and armies of Buddhas of all sizes, including the giant Reclining Buddha.

Inside the temple there was a wall next to the exit was lined with small metal bowls on stands. A woman with her two little sons passed me by and they all started dropping little coins into the bowls as the temple filled with pleasant clinking sound…

We stretched out on the grass in a park, watching children fly kites, and chewed up our mangos, to regain forces. We were so bombarded by new experiences and emotions that, apparently, our organisms forgot we were supposed to have jet lag!

Already at night we came across the famous Khao San Road, which in fact didn’t have much to see besides ‘ fellow travellers’, shops, bars and Thai women selling wooden croaking frogs. Speaking about shops, it is amazing how many tailor shops exist in Thailand. But wait a minute: does it really seem like that a T-shirt-and-shorts tourist, leisurely strolling along Khao San Road chewing at the straw of his soft/strong drink around midnight, really needs a suit???

By some lucky chance we came across Soi Ram Buttri (‘soi’ practically means a small road, a kind of an appendix of a bigger ‘thanon’ (road)) and landed at an absolutely great, cozily lit place called Sawasdee House, which that moment on became our favorite chill-out spot in town.

This great day was crowned with an extreme bumpy ride on Bangkok’s most (in)famous means of transport – a colorful tuk-tuk (better hop on at night, if you don’t want to see in practice why so many drivers and pedestrians wear masks!).