Two nights in Bangkok

Tuesday and Wednesday, 23 and 24 October

I don’t know if it was the jetlag or the heat and humidity, but Bangkok was a blur and seems like a distant memory. We only spent two nights there. We arrived early in the morning, about 5 am, after a ten-hour flight from Athens. Liam, Colin and I snuggled up with Doug across the row. Liam had trouble sleeping the first part of the flight but was sound asleep when breakfast arrived. I, of course, took my Ambien to ensure a couple hours of sleep. Doug and I call Ambien the cheap alternative to first class. I find that it allows for sleep in a cramped middle seat with a son draped on one shoulder and another son lying in my lap. We arrived at our hotel at around 8 am, had a big breakfast, showered and took a nap until noon. None of us were in the mood to sightsee. So we hung out at the awesome pool. Then we ate yummy Thai food for dinner.

Wednesday morning the boys and I woke late around 10am, which was a big mistake as we didn’t really adjust to Thai time and still were on European time. Doug, the savvy traveler, woke up at 7am and went for a very long walk – much longer than he had hoped for because he got a little lost (Doug’s note to self: always bring money so that you can get a taxi back to your lost hotel).

After breakfast we took a taxi to the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha). Looking at the dazzling palace trimmed in glittering gold, I wished that I had understood more so that I could appreciate more the visual splendor. Under the eaves on the walls of the courtyard elaborate scenes were painted. We looked at the pictures and tried to make up stories to accompany them, but we couldn’t recognize the characters or events, as we had been able to in Turkey and Greece. I wish we had been more prepared with a better understanding of the Thai culture and history. Part of the fun and sense of connectedness to the places we visited in Turkey and Greece was that we had spent a lot of time researching these countries. We read stories and myths and had studied historical events. All of our research allowed us to imagine and better understand the sites and cultures with respect to the past and present. So this will just have to be our first introductory trip to Thailand. We plan to return when we are more prepared and rested.

We hired a tuk-tuk (a three-wheeled motorcycle taxi) for the next few hours and whizzed through the city and traffic visiting several more temples. At the end of the afternoon we caught a water taxi. From a distance the water taxis looked romantic whizzing along the canals with their red bodies and blue and white striped curtains. Up close, and on the water, was a different story. The water was dark brown, opaque and filthy. The blue and white curtains were pulled tight as soon as the boat started to move to keep the polluted water from spraying the passengers. We were all disappointed because we could barely see out of the boat. We returned to the haven of our hotel to jump in the cool pool and wash away the city heat and grime.

I realize that I can only spend so much time in cities and then I am exhausted. Athens followed by Bangkok was a bit too much city time for me. Or maybe it was just the jetlag…New Zealand dreaming at this point…



If you want to see bigger pictures from Bangkok, go here.