The Travel Sage
Bangkok and Ayutthaya, Thailand
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It was an exhausting, but incredible fun, series of tours that we took while our ship was docked in Laem Chabang, Thailand for one and a half days. This port is about two hours from Bangkok and we had to be back on board by 2:30pm on the second day, so in order to make the most of our time there, we stayed overnight in Bangkok. Our excursion started with a private, personalized tour for me, Mark, and our nephew, Will through the company Thai Tour Guide. We were assigned our tour guide when we booked the tour; her name was Ms. Pookie. The name made me imagine a much older woman than she was. Lol
Ms. Pookie escorted us to a nice, comfortable van with plenty of room to stretch out. She gave us a bit of Thailand (formerly known as Siam) history as the driver drove the 2 1/2 hours north to Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya was founded in 1350 and was the capital of Siam until it was attacked and burned by the Burmese in 1767. We toured several of the archeological sites there.
Despite knowing that I would need to have my shoulders covered when going into temples, I wore a sleeveless top since it was going to be hot and we were only visiting ruins that day. Well, it turns out the ruins of temples are still temples, hence the need to turn my blue jacket into a cape.
This area was once covered by a portico that surrounded the grand temple. You can see the remnants of the pillars that once held up the roof. All of the buddha statues are lining the walkway to guard the temple. I was standing on a walkway on the grand temple when I took the first photo below.
We visited several archeological sites within Ayutthaya but currently only one of those areas is a Unesco World Heritage site. Once declared a World Heritage property, the site must be kept as it is found, it cannot be restored, only maintained as is. So it wasn’t until we went to the Unesco property that we saw the damage that Western treasures hunters, with the cooperation of Thai thieves, had done to the ruins. Sadly, the buddha statues were very popular “souvenirs”, and since the statues were generally too big to easily steal, people stole just the heads.
Can you spot the buddha face below?
Can you spot the stray dog below?
Many of the structures were leaning quite a lot. You can see how much the base is compressed on one side.
Each of the three temples below was erected for a member of the royal family.
Silly tourists…
After touring several archeological sites around Ayutthaya, we stopped at a local restaurant for lunch. We were in shock at how inexpensive the food was. We got four meals, a salad and four drinks for less than $13US.
We had one more adventure before leaving Ayutthaya – a canal boat ride. On our way to the boat we passed a few elephants.
Along the canals, we saw shacks mixed in with a few nicer, newer homes. And of course we passed by many temples, some new and some old.
After the boat ride, we headed to our hotel in Bangkok, which should have taken an hour, but took 2 hours because we were caught in rush hour traffic. I had hoped to get there in time for a short nap before our night tuk tuk food tour started, but we barely had time to check into our hotel before we were headed out to meet up with our tour. Thankfully, I had the foresight to pick a hotel very close to the food tour meeting point. This food tour* was the highlight of our trip to Bangkok! Our tour guide was a very perky, animated young woman who was quite entertaining. We had 6 stops. At five of the stops we were given different traditional Thai food and at one of the stops (rooftop bar) we were given a drink and a spectacular view.
Riding in the tuk tuk’s was a little scary but a lot of fun! The video below shows a tame part of the ride – I couldn’t video during the scarier parts because I was hanging on for dear life! The tuk tuks are really only designed for 2 people, so the 3rd person sits sideways on a tiny bench with nothing behind them to keep them from falling backward into the street.
Our first stop was in a modest-looking restaurant where a spread of several different dishes awaited us to share. There was a delicious lemongrass & ginger soup (my favorite dish of the stop), a Thai papaya salad, duck, chicken, pork and sticky rice. The food was arranged by the level of spice with the spiciest at one end of the table and the least spicy at the other end. I sat on the wimpy end! I was already starting to get full by the time we left this first stop.
As we were leaving the restaurant, I noticed that a man was cooking alongside the road on top of charcoal filled pots. Some of the meat looked like what we ate. I don’t know if that was our restaurant’s grill, but a later stop made me think it was likely.
Our second stop included two dishes. One was something I didn’t quite understand – it had shrimp on top, but I didn’t catch what else was in there. Mark liked it. The other dish was coconut sticky rice sprinkled with mung beans and sliced mango. I don’t know how such a simple dish tasted so amazing! We also got a sliced rose apple that I thought was quite bland.
And then we were back on the road toward the next stop, China Town.
China Town was bustling. We sampled some street food as we walked, but I don’t really remember it – I was just focused on keeping up with the group.
Our next stop was to a restaurant (Ann Guay Tiew Kua Gai) that was awarded a Michelin star multiple times. Their signature dish is guay tiew kua gai, which is fried rice noodles with chicken, and an egg on top. It might not sound very interesting but the flavor is in the way it is cooked. We were treated to a special tour of the back alley “kitchen”, which was quite an eye-opener!
This was another no-frills eatery where we sat on benches and ate on metal tables. I’m sure there are lots of nice, tourist-class restaurants in Bangkok but that isn’t what this tour was about.
By the time I got to the bottom of my noodle bowl, I was stuffed and couldn’t quite finish it. Thankfully, our next stop (The Eagle’s Nest) was just for a drink, not more food! The five flights of stairs we had to climb was well worth the view.
It was 10:30pm when we left the bar. Our final stop was going to be at a flower market, which I thought was pretty strange for a night-time food tour. I was so exhausted I toyed with the idea of skipping the end of the tour and heading back to the hotel. But I’m glad I didn’t skip it because it was quite the experience. We were taken to an area where flower vendors lined the street. Everyone was very busy, you would have never thought that it was nearly 11pm.
After a lesson in flower folding, we walked into what seemed like a storefront, but it was actually an entrance into a huge wholesale market/warehouse that runs 24/7. For the life of me, I can’t imagine who buys all of these flowers, especially since the majority of flowers we’ve seen around town have been artificial.
Past all of the flowers, there was a section of vegetables and then some sweets. We got to try a traditional dessert on a stick made with sticky rice and coconut. I was full but I made room for dessert. But then, we went back outside and were given some meat skewers. I just had to say “no”!
That was the end of the food tour, so our tuk tuk driver dropped us off at our hotel. By the time we got to our room it was 11:30pm. And by the time we showered and got to bed, we only had about 6 1/2 hours until it was time to get up and get ready for the next tour. Our hotel* was very upscale in a central downtown Bangkok location, but the price was only $75 per night. This is less than half of what we paid for our hotel in Singapore, and breakfast was included. And the breakfast buffet was something to behold. This photo only shows part of it, but each of those chafing dishes holds something different. There were some breakfast items but more than half of the buffet was food that you would expect to find on a dinner buffet.
Ms. Pookie arrived at 8:00am to take us on a canal boat tour of Bangkok. This time we didn’t have a driver so she took us on the subway to get to our destination. The subways were very nice inside, and we were amused by the priority seating signs. Can you guess why?
Monk Fun Facts
1) In Thailand men can sign up to be a monk on a temporary basis for as few as 3 months. Our guide said that many families have their sons sign up as soon as they finish school. In Vietnam, I asked if they did the same thing and I was told no, it was a Thai thing.
2) While Thai Buddhists only have 5 rules of conduct to live by, monks have a whopping 227!
Getting on the canal boat was rather challenging. The boat was tied up to a floating dock that was along a major waterway. The dock and the boat both rocked but not in unison.
From the canal boat we saw a lot of shacks. It was amazing that most of them were actually inhabited.
However, just like in Ayutthaya, amongst the mostly poor homes, there were some very nice new homes and many temples.
We also saw a little bit of wildlife, including quite a few monitor lizards.
We stopped in a neighborhood along the way and got off the boat for a bit. There were some shops and an artist studio along the water.
Back on the boat, we passed a giant golden buddha in the distance. The shacks along the canal were quite a contrast.
We headed back toward the dock. I didn’t get a good photo of it, but these boats are powered by massive truck engines.
Our final stop on our Bangkok tour was Wat Pho Temple. We were getting kind of templed-out, but this royal temple complex was pretty darn impressive. The biggest attraction here was a massive gold reclining buddha statue. The statue is 50 feet high, 150 feet long and covered in gold leaf.
The buddha’s toes came complete with prints made out of inlaid mother of pearl.
The Wat Pho temple complex had a lot more to it than just the giant buddha. There were many shrines (like the three shown in the first photo below) that hold the ashes of members of the royal family. I was most impressed by the detailed mosaics, that were covering some of the very large structures.
After Wat Pho we practically ran back to our hotel to catch the taxi that I had arranged to take us back to the ship. After seeing how the Bangkok traffic could get gridlocked, I was pretty stressed thinking that I might have cut the timing too close getting back to the ship. But, thankfully the ride went smoothly and we were back with an hour to spare. This was our last stop in Thailand. We were off to Cambodia next.
My Impressions of the Thai People
First of all, it was pretty clear that Thai’s love food. They generally eat small meals 5 to 6 times a day and food is everywhere all the time. Ms. Pookie was telling us about their major holiday (the Thai new year in April) which is very family oriented. When I asked her if stores closed for the holiday she looked confused and said “no”. When I told her that even grocery stores close in the U.S. on Thanksgiving and Christmas, she was shocked! Her response was “how do people eat?” We told her that we just shop ahead of time, but she was still dismayed because the food wouldn’t be fresh!
The other impression of the Thai people that I got from talking to Ms. Pookie was that Thai’s are not rule followers; they are independent and like to do things their own way. When discussing religion, Ms. Pookie said that although Thai’s are Buddhist, they don’t necessarily follow all of the rules. For example, she said that since Buddhists don’t believe in god as an single entity, the Thai people pray to the gods of other religions for what they want. She giggled as she told me this. There were many times after that when I asked Ms. Pookie why they did things a certain way, she would smile and say “because we are Thai!”
5 thoughts on “Bangkok and Ayutthaya, Thailand”
‘ini, what a delightful addition to your travelogue. Ms Pookie! I love Ms Pookie! She does have quite a round face and maybe some mischief in her smile. The food seems very prominent in Thailand. In fact it seems downright constant! Enough to warm a Strega Nona’a heart.
The shacks along the water – they remind me of this one wharf in Provincetown, Captain Jack’s wharf, that is a string of various ramshackle shacks that serve as dwellings in the summer. And what a pretty penny it is to rent one of those shacks!
How very funny and, at the same time, very awful it is to see the heads missing on all those Buddhas. People can be so awful.
What about that Buddha’s head set into the tree. It seems not a stolen one, but rather, one made to order. Say I wish you could have brought that little doggie back to me! You are all looking very well in the photos. It seems especially noticeable with Will. I bet that this trip did him a world of good! Leave it to ‘ini!
The shacks in Thailand are handed down from generation to generation. If someone has enough money to buy the waterfront property, then they put a new house on it!
Great pictures and storytelling! When do yo have time to write all this? I’m glad you’re having such a great adventure!
Thanks Mary Jo! I’m very thankful for my days at sea when I can write and sleep. Although, I guess I’m not getting enough days at sea because I’m now 3 blog posts behind!
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