Bangkok

Hello There,

I'm writing this long overdue post from Phuket.  This post is about our trip to Bangkok, but I came to Phuket early for the weekend before meetings next week; however, the weather is not cooperating....so thought I'd play catch up on the blog.

A few weeks ago Jill and I went to Bangkok for a weekend to celebrate Jill's birthday.  We got in late on a Friday, and spent the most of Saturday visiting temples. Since we moved to Hong Kong we both have seen a lot of temples, and in all honesty they start to run together and look very similar to one another.  However, we both agreed that what we saw in Bangkok were probably the most unique temples we've seen with the only exception being the temples at Angkor.  They were all very colorful with really ornate designs that we found to be really unique compared to a lot of the other stuff we've seen in Asia.

We started out on Saturday by taking the train from the Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok a few stops and then hopped on a river cruise (which was a bit disappointing because the river was just lined with hotels) up to a spot which was centrally located around a few of the different places we wanted to see.

The first place was stopped was the Grand Palace. The palace has been the official residence of the Kings of Siam (and later Thailand) since 1782. The king, his court and his royal government were based on the grounds of the palace until 1925. The present monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX), currently resides at Chitralada Palace, but the Grand Palace is still used for official events. Several royal ceremonies and state functions are held within the walls of the palace every year.

The only downside to the day was that we had heard (and were told by the concierge at the hotel) that you couldn't wear shorts or open-toed shoes in any of the temples, so we both wore jeans and sneakers.  Only problem was it was about 95 degrees and what felt like 100% humidity...so we were both really hot.  When we showed up; however, there was a stand for free sarong rental so you could enter with no problem...and there were a lot of people wearing sandals...so we were pretty cheesed off about that.  I ended up just sweating it out in my jeans, but Jill ended up just buying a pair of cheap, loose-fitting pajama pants to wear for the rest of the day and she was much happier after getting out of her jeans.

The next stop was Wat Pho, aka the Temple of the Reclining Buddha.  Its official name is Wat Phra Chettuphon Wimon Mangkhlaram Ratchaworamahawihan. The temple is also known as the birthplace of traditional Thai massage.   These pictures don't do it justice....this thing was huge...

Being as hot as it was, we made a pit stop in a coffee shop to get a bite to eat and soak in some air conditioning. 

From there we made the last stop of the day at Wat Arun, or Temple of the Dawn.  We had to take a short ferry ride across the river to get there.  The temple derives its name from the Hindu god Aruna, often personified as the radiations of the rising sun. Wat Arun is among the best known of Thailand's landmarks and the first light of the morning reflects off the surface of the temple with pearly iridescence. Although the temple had existed since at least the seventeenth century, its distinctive prang (spires) were built in the early nineteenth century during the reign of King Rama II.

The stairs to climb the temple were extremely steep...again, these pictures don't do it justice...

Hard to tell, but that's Jill up there.

View of Bangkok from the top of the temple

Looking down the steps...it was basically a ladder...

We had to get back to the hotel because I had booked us a couple's massage for Jill's birthday.  We didn't have time to take the river cruise back to the train, so we had to haggle with a few different cab drivers for a fare rate to get us back to the hotel, which was about a half hour drive.

The massage was great...it also included a facial...so yeah...I got a facial.  Wasn't a big fan of the facial...but the massage was great and Jill was very happy with it.

After the massage we had a late Thai dinner which was really good.  Before we sat down we had fully intended to go out for a while to experience the Bangkok nightlife...that is what it's famous for, after all.  We had a particular rooftop bar in mind that was supposed to have a great view of the city, but we soon found out that the bar, and a couple of other places we had in mind to go, were closer to where we were earlier in the day.  After about 3 minutes of contemplation we both decided that we were perfectly content going to sleep after dinner....we're getting old.  The hotel surprised Jill with a birthday cake after dinner which was really nice...especially since we were the last ones in the restaurant, so it wasn't like a Benihana birthday celebration where everyone looks at you and claps...

Staying in was a great decision because we were able to get up early Sunday morning and spend a couple of hours by the pool before we had to head to the airport.  All in all the weekend was a success!

Hope all is well with everyone in the states, and we are both wishing G'ma Henard a speedy recovery.  We're thinking about you!

Til Next Time,
Luke & Jill