Back to the Grand Palace, Wat Arun, and More

One has to be adaptable when traveling on an impromptu itinerary. This morning, I decided that instead of my DIY trip to the floating market by public bus, that I would sign up for a tour. When I told the front desk at 8:00 AM that that's what I wanted to do today, they sweetly said that I couldn't because the tours left at 0645. So, I signed up for the half-day tour tomorrow and decided to revisit the Grand Palace area and wash clothes and pack today. Actually, a much better idea as it forces me to be all packed tonight, have an early breakfast, and take my luggage down to be stored by 0645. The tour returns at 2:00 PM, which is perfect for checking in at the airport Novotel at 3:00.

So, I thought I would get an early(ier) start on the Grand Palace, took an express ferry and arrived at 9:00. Not really before the crowd or the heat. I went to the Grand Palace and took some pictures of parts that I hadn't on my last trip. After that, I walked up a local street to absorb some color. Had curry at the Thai Navy Club, which is an open restaurant, crossed the River to Wat Arun, then went to the hotel to do laundry and pack for the transfer to the airport tomorrow and trip to Bhutan on Tuesday.
Probably will have some time to post something after visiting the floating market tomorrow, but I think it will be catch as catch can after that. I'll try to make it more interesting when I have more time.
Pictures with this blog are Grand Palace, Back Street, Thai Navy Club, and Wat Arun in whatever order Google decides to put them.

A Large Outdoor Market and More

First in need to start off to say that you can't fool Google or Facebook. They know where you are at all times. When I login to Blogger, I am presented with a signin screen in Thai. Facebook asked me if I wanted to join their project to translate Facebook to Thai. If the Thai didn't have half their signs in the Latin alphabet as well as Thai, I'd be lost as I travel around.

Yesterday, I started off to the Chatuchak Weekend Market. I took the Bangkok Skytrain  out there. There is a station just a short walk from the hotel and the other end is right at the market. For 40BT, I was out there in a flash. It was raining hard when I left the hotel, but had stopped when I hit the market.
The only word to use for the market is huge. There are stalls selling food, clothing, trinkets, and many other things. None selling anything I wanted except for food. I'll let the pictures tell the story better than I can. The spring rolls and watermelon shake is my lunch.

Thai Massage at the Market

Hats at the Weekend Market

Spring Roll and Watermelon Shake Lunch

Jim Thompson's House

In any event I then went to the Jim Thompson House and Museum. Jim was an ex-OSS officer who stayed in Bangkok after WWII. He set up the Thai silk trade and then one day, went for a walk in Bangkok and disappeared.
After that, I returned to the hotel and went to a nearby Thai restaurant for dinner. This was not as local as the one the night before. The night before, I was the only westerner in the restaurant. This night, the only Thais were the wait staff; all the diners were westerners, probably from the nearby Holiday Inn.

Thai Restaurant With Holiday Inn Guests

Need to sign off now as I'm going away from Bangkok to the Floating Market, which is a two hour bus trip away. More tommorrow.

First Day in Bangkok

I was checked in at the Centre Point Silom, which I can highly recommend as a place to stay in Bangkok. It is much less expensive than the luxury hotels, such as the Mandarin Oriental, which is about a block away. It provides all the necessaries and if you really want the luxury atmosphere it's near at hand for a drink, dinner, or afternoon tea. I will probably give a complete review in TripAdvisor.com.

After showering and changing clothes I went down to the lobby with plans to visit the Jim Thompson museum and that area. As I was explaining this another guest mentioned to the staff that the government had planned to arrest the leader of the Red Shirts in the area I would have to go through to get there and that it wouldn't be advisable to do that. I then opted to take the river ferry to the Grand Palace area and tour that. I had saved that for this morning (Saturday) so I could go early and miss the heat and crowds; I spent four hours up there and I had both heat and crowds, but came away with some good pictures.

The express ferry is only a short walk from the hotel and will take you up the river for 13bhat. A bhat is about .03 US and all my cost figures will be in bhat unless other wise noted. The ferry is quick and there is a good breeze to kill the oppressive heat and humidity. The sky was overcast when I started and so I brought a rain jacket, which I didn't use.

The big attraction at the Grand Palace is the Emerald (actually Jade) Buddha. It is off in a building by itself and one of the most sacred spots in Thai Buddhaism. No cameras are allowed in the building itself, and I was trying to remember everything to describe it when I went outside and found that tourists were able to take pictures through an open window. I naturally joined in and was able to get this one.

Emerald Buddha through a Window

The Grand Palace is full of buildings all covered with gold. It is a large complex and I probably spent about two hours walking around and taking pictures. By this time the sun had come out in full force and every breeze I could catch was really welcome.

Rub Aroom

I found that a cafe named Rub Aroom (see photo) was just outside the Grand Palace complex and on my way to my next stop, Wat Pho. So I dropped in for a a mixed fruit drink and to be able to sit down. It was very refreshing.

Reclining Buddha at Wat Po

I then went to Wat Pho, the home of a large reclining Buddha. After visiting that, I went to the ferry for the hotel.

Riverview Sight

On the way back, I was able to get a seat near the window and take some pictures of interesting sights along the way, such as this.

I went back to my hotel and took a shower and went out for dinner. I went to a restaurant called Jay Fai, that specializes in noodle dishes. I took a taxi there and back and that is a whole nother story. Taxis are really inexpensive in Bangkok and there are scads of them. The only problem is as I read in a guide and found for my self is that the drivers are just in from the hill country and have no idea of where things are in Bangkok. On the trip out, the hotel gave the driver explicit directions and he still had to call the restaurant when he was near and walk me across the street. On the way back, I had a card from the hotel. The driver delivered me to a spot in the general area but quite a distance away. I told him it was wrong and he had to consult with another taxi driver to find where to go. All that time the meter was running. The good news is the price. The first drop is 35 bhat and the first trip cost 60 bhat and the second one 70. Each trip was less than the first drop charge in Santa Barbara, and probably most other US cities.
Jay Fai is unpretentious to say the least, An open plain dining area with tables and chairs on the street outside. The cooking goes on in an open charcoal brazier that was right next to my table. I had drunkard noodles with prawns. There were three giant prawns, giant noodles, and fresh vegetables all stir fried. The asked me if I wanted it hot and I said yes. It was quite spicy while I was eating it, more so than any Mexican I've tasted in Santa Barbara. Oddly enough, it didn't cause any long term problems. I washed it down with a large bottle of local beer and that seemed to work.
I taxied back to the hotel and checked my mail. I looked out the window and the bridge was putting on a light show. I set my camera up on my tripod to take some pictures and here's one to end today's post.

Bridge at Night from my Room

Checking the published post, I can see that I need more practice in locating pictures. I'll work on that next time. Today, it's off the the Weekend Market.

Flight to Bangkok

My flight left from Gate 109 in Tom Bradley Terminal at LAX. Well, sort of. It seems that Gate 109 is a virtual gate. At Gate 109 the passengers are loaded into a bus-like vehicle and driven out on the field for what seems like halfway to the final destination. For those of you familiar with LAX, you know that it has a southern and northern set of runways with the passenger terminals in the middle in a double row with TBIT at the western end joining the two rows of terminals. Gate 109 is at the southern end of TBIT. Our bus took us west along the southern service roads until it passed all the maintenance hangers west of TBIT. It then turned north past the west end of the hangers and went along a service road north of the northern set of runways to a remote terminal. We then walked up three ramps to a level that had a hall that finally led to our aircraft. I have probably taken planes from LAX several hundred times in my life and have never had such a convoluted boarding exercise.

Once we reached our seats things were pretty normal. We were about 20 minutes late taking off, which resulted in our being 20 minutes late to land in Bangkok, such is the precision of aircraft routing these days.

There was a man in the window seat next to me and after a while we fell to talking. There were three meals served while we were in flight and these were the principal times we conversed. In the two eight hour periods in between the meals we slept, or I think in that later one just rested. He had an interesting story. While he lived in Los Angeles, I detected a foreign accent to his speech and mentioned it to find out where he came from. It turns out that he was originally Polish and left Poland just two weeks before the government imposed martial law to prevent people from leaving in 1981. He felt that those two weeks had made all the difference in his life. He mentioned a friend who had left ahead of his wife and children; they had not made it out in time and it was four years before he saw them again. We discussed the recent tragic air crash in Poland, and he felt (as I do) that the President had insisted the pilot try to land in spite of the tower's insistence that he divert to another field. He said that the President had done that at least once in the past, but in that instance, the pilot had refused. His action was probably career limiting, but at least not life limiting.

When we landed, we parted ways, he to go to Puket with a friend for two weeks.

I was very happy with my choice of Thai Airlines for the flight to Bangkok. The business class seats recline almost flat ( they are not as flat as Singapore Air), so you can have a reasonable chance to sleep, and the meals are not bad. The reason I took it was that it is the only non-stop from LA to Bangkok, and that makes all the difference. You don't have to get off the plane in Tokyo to either change planes, or sit in a transit area while the plane is being serviced. In the case of Singapore, there is a non-stop which is more expensive than the one stop, but that's a non-stop to Singapore, where you have to go and then change planes to Bangkok.

Well the plane landed, my baggage was there and I got to my hotel, just shortly later than the 8:00 I had predicted, so the trip was starting off pretty well.
I had intended to add my first day in Bangkok, but this was pretty long, so that comes next, with pictures.

Practically Packed and Ready to Go

Pat and I packed up for my trip to Bhutan yesterday. It was a complex job, but Pat had it well organized and we finished in about an hour or a little more. I am taking her large suitcase with our large duffel bag. On the bottom in the suitcase are the clothes I will need in Bhutan and on top, the clothes to wear in Bangkok. On Monday, when I arrive at the Novotel, I will pile the Bhutan clothes in the duffel bag and leave the suitcase with the ones I don't need or have thrown away in storage in Bangkok for my return.
Since I will be 15 days in Bhutan with limited access to any laundry facilities, clothes are going to have to do double and triple duty (relative to my habits at home). I will be at three places two nights in a row and will be able to wash socks and underwear on those occasions, but see no real opportunity to get shirts and pants cleaned while I am there.
We always save clothes that are just shy of being unpresentable to take on trips. These clothes are thrown away as we go, leaving room for purchases or just lightening the load on the return trip.
On this trip the suitcase at checkin in Los Angeles will be perilously near (or over) the magic 50# weight limit. I'm sure if the check in agent is diligent, I will have to pay an overweight fee, but on the way back, I should be in the clear.
Similarly my photo backpack is jammed with camera stuff and other extras.
I'm taking both my 20D and 5D, four lenses, a 500GB photo storage unit, and two flash units. Mostly, I'll use the 24-105 on the 5D and the 70-200 with 1.4 extender on the 20D. The other two are just in case.
Just updated the 5d with the latest firmware, successfully.
Tomorrow afternoon, I'm on the road for LAX.