It took 16 hours on the bus to get to Bangkok from the border town of Rantau Panjang and was not an experience I care to repeat. Despite a luxurious bus, which was air-conditioned and had comfortable reclining seats it was still about 8 hours past my endurance limit. We are determined not to fly needlessly, but perhaps it might have been a better idea. In fact on further reflection a couple of days later we realised that it wasn’t the safest way to go either. Before we left Malaysia we’d already heard that there had been some trouble in Bangkok as supporters of ousted former leader Thaksin Shinawatra were staging demonstrations against the current government. We’d also read that in recent times there has been trouble in the south with Islamic separatists who had, among other things been blamed for derailing trains and disrupting bus services. With political unrest stirring in the capital it was possible the paramilitaries in the south might take advantage. Fortunately for us that wasn’t the case and other than have to slow down every few kilometres for the first few hours of our journey as we passed through army check points our journey was uneventful. In fact the only thing violent we saw was the first film that was shown on the bus, a badly made Thai equivalent to a Tarantino movie. Within the first 15 minutes we’d witnessed several acts of violent murder, a rape and some paedophilia. Certainly an interesting choice for the passengers made up of all ages.
We arrived in Bangkok in the small hours of Monday morning at one of the main bus terminals. We were both exhausted, so after a light breakfast we jumped in a taxi which took us to Banglamphu an area of Bangkok where you’ll find the majority of visiting backpackers, especially in and around Khaosan Road. On the ride over I got my first impressions of the city, just as it was beginning to get light. I was slightly worried about being back in a big hot humid city with thoughts of our stay in KL coming back into my mind and I already had other negative preconceptions about Bangkok, mainly due to its infamous reputation for sex tourism. In fact before I saw it with my own eyes I found it difficult to visualise the city in daylight, with images of shady clubs and red light districts popping into my mind. But obviously there was going to be more to this place than middle-age tourists cruising bars trying to pick up young local girls (and boys).
Initially I found myself constantly surprised by the reality of the place. Banglamphu is certainly nothing like China Town in KL. As we walked past restaurants and guest house just opening for the day after being dropped off by our taxi there was something much more aesthetically pleasing and as a result more inviting about the place. It is easy find places to kick back and relax with a beer at one of the many cafes, bars and restaurants. And then there is the food. We’d already had a brunch of scrambled eggs on brown bread that was better than any breakfast we’d had in Malaysia, but it was our first dinner where we really appreciated the change in both skill and love that Thais put into their cooking. Whether it’s a simple pad thai whipped up at a street stall, a spicy glass noodle salad or a rich creamy red curry it rarely fails to be anything other than delicious. In fact, in a complete contrast to Malaysia where we laboured to find the good places or good dishes to eat it seemed that we couldn’t go wrong. The quality and freshness of the ingredients here seem to go a long way in guaranteeing this, but Thais truly seem to have a deep understanding of what makes good food. I couldn’t wait to be hungry again after eating. What’s more, especially in a city setting, it’s all good value with the portions generous and prices cheap. A chicken pad thai served up by a street stall is as good as anything you get served up at home and costs less than a pound. And to wash all that great food down, we could now get a bottle of beer for a third of the price they charged in KL. Happy days.
Our first task though in Bangkok before sight-seeing was to get some practical things out of the way. With Vietnam one of the countries now on our itinerary we needed to visit the Vietnamese embassy to apply for a visa. Also, with my camera’s touch screen proving to be too fragile to withstand even a couple of months of backpacking (not my most sensible purchase I’ll admit) I had decided to treat Maren to an early birthday present. With her own camera having broken sometime ago she was missing having the artistic license to take snaps and I was only too happy to hand over reigns.
To get across town to the embassy, we made use of Bangkok’s river ferries harking back to a time where Bangkok was known as the “Vience of the East”. Again this confounded my expectations having never imagined the large river which runs through the city. As we cruised along in the morning sunshine passing beautiful wats (temples) and seeing the modern skyscrapers in the distance I realised that Bangkok had much to offer with a contrast of modernity and ancient traditional as extreme as anywhere we’d been to so far. After dealing with some rude staff at the Vietnamese embassy, we made our way back to Siam Square to witness the modern side of Bangkok, with its glistening malls and shopping centres that wouldn’t have seemed out of place in Singapore. It wasn’t long however before we were leaving again having quickly picked up a camera at a reasonable price. We did however stop at a nearby restaurant thoroughly enjoying our meal, especially a starter which involved wrapping fresh crispy green leaves around an assortment of fillings and dipping them in sweet chilli sauce. By the time we got back to our hotel we had just about enough energy to organise our train tickets to our next destination and we had an early night so we were ready to see ancient side of the city the following day.
After a good night’s sleep we were up early for breakfast and we made our way by foot to Wat Phra Kaew, also known as the Temple of the Emerald Buddha one of the country’s holiest sites for its Buddists who account for nearly 95% of the population. Maren had already spoken highly of the temple and the Grand Place located on the same grounds. Having got a glimpse of golden temple roofs gleaming in the late afternoon sun on the river boat home the day before I had high expectations. On entering the complex visitors are first checked to see they are dressed appropriately, which of course many of westerners are not. Fortunately you can rent clothes for a few baht, along with a deposit which makes for a comical scene of men and women disappearing inside the gate office wearing their shorts and sleeveless tops and reappearing in whatever trousers and shirts they could find in their size. Maren and I had made efforts to be dressed correctly having had plenty of experience with this sort of thing, however Maren’s shawl which would normally made the grade when entering a temple in India was not accepted. Forced to hire something else, she also disappeared into the office and reappeared a few minutes later in a very fetching purple shirt. Once past the stewards we began to make our way around the grounds. It’s a stunning place, not only because of the temples, but also because of the ornamental guardian statues, mosaic encrusted walls, the galleries of wall paintings and the manicured trees and gardens. It’s a sensory overload of glimmering colour and beauty and a worth home to one of the most famous Buddha images in the world, the Emerald Buddha. Later in the morning we visited Wat Pho where, among the largest collection of Buddha images in the country the equally famous giant reclining Buddha is housed. At 46m long and 15m high it makes for a good photo and I took the opportunity drop a coin into each one of the donation pots that run the entire length of the Buddha. The temple complex itself is also equally impressive and the temple that houses the reclining Buddha is the largest and oldest in Bangkok.
After a morning of tradition and temples we stopped for lunch and decided to head over to China Town in the afternoon to see if we could find some bargains at the Thieves Market and Sampeng Lane. We soon found ourselves spending money freely on a number of small items that we didn’t really need, but would be useful all the same. Among other things we bought a lock, a torch, a decent pack of cards, headphones (amazingly cheap - £3 for a pair of Sehnhizers buds!), pens and socks. However it wasn’t long before we were exhausted and ready to head back home to relax with a beer back near our guest house. We were soon comfortably sat at a table on the street back in Banglamphu enjoying a couple of large bottles of Chang and taking a look at our haul of goods from the market. In particularly, I was busy inspecting the quality of my new plastic playing cards when a guy a table next to us asked me if I was going to do any tricks, so I happily showed him an old favourite of mine that never fails to impress and we got talking. Tommy was in Bangkok having been forced to leave India due to the same Indian visa rule changes that had affected our own plans. Unlike us however, he lives there for the majority of the year with his other half Damitar who soon joined us having spent the day trying to get a new passport and also struggling to get a new visa. She described them (and her mother) as “visa refugees” having been forced to leave their home in India for at least 2 months and travel elsewhere until they could reapply. They aren’t the only ones in Bangkok, with Damitar amusingly pointing out the Sardhu like “Baba” walking by who whilst looking like an Indian holy man was clearly Western in origin and most likely had been forced to take a holiday from roaming India. It’s hard to say just how many others are in this situation, but clearly the visa rules are causing a considerable inconvenience to people like Damitar and Tommy.
After been invited come along to dinner at one of their favourite places to eat in Bangkok, we had the opportunity to pick their brains for information on how to spend our own 2 month exile in South East Asia before we could return to the north of India. So, at a huge Korean restaurant on the river, where we cooked our own food over hot coals we got to know them a little better and get a few ideas on where we might go over the next few weeks. Co-incidentally, they also happened to live near one of places we’d be going to first when we came back to India, Manali. This seemed funny to us, since we don’t tend to actively strike up conversations with every fellow traveller we meet and so took it as another little sign that we have to go back. Regardless, it was a pleasure get to know Tommy, Damitar and her mother. It was interesting listening to their story having spent the last twenty years living in Asia and about their lifestyle. Back in India, they get by on just a £100 a month, which is a modest budget, but they do have a house in the country with a big garden in one of the most beautiful areas in the world. The most work they choose to do is growing vegetables, some of which they sell at the local market to make a little extra money. It’s a far cry from the squat in Hackney (London) where Damitar used to live before she went to find her mother in India.
Having personally consumed enough for at least two people my stomach was feeling a little tender the next morning, so we decided to take it easy on our final day in Bangkok. We were now thinking about how we were going to spend the rest of our time in Thailand. We already booked our train to Chang Mai in the north and then we were looking to get away from streets and back to the countryside, hoping to find somewhere in hills and valleys that would be a good place to relax for a while. Later, in the evening we met up with Damitar and Tommy again where we drank more beer than we had done in weeks (about 3 pints each) and they took us to a street stall for dinner that served a great, but very spicy, noodle soup. We now have a few more people to try and meet up with in India when we return.
The next day we were up early, taking a taxi across town to pick up our passports from the Vietnamese embassy and after another inexpensive pad thai we headed off to catch our train. We were both very curious about what the train journey. The classes of ticket offered were much the same as the Indian railways, and the journey would involve travelling overnight on a sleeper, something that we’d always thought had been a civilised way to travel in India. Our experience on the Thai train compared favourably with little stress and being well looked after. Staff were regularly doing the round serving drinks (as in India) with even the option of a cold beer (not in India!). We had a nice meal brought to us at dinner time and when bed time approached our bed was even made for us by the train staff. Overall, a very pleasant experience and a far superior option to another long bus journey, so unlike our arrival in Bangkok we were leaving in comfort and would arrive in good shape once we got to Chang Mai.
There are several aspects that make Buddhism interesting. Buddhism rejects the existence of a creator God (or Gods). It sees the actions of one’s life as contributing to one’s karma and the cycle of rebirth. It also promotes the practice of non-extremism: a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification. Lastly, of particularly interest to myself is the practice of mediation and the path to enlightenment. For these reasons it was particularly interesting for me to see a society where Buddhism is the dominant religion. In fact, until being in Thailand I’d often thought of Buddhism as a minor religion but with 60 million odd Thais and 400-500 million followers worldwide Buddhism is the fourth largest religion in the world. Having visited many temples and having felt the sincerity and serenity that seems to be present here it’s not hard to understand why many people in the west have adopted Buddhism.
After our whirlwind tour of the temples in Chiang Mai during the day, we made plans to visit the night bazaar, the other big attraction here. As with the rest of the city, there is more focus on tradition than in Bangkok with many stalls selling local handicrafts and produce from the surrounding hill tribes. However, we were soon focused on finding somewhere to eat with Chiang Mai apparently one of the best places to eat in a country that already has such a high standard of food. We managed to find a great restaurant on the other side of the night market where we enjoyed what ended up being our best dinner in Thailand. A special dinner was made even more special by a passing baby elephant which we got to feed a few snacks to as he and his owner passed by. Perhaps not the most socially responsible thing to do, since it encourages people to use animals in this way to make money, but it was hard to resist stroking the long hair on his head and let him take the snacks out of my hand with his trunk. After another wander round the market we made our way home and we’d decided that as much as we liked Chiang Mai we didn’t want to hang around for long so made plans to escape the city to Pai for a period of rest and relaxation in the hills of Northern Thailand.