Bangkok
#1 (recovering from jet-lag)Bangkok
#1 (recovering from jet-lag)Scott's been to Bangkok many times — perhaps 20. Kathy's been a couple of times before. We stopped there basically to decompress from the 24+ hour trip from Boston, chill out a while to get over some of the jet lag before continuing on to Vietnam. Bangkok is a big chaotic city with the worst traffic you've ever seen. The air is smoggy, it's usually over 90 degrees, it's poor but increasingly less so as it moves full speed into the globalized world consumer economy (checking the number of overweight kids is one way to tell). It's nonetheless a fascinating city, and is a great hub for travel in Southeast Asia - plenty of flights, top class hotels, etc. We've found some truly great deals booking 5 star hotels on the Internet, so we'll use our couple stops in Bangkok to rest up, get laundry done, find a high-speed Internet connection, etc. And then there's the food. They have excellent Thai food here...
10/26/01 — Yesterday we did some "errands": found a pharmacy and stocked up on handy prescription medications (Cipro, anyone?) — no prescription needed! We checked our email at an Internet cafe ($1.50/hr), and went on a lengthy walk to "Panthip Plaza" — the local mall for Geeks, err, "Internet Professionals". An amazing array of software's available there... for about $3/CD. Not that we'd ever buy something that broke copyright..
Back to the hotel for a "jet lag" nap of about 4 hours, then we got up and headed for dinner at "Le Dalat", a lovely Vietnamese/French place in an old house. The food was ornate in addition to being tasty; diners were photographing their entrees. It was an exorbitant $16). Most of our other meals have been about $2. After dinner we headed for Patpong. Patpong is best know for its exotic dancers who are available for hire, but there is also a lively night market of more ordinary merchandise. Kathy did pick up one gift... we're not saying for whom.
10/27/01 — we're already into the leisure thing: started out by wandering thru the hotel's lovely garden after breakfast. Today we used a combination of taxi, much walking, skyway (elevated "subway") and river boat to reach Wat Po (which wasn't actually our planned destination. This happens a lot). We just happened on the ordination ceremonies for new monks! In the photos below you'll see a procession around the main temple, and various aspects of the ceremony. Photos indoors were a bit challenging: no flash meant low shutter speeds. Many of the photos were blurry — but there's a couple good ones.
10/28/01 3:00am Can't sleep. Have to get up at 4:30 to leave for Hanoi anyway. Update our web... see new photo's below!
Photos
Kathy
possessed by demons
Siam
Intercontinental hotel (our 1st hotel in Bangkok)
Scott
at the gates (minor temple in Bangkok)
Neighborhood
rehab project?
Siamese,
no doubt
Wat
Pho
New
monk ordination ceremonies
New
monk ordination ceremonies
New
monk ordination ceremonies
Buddha
covered in gold leaf
Stunning
door in inlaid mother of pearl (this photo is about 5" of
the total door)
Offerings
to Buddha at local shrine