Flight time is about three hours from Manila. We flew Thai Airways, and everything from stepping on the plane to landing at the Bangkok airport was wonderful! The plane is colorful, the flight attendants are dressed in traditional clothing, and the Bangkok airport is huge, modern, and quite artsy. We were both very impressed as soon as we stepped off the plane. We arrived in Bangkok around 3:30 (we gained an hour) and after immigration stops and a cab ride, we arrived at our hotel at around 5:30. I had told the hotel while booking that we would be spending part of our honeymoon there, and when we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised with the news that we had been upgraded to a one-bedroom corner suite since we were celebrating our honeymoon! How wonderful!! The staff could not have been nicer or more accommodating while we were there. We stayed at the Chatrium Hotel Riverside, and if any of you are planning a trip to Thailand, we recommend it completely! Five stars in our opinion from the staff, to the welcome drink, to the room, to the breakfast buffet, to the free hotel river ferry, and so much more. It was a wonderful place to spend the weekend, and we can't say enough good things about it and do it justice. Thai culture is very polite and respectful, and we experienced that first-hand at the Chatrium!! We would both go back in a second!!
While we were in Bangkok, the Miss Grand International Pageant was going on, and guess who stayed at our hotel?? ALL OF THE CONTESTANTS!!! They were always dressed to the nines with hair and makeup perfect, they always wore their sashes so everyone knew where they were from, and they always had on three or four inch heels. We happened to be in the business lounge at one point printing some tour information one day while the contestants were entering a room one-by-one to be interviewed by the panel. The finale will be October 7th. It was pretty wild to see these beautiful women everyday throughout the hotel.
A demon standing guard at the Bangkok airport.
Miss Macau and Miss Myanmar in the lobby of our hotel.
Front desk of the Chatrium Riverside Hotel
Floral Budddhas in the hotel lobby
View from our balcony
We loved our room!
Felt like home!
Wish we had something to cook. Love the little kitchen!
Selfie on the balcony!
Excited for our trip! We just arrived in Bangkok!
tour guide for a tour of the Grand Palace.
Night Market right down the street from our hotel.
We ate our dinner on the steps leading to the Ferris wheel.
So this is apparently the latest thing in pedicures - put your feet in the tank and let the fish nibble off all of the dead skin. These kiddos were giggling the entire time!
Love elephants!!
Street food for dinner hanging out on the steps of the Ferris wheel. So fun!
We took a Tuk-Tuk back to the hotel
The next morning we headed down to the breakfast buffet which was amazing! I never thought I would eat green curry for breakfast, but I did. Twice. There was every kind of baked good you can imagine and all kinds of breads to toast with mango jam, pear puree, blackberry jam, strawberry jam, and our favorite of the trip tangerine-lime. Yum!! Chinese dumplings, omelettes made to order, all kinds of juice, pasta, Chinese donuts, fresh fruit, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and so many more things I am not remembering right now. We sat outside and watched the boats float down the river while we ate our breakfast and drank our coffee. It was a perfect first morning!
The view from our hotel ferry boat waiting area. We ate breakfast each morning outside just to the right of this area.
Did you see the movie Hangover 2? (We have not) Apparently, this is the hotel from the movie. It's right down the road from our hotel.
We then headed into the lobby to meet Kanung, our tour guide for the day. We decided on the Grand Palace which covers 218,000 square meters and is surrounded by four walls, 1900 meters in length. The palace was built in 1782 when King Rama I ascended to the throne, and each king since then added more to the palace until 1925 when a new residence for the king was built. The current King, King Rama IX became King at age 18 (he just celebrated his 83rd birthday), and he was actually born in Boston and grew up in Switzerland. His father lived all over the world and at the time of his son's birth, we was a doctor in America. Some royal offices are still kept at the Palace, and the Palace is still used today for important functions like royal birthday celebrations, coronations, visiting dignitaries, etc. The entire palace is breath-taking. The ornate detail is incredible with so many bright colors and so much gold. The stories behind so many of the buildings and statues are fascinating, and we both said we could listen to them for days. The culture of Thailand (formerly Siam) revolves around a mix of Buddhism and Hinduism (Buddhism is thought to be one of the many strains of Hinduism - many parallels, but some major differences, too). The stories of their gods and kings make us want to learn so much more about their beliefs. And the rules! The rules are fascinating as well....take your shoes off when entering a temple, of course, your feet cannot point toward Buddha, do not touch the head of a Thai woman, your head must never be higher than the head of a Buddha, and so many more. There was so much information and so much to learn! We loved every minute of our time at the Grand Palace.
Walking into the Grand Palace. There is a dress code at most of the temples - long pants (or skirts), shoulders covered, no cleavage showing for women, no hats for men, nothing see-through. There is actually a changing room where you can rent clothing if you're not prepared. We saw lots of men and women with wrap-around elephant skirts and genie pants!! :)
Kanung (our guide) and me in front of the entry
A demon standing near the entry. The story goes that a demon complained to a god that he had been doing good deeds and felt he should be rewarded, so the god gave the demon a special power; however, the demon used the power for wrong-doing and destroyed a great deal of things on earth. The god, believing himself responsible for the destruction because he gave the demon the power in the first place, made himself mortal and no longer a god. Instead, he became the king of Thailand.
King Rama I - King Rama IIX lived at the Grand Palace, and each added structures and materials to the grounds as he explored more and more parts of the world. There is Indian influence, Japanese, Chinese, Burmese, Cambodian, and eventually European influence, among others. It is fascinating to see the evolution of the grounds.
Traditional Thai Spire
Buddha image in stone
Demon on the left and monkey guard on the right. These images are all over throughout the palace grounds. You can tell them apart because the monkeys do not wear shoes, and the demons do.
This group of tourists wanted their picture taken with me for some reason. Maybe they do not see a lot of super-white blonde peeps?
Ornate detail around the walls of the chapel that houses the Emerald Buddha. The pictures don't do it justice.
Paintings depicting the stories of gods and kings.
The paintings are all along the walls.
Restoration in progress. There is no new construction going on in the Grand Palace, only restoration of existing structures. The entrance fee of 500 Thai Bhat per person (about $16 USD) is supposed to go toward restoration expenses.
We love the various spires/steeples that show the different influences. I think the one in the back (white) is Cambodian, and the one in the front is Traditional Thai style.
Emerald Buddha. This Buddha figure was found in northern Thailand in 1434, and it was covered with plaster and thought to be an ordinary Buddha image, but when some of the plaster on the nose flaked off, it revealed the green color beneath. Initially, the abbot who found the figure thought it was made of emerald which is how it got its name, but it is, in fact, carved from a solid block of jade, and it is very beautiful.
So many beautiful structures and statues!
After we left the Grand Palace, we stopped at a jewelry and porcelain shop where we picked up a few hand-painted Thai pieces and then we visited a tailor shop with all kinds of beautiful Thai silk and other materials. We could have had anything made to order that we wanted - suits, dresses, blouses, etc. But we chose to pick up a few meters of a beautifully patterned Thai silk, and we will figure out what to do with it when we get back home! It was such a lovely tour! Instead of having our guide drop us off back at our hotel, we opted to be dropped off downtown at MBK, one of the larger shopping areas. We wandered around for a while and settled on a restaurant for a super late lunch or a super early dinner. We finally had a chance to order our two favorite Thai meals (we are curry lovers) massuman curry and panaeng curry. Yum! Nope. We are not just fans of the western version of Thai. These curries were absolutely delicious!! And it would not be the last time we ordered these meals in Thailand. :) After lunch we grabbed some coffee and headed out in search of the Jim Thompson House. Jim Thompson is an American credited with creating the popularity of real Thai silk. He lived in Bangkok and his house has been made into a museum. We left there and took the BTS Skytrain (overhead subway) to the Sathorn Taksin Pier where we caught the shuttle boat to take us back to our hotel. While waiting for the skytrain, we also had a chance to try Thai coffee for the first time. We are fans! They add sweetened condensed milk to espresso and we had ours over ice. A refreshing sweet treat! What a wonderful afternoon it was! And we were exhausted, but we also knew there was another night market we wanted to check out, so we took an hour or two to relax and freshen up and then left about 7:00 to head to the Patpong night market. This market was very different from Asiatique night market and probably more like most Bangkok night markets with lots of vendors grabbing you and calling to you as you walked by trying to make deals. It was also in a bit of a seedy area with neon signs and men handing out menus of 'services' provided. It was not the fun atmosphere of the night market the night before. We took the shuttle boat and BTS skytrain again, and we must say that it really is a breeze to get around in Bangkok. No need for a car. We wandered around and bought a few things for some very cheap prices, but we didn't stay too late. We knew our tour guide for the next morning would be picking us up at 6:30AM for an all day tour!
The yellow flags mean they serve vegetarian dishes. The Vegeterian Festival was going on while we were in town.
Panaeg curry on the left and massuman on the right. Yum! No vegetarian meal for us!! :)
Jim Thompson House. Raw silk cocoons. The yellow is native to Thailand.
Doesn't she look just like the woman in the picture behind her? She is unwinding the silk from the cocoons.
Our shuttle boat ferry port.
Shuttle boat dock.
Sathorn Taksin pier. Boat ferries on the ground. Up the stairs to the skytrain. Lots of venders selling things and people playing music in the evening.
Trying to figure out skytrain fare and which route to take.
Just like home. Everyone is on her phone on the skytrain.
So that's the end of our first two days. We will finish the last two days soon!! We are still recovering! :)
Until Next Time,
Eric and Kim :)
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