Bangkok, On Arrival 16 October 2007
Our arrival in Bangkok passed without a hitch. Immigration, bag pickup and Customs. We seemed to just fly through, well ok the que was a little long for immigration but at least we seemed to keep shuffling forward. Can not say I’ve been in many cases where it was much different except some odd places were there really were not that many tourists/travellers to start with, I’m not sure you can really put Thailand in that category.
Once we passed through that barrier we walked out into the hordes thronging the entry. Still compared to some even that was orderly. Walking past locals holding placards some with hotel names, some with the names of the individuals they were there to meet. Sure enough as promised was a man bearing the placard with our hotel’s name on it who quickly ushered us off and before we knew it we were settled into the back of a Mercedes, soothing music, a cool refreshment towel to freshen up, cool bottles of water each and complimentary mints to keep us occupied while we stared out the window and the driver sped through an almost sleepy Bangkok. About 40 minutes later, not that I noticed the time its just that the driver told us it would take that long, we arrived at the Shangri-La. The attentive staff whisked us off to our room where check in was done while we sipped on the welcome drink served by the butler in comfort rather than standing at a reception desk. Personally the Shangri-La and there new Krungthep wing get a big thumbs up.
Bangkok, Day One 17 October 2007
I always like the whole arriving somewhere new and first day thing. It just seems to make ones outlook just that little bit better. After breakfast we headed out on a ferry down the Mae Nam Chao Phraya (the river). We brought a ticket for 100 THB that allowed us to get on and off the ferry’s all day. Now you could just get the local ferry’s at 3 THB a ride, the couple that we took really were not much problem though we did notice someone else being hit for 20 THB for the ride so the price may fluctuate a little.
The first stop was Wat Arun, established after the fall of Ayuthaya and the palace and temple established to house the Emerald Buddha. The view from the top, well its almost the top, is amazing and the stairs really are not as bad as they appear. (edit from Cass… Yes they were and I have the photos to prove it!!)
Next on the agenda was Wat Pho that houses a little statue you may have heard of called the Reclining Buddha. At 46m in length and 15m high, covered in gold leaf with mother of peal inlay for the sandals adorning the feat it is certainly imposing.
The next part of the day was filled with missed turns and ending up in places that we really did not intend to end up but proved to be fascinating. We ended up in a bustling market without another western face in sight, saw a few Wat’s that we have no idea what they are since well…. they weren’t on the map… even if they were we probably weren’t where we thought we were if that makes sense! We strolled through the back streets into residential areas passing a few friendly locals and clearly startling some others. Over all it was a great way to explore a small portion of the city. Of course we didn’t actually manage to find the train station we were actually looking for. Oh well there is always tomorrow.
