By AV Latinggam
I blend in well in Bangkok Thailand, as I found out recently. As soon as I stepped down at the Don Mueang International Airport I was ushered into the domestic immigration counter by a rapid-speaking young lady. I did not understand a word of what was spoken but I got the gist of it. No answer from me and thus after glancing at my passport maybe she got the drift and so exit a peeved young lady...stage left even.Jokes aside, Don Mueang was very busy as several airplanes had just spewed out their passengers at that time. HEL and I exchanged broad grins as we weaved among people of various nationalities. There was a loud rather screechy ambiance to that place as everyone seemed to want to leave immediately to their respective destinations.And who could blame them actually, we were rather tired ourselves having traveled since 7.30am from Kota Kinabalu Sabah, and two flights later reached the land of smiles and shopping.After rescuing our backpack from the carousel we went on to acquire the local currency Bhat. It was rather interesting if not disappointing. They want 8.90bhat for the Ringgit where in Wisma Merdeka in KK, they offered 10bhat for the Ringgit. Lesson learned.Anyway, there was a long queue waiting for the taxi; there was a constant low roar of complaining voices which was not encouraging; so HEL went ahead and chartered a van! That was the only airport taxi available , we were told.Grinning at our own ingenuity we breezed past people, all two of us in a six-seater van. Spacious and comfortable. High five! What a way to travel!
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| Bangkok City as seen from Novotel: Pix by AVL sx200 |
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| The Chao Praya River Pix by AVL Sx200 |
Thus we reached out destination: Novotel Pleonchit at Sukhumvit Road. Rest glorious rest.To a tourist’s eyes, Bangkok was fascinatingly interesting and busy. Traffic flow is incessant and there was never that lull in traffic that allowed one to breath or jay walk. The skytrain that catered to commuters was a constant rumble as one after the other passed on the overhead railway.The accommodation at Sukhumvit Road was near a skytrain rail, and the constant rumble of this transportation serenaded guests and visitors all day and well into the night.Getting into this train was an interesting experience, a first for me; we waited for the train and when it came, there was a mad rush.“Go in go in…” shouted our intrepid tour guide Sam and then when we could not go in fast enough, he pushed us in. Instead of breezing into the train, it was a tumble and spill, and in a second the door closed and the train zoomed away. There were low roars of dissent and some wheezy laughter of relief especially from among the tourists and foreigners. The train ride brought us to a station at Saphan Taksin area where we then board a boat to a small riverside village. The river ride was interesting as we got splashed and without the benefit of safety vest or life jacket, we surrendered our well-being to providence.We disembarked at a riverside village and weaved our way through stalls and the like, to see the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, locally known as Wat Phra Si Rattana Satsadaram.The village was a very typical riverside settlement found in most places in South East Asian countries, especially Sabah, where families live off the river and in this case, little businesses that cater to visitors. There were various types of food being sold on stalls, which actually invite samplings. The only problem with guided tours as this one was, was that we had to catch up with the guide, who in this case, was more hell-bent on showing us the sights and get it over and done with. Understandably after a few trips a day, he must have been bored, so it was not really a shock.The temple on our particular visit was swamped with tourists; it was a veritable ‘area of babble’ with people speaking various languages, almost shouting to be heard above the noise.Before entering the temple though, we had to don suitable clothes as traditionally women should don sarongs or long skirts to enter the temple while men should have long pants. So several of us had to rent a sarong for the day and shelled out 200bhat each. That is RM20.The temple is a must see; it was breathtakingly gorgeous and elegant in its setting; orange and green tiles on the roof, mosaic and marbled pillars. According to our tour guide, it was built and embellished by many Kings including King Rama III. Wood work during King Rama I’s reign was replaced by King Rama III and King Chulalongkorn and later the doors and windows, as well as the wall paintings were added. Within there are depictions of Ramayana.It was a sensory overload for me to see so many elegant statues in gold, chimeras and demons with the pagodas and other statues that depicts lions and dragons.There was also the Angkor Wat model and Sam says it was a sacred Cambodian shrine that was started by King Mongkut and completed by King Rama III. The Kingdom of Cambodia belonged to Siam for hundreds of years before they lost it to France a long time ago.After a tour of the Temple, we were ushered past the Grand Palace near the Temple which was the former residence of the King but nowadays only used for official functions and to receive visiting foreign dignitaries. This was an imposing building to say the least.Sam told us the Thai King, King Bhumibol Adulyadej also known as Rama IX and his consort Queen Sirikit both in their 80’s are now living elsewhere. After the tour, we were ushered out but not after returning our sarongs to the counter. We get our money back then.The tour of the temple and palace was an eye opener to another culture and I believe that there were many more sights to see not only in that area but elsewhere, that merit visits. As we left the area, I looked back once more and thought about the generations of people that had come to visit and pay homage to the king of that day and the deities. If the pavement could talk, how many stories could they tell, what glorious tale would they share...
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