Mail-Order Teacher: Diary of Thailand--Part 2

7.27.11 (Day Four--Bangkok)

I busted my toe on the bedpost this morning exiting the bathroom in our tiny hotel room and I'm pretty sure it's broken! Oops. Oh well, I suppose this trip was bound to produce an injury...I just had hoped it would be in a more exciting way. It's not slowing me down, anyways--I walked around Bangkok all day on it! It was mostly only painful when I took off my shoes to enter a temple, but not even that bad. First thing we did was head by subway to Hua Lamphong, which is the last stop on the only subway line they have! Much different than the extensive spiderweb of a subway map we're used to! From that stop, we walked to Chinatown. A tuk tuk driver spotted us before we got there and asked us where we were going. When we told him, he told us Chinatown was closed until 4 o'clock. That seemed entirely incredulous so we kept on walking. Nothing in Chinatown was closed, of course! First we saw a temple, then walked through Chinatown. There they were selling different types of dried mushrooms, jade pendents and trinkets, tons of real gold chains, and interesting foods, like things wrapped in banana leaves. When we had our fill of that, we hopped in a cab and took it to the Grand Palace. Before we entered, a tuk tuk driver stopped us.

"You go to Grand Palace?" he asked.

"Yes," we told him.

"Grand Palace is closed until 1 o'clock," he said. It was 11.

We looked up at the hundreds and hundreds of people entering and exiting the palace walls. Yeah, right. We were definitely on to their game at this point. The tuk tuk drivers will lie to your face, telling you wherever you are going is closed, so that they can coerce you into letting them drive you around for a while, for a fee. We ignored him and entered the Grand Palace, which is open from 8:30am-3:30pm every single day.

Oh my God.

I couldn't help but immediately compare what I was seeing to the Vatican. It was a huge, extremely religious center--only it was Buddhist instead of Catholic. But the place was like the Vatican on LSD! Could it be? Dare I even say it? Was Italy...boring compared to this?

I started snapping about a million pictures. I had no idea this existed. This was like the Vatican, but flashier and more exciting! HUGE temples were completely covered in 1 inch square gold and rainbow colored mirrors, taking the relentlessly powerful sunlight of the equator and slapping it right back towards the sky where it came from. There were huge statues of strange monsters in vibrant colors, small floral-patterned pools of water with lily pads, intricate patterns in every possible place, and threateningly sharp, sword-like objects pointing up from every corner of every roof, ready to impale the souls of any non-believers.

Nicole and I took off our shoes and entered the temple of the famous Emerald Buddha. Now, we had seen nothing but large, extra large, and enormous Buddhas. But this one was different. Placed very high up, in a glass case, and surrounded by nothing but gold, gold, and more gold ornateness, this Buddha was very green, and very small compared to the rest. Yet somehow, the place gave me goosebumps. It was obvious from the aura of it all that this was the place to come to pray to Buddha. The energy of the insane decor and the people bowing down flowed through me and almost brought tears to my eyes. I had to sit before him and stare in awe for a couple of minutes. It was absolutely breathtaking.

Next we went to Wat Pho, the big temple next to the Grand Palace. It was amazing! We saw the biggest Buddha yet…a 42 foot long gold reclining Buddha indoors. The bottoms of its feet were covered in ornate designs of abalone shell, I think.

After that, we took a cab to the river. We wanted to take a boat down the river to see what we could see, although we had no idea what that would be! When we got there, we met some Dutch boys who bargained our boat price down to 400 Baht each from 1000. We climbed into the “long boat,” which was just that—a long wooden boat with benches to sit on. To our delight, the boat took us off the main river and into the small side canals, through little neighborhoods where people lived on the river. Some of the houses showed poverty, and others wealth. Traveling by boat through the neighborhoods made me think of Venice, only causing me to further compare my trip to Italy. I am in the Italy of Asia! It’s amazing!

Next we walked to a restaurant and had Thai tofu cashew salad with spicy lime dressing and red curry tofu and iced green tea. I was in heaven. Then we took a cab to the Amulet Market and saw trinkets galore—little Buddha pendants, things made from real elephant ivory, used dentures, and…tiger claws? Some kind of huge claws that have been chopped off whatever animal they belonged to. It was every bit as sketchy as I had hoped for. The whole atmosphere gave off a vexatious vibe that had me smiling and Nicole clutching her backpack in front of her. I bought gemstone beads there from a kathoey (famous Thai ladyboy), and of course, several amulets to give as gifts! Nothing made of ivory though, of course!

Last, we went to the Khao San Market which was jam-packed full of tourists. You could buy little dresses, bags, and cheap jewelry, and get tattoos--real or henna, piercings, and colorful strings braided into your hair. There were also tons of bars, and tons of people willing to forge any sort of document for you--driver's license, passport, college degree, TEFL certification, etc...and they weren't afraid to advertise it, either. After all of that, we'll for sure sleep quite well tonight!