Greetings from our first visit to Thailand!
Arrived in Bangkok, greeted at the airport and taken to the stunning Mandarin Oriental hotel – our room, simply wow! A split upper level bedroom (with en suite) and lower level dining area with lounge; unpretentious luxury with local touches of fine Thai fabrics, fresh flowers and teak furniture with vast windows providing stunning views across the river (seems we have been upgraded from deluxe room to premier room!). The city, on first glance, (during car transfer) looks ‘not so pretty’ but ‘functional’ with plenty of designer boutiques tucked within run-down looking streets and buildings. Staff incredibly courteous, all greeting us with a bow and gracing us with orchids and fresh jasmine flowers on arrival together with iced tea – not a familiar brew to us but tasting of pure sugar dissolved in water and beyond anything my not so sweet tooth can handle!
Looking forward to exploring this vast city tomorrow!
Morning came and we were collected by our guide, ‘Pim’, and her driver and travelled for approximately 2 hours out of Bangkok to the Damneon floating markets …. A brisk tour it has to be said, delivered to the hustle and bustle in a high speed ‘boat’ (resembling the best chase scene from a James Bond movie!) to then disembark and wander amongst the ‘tacky’ stalls (why do you need one of those?!) and look down onto little boats laden with foods and souvenirs desperately trying to float along in what looks like the morning rush hour with sales and purchases called between boats and from ‘land based’ passers by! … a tad concerning (from a ‘health and safety’ perspective!) to see bubbling cauldrons of rice, with gas bottles rigged aboard tiny floating vessels! Fresh fruits, dried fish (smelling like dog tripe sticks!) and spices galore – certainly a different approach to our more familiar Borough Market…
Following market visit, a long drive back to Bangkok to visit various temples with an abundance of statue Buddha’s appearing to come in many differing poses! The stunning temples are utterly enormous, vibrant and breathtaking, seemingly quite out of place in a city that looks, in places, incredibly poor and shabby, with modern looking skyscraper hotels aside more temples! In our minds, I guess we thought Bangkok would be posh and modern like Hong Kong, sadly not but needless to say, worth seeing – people incredibly courteous in hotels and ‘just making a living’ in the streets….
Lunch was with Pim, she obviously has her regular haunt – a seedy cafe, toilet right next to grubby kitchen, food rather add hoc in its delivery (so much so that she went and helped cook it as they were busy!) but fortunately, edible …. Conversation was stunted as I think Pim knew we had to rush to next venue with horrendous traffic before us ….
Late afternoon, we were dashed to a boat, the Wan Fah cruise, for a wizz up the river (to ogle at more folks housing) and then be transferred to an old rice barge for another river trip (it is only SO long before they become repetitive!) with the added bonus of complimentary fruit and drinks aboard (on the hope of a large tip on departure!). Back at hotel, a tremendous storm arrived – amazing sight from comfort of our lounge … Jet lag beginning to hit us now so don’t believe we’ll be late to bed, another early start tomorrow and more temples (!! though I have hinted for the odd gardens as well please…).
