Posted by Helen:
We started our trip to Bangkok on Monday Jan. 21 with a 6 a.m. flight to Chicago from Montreal, finally arriving at our hotel in Bangkok around 2 a.m. on Wednesday Jan. 23, oh so happy to crawl into a bed and get some sleep. Ingrid, unfortunately, set off with a bad cold. Not to be left out, I developed a full blown head cold on the Chicago to Tokyo leg of the trip, but as compensation the flight offered the most glorious view of the Rockies as we flew over Alberta and B.C. on a bright sunny day.
Therefore, between head colds and jet lag we have been taking it more easy.
The first impression is a visual one of the city's skyline with its hundreds of massive modern highrises - particularly beautiful at night - consisting of office towers, hotels, condos and innumerable shopping malls with all the high end and low end Western shops. The second impression hit my ears and senses of smell and taste - the noise of the unrelentless movement of cars, tuk-tuks and motorbikes and the diesel exhaust which they give off. Some days the pollution is palatable so while the temperature is conducive to eating outside the pollution forces you inside. It's hard to square the pollution with all the street food . Today is actually great as there is a strong breeze clearing the air.
The city is fast moving - in using the public transport system - Ingrid felt the escalators were moving at a faster clip than back home. It also seems to be highly represented by younger people. And they seem to be very respectful of their elders. More than once were we offered seats when using public transport!
The people are the most impressive - there is a gentleness and serenity about them and they are always smiling - perhaps the Buddhist religion.
On Thursday we did a tour of three temples - the most famous Wat Pho which houses the reclining Buddha, a huge figure which I guess each tourist should see. Unfortunately the guide - a term I use loosely - was useless. His English was almost impossible to understand and he didn't even know who the Dhali Lama was! But the tour made its way through traffic into other parts of the city we had not seen including the Chinatown area which streets were teeming with people exploring the street markets and eating street food.
Friday we took the sky train and river boat to the Grand Palace which is truly the gem of the City.
Posted by Ingrid:
This blogging thing is not yet working as intended for us as Helen lost the Grand Palace description three times and understandably is refusing to re-live it for the forth time.
Although I have now seen the old royal residence and the Emerald Buddha twice, it is a truly magnificent experience. And since we latched on to the private guide of another party (at an additional fee or course) I learned a lot more than the first time. For instance that the outside of the pagodas is gold plated, not just gold color and that the Emerald Buddha is actually made of solid jade and was hidden under a coat of plaster for many years. But there is a chance that this is only a story like so many others in all our religions.
We are still waiting to be "scammed", although it may have happened when we bought our train tickets to Chiang Mai. As no more were available at the official train station, we were directed to a travel agency which may or may not have been legit. We will find out tomorrow night...........
In any case, sick nor not, rest assured - we are having fun!!!!! And maintain our good sense of humor!!!!
And once we figure out how to post some pictures (there appear to be no openings for any wires on this iMac) this blog should become even more interesting!
We started our trip to Bangkok on Monday Jan. 21 with a 6 a.m. flight to Chicago from Montreal, finally arriving at our hotel in Bangkok around 2 a.m. on Wednesday Jan. 23, oh so happy to crawl into a bed and get some sleep. Ingrid, unfortunately, set off with a bad cold. Not to be left out, I developed a full blown head cold on the Chicago to Tokyo leg of the trip, but as compensation the flight offered the most glorious view of the Rockies as we flew over Alberta and B.C. on a bright sunny day.
Therefore, between head colds and jet lag we have been taking it more easy.
The first impression is a visual one of the city's skyline with its hundreds of massive modern highrises - particularly beautiful at night - consisting of office towers, hotels, condos and innumerable shopping malls with all the high end and low end Western shops. The second impression hit my ears and senses of smell and taste - the noise of the unrelentless movement of cars, tuk-tuks and motorbikes and the diesel exhaust which they give off. Some days the pollution is palatable so while the temperature is conducive to eating outside the pollution forces you inside. It's hard to square the pollution with all the street food . Today is actually great as there is a strong breeze clearing the air.
The city is fast moving - in using the public transport system - Ingrid felt the escalators were moving at a faster clip than back home. It also seems to be highly represented by younger people. And they seem to be very respectful of their elders. More than once were we offered seats when using public transport!
The people are the most impressive - there is a gentleness and serenity about them and they are always smiling - perhaps the Buddhist religion.
On Thursday we did a tour of three temples - the most famous Wat Pho which houses the reclining Buddha, a huge figure which I guess each tourist should see. Unfortunately the guide - a term I use loosely - was useless. His English was almost impossible to understand and he didn't even know who the Dhali Lama was! But the tour made its way through traffic into other parts of the city we had not seen including the Chinatown area which streets were teeming with people exploring the street markets and eating street food.
Friday we took the sky train and river boat to the Grand Palace which is truly the gem of the City.
Posted by Ingrid:
This blogging thing is not yet working as intended for us as Helen lost the Grand Palace description three times and understandably is refusing to re-live it for the forth time.
Although I have now seen the old royal residence and the Emerald Buddha twice, it is a truly magnificent experience. And since we latched on to the private guide of another party (at an additional fee or course) I learned a lot more than the first time. For instance that the outside of the pagodas is gold plated, not just gold color and that the Emerald Buddha is actually made of solid jade and was hidden under a coat of plaster for many years. But there is a chance that this is only a story like so many others in all our religions.
We are still waiting to be "scammed", although it may have happened when we bought our train tickets to Chiang Mai. As no more were available at the official train station, we were directed to a travel agency which may or may not have been legit. We will find out tomorrow night...........
In any case, sick nor not, rest assured - we are having fun!!!!! And maintain our good sense of humor!!!!
And once we figure out how to post some pictures (there appear to be no openings for any wires on this iMac) this blog should become even more interesting!
Thanks for the great post! I cant wait to see more and I hope you both feel better soon!
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