Travels 2012 - Bangkok - days 19 to 28

We arrive in Bangkok without any hiccups and a half hour high speed and very cheap taxi ride later we are at our hotel where we will stay for the next 9 nights.  Our first outing is to the nearby well known outdoor market called 'patpong'. Place is full of the usual copies stalls  but after all those trips to China we no longer have  the urge to acquire any more watches or bags and its hot like hell. There are also a few go-go girls and men are trying to entice us into back rooms for what is labelled  'ping pong' with sexual overtones. Fortunately we have seen similar seedy scams in China, so we steer clear of those. Later we learn from another Spanish couple that they got stung for large sums of money and had to fight to get out. Phew!

The next day we head for the more promising Grand Palace and the temple of the Emerald Budha. This is a stunning site, the palace architecture is very Siamese, and lovely. it has been obviously kept well maintained, and although much of the interior is closed to the public the exterior is worth seeing. The temple is a great structure, but the Budha statue is tiny and looks insignificant for the size of the hall of the temple.

Then come some small museums, and in one of these, there is a room where we have to remove our shoes, and go up some stairs. Afterwards when we try to recover our shoes, I am horrified to find that someone has pinched mine! There are some pathetic looking flip-flops in their place, probably the robber's footwear, but I don't want those. Instead I walk around barefoot, including walking the streets, although this shocks a few people and is quite a strain on my feet in the heat.

Then follow a few days of intense site seeing which includes a trip to the old capital of Siam called Ayothya, which has some beautifully restored palaces with buildings of Victorian architecture influenced by a trip to Europe by the King. The palaces have beautiful gardens and temple buildings, and the area is full of ancient monuments from the old times. This must have been a spectacular capital, and is now a world heritage site. The trip is concluded by a buffet lunch on a river cruise to take us slowly back to Bangkok.

Then there are more temples to see including the one with the huge reclining Budha, and some others with some spectacularly high statues of Budha. We decide to take in an evening show which promises to be good, as it is staged in a theatre which is listed in the Guinness book of Records, for its big stage. It turns out to be spectacular, with no expense spared, and there are hundreds in the cast, who recount some key themes in the Thai culture in three parts. The stage has flying people, huge mythical figures, entire ships cris-crossing the stage, at one point there is a river flowing through the stage with lightening and rain. Its something out of Hollywood, or the theatres of Las Vegas. Outside there is a replica of an old Thai village, with a canal boat ride and many quaint features of village life. All very pleasant.

Appropriately we have our bouts of Bangkok Belly, but recover just in time for a long anticipated Indian meal at a Punjabi by Nature restaurant that we noticed on the day of our arrival! The meal is miraculous Delhi food, Golguppe, Aloo Tiki chat and many other mouth watering dishes are on the menu and this meal makes up in a small way for the disappointment of not being able to go to Delhi.

We will be back.