Bangkok Day 2 and Pattaya

Sawadee-krup!

The grand palace/temple in Bangkok was pretty stunning and I'm glad I got the early rise on the day in order to beat the crowds. I was actually starting to get wat-ed out, as temples abound in this city, but the grand palace was something in a league of it's own. The weather has been consistently warm yet overcast so the lighting in all my Bangkok pictures is pretty diffuse. I think the pics might have taken better in full sunlight but you get the idea...

From Thailand

The palace itself I think is the most interesting as you can see it has very Victorian/Western architecture but is clearly physically and symbolically topped with a traditional Thai roof.

Pattaya:

So Pattaya is Thailand's "sin city," where sunburned European men stroll down the polluted waterfront with their young wives or "girlfriends." The place was originally a small beach town that Vietnam GIs used for R and R, but quickly overdeveloped and became a yucky mess of a place. Nowadays it's a little cleaner and there's a real estate boom going on so once in a while you see an Anglo husband/wife couple but I couldn't help feeling that every Thai there just assumed I was a bit pervy. No matter, as I mentioned before, I was there to see my good friend Jess and we had a great time together.

The bus rides there and back were characterized by twin campaigns of incursion into my personal space--first an obese Thai then a pungent Pakistani. Bus rides, I'm finding, are a real die toss (more later). Anyway, after the two hour ride, I met Jess at her work (all the women giggled and teased Jess that her boyfriend was here...the men gave me coy grins). Jess and I took a little stroll through the town before she had to head back to work and I just hung out in her apartment for a bit to put up my feet. Later on, we ate at a great restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms and got Thai massage with one of Jess' co-workers, Mark. Thai massage has been described as having yoga done to you, and I would argue that this is even a tame description. The large Thai woman manipulated my body in wholly unnatural ways but I will say afterwards I felt amazing (and for the whole hour, a mere $6).

The next day I just had time to visit an amazing temple a little outside of town before heading back to Bangkok to catch my overnight bus to Chiang Mai in the north. I got a lift from Mark on his motorbike--fun ride.


Mark and I


En route...little nervous

The temple is called Prasat Satchatham, The Sanctuary of Truth. The pictures don't really do it justice (again, the lighting makes for poor contrast and I can't touch-up on the road) but the entire thing is hand carved from wood. Admittedly the place is a bit of a tourist trap (the steep entry fee and Seaworld-esque dolphin show and elephant rides were tip-offs), but the place was still pretty awesome.


Temple in its glory






Sorry, no more banana

After the temple, I bused it back to Bangkok and hurried to another station to catch my bus to Chiang Mai. This bus ride, was in a word: hell. It was a "VIP" bus, meaning A/C, a neck pillow, blankets etc. (even a small meal like an airline) but for totally inexplicable reasons, the bus was air-conditioned to something like a meat-locker degree. When we took a pit-stop, the bus was literally dripping wet with condensation on the outside. The warmest thing I had was my rain jacket which at least cut out some of the chill from the icy breath of death pouring out of the a/c vents. Rigging up my handkerchief to re-direct the flow helped too (travelers should never leave home without one). After a very restless night, I arrived in Chiang Mai at 5:00 am, checked into my hotel, showered thoroughly and slept in until 9:00.