Days in Bangkok
The afternoon of our arrival, the weather changed and it started raining as we were leaving the airport. I have not experienced this kind of downpour in a long while and it was quite an experience seeing the rain splattered on the windshield and on the roadside, it was such a sight and refreshing to hear the sound of the rain, for someone who came from dry Southern California. From our few days in Bangkok, it appeared that it will usually start raining in the afternoon just like the southern states by the Gulf of Mexico. It will pour heavily and after a short while, it will just stop – like turning off the tap !
Our stay in Thailand were hosted by Chanel’s friend, Mary. We were very fortunate to have met Helen Sone and Bung (she goes by her nick name ), who played host to the group of us during our stay in Thailand. From the moment we met Bung at the airport, she has been tirelessly working hard to ensure that our stay and tours go smoothly without a hitch. Helen and Bung had been planning our tour itinerary for the past couple of months while we were still trying to figure out who can make the trip. The evening of our arrival, Helen and Bung played host to a sharkfin soup dinner at a local restaurant (Ping’s Shark Fin) whose specialty is guess what –> shark fin! By shark fin, I mean there are big chunks of shark fins in our soups. It is a delicacy that will soon disappear (I know this isn’t a right thing to do by any measure to some people and if I offend anyone, my apologies).
The first full day in Thailand calls for a visit to the Grand Palace. Due to Covid restriction, I was told that the Royal residence which used to be accessible for tourists visit is now closed. The Grand Palace is more than just a palace, it is a complex that houses the Royal residence, Throne Halls and also a number of governmental offices.
Visitors are still allowed to walked the outer compound of the Palace grounds where there are places of worships and other historical buildings contains within. The renowned Temple of The first thing I learned prior to this visit to the Grand Palace was that you need to be dressed appropriately and in this case, no shorts or sleeveless shirts and for ladies, no bare legs, or tight skirts or tank top. As this time of the year, the weather is generally warm and humidity is high, we decided to pack for this condition and shorts and polo shirts for me and Lululemon tights and tops for Claudia (she is such a fan of Lululemon). For her, this make for light luggage as they are lightweight. Well in hindsight, we should have been more prepared for any unexpected circumstances such as the Grand Palace visit and I was kicking myself for not bringing a couple of pants along.
So as we were having breakfast at Helen’s place, she mentioned that they do not allow shorts and tights on the ground and I will either have to purchase a “pants” or skip the visit. We were discussing this as there were a couple of guests who may have outfit that are borderline questionable. Nothing wrong with that as I mentioned the weather is warm and humid. Bung even offered to bring her son’s pant for me if it fit! So I agreed that in my case I will purchase a “sarong” or a pants on site and then someone mentioned that due the pandemic they are not sure if there will be any vendor selling that. So the back and forth discussion with occasionally ribbing going and then Judy, part of our group came up with a brilliant idea – why don’t she loan me her pants, the one she is wearing!!! Of course, everyone joke about it, but she was dead serious about her offer, so she went into to room and somehow came up with another pants she claimed was new and handed to me. It looked new and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it. Just a note, there are 7 ladies in our group, and they were all looking at me with the facial expression “well aren’t you going to try it?” So off to the powder room I went. See the result below. That’s Judy with the hat in white next to me! That’s her black pants I am wearing! Oh Claudia is wearing a loaner pants too, I think it may have been Helen’s.
Fortunately for me, the Thai’s traditional pants for men are also above ankle height. So I didn’t look out of place walking around the Grand Palace ground. And to be honest, that was one comfortable pair of pants I ever put on!! :). As you can see, most of us have sandals or flip-flop on and there is a reason for this. Almost all places of worship requires that you enter barefooted, so we decided to don sandals for these visits initially.
No visit to any part of Thailand can be considered complete without a visit to one of the many ancient places of worship and visit we sure did to several temples that are several hundred of years old. Unfortunately, due to my inability to read or write Thai, I was not able to list these places I visited. I tried to compensate that by capturing the name in the photos I take. Any way a picture is worth a thousand words! We spent the first two days visiting places in the vicinity of Bangkok and sampling the local delicacies. There were a couple of upscale malls in Bangkok that we visited, one I believe is name Icon Mall and it has a section dedicated to local artist/designers. Claudia bought a wrap around sarong piece for $1800 Baht and she like it so much that we attempted to head back there for more, but time did not permit. I wanted to visit there food court downstair because I was told, the vendors were formerly from a nearby famous floating market and they were moved to the food court for I reason I do not recall. Will make a point to visit next time I am in Bangkok.
Our itinerary calls for an overnight trips out of Bangkok to Khao Yai Valley and Pattaya.
Khai Yai is about 180Km from Bangkok and so after breakfast, we all pack into our semi luxurious 9 person van and headed out. We are fortunate that Helen and Bung hired this service as the traffic in Bangkok during rush hours are horrific and some streets are one lane and narrow. Many of the routes we took looks like back alley, but they are legit major thorough fare for Bangkok residents. So riding in the comfort of the van with the A/C on to beat the humidity of Bangkok weather was a good thing.
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