A Kaleidoscope called Bangkok – Day Two, Part One

I forgot to include from my tale of Day One that we finished our exploration of all things sensual with a delightful foot massage. Thai’s are renowned for their message abilities and there is nothing so divine after a long hot day of walking as an hour plus long foot massage. The Thai foot massage starts at your feet, journey’s up your legs. The masseuse then rubs your head and temples, face and shoulders. You then switch to the ottoman and they rub your shoulders and back, finishing with a nice healthy slap fest on your shoulders. It is fabulous.

Sleep came fast after our previous day’s long stroll through some unique areas of Bangkok and I awoke ready for a new adventure. Today’s agenda included water taxi to the amulet market followed by the Grand Palace on to Wat Pho, afternoon at the pool. Cocktails then off to Khao San Market.

The amulet market was the first stop of our day and Catherine figured the easiest way to get there was by water taxi. The water taxi ride was an easy; boat pulls up to the dock, dude jumps out ties it off, boat slams on and off tires, people jump off, people jump on, hold on and go to next dock. Safety features: a little rope tied from pole to pole. I now understand why when a ferry sinks in this area that 100’s die. They don’t do a head count, the money collector walks the boat and collects money from each person after the boat is in progress. How the money collector knows who paid and who hasn’t with that many people – amazing. The ferry that runs across the river instead of along the river is 3 baht per person and that you do pay prior to boarding.

The market lies a few blocks north of the Grand Palace and was just a block or so from the dock. The walk there was quite entertaining, each of the docks have a bit of a market feel to them. Food sellers and trinkets abound. Once we worked our way through that we were on the street proper which again was stall after stall selling mainly flowers, amulets and gold leaf which is all used at the Wats. This day was a graduation day for the Thammasat University which is noted for its law and political science departments, many of the graduates were in the area having photos taken and receiving congratulatory flower arrangements. The Thammasat University is also known for student demonstrations against the government particularly noted for the violent demonstrations in the 1970’s. Thailand has a king and queen and they are very revered by their people but the actual politics of Thailand has never been stable. I believe they are on their third prime minister in less than 2 years.

Also, not noted on Day One was that as it was August 12th it was the Queen’s birthday. Many of the stores were closed, especially the Thai operated stores, the only silver stores we found open were operated by the Eastern Indians. They were neither friendly nor interested in negotiations. There were pictures of Her Majesty all around town set up like shrines with flowers and candles with various tokens of appreciation. Do NOT talk negatively about the Thai royalty. This is a huge slight to their culture.

Finally we arrived at the market with 100’s of vendors selling every little religious trinket you can imaging. Well, no protestant and very little catholic images but every god and goddess known to the south Asian cultures. My purpose for this trip was to find some Buddha pieces and ended up walking out with several small amulets of Ganish, Buddha, and a guy I call the Monk. He was a ruler of Thailand and devoted himself to Buddhism. I will have to do some more research on the story. His dedication was beyond all and he has been elevated to as a Holy Man. There were several temples that had statues of him that were four stories high. He looks like a little old man, bald and skinny, wearing the traditional Buddhist orange garb sitting in the Thai meditation position. I also picked up a metal sculpture of a warrior riding an elephant because every home needs one of those.

After leaving the market we wormed our way back through all the stalls eyeballing all the goods and trying not to be ran over by the tuk-tuks. Tuk-Tuks are prevalent in this area; they are half motorcycle half buggy forms of transportation. The drivers all park in small clusters and yell out, “Tuk Tuk, ma’am?” This is a dog eat dog business, he who makes the most noise and the friendliest gets the most business. As we only had a couple blocks and the views were so entertaining Catherine and I decided to walk to the Grand Palace.

Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo is one of Thailand’s most holy temples and the former residence of the royal family for centuries. Construction began in 1782 and is a constant work in progress to maintain all its glamour. The big draw is The Emerald Buddha; this is a statue that was discovered in 1434 in at a temple in Northern Thailand. Story is that the temple was struck by lightning and the flaking plaster exposed this jade face. The king of Chaing Mai sent an army on elephant to collect the statue but when the statue was placed on the elephant it refused to return to Chaing Mai, the entourage rerouted to Laos where the statue remained until Rama I invaded and returned the statue to Thailand in 1778. It was housed at Wat Arun, across the river until 1785 when it was moved to its current location.

What was my take on this most holy of images? One it is so high on its altar that you cannot get a good look-see. Two, there is so much gold gilding that you cannot keep your eyes clear due to all the glowing gold. I also discovered that to enter the Bot (temple proper) one must take off your shoes.

As Catherine had already prepared me for this inevitability it was no big concern, however, many of my fellow tourist were quite peeved with this custom and concerned that their footwear would not remain where they left them. No problems noted. The other issue that many of the tourists encountered was proper dress when visiting a holy place. The Thai’s are very respectful of their holy places and one must not wear shorts, sleeveless shirts or flip flops (slippers) this applies to both men and women. Wearing a scarf around your shoulders is not adequate coverage. I had on a tank top but brought a button up shirt to cover my offending shoulders and arms. Those that did not dress appropriately were redirected at the entrance to a store which sold skirts and shirts for the noncompliant visitors.

Grand Palace also held an extremely large model of Ankor Wat, which I had visited in October 08. Several smaller temples are around the grounds with these amazing ornamentations, my particular favorite was the warrior monkeys. We found out through eaves dropping on a tour that the warriors were not all monkeys; only the monkeys had bare feet, as monkeys feet will not fit into shoes. There are four monkeys representing the four elements.

The other cool thing was the monks. This was one of those two side meetings, on one side I am delighted with these devote men who give up their connections to all that is materialistic. On the other hand I don’t want to disturb their process of enlightenment by being the rude tourist and getting in their way. I am not saying that I was above taking their photos; I just tried to be respectful of their space. I did get very irritated with some Italian tourist that stepped in front of a group of boy monks in training to ask directions to the Emerald Buddha. The child tried to step around him, they are instructed not to speak to “others”, and he gave the man a quick look and shrug. The man went to touch him which is very taboo and stepped back in front of the boy. I watched this interaction and was compelled to intervene. I walked over to the Italian and told him were to find the Buddha and that the “little monks” will not talk. I find it disheartening that when people go to a foreign land, especially when it is a religious community that they do not research a little of what is taboo and what is not.

Catherine and I decided enough with the Palace time to head to Wat Pho. This is the home of The Reclining Buddha. There are several throughout Thailand but this was the first one that I get to see in person. To get from the Grand Palace to Wat Pho one can walk as it is just around the block. However, it was hot, ungodly hot and humid so Catherine and I decided to take advantage of one friendly tuk-tuk driver. He took advantage of us by charging a ridiculous rate ($1.40) but what he didn’t realize is we would have paid twice that much to avoid walking.

The heat and humidity is another one of the sensory overload aspects of Thailand. Thailand fulfills the full sensory range. Smell: food, river water, incense, sweat. Sight: gold, shiny, mosaics, shiny sweaty people. Sound: boat horns, whistles, street hawkers, music, masses of humanity groaning from sweating. Touch: gold leaf, massage, sticky sweat. Taste: food, smog, salty sweat. You notice that sweating came up in all five of my sensory perceptions. I don’t believe that I have ever sweated that much in my life including Basic Training in August in San Antonio, Texas. It was that freaking hot.