City of Angels

Time to sum up our time in Bangkok. We ended up getting in a day late due to a delayed flight, which turned out to be a good thing, instead of getting in at 10 PM we got in at 11 AM. Finding a hotel was much easier.

After 4 months in Vietnam, J freaked out a bit seeing McDonalds, Starbucks, 7Eleven and fat people. Once she was over that though, we have had a good time.

From a planning standpoint, Bangkok feels a bit like Los Angeles (which is funny since they're both the City of Angels). In a lot of ways it's a bunch of people living near each other more than it is a city. The buildings are either 2 stories or skyscrapers. The infrastructure feels like an afterthought. Highways and public transport are mostly placed above the streets on soaring concrete. Like LA though, there is a ton of stuff to see. Here's the rundown of our days here:

Day 1:
It just so happens that we came in on the 60th anniversary of the King's ascension to the throne (which is especially impressive considering he only looks like he's about 50 years old). People love the king here. We went to a movie one night and before hand they play a video that strongly implies that the king is the one who makes it rain.

So we both got I (heart) King Rama VIII t-shirts and joined in the celebration.

Day 2:
The only problem with being there for the King's thingy was that a lot of the tourist stuff was closed for visiting dignitaries. We ended up riding the subway (yea!!!) around for awhile.

We ended up at a mall that had the trendiest shops I've seen since Berlin.

In the afternoon, we went to the Jim Thompson house.

Thompson was an American art collector who lived in Thailand for a long time. His house was actually six traditional Thai wood houses that were taken from different parts of the country and then reassembled for him in Bangkok. He disappeared in the 60's in Malaysia, but donated his collection to the city. I really like Thai art and architecture. The traditional houses are all wood panels that slide together. You can build an entire house with no nails. The statuary is also super cool. We ended up buying this little guy.


Day 3:
We spent the morning at the National Museum.

We got a great tour that explained the art of Thai Buddhism. Buddhism is interesting because it doesn't have a god. Instead it grafts itself onto the existing religion or philosophy. So there are basically two types of Buddhism, the kind in Vietnam is based more on Confucianism (since it came from China) whereas the Thai Buddhism is based on Hinduism (since it came from India). Very interesting stuff.

In the afternoon, we went to Wat Phra Kaew (the Temple of the Jade Buddha) and the Royal Palace. It was amazing. I don't have words. It was so far from anything I've ever seen before that we just stood there. So here are some pictures. Even these don't do it justice. Imagine that it is sparkling in the sunlight.












Tomorrow we fly to Luang Prabang, Laos. Fingers crossed.