On the Move: Bangkok or Bust

 Moving house is by nature, notoriously stressful. In Taiwan, my biggest move was from Tainan to Yilan six years ago.  I rented a truck and my friend and I drove it up to Yilan, while my mom happened to be in town and watched my kid. And while in Yilan, I had to move three more times. Yet, packing up and leaving Taiwan after eleven years proved the most difficult challenge. I got rid of most everything, donated bags of clothes to the only second-hand shop in town, bags and bags of books to the library. I even sold some things (scooter and car the biggest items) and somehow downsized our necessities into 2 suitcases and 1 carry one each.

I had a self-imposed deadline of July 31 to be packed and ready to leave Yilan. My rent contract was up but my gracious landlady offered to let me stay as long ad I needed. The first two weeks of July was part of my paid vacation. For one week I got rid of stuff, took photos and wrote details for each item, uploading ads on various FB pages to sell, my daughter helped translate. Our biggest worry was the dogs. I couldn't bring them to my home in Colorado and was posting doggie bios everywhere, with little response.

All of this was on my mind when the second week of July, I realized if I wanted one last trip around SE Asia now is the time.  My daughter wanted to go back to Japan or Korea, I was keen on the Philippines, but budget dictates, I found cheap tickets to Bangkok. I hadn't been back since 2002, it was my daughter's first time to the city, her second time in Thailand. We spent five nights a few blocks south of Khao San Rd, a place with a pool (Villa Cha Cha).

After arriving by airport taxi late afternoon and checking in, we chilled in our room for half an hour, checked out the pool and went out to explore. Before sunset, we had dinner at a vegan Indian/Thai restaurant/backpacker guesthouse around the corner, then walked down Khao San Rd on our way to our hotel. We bought a big bag of mangosteen, she got the best henna tattoo ever, bought a new swimsuit, and she tried a fried scorpion. It was like a wild night market, the greeters for the nitrous parties freaked us both out though.

The first full day we skipped the Palace and went straight for the temples, The Reclining Buddha at Wat Po, then took a river ferry across to Wat Arun.

We took our time exploring the grounds around Wat Po under tall noni trees and a nice breeze. I couldn't believe how agreeable the weather was, compared to seventeen years ago and I was there during July as well. It was overcast with a refreshing breeze. We were also lucky to stumble upon a school dance troupe of girls my daughter's age. They were practicing near the grounds dedicated to the founder of yoga.

Wat Arun

The Golden Mount (Wat Saket)

Wat Arun was very detailed and we climbed as high the stupa we were allowed. In the afternoon we climbed again, and went to the Golden Mount by tuk-tuk, stopping for some fried chicken at its base. At the bottom of the exit was an interesting exhibit of vultures and a corpse, displaying the temple's dark past as body dump off-site during the Bubonic plague. There weren't enough monks to dispose of the diseased bodies and the vultures preyed on the infected flesh.

Nearby was this giant swing, a Vedic religious relic we had to check out. King Rama started an interesting competition. A bag of gold was placed high above and the 2 man swing could keep the gold if they could grab it successfully. It was extremely dangerous and many men died. Swinging was officially outlawed for safety reasons. It's now in the middle of the road across from Wat Suthat.

The next day we went to the beautiful Jim Thompson house which was composed of several traditional Thai houses moved together. Inside, his art collection, pottery, furniture were exquisite and taking pictures wasn't allowed. He obviously had excellent taste and jump-started Thailand's modern silk industry. Each room was jaw-dropping gorgeousness, simple yet refined. The dark teak interior really set off the various pieces, Chinese pottery, Burmese buddha heads, Thai tapestries.

Outside in the courtyard was a Thai dancer and a man steaming the silk off the worms and stringing it traditional style. We spent the whole morning there and joined the English tour upon arrival. Jim Thompson's life seems curious enough a story for a writer. During WW2 he was in intelligence, trained as an architect, married in a childless marriage and he mysteriously disappeared in the jungles of Malaysia age 52.

 

Since we were in the area, we walked to a free temple (Wat Pathum Wanaram) in the middle of two massive, shiny metal shopping malls and after lunch hit the explosive Erewan Shrine. For lunch, we stopped at some local dive for delicious, simple meat and rice dish and took the bus back to our neighborhood. I had fried pork and chili basil and my kid got the less spicer chicken.

 

Day Trips:

The day trip options are many. We took two-day trips out of the city, group tours booked through our hotel. Of course, it would be cheaper to do it ourselves, but also more time consuming and we didn't have much time. The first trip we went to the very touristy Damnoen Saduak floating market.

 It all catered to tourists, souvenirs, art, nick nacks, snacks, a sketchy photo stand of exotic animals, captured illegally.

We shared our boat with three mainland Chinese. They were so slow to understand what was going on, my kid translated for them. They also weren't very adventurous and extremely tight-fisted. They didn't buy any snacks, while my kid and I were feasting on fried egg rolls, grilled pork and I bought a few souvenirs for friends. At the end of our tour we were given a printed and mounted photo of ourselves on the boat, which I gladly paid a buck or two for. The Chinese guy laughed when my kid told him how much I paid, but I thought he was the sap for not buying one.

Only when we got off the boat and wandered further into the market, past the art for tourists, did we see actual locals with produce for themselves.  We bought some jackfruit and ate it watching the boats.

 

Another day trip we went to the UNESCO ruins of Ayuttaya the former capital destroyed by the Burmese in the 1500s. There were several temple grounds that were spread out. The reclining white Buddha was beautiful, and the buddha head growing in the tree attracted the crowds, but I thought the grandeur of walking around the ruins was breathtaking. I had wanted to take my kid to Angkor Wat in Cambodia (I was there in 2002), so this was the next best thing.

 

Our last afternoon, my kid took a half-day cooking class with the vegan Indian/Thai guesthouse we had our first meal at. There were so many cooking classes around town, the prices for this were reasonable and the owners very nice. She learned the basics, making a peanut sauce and chili paste which were the base for her Tom Kha and Tom Yam soups and veg Pad Thai noodles. Needless to say, we both ate very well that evening.

The next morning before checkout we had time to go to the Museum. It was so massive we saw what we could until we were hungry and tired. I got a lunch box from next door our hotel and some fresh spring rolls on the street and we waited for our airport bus that was much cheaper and fairly direct.

It was the last jaunt before the serious packing, cleaning and ultimately leaving Taiwan for good. I also had to teach my last two weeks of summer school, so Bangkok was a fun memory for us, a distraction, an exhale before the final push.

Resources:
Photo Album
Villa Cha-Cha Hotel