Anna, the rest of us, and the King

The action packed Bangkok week for Grandparents Tossell continues today with a trip to two of Bangkoks' most famous attractions.  No tour bus today as were going public.  First up the sky train to Saphin Taksin pier and then onto a water taxi.  The ride up the Chao Phraya river was short and very cheap - 14bht each!.

Our first stop was the Grand Palace.  This is a complex of many buildings that was built in the late 1700's during the reign of King Rama 1.  The third capital of Thailand was a place called Thonburi and was on the west bank of the river.  This king decided to create the fourth and final capital city on the other side of the river, now of course known as Bangkok.  This ancient and very beautiful place is still used on occasion by the current royal family - last year it was used for the funeral of the current King's sister.

This is one of the hardest places Ive had to blog about.  There are so many beautiful areas with in these grounds so l will try to only include 5 photos showcasing the place.  There are 4 palace buildings, a number of ceremonial buildings, many many statues and of course a temple.  The temple here is called Wat Phra Kaew and it is home to the Emerald Buddha.

 

This was not our first visit here, in fact it may well be the third or fourth trip for some of us.  The last time that Tony and I came here was after picking Nate up in 2006.  We had only had him with us for 4 days when we ventured out here with him.  Being that he was only 17 months old he slept his way around the place, and I remember it vividly - both because we carried him around the whole time we were here, and the palace is always really hot.   Anyways, on going back through my laptop photos I found pictures of our last visit to compare with the current visit..

After the palace it was a quick tuk tuk ride over to Wat Pho.  This is another very famous landmark as it is a temple housing the largest reclining Buddha in Thailand.  The construction of this temple started in 1788, about the same time they made the first settlement at Botany Bay.  The temple is also known as the birthplace of Thai massage and throughout the complex there are a lot of images related to massage, yoga and medicine - there is a school for massage on the grounds also.

The main star of the temple is definitely the huge gold Buddha.  He is 46 metres long, 15 metres tall at the face end, and each foot is 3 metres high and 5 metres long and inlaid with mother of pearl.

 

Over the hills and far away

Up super early today, so early that we were ready before breaky was served, which was a shame because we actually slept really well!  Even Tony who is a shocking sleeper at the best of times.  Today's planned outing was a day trip to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market and then the Rose Garden Village Cultural show.  We had an extra stop to make on the way so we needed to leave at 7 am so we could make it in time.  Our wonderful tour guide Wazza was waiting downstairs for us with our own private little tour bus right on time.

First stop was at Samut Songkhram to have a look at the Railway Market.  SS province is 75k south west of Bangkok, right near the ocean, and sitting at the Mouth of the Mae Klong River.  There are a lot of things to see here, but we're going to see perhaps the most unique of them.  The railway market is a very busy market that sits right on top of an operational railway track.  8 times a day the train rumbles through here so the vendors madly pack up their stalls and move their wares out of reach of the train - some stalls actually just let the train run over the top of their produce.  When the train is not there the laneway is covered with canvas awnings - when the train toots it becomes an empty railway track.  We all agreed it was something we will never forget and worth the trip there alone.  I captured some good video which Ill share here later.

So pre train it looks like this.

During the train pass it looks like this:

And then immediately after its business as usual :

Back on board the bus and we were off towards Damnoen Saduak floating market which is in Ratchaburi about 109 kilometres south of Bangkok.  Most people here live densely along both sides of the canals - more than 200 canals were built here by the locals.  The people that live here often grow several different kinds of fruits and vegetables for sale at the floating market. We boarded a long tail boat and took off for a lookie.

The boat ride was great because it was quite cool  at the river and in some parts we were travelling at speeds that allowed us too feel a nice breeze.

Once at the markets we left the boat and had a look around by foot.  Of course there was the usual souvenir shops, but in one section there was still alot of the fruit and vegetables and food. The boats selling food are really quite ingenious, although I dont think Id like to sit there for hours cooking noodle soups for hours at a time.

On the last little long-tail boat sitting at the dock was this gorgeous little 84 year old Chinese lady selling chinese pancakes.

We finished wandering through the market and found our way back to our mini van waiting for us to take us to lunch.  I managed to find a snack of fried bananas on the way which were completely delish.  We had an hours drive back towards Bangkok for the Rose Garden Village.  By the time we arrived we were hungry so enjoyed a lunchtime buffet in the air conditioned restaurant.

After lunch was a two part show.  Before I get to that though I have to point out that something has happened to our son on this trip.  His confidence and bravery has really amazed us.  Today's example was with a great big yellow python.  He so wanted to have his photo taken with it, and showed absolutely no fear of it at all - hes growing up before our eyes.

The first part of the show was a very short little program with a couple of elephants.  Kinda cute, but we'd had a much bigger meet and greet with elephants before.  Still, I love watching them and am still amazed at their mobility considering their size.
 

We then moved over into the pavilion for the main part of the show.  It really was a cultural show in that it did highlight a fair part of the ceremonial aspects of Traditional Thai life.  They did some dances, they did some mock Muay Thai boxing and they even showed what a Thai wedding was like (took particular note of that).

Once the show was done we climbed back on board the bus for the hour journey back to the hotel.  The traffic was really heavy as it is still a public holiday here.  I did a bit of a giggle because I think Don and Anna hadnt really thought the traffic was too bad here at all - I knew that sometime we'd get stuck in bumper to bumper.

Back at the hotel we joined up with the rest of our tour party who had just arrived here after their visit to Khon Kaen.  Mum and Dad had a great time there and Ill add some of their pics as soon as I can get access to them.  Today was certainly a very long day, but I think we got to see a lot of different facets to life here.

This little piggie went to market....

Up bright and early this morning as we had plans to shop.  Destination : Chatuchak Market.  To those not in the know, this is a 27 acre out door market where you can buy almost everything from fruit, to clothes, to handicrafts to suitcases.  Its only open on weekends so this was our only chance to go.  We left our hotel around about 8 am and were at the market by 8 30.  Most stalls were still setting up so it wasn't busy at all yet.

What it was though was hot.  Being that its all outdoors and the stalls are in rows of corrugated iron there's not allot of fresh air circulating.  We had a little look around as we were hunting for art supplies but didn't have much luck.  We did have luck finding watches so we stocked up on those.  Anna found a couple of really nice scarves and some reading glasses.  After a couple of hours we were done so sky-trained it back to the hotel.

On the way back from the sky train at Chong Nonsi, we walked past, actually no we stopped at a fried chicken cart on the side of the road.  Tony and I snapped up all of the available chicken wings ( 3 for 20 baht, or 75 cents).  Anna wanted chicken too and she was in luck as he was just about to finish up a fresh batch.  I must say they made a very tasty morning tea.

Nate was then in seventh heaven as it was swimming time.  The pool here is really nice.  You can swim out to the edge of it and get a great view of the sky train.  Its one of those nifty horizon pools <insert photo here>.

We opted for an easy lunch - room service Thai food and McDonalds for others (Nate and I  lol).  Tony discovered a rival for his favorite Thai dish - Rad Nar (or Lard Nar in some places).  I think more research is in order!

After yet another swim, did I mention it is hot here?, we took off again to the MBK.

 
Don was still mobile phone hunting and we wanted to get Nate's Thai photos sorted.  We can check both off the list now as Don bought himself a nifty little LG, and Nate got Thaied up and had his photo shoot.  He was a little more dubious this time, I think the Lady boys were a bit over the top for him.  Dinner was at the 5th floor food court -  Don and Anna were the only ones sticking with the Thai food which was great to see.

Were not in Kansas anymore...

Not surprisingly we were up early today, all of us feeling totally sleep deprived.  We dragged ourselves of to breakfast in the hope that caffeine and carbohydrates would perk us all up.

Our room drama, as documented yesterday, was matched by Don and Anna - their power went out at midnight so they tried to sleep with no air conditioning - clearly they didn't need lighting as it was provided freely by the BTS outside.

After breaky we ventured out for a little wander to get a grip on our surroundings.  Not bad I must say - McDonald's for their Iced Coffee and a 7-11 for everything else.  Anna also discovered Daddy Dough which made her squeal with delight as she is a little partial to the round little delights.

The only real activity on the agenda today was a visit to MBK via the skytrain.  MahBoonKrong is a ginormous shopping centre, 10 floors in all where you can buy just about anything and eat just about anything.  It also houses a cinema and bowling alley.  We did a little bit of shopping, Tony bought a watch and Anna bought a handbag and a few other things, including a wierd smelling chinese snack pack of pork rind.  We stocked up on some grocery items at TOPS supermarket and then headed back to the hotel.

Just out front of our hotel there are a number of little carts selling all kinds of tasty morsels.  One of our group had no hesitation in buying some meat sticks to try - no, not Tony this time, maybe the adventurous streak is from his Mums side of the family.

Once back at the hotel we were delighted to learn that they had held to their promise of changing our room, so we packed up camp and moved over to the other wing.

 Our new room number is 911, which is ironic as our need to sleep in a decent room was now an emergency.  We were so grateful, it really lifted our mood and gave us a place that we could all just relax and hang out in.  We made good use of it and spent a few hours just relaxing and drinking beers, well 3 of us did anyway!.  Its a public holiday here today, for Asanha Bucha, or the start of Buddhist Lent.  It was difficult for a foreigner to appreciate that it was a public holiday as the only difference is that you cant purchase alcohol.

Dinner tonight was in a tiny little restaurant right outside the hotel.  Three serves of Phad Thai noodles, a serve of fried rice, 3 serves of spring rolls and a serve of thick gravy noodles and we were full.  That whole swag cost 410 baht ($12.80).

Ive been thinking about Mum, Dad and Brenton this afternoon as they're having a big meet and greet with Prae's family - hope it all goes well!

The adventure begins

Today the adventure begins for Don and Anna.  Uncle John kindly deposited them at the airport at about 6 am.  We asked him to capture a picture of the intrepid travellers.

 

Today’s activity was scripted like a ballet.  It was the day of some in and some out.  First up, the 5 of us were to fly to Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok at 4 pm.  The reason it needed to be so choreographed was because Mum and Dad needed to catch another flight up to Khon Kaen, and we needed to be at Bangkok to meet Grandma and Grandpa Tossell.

We needed to check out of the hotel by 12 so we decided we may as well go straight to the airport to wait for our flight.  Lucky we did, because when we tried to book in to our Thai airways flight they informed us that our flight didn’t actually exist, and that somehow we had managed to book on to it, on their website, and they had no idea how it happened.  Of course then a minor panic set in.  The counter chickie told us that they have two alternative flights, one at 2 pm and one at 5pm.  Either would have worked in ok for us, but not for Mum and Dad as their next flight was scheduled for 5 50 pm.  Oh yeh, both of them were fully booked!

The solution came fairly easily in the end, they re-booked us onto Bangkok Airways that had a flight at 2:10 pm.  They told us that we would miss out on plane food so issued us a voucher to eat in their restaurant before take-off.  They also asked us if we minded sitting in the back row – we were just happy to fly so probably would have traveled in the lavvy if it meant getting us to Bangkok in time for phase 2.  So, in the end it all worked out ok, and the rest of the family that were expecting us all, in 2 different locations, will be none the wiser as to how close we came to missing our rendezvous.

As nice and modern as Suvarnabhum is, its not that great to just hang out in while you're waiting.  We missed saying goodbye to Mum and Dad as we had to go collect our luggage and then we couldn’t get back into where they were in the domestic terminal.  Anyhoo only 90 minutes now till the Grand Tossells arrive so phase one is nearly complete.

Time actually passed pretty quickly, we had a feast of Subway and they were nearly there.  Right on 7 we moved over to the arrival gate so that they could see us straight away.  After standing there for a few minutes I realised that there actually 2 international arrival gates.  Arrgghhh   which one would they appear out of?  Well the only option was to split up and go to each gate.  After what seemed like an eternity they appeared out of the first gate we were standing at.  They were tired, but thrilled to be in Bangkok.  We quickly grabbed a taxi and we were hotel bound.

Then, the wheels fell off.  We arrived at I- Residence at about 9 pm to begin the booking in process.  Don and Annas booking was hunkydory no problems.  Ours on the other hand was quite the other.  We had booked 2 adjoining rooms so that Nate could have his own room joined to ours (we were quite looking forward to the added space).  However, they don't have rooms that interconnect - they booked us two separate rooms at either end of the corridor!  Clearly that wasn't going to work, so the only alternative (as they were fully booked) was to put the 3 of us into the one room.  Not a biggie you might think, but these rooms are tiny.  They jammed our bed up against the window and Nate on a fold up next to Tony.  While not thrilled about it we were ok to just go to bed knowing that tomorrow they would move us to a bigger room.

Not to sound like a complete whinger, but the rooms we had were terrible.  There was pretty much no insulation between walls as we could hear every thing that Don and Anna were saying next door, and at 4 am when I was awake I could hear someone talking in the street - and we were 8 floors up.  Add to that, our room faced onto the sky train track which is lit up light sunshine, and they have wooden shutters on the windows that don't close properly so you couldn't actually tell that the light was off in the room as it was so bright.  The clincher however was the aircondtioning unit.  It obviously had a mechanical issue as it sounded like a helicopter trying to land.  It was too hot to turn it off so we had no choice but to suffer.  I am blessed with the ability to sleep through pretty much everything, but this was even too much for me.  As we drifted off to the first of many brief periods of sleep, all I could do was prey that things would get better tomorrow, if not, I dare say a change in hotel will be in order.

She'll be coming round the mountain...

Up and about early again today, our last full day in beautiful Chiang Mai.  Lewis picked us up again and we were on the road to Doi Suthep.  Doi Suthep is a mountain that sits 1600 metres above sea level and overlooks Chiang Mai.  There is a small village at the peak, but more importantly to the locals it is home to yet another temple <insert groan> called Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep.  The first Chedi to be built in this province way back in 1383 still sits there.  Lewis told us a little bit of the history around it - it involves a monk who had a dream about searching for a relic and then finding a bone that was believed to be Buddhas shoulder bone.  To cut the long story short, part of the bone was tied to a white elephant and it was set free in the jungle.  Apparently this elephant climbed to the top of the mountain, trumpeted three times and then died - this was considered to be a sign and the then King ordered a temple be built on the site.  Buddhists are quite big on the number three, and while at the temple we saw lots of references to that number.

To get to the Temple grounds there are 309 steps to climb

Or like most white people you can take a cable car both ways..no prize for guessing which way we went.

The Temple grounds are quite an eclectic mix of Hindu statues and many different Buddhist effigies from at least 2 branches of Buddhism practiced here - Theravada and Animalism.  There is a very heavy Burmese flavor to the place which would be expected as Burma ruled (after they invaded) this area for a few hundred years. 

The air at the temple was cool and seemed thick.  There were quite a lot of low level clouds so it made viewing the city below a little difficult.

Of course the standard things you see at a temple were there; the Naga, the prayer bells, the ornamental statues and the very detailed lacquer work.

The current Abbot has put a lot of the local boys to work.  They have become sort of the caretakers for the temple.  They keep it absolutely spotless in exchange for food, lodging and an education.

The central part of the temple has a huge gold Chedi.  Its in a walled area that had hundreds of different Buddha images, often in their own separate alcove.  Lots of candles, incense and flowers adorn the area so the smell was quite intense.  Worshippers walk around the central chedi three times chanting and waving their flowers as part of their prayer ritual.

While we were inside the central area I sent Nate into one of the little alcove rooms to take a photo of the huge gold Buddha within.  Taking photos here is certainly allowed as long as you either kneel or sit while taking them.  Nate was very serene as he sat there setting up his photo.  When he finished, the monk who had been sitting silently in the corner gestured Nate over to him.  After Nate got the visual permission from me (as he always does when hes not sure) he went over and knelt in front of him.  The Monk gave him a blessing and wished him a long and fruitful life as he sprinkled him with water and tied a blessing bracelet on his wrist.  What a wonderful experience for him.

Someone of course needed to look after our shoes while we were inside as it was a no shoe zone as usual.

We wandered around for a little bit more and then said our farewells to this holy place.  We went back down the mountain which certainly was much faster than going up. We were able to get a better view of the city on the way down.

Next stop was supposed to be the handicraft village but we got hijacked to go look for remote control helicopters at the Big C shopping Centre which was in the vicinity of where we were, well sorta.  Poppa had been talking about getting a helicopter since leaving Australia and finally his wish had come true - for the price of 1100 baht (about $33).

Next was off to the handicraft centre.  Chiang Mai is well known for its artisans and the places we stopped at were fine examples of that  The first stop was "The Worlds largest Jewellery Store".  Tony and I used our smarts and left our money/credit cards in the van, which in the end worked a treat.  There were some amazing rings and pendants in there and I'm sure had we not pre planned we would have purchased.  Next up was a home wares store where we had a 15 minute demonstration of how Kashmir hand knotted rugs were made.  They were quite incredible - the rugs changes colour from the direction you look at it.  It also takes about a year to hand make each rug to an ancient family pattern.  The third and final stop was to a Thai Silk place.  We got to see silk worms in action which was fascinating.  This stop we shopped, couldn't resist it any longer.  The silk was incredibly cheap - Tony bought a black silk dressing gown and a red power tie for about $100 all up.  The tie itself would have been around the $70 mark at home.  Nate of course was the star attraction at each stop - so much so that at the gem store he had Tony pick him up so he could get some peace.  When we were leaving the silk place the manager ran out to us in the bus to give Nate an apple....maybe it was the blessing doing its work already.