June 17 to 19. The journey home again
June 17. Bangkok
An early (relatively) morning van ride to the Royal Palace for Valerie and myself. The younger element went to Siam Square, which we had learned, and they soon discovered, is the local equivalent of Harrods.
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We drove across the city for a few minutes, through the usual heavy traffic, until a man suddenly dashed into the road in front of us pulling a red flexible barrier behind him. Some of the traffic stopped and some made violent detours in order to get round him, missing him by inches. It suddenly dawned on me that he was operating the local level crossing gates. Seconds later, a train rushed through, and the vehicles starting driving around the barrier, leaving the man to flee for safety. |
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The Grand Palace is spectacular in the extreme. It is wall to wall gold, gold leaf and ceramics. Built over the last two centuries it is now solely used for ceremonial purposes, with the King living at the other side of town. We followed our guide - or rather her brown umbrella - through the heaving crowds from as we wandered between amazing building and amazing building. There were huge statues, buildings encrusted with mosaics made from broken china, sold gold structures and gold plated structures. The craftsmanship was staggering.
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There was a huge mural telling an immensely complex story. I can remember few of the details but the size of the painting and its incredible detail marked it out as something special. There was gold leaf everywhere.
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Within the complex is the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. We removed our
shoes and entered into an area of obvious spirituality. Many of the locals
were leaving gifts of flowers, lighting incense sticks and praying. The
air of respect for the building and its significance was in marked contrast
to the general mayhem which pervades most of the UK's more significant
religious buildings.
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Throughout the area were signs of continuous restoration. One of the buildings was covered over for major repairs and the Temple, itself, was having its gold leaf cleaned and tended to.Our guide provided us with huge amounts of information, most of which passed over me at a great height. My plan was to use the brochure with which we were presented as a source of material for the book but, not being able to locate it, I have relied on the WWW instead. |
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From there, we were driven a short distance to a gem factory. This was a very large - warehouse size - room full of jewellery. We were led round by a very skilled sales lady who manoeuvred Valerie towards all sorts of lovely things and eventually sold her two rings. Both were very beautiful and very expensive although, doubtless, considerably cheaper than they would have been in New Zealand or the UK.
I expressed interest in the silver and was shown a few bowls. All were hand hammered and most of them heavily decorated. Very clever but too fiddly for my taste. I bought a very simple and plain one. Quite elegant and at a reasonable price. The tour party having long gone, we were transported back to our hotel by the gem factory, where we met up with the others.
After a brief visit to the tailor's, where I collected two very smart silk shirts, we all had a brief rest, after which Valerie and I set off for the Pantip IT mall, a quarter of an hour's walk from the hotel. We searched extensively for a camera for Valerie, her old one, like mine, showing signs of disintegration. We found a small Kodak, with quite a good specification and on offer at a very respectable price. The purchase process, which would have taken a couple of minutes in either New Zealand or the UK, lasted for about 20 minutes. The more advanced forms of retail automation do not yet seem to have arrived here.
This being mid afternoon and all drinks breaks having been passed by, I went to the hotel bar for a couple of beers, leaving the others to return to their shopping. One of the problems with the area of Bangkok where our hotel is situated is the shortage of restaurants and bars. There are lots of street stalls and a few hotels but nothing into which one could pop for a drink or a snack. In this respect, Singapore is much better.
After my beers and a rest, I ventured outside again to take a few photos and to examine a few bits and pieces with a view to purchase. Cory has been threatening to find a stall selling fried insects of various types.
I beat him to it, finding one being pushed along one of the roads at the rear of the hotel but I didn't partake of its wares. I did buy a corn on the cob from another mobile stall staffed by an elderly lady. This looked safe enough as the corn was still clad in its protective husk and had obviously been boiled. She removed the husk, gave it a quick rub with her hand to remove a few stray fibres and then, to my horror, plunged it into a bowl of water and gave it a quick rub down with a damp cloth. By this stage I was past caring and took the risk of eating it. Time will tell how much botulism it has picked up along the way. (Time did tell and I suffered no ill effects whatsoever.)
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With the others all having slightly delicate stomachs, it was decided to eat in the hotel. We had a couple of beers in the bar and tried to use the internet to reserve our seats on the following day's flight. This was a failure as it was too long before takeoff. We will have to try again tomorrow.
The hotel buffet was large and contained enough Thai food to keep me happy. The tom yum was amongst the best that I had tasted on the whole trip and the yellow curry wasn't at all bad. There were even good fish cakes, stuffed prawns and lots of chilli dips.