A weekend in Bangkok

More skyscrapers than Manhattan
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Whistle a happy tune in Bangkok

We just spent an action-packed weekend in Bangkok, Thailand. Friday September 26 saw us leave school on the dot at 3 pm to catch the daily 4:30 pm Air Asia direct flight, and we returned on Monday at 3 pm.

Whistle a Happy Tune

Bangkok is a modern city of 10 million people, with another 4 million in the surrounding area. About one million of those 14 million are expats (mainly English speakers) from all over the world. Most street signs and advertising are in both Thai and English. Our friend Joy, a teacher from our school who spent the weekend with us, had visited this city in 1982 when Bangkok was much like Phnom Penh is now. What a shock for her! It’s one thing for people to tell you that it has become like other gigantic cities of the world, but another thing to be there and experience it.

Quicker than a car, given the traffic congestion
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We stayed at a lovely little guesthouse/hotel called the Baan Sukhumvit. It’s on Soi 20 just off Sukhumvit Road, a major east-west artery on the east side of the Chao Phraya River, which runs through Bangkok. (Can’t get away from those river cities!) Our little pied-a-terre was on a quiet cul-de-sac just a block away from Sukhumvit Road, so it was very quiet even though it was only a few blocks walk in either direction to the sky train. We ate lovely meals at a couple of local restaurants, The Dubliner, an Irish Pub, and a Mexican restaurant called Coyote. Many Bangkok restaurants serve a variety of fare, including traditional Thai foods. Ian and Joy went out after supper one evening to join a couple of other teachers from our school for a few drinks at a stand-up outdoor dive called Cheap Charlie’s. They progressed to The Pickled Liver, but managed to refrain from overly imbibing. They returned home at about 11 pm.

Peter Kooy has expanded to Bangkok.
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We did both modern and traditional shopping, the former at a huge six-level shopping mall that’s actually three malls in one: Paragon, Siam Centre and Siam Discovery Centre. On Sunday morning we went to the northern end of the sky train, Mo Chit station, to spend a few hours at the Chatuchat Weekend Market. In spite of its name, it is open seven days a week, and it is supposedly the largest outdoor market in Asia. It is huge! At another modern mall called the Emporium we were able to purchase a stainless steel stove-top espresso maker and some nice sheets and a couple of extra pillows. We were delighted Tuesday morning to have our first home-made espresso since leaving Canada. We also stopped in at a few silk shops and a gem factory. We kept our purchases to a minimum.

Back-packer area of Bangkok
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The sky train (BTS) is wonderful, though unfortunately it doesn’t go right downtown. There are public buses, but we used the commuting boats along the Khlong San Sap canal, and along the Chao Phraya River. These commuting boats travel at quite a high speed, and are an efficient mode of travel. When the boat arrives at a pier passengers have about 10 seconds to get on or off the boat. This is not an experience for the elderly or the faint of heart.

We saw a 32 meter high gold standing Buddha at the Wat Intharawihan and the famous emerald Buddha at Wat Phra Kaew, which is the King’s personal Wat on the Royal Palace grounds. (A Wat is a Buddhist temple.) We had a retired school teacher as our tour guide for the Royal Palace grounds and King’s Wat. He was a lovely gentleman and devout Buddhist who enlightened us on several points. Close by was the Khao Sang Road, the backpacker area of the city. We were there early in the day, and saw more than a few weary bleary-eyed travellers wandering about.

Sally and Joy a little groggy at breakfast
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In contrast to this we also went for the VIP movie experience at the Paragon Mall. For about $20 one has a seat in a lazy boy chair, complete with blanket and pillow, popcorn and a drink brought to you by a server. The King’s Anthem is played just before the movie starts, and all are expected to stand for this. We finally saw Mama Mia, which is pretty hokey for the first few numbers but improves substantially as the movie progresses.

Points that we missed were Jim Thompson’s House and the floating market. Guess we’ll have to go back at some point! Thinking of you with the changing seasons (yours, not ours!)