The Bhutan Series - 9/30 - 10/19/2008 - Days 1 & 2
Day 1 - San Francisco to Bangkok
Brutal, painful, killer, sleepless - sounds fun huh?
I started out at SFO and flew into Hong Kong. I was sitting by a
very friendly Chinese man but I was longing for an empty row so I moved and attempted to sleep (unsuccessfully). Once in Hong Kong I headed straight for a ramen restaurant. I ate on the plane but when in Hong Kong one must have some noodles. The layover was about 4 hours so it was plenty of time to slurp down the good stuff. Of all things there were some people who had flown in from the Midwest and were on my Bangkok flight from HK who were going straight from Bangkok to Bhutan (crazy). I finally rolled into BKK at 12:30 and stumbled into bed 20 travel hours later. Unfortunately I couldn't sleep that night...ugh.
Day 2 - Bangkok
I didn't sleep the night before and I couldn't sleep in. I had arranged for a tour guide to show me the highlights of Bangkok. My guide Chawanwit (Kay) promptly arrived a 9 and I had just enough time to scarf down an apple danish and a couple of double espressos. We took a car into the city which took about a 1/2 hour with traffic. We headed to Chinatown to take a look around at all of shopping stalls and to visit an old Chinese Buddhist temple. Our stop at the temple was interesting and it happened to be Vegetarian Festival time (http://www.asiarooms.com/travel-guide/thailand/bangkok/festivals-and-events-in-bangkok/vegetarian-festival.html). The Chinese belief that this helps purify your body and soul...I must be pretty pure. Upon our arrival at the temple I was quickly scolded for trying to take pictures. We walked around and headed back out onto the very crowded streets. I was melting by this time and I had some sort brown murky concotion that was a bit sweet (I didn't want to ask too many questions) and quite tasty. We then headed through a food market that had an amazing array of vegetarian items, spices and yes the occasional freshly chopped up meat parts. We wove our way through stalls selling cheapy trinkets and towards the river to catch a ferry but before we got to the ferry something caught my eye.....fried taro. YUM! My guide bought a bag and I pigged out.
We caught the ferry to the Grand Palace (http://palaces.thai.net/night/index_gp.htm) and I
was glad to have a guide since I didn't have to deal with any annoying folks trying to tell me that the temple was closed. The palace is really amazing and pictures just can't do it justice. It was pretty overcast when we got there so my pictures definitely don't do it justice. Kay was a wealth of information and he gave me all of the details of the palace - the history, how/when it is currently used, what was built out of us, the story of the paintings, etc. There was much to see at the Palace and we were probably there for a couple of hours and the fried taro had burned off so we went to grab some lunch that included some yummy and much needed cool, cold, frothy fruity drinks. After lunch we headed over to Wat Pho (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Pho) - where one of the largest reclining Bhudda's in all of Thailand is housed.
There was still one last stop and that was Wat Arun - The temple of dawn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Arun). The
temple really stands out when you are on the Chao Praya river and the architecture is great. By this time it was almost 3- and the thunder was rumbling and there were some pretty angry looking clouds off in the distance. We got our sightseeing underway and started heading up the steps of the temple. As I soon observed and later experienced the steps were very steep and my bay area native blood was seriously rejecting the humidity and I was "sweating like a pig".
This stop ended by really touristy portion of the day and I was dropped off at my sister's Ellen's condo which was close to the temple. Ellen's place had air conditioning, cold water and an offer of a shower (bless her). Ellen and Cerell use to work together at Asia Society a few year's back. We headed off to dinner by the University in a cool part of town and settled on a place that Ellen had been to before and that just so happened to be participating in vegetarian festival (yes). Dinner was excellent with some really creative dishes and a kick of spice! After dinner we went shopping :) I needed a small bag to store some stuff. I think Ellen bought more than me but I was happy with my t-shirt and belt purchases. To top of the dinner and the shopping we went and had ice cream. Oh my god I thought I had died and found ice cream heaven (not kidding...no really I'm not kidding). I think iberry was the place we went to. Check out the ice cream flavors http://www.iberryhomemade.com/page/en/product/index.html ....this place was amazing and Ellen said that they let you sample everything. I ended up settling on taro and I believe pumpkin...I think we need a chain of these in the bay area. It was about 10 or so at this point and I don't think I even had fumes to run on at this point I was seriously sleep deprived and I had a 4 am flight so we went to try and find a taxi that would use the meter to take me back to the hotel. Thank goodness for Ellen or I would've been screwed by a taxi driver. It was a great evening of food, company and conversation!
Day 1 - San Francisco to Bangkok
Brutal, painful, killer, sleepless - sounds fun huh?
I started out at SFO and flew into Hong Kong. I was sitting by a
very friendly Chinese man but I was longing for an empty row so I moved and attempted to sleep (unsuccessfully). Once in Hong Kong I headed straight for a ramen restaurant. I ate on the plane but when in Hong Kong one must have some noodles. The layover was about 4 hours so it was plenty of time to slurp down the good stuff. Of all things there were some people who had flown in from the Midwest and were on my Bangkok flight from HK who were going straight from Bangkok to Bhutan (crazy). I finally rolled into BKK at 12:30 and stumbled into bed 20 travel hours later. Unfortunately I couldn't sleep that night...ugh.Day 2 - Bangkok
I didn't sleep the night before and I couldn't sleep in. I had arranged for a tour guide to show me the highlights of Bangkok. My guide Chawanwit (Kay) promptly arrived a 9 and I had just enough time to scarf down an apple danish and a couple of double espressos. We took a car into the city which took about a 1/2 hour with traffic. We headed to Chinatown to take a look around at all of shopping stalls and to visit an old Chinese Buddhist temple. Our stop at the temple was interesting and it happened to be Vegetarian Festival time (http://www.asiarooms.com/travel-guide/thailand/bangkok/festivals-and-events-in-bangkok/vegetarian-festival.html). The Chinese belief that this helps purify your body and soul...I must be pretty pure. Upon our arrival at the temple I was quickly scolded for trying to take pictures. We walked around and headed back out onto the very crowded streets. I was melting by this time and I had some sort brown murky concotion that was a bit sweet (I didn't want to ask too many questions) and quite tasty. We then headed through a food market that had an amazing array of vegetarian items, spices and yes the occasional freshly chopped up meat parts. We wove our way through stalls selling cheapy trinkets and towards the river to catch a ferry but before we got to the ferry something caught my eye.....fried taro. YUM! My guide bought a bag and I pigged out.
We caught the ferry to the Grand Palace (http://palaces.thai.net/night/index_gp.htm) and I
was glad to have a guide since I didn't have to deal with any annoying folks trying to tell me that the temple was closed. The palace is really amazing and pictures just can't do it justice. It was pretty overcast when we got there so my pictures definitely don't do it justice. Kay was a wealth of information and he gave me all of the details of the palace - the history, how/when it is currently used, what was built out of us, the story of the paintings, etc. There was much to see at the Palace and we were probably there for a couple of hours and the fried taro had burned off so we went to grab some lunch that included some yummy and much needed cool, cold, frothy fruity drinks. After lunch we headed over to Wat Pho (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Pho) - where one of the largest reclining Bhudda's in all of Thailand is housed.There was still one last stop and that was Wat Arun - The temple of dawn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Arun). The
temple really stands out when you are on the Chao Praya river and the architecture is great. By this time it was almost 3- and the thunder was rumbling and there were some pretty angry looking clouds off in the distance. We got our sightseeing underway and started heading up the steps of the temple. As I soon observed and later experienced the steps were very steep and my bay area native blood was seriously rejecting the humidity and I was "sweating like a pig".This stop ended by really touristy portion of the day and I was dropped off at my sister's Ellen's condo which was close to the temple. Ellen's place had air conditioning, cold water and an offer of a shower (bless her). Ellen and Cerell use to work together at Asia Society a few year's back. We headed off to dinner by the University in a cool part of town and settled on a place that Ellen had been to before and that just so happened to be participating in vegetarian festival (yes). Dinner was excellent with some really creative dishes and a kick of spice! After dinner we went shopping :) I needed a small bag to store some stuff. I think Ellen bought more than me but I was happy with my t-shirt and belt purchases. To top of the dinner and the shopping we went and had ice cream. Oh my god I thought I had died and found ice cream heaven (not kidding...no really I'm not kidding). I think iberry was the place we went to. Check out the ice cream flavors http://www.iberryhomemade.com/page/en/product/index.html ....this place was amazing and Ellen said that they let you sample everything. I ended up settling on taro and I believe pumpkin...I think we need a chain of these in the bay area. It was about 10 or so at this point and I don't think I even had fumes to run on at this point I was seriously sleep deprived and I had a 4 am flight so we went to try and find a taxi that would use the meter to take me back to the hotel. Thank goodness for Ellen or I would've been screwed by a taxi driver. It was a great evening of food, company and conversation!
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