Thanks for reading!

We had an amazing trip in Thailand in August - here are some highlights.
If you have any questions about our trip , please email me (jrtadano@gmail.com). We'd love to hear about your travels too - or any ideas you have about where we should go next!

Some tips on reading the travel log: "I" is usually Juliana, except for Ty's two entries (which are labeled).

We entered these backwards, so you can read straight down to move through the trip chronologically. No backscrolling!

Ignore the posting dates - go by the dates in the title.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

8/20 Friday: Ayutthaya and Bangkok

We did in fact wake up early and get on our bikes at 7am, but sadly it was already hot and humid, despite our best efforts to beat the weather. The first few blocks were fine, very quiet and pretty in the early morning light. Then we hit the main road – and realized we didn't account for rush hour in our plans to bike to the outskirts of town! There is a large overpass over train tracks and the river, which has 4-7 lanes in each direction, which split across 3 bridges and into some on/off ramps at each side of the overpass. We couldn't find a pedestrian walkway or sidewalk, so had to bike in the far left lane with the cars and scooters! Our little one-speed cruisers going uphill in crazy morning Thailand traffic was a wild ride – and really the first time I felt fear on this trip. We had no helmets and no idea what we were doing – but as always, the Thai drivers worked their way around us and we made it across fine. Next up was crossing several sides of a large driving circle, but at least here we had pedestrians to fall in line with.

(our crazy biking-in-traffic experience - biking in Davis does not prepare you for this!)

We then traveled south of the city on a large but not-as-busy road until we reached the old wat. Sunrise was quiet but did exist and we got to see a little of it from the top story of this very tall, very old wat. It was unusual to find so many buddhas with their heads attached! The grounds turned out to be an active monastary, and in my early morning sleepiness I had forgotten to wear or bring long sleeves. The first tourists to arrive were all modestly dressed and I quickly felt out of place. I tried to hide near a tree while Ty went into the main hall, but we left pretty quickly so as not to offend anyone.

(it's early enough for sunrise, I just almost died on a bike, and I am not dressed right for the temple. This is a surprisingly good smile considering!)

We continued biking down the road towards the Japanese and Dutch settlements shown on our tourist map – but they turned out to be very expensive to see and contained very little of interest, so we skipped them. We passed a Buddhist cemetery with above-ground graves (or mausoleums, it was hard to tell). Very different than American cemeteries.

(Buddhist cemetery)

On the way back we stopped at an old shipyard filled with beautiful teak Thai boats in various states of disrepair. They were beautiful and grand – houseboat sized boats with huge full hulls, painted eyes on either side of the bow, and various beautiful styles of roofs, doors, window shutters, and latticework. Some of the boats were being repaired, others seem like they had been dry docked for decades or more. All of this for free! We also saw a beautiful marsh bird – something like an egret, some lovely marsh habitat, a peek of a waterfront community across the river, and a litter of adorable furry stray pups and mom. We passed an elderly gentleman and his pet cat, wandering around the boat yard singing to himself and collecting morning glory for cooking (we had eaten some great morning glory with oyster sauce and recognized what he was harvesting).

(thai houseboats)

We had also come across a series of street vendors near a smaller canal crossing filled with bags of fish, eels, and snails. We asked if they were too eat (a little grossed out as the eels swarming in their Ziplocs of water, and the snails covered in mud). The street vendor explained they were for garden ponds, not for dinner!

The bike ride back was horrific – it was now even busier and we were on the other side of the road, which was somehow harder to navigate. We had to cross the exit lanes and could not find our way onto the main overpass because cars were moving so fast. I also got bopped on the head by one of those inflatable advertising socks while trying to avoid a delivery truck! Ty had seen the middle bridge, which was older and smaller, and thought it might be more pedestrian friendly. In circling around trying to find our way onto it, we ran into another tourist on his bike- in trying to talk about our options cross the river, he indicated he was deaf. I was humbled – so much of our safety depended on hearing the traffic coming up behind or alongside us. Here we were feeling brave and daring, and this man was doing everything we were without the benefit of sounds to guide him! A few minutes later we saw him overhead on the center bridge and we set off to follow his path. We found ourselves on the very narrow shoulder of a busy on ramp, and with one of us on each side of the lane of oncoming traffic! We were both so stressed about how to safely get home (and also, more than safety, we were concerned about breaking laws and creating traffic problems!), that we started shouting at one another. It was really the only fight we had on our trip – and I decided no couple could have made it across without some kind of argument. :) It actually was pretty hilarious, since we had to yell across moving traffic to each other (“You didn't wait for me! Why did you take off by yourself?” “Why didn't you follow me, I had a plan!” “but you didn't tell me the plan so how could I know?”) while trying to bike uphill on opposite sides of this narrow bridge full of oncoming cars. Once we were over the top and safely on the other side (with sidewalks! Real ones, that were wide enough and smooth enough to bike on! What a relief!), we both apologized and quickly started laughing at ourselves. Nothing like a sense of escaping death to mend your harsh words. :)

We still somehow overshot our turn and had to make a large circle to get back to our guest house- arriving an hour late for breakfast. The woman running the place laughed at me for having bike grease all over my upper arm. She asked what happened and I had no idea – she said I was like a little kid getting dirty and not knowing how. She had a pretty good laugh at my expense, which made the whole thing seem worthwhile.

(good-bye Luang Chumni Village guest house!)

We let ourselves be talked out of taking a train or bus to Bangkok, based on how rough the last train ride was, the cost of going second class to get air conditioning, and our crazy morning on the bikes. Our tuk tuk driver, who was going to take us to the station, of course also ran a private taxi and offered to drive us to Bangkok – she would just need to drive the tuk tuk home to get the car. Our guest house manager agreed this was our best, if most expensive option, and we decided US$40 was worth shaving an hour off our drive, getting air conditioning, not having to lug our big bags on another train, and most importantly, not having to figure out how to get from the Bangkok train station to our hotel during Friday traffic. It also ended up pouring rain, so we saved ourselves and all of our stuff some drenching during the several transitions from tuk tuks to trains and back to tuk tuks that we were planning to do.

We piled into the tuk tuk with our luggage, and headed off to the drivers house to get her car for the ride to Bangkok. It turned out someone else in the family was using the taxi car for business that day, so we left the house and met up with the taxi on one of the major streets in Ayutthaya. We swapped cars in the middle of this large street, then drove to the ruins, where the driver's husband was working, as she wanted him to drive us to Bangkok instead of her. About 45 minutes later we finally got on the road – eating up most of the hour we thought we were saving. I started to feel ripped off – it seemed this wouldn't save us time and we might be getting a bad deal. In the end however, I was so glad we took the car – the driver did end up saving us an hour, and as soon as we saw Bangkok spread out in all of it's sprawled, high density, trafficky glory, we were so glad to have someone who knew their way around! Plus, the rain was torrential, and it was amazing to drive into the city (the freeways are elevated so you drive over the city as you come into it) while lightning was flashing, the orangey clouds were swirling, the Chao Praia River was churning, and we were safe in the back of a dry car!


(Rama VIII bridge just before the storm broke over Bangkok)

The driver got us confidently to the main road and even to the little soi (lane) that our next guest house was on. But he was unsure of how to find the guest house and tried to leave us on the corner, in the rain, with all of our luggage. Fortunately Ty saw a sign with the guest house name and pushed the driver to keep trying to find it – i was very proud of his haggling skills! We finally got to the front door, checked in, and used the rain as an excuse to nap for a few hours. It turned out the rain never really stopped but it did let up and the guest house loaned us umbrellas.

(our guest house in Bangkok)

We took our first boat taxi to Wat Arun, which is across the river from the Old Palace and main temple in Bangkok. We climbed the many steep and narrow steps to the midway point up the chedi, and got amazing views over Bangkok and the river. The rain forced us back down- it was really slippery and steep on those stairs! We were there at the end of the day, so we didn't have much time, but the rain and late hour also meant very few other tourists were around. It was a nice way to get a bird's eye feel for the city – at least the small old corner we would be visiting during our short stay.

(old and new Bangkok from Wat Arun)

(Wat Arun has intricately carved details!)

The boat ferries were an interesting experience in and of themselves. First, as you walk down the narrow corridor to the ticket counter, there are 2 counters. The first that you reach is actually the tour group, who blatantly distorts the truth to convince you your only option is their marked up offering. Fortunately, since I had asked the guest house staff what to expect in terms of schedule and costs for the ferries, and the temple's hours, I could smell out the sales pitch and the distortions of truth (if not outright lies) and saw through the scheme. The guest house proprietors were invaluable to us in helping us know what to expect dinner or a tuk tuk to cost, etc, so that we didn't get scammed as easily. What was bothersome is that this sales pitch counter had no signage, no posters and no way to distinguish it from the real government run counter 2 feet away. It was the first counter you had to pass walking through, so it was hard to tell that it was any different than the real counter. And the government-employed, legitimate ferry fare taker was 2 feet from us, listening to the salesperson lie to us, and never made any indication we should be talking to her instead. I realized that the tourism scams in Bangkok were much worse than in other parts of the country – and that this might be why other tourists we talked to seemed so bitter and jaded compared to us. By going directly to Chiang Mai, we missed the prevalence of scams and came to see them as the exception in the big city, instead of a normal part of Thai culture. Of course, we got scammed or potentially scammed in other places as well, but the nature of it was different and it was much less common.

(old city wall and fort near our guest house)

We spent our one night in Bangkok trying to experience the famous backpacking street called Khao San Road. This couple block radius has many cheap hostel-type lodgings and cheap food, and at night the road is (at least theoretically) closed to traffic and turns into a night market and bar scene. We still saw plenty of scooters and a few cars weaving through the pedestrians and street vendors though! When we first started out, being the early birds that we are, there were no people and the vendors were just setting up. We wondered if we had the right place! We finally got hungry enough to just stop and eat, since we couldn't find anything interesting or memorable for our last dinner in Thailand. The Four Brothers lodge and restaurant turned out to have good food on a patio, so we could enjoy the foot traffic with dinner. By the time we left, the streets were more crowded – although since it is low season, I am sure it was a muted scene. It could have been anywhere with a spring break town – Mexico, Miami, etc. There were bars and restaurants all oriented towards the street, with wild lights and music, crusty backpackers and street vendors, young people and even families, all wandering around in the light rain trying to have a storied experience.

(Khao San Road)

We did get some tasty street food – plus a not-so-thai banana-nuttella crepe. We tried to buy more gifts but had the same sad assortment of tourist souvenirs to choose from. The highlight of the night was convincing Ty to get one last foot massage (which really means foot, leg, head and neck massage!) with me before we left. We found a good little place which had some decent ambience (many of them are more like nail salons with fluorescent lights, plastic chairs, and vinyl flooring), and we had a very relaxing hour for about $12 a person!

(note the large clock to keep track of your 1 hour massage- ours went long anyways!)

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