First Adventure in Bangkok

Last week I got Sprint to unlock my phone so I could put a Thai SIM card in. They were really nice about it. Almost everyone else I'm with here had to pay someone at MBK, a huge mall downtown, to unlock their phones for them. Saturday afternoon they all went back to the mall to get their phones set up. The two of us who were already set up went to meet with April, a Baylor grad who had flown in with us, but was picked up at the airport to go to her separate apartments. She's working at a different school for low income students, and we hadn't seen her since we arrived.

The first thing to do was to catch the number 8 bus outside our apartment. There are lots of bus lines that stop at Lat Prao 46, but number 8 is always a safe bet; it stops at the Skytrain, MRT, Chatuchak Park, Big C, and pretty much anywhere else you need to go in Bangkok. It does, however, have a reputation as the line with the craziest drivers. It's uncomfortable though. You almost always have to stand, it's crowded, and not air-conditioned. Sometimes they won't stop all the way, just slow down forcing you to kind of hop/fall out. It only costs B8 though. The Skytrain is only about ten minutes away by bus, and it's really nice - much nicer than the number 8!

We met up with April at the Siam Skytrain station, near where her apartment is. We ate at the food court in the Siam Paragon, one of the nicest malls in the city, and looked through our guidebooks to find something interesting to do.

river taxi approaching the dock

One of the more iconic Bangkok experiences is taking a river taxi. It's the quickest and cheapest way to get from the Siam area to the city center where all the temples are located. The nearest river taxi dock was about a ten minute walk from the mall, and we were able to catch one of the regular boats fairly quickly. The boat ride was quick and super cheap, although the whole thing felt somewhat unstable and the river stank. We were the only three farangs on the boat! It cost me B30, but it kind of seemed like everyone was paying a different amount, and I'm not great with Thai numbers yet.

soon as we stepped out of the river taxi dock we were accosted by tuk-tuk drivers offering to take us around to all the temples and major sites in the area for only B10 per person. We had discussed this on the boat ride over, and were well aware of the scam. They take you to all the major temples, but after every one they drag you to an overpriced tailor or souvenir shop where they have a deal with the owner. Still, we had never taken a tuk-tuk, and wanted to see what it was like. Riding in a tuk-tuk was actually pretty fun. It's basically a motor scooter, and they weave through the traffic and get you where you want to go fast.

We asked the driver to take us to see Luang Pho To, the Temple of the Standing Buddha.

me with the giant Standing Buddha

I don't know what it is... it looked cool

We walked around the temple complex for a while. Besides the giant Buddha, there were lots of smaller shrines. There really weren't any tourists there that day, just a few people burning incense and praying, or talking with saffron-robed monks.

one of the smaller shrines

shrine to the beloved King Rama V

After that the driver took us to a much smaller temple. We were the only ones there. The temple housed a small Reclining Buddha statue. When we showed up, the caretaker excitedly showed us around "his" temple. When he learned we were from Texas he excitedly announced "Cowboy! Clint Eastwood!" The caretaker showed us the statue and gave us each three sticks of incense to light. "Say a wish!" he told us. Afterwards we talked with him for a few minutes. He was excited to learn about our job teaching English.

not THE Reclining Buddha, but still pretty cool

After the second temple, the driver told us he was taking us to a tailor where we could get a "special discount". Luckily we had been expecting this, and offered him B50 each to take us back to the river taxi. We were expecting it, and had already planned how to get past the scam. It ended up costing less that $2 per person for about two hours visiting the temples. I'll admit, I'm pretty proud of us navigating Bangkok by ourselves and working out a pretty good deal for a tuk-tuk ride.