Day 1 - May Kaidee And The Pigeon Man

First morning in Bangkok. Excited as hell.

We did a good job of staying up the night before, about 10:00ish, so I thought we were in good shape for beating the jet lag. But when you are dealing with a time difference that is exactly the opposite of the zone you live in it is hard to do that in one day.

So Lisa was wide awake at 4:00am and I was up around 5:00. How the hell I could just wake up after less than seven hours even though I really hadn't slept for the previous twenty-something hours is beyond me. I guess the body clock is a pretty strong time-keeper. Though if that's the case, why the heck did I oversleep class and work so many damn times? Oh right, the partying.

Still, not too bad for the first morning.

We made our way out into the city after breakfast. I decided to be adventurous and try a Thai breakfast of rice congee, a rice pudding type of dish, with a small omelet, egg cooked with radish and salt eggs. The rice congee was OK, had to add a lot of sugar. But the salt eggs were the most gawd-awful thing I have tasted in a long time. I wasn't too adventurous for breakfast after that. Stuck with Western breakfasts from there on out.

So we took off to see the sights. We did pretty much the top tourist attractions on the first day - Golden Palace, Wat Pho, National Museum - so we weren't going anywhere off the beaten path or anything. But when you are going to large tourist spots you do have to know what the common scams are since there will be people trying to pull them no matter what continent your visiting. Lonely Planet is one of the best guidebooks for letting you know what to watch out for, I think.

Bangkok is infamous for its traffic, and I was determined to avoid taking cabs, tuk-tuks or anything else that involved wheels on pavement while we were there. That's my general goal when I travel anywhere, though it's not always possible in the developing world. Luckily, Bangkok joined the world of modern mass transit in 1999 when the first SkyTrain line opened. It now has two lines, Sukhumvit and Silom, and was joined in 2004 by the first subway line. These don't cover nearly as much of the city as they should, but combined with the state railway's local stations, a boat service that traverses the Chao Phraya and the smaller long boats that work the city's canal system, you have quite the intermodal system. They don't have the concept of free transfers down yet, not even between the subway and SkyTrain, but the modes do at least cross paths enough to make transferring between them fairly easy. (map of the "system")

For a transit geek like me it is a lot of fun to figure out all the logistics of getting around the city. I wanted to make sure I knew how to get anywhere we were going at all times so we could avoid asking anybody directions (might as well out a big sign on my head that says "I'm a lost tourist, take advantage of me") and turn down any offers from taxi or tuk-tuk drivers.

We pretty much got to use all the modes of mass transport while we were in Bangkok. We were in a great location for it too, being walking distance to both the SkyTrain and the subway. So we walked to the Siam Central SkyTrain station. Along the way we passed the Erawan Shrine, a crazy busy Hindu shrine. We thought there was a special event going on when we first passed by, but we eventually found out that it is like this all the time.


We caught the Silom line to the current southern end of the line, Saphan Taksin, on the edge of the river right next to Central Pier. Train cost us 35 Thai baht (THB) based on the distance. I thought it was kind of expensive for Bangkok since Thailand is a fairly poor country. Fares on the train, based on distance, seem to be in the range of 30-40 THB per ride, which is US$1-1.35. Considering that a can of Coke can be had for around 12 THB, this is a pretty heavy cost for the local residents. But it is a damn fine system. Really modern and clean, and the stations are really big.

Anyway, we got to the boat dock and asked about tickets and we got the tourist boat tickets pressed on us. Unlimited rides on day long on the special tourist boat or any of the other regular commuter boats for only 100 THB. This looks like a go deal until you find out that individual trips on the regular boats, at least within the area where you will go as a tourist, cost between 9 and 13 THB. So there is no way you get your money's worth on the tourist ticket. We only made that mistake the first day.

We climbed on the boat and made our way to Tha Thien to go to the Grand Palace/Wat Phra Kaeo grounds. A great way to travel in Bangkok, along the river away from the traffic and the masses of people on the sidewalks.

And Monks travel that way too!

We actually got off the boat one stop too early and had to walk all along the western wall of the palace to get to the entrance. Which was a great walk except for all the tuk-tuk drivers trying to get us to take a ride with them by telling us the palace was closed. This is apparently a common ploy to get you to ride with them to shop where they get a commission for delivering customers.

Wat Phra Kaeo is home to the famous/sacred Emerald Buddha, which we couldn't get a picture of because of something to do with praying or worshiping or some shit. Sheesh.

If I'm on vacation and I don't get a picture of something, does it exist?

So we went there for a while, stopped in the palace cafe for a cold drink that included trying a coconut.

It wasn't that good.

Then we went to the National Museum and then doubled back down to Wat Pho. This would be only the beginning of a good solid week of seeing Wats in Thailand and Cambodia. By the time we would leave Cambodia I would pretty much have seen all the Wats I would ever care to see.

At least Wat Pho had the Reclining Buddha.

I know this is supposed to be a revered figure and everything, but I can't find it anything but funny myself.

One thing that happened on the way down to Wat Pho is the kind of thing you watch out for when traveling. We were walking along Sanam Luang, a large esplanade north of the Grand Palace, when we were accosted by a guy shoving little baggies of corn in our hands. We kept saying "no thank you" and shoving them away but he really was pushing them on us, even opening them up on the second try so that they would already be falling out. He was trying to get us to feed the pigeons. If you've ever done any international traveling at all, you've seen this before. Someone pushes something on you for a "picture moment" even though you didn't ask for it, and then expects a ridiculous amount of money for it afterwards. Another time I remember this happening to me was in Rome, with two guys hanging outside the Colosseum or something, in full Roman soldier costume with plastic Roman helmets to put on people for a picture.

This always bothers me. Even if it is something I want to do, I don't like to be bamboozled. When you are in a place like Venice you go up to a guy with a cart of seeds, with a sign and a price list, and you buy them of your own free will and you feed the pigeons. That's great. This sucked, because I knew there would be a confrontation after the pigeons had been fed. Lisa loved feeding the pigeons, she always does. I had no real problem with giving the guy some money, it is a poor country after all, so I asked him ow much. He wanted 150 THB. So, like five bucks for about a nickel's worth of corn kernels, and I didn't even take a picture. I tried to give him some of my loose change and he told me "paper money." I lied and told him I didn't have any paper money and that I also didn't ask for the corn to begin with and blah blah blah....

He tried to be a little intimidating but I stuck to my claim that I didn't have any paper money on me so if he didn't want my change then he would get nothing. He took the change.

Finally, toward the end of the day we made our way back to the boat to go up to a vegetarian restaurant I read about called May Kaidee's. We took the boat up to Phra Athit, upon exiting the dock you walk down a narrow walkway to the street. In the evening the walkway is actually a bar with tables and chairs. A great little spot.


Had a great meal at May Kaidee's, vegetables with a spicy peanut sauce and spring rolls, with the other customers being mostly European and American vegetarians. My favorite restaurant on our whole trip. Mmmmm....

Caught the last boat back to Central Pier - the biggest problem with the boat service is that it ends at 7:30 even though the rail lines run until past midnight - to catch the SkyTrain back to Siam Central and walk back to the hotel

Strolled along Sukhumvit Road on our way back to the hotel, through the masses of people.

Still wondered where the heck all of the sex tourists were. We'd been in town for day and a half and still hadn't seen any obvious sex tourism. Where the heck does it happen? Were we in the wrong neighborhood?

We would finally find out the next night.


Next - Ayutthaya and Bangkok's skeezy white men (Finally!)