Bangkok, November 2015 − Travels − Captain Tom

Bangkok, November 2015

Together with Franz I go to Bangkok and visit Toscha. He has to work but spends some time with us in the evening and gives some advice what to see.

We got many impressions in this one week and tried out some unfamiliar things. We got along with the slogan "Mai Bpen Rei", which means something like "it's ok", "no problem", "Don't worry", "never mind", a slogan which is quite common in Thailand

I have compiled some things below which were somehow impressive to me

1 The journey

There are no direct flights from Berlin. So I had to go to Frankfurt first and then on an 11 hours flight directly to Bangkok. It is quite long. The 6 hours time difference are quite bearable due to the overnight flight. On the way back the cabin staff of Lufthansa went on strike. So I had to go with Thai Airways via Kopenhagen back to Berlin. That required two additonal hours of travel

Start in Berlin

Ready for takeoff in Frankfurt

River Ganges in India

Himalaya mountains in a distance

Approaching Bangkok

Toscha lives in a skyscraper close to Sukhumvit - a major road of the town.

The view from the 38 floor is impressive.

Taking off in Kopenhagen I can see Öresund bridge between Denmark and Sweden. On the right hand side is Malmö in Sweden and on the left hand side is Kopenhagen in Denmark.

Approaching Berlin. It is chilly and the trees are glowing in fall colors

2 The temples

The temples are very impressive and glorious. We have visited some of them. In Bangkok we had to go the the Temple of the reclining Buddha Wat Pho and to te Grand Palace. The resplendency is unbelievable. The former capital city Ayutthaya contains much bigger temples but they decay as they are not in use anymore.

The Reclining Buddha is 138 ft (46 m) long

Walking around

More buddhas and sculptures

Chedis are places of prayer

The Grand Palace is home of the Emerald Buddha, one of the main sanctuaries. You need to wear appropriate clothing. So long pants are required which you can borrow at the entrance.

The area is also the King's Palace with audience room and throne room. That's probably why there are some guards.

More views

On our way to the former capital city Ayutthaya about 50 miles north of Bangkok we pass by the summer residence of the king in Bang Pa-In. Very glorious.

Then we go the the temples. Many of them are decaying and one can see the basic material is bricks. But many of them are still in use. You see Buddhas "in operation" and places of prayer.

The temple Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon

The bricks on the stairs are completely worn

An old temple viewn from the river (Wat Chainwatthanaram). We will visit it later. The corncob shaped chedis are called prang

The very calm temple Wat Choeng Tha without visitors provides tranquility

Temple Wat Mahathat displays the head of a buddha in a tree

At temple Wat Ratchaburana I climb the prang

The reclining Buddha of Wat Lokayasutharam

The final temple Wat Chaiwatthanaram is the one at the river

I am done.

3 Other sights

We did not only visit temples. There are some other things to see.

The flower market

China Town

Khao San Road

Jim Thompson House

The Red Sky Bar on top of Hotel Centara Grand. Watching the sunset on 55th floor is quite nice

Red light district Soi Cowboy

Cocktails at night

4 Shopping

You can do shopping everywhere. We were more interested in gadgets and toys. Two of the malls did rather offer IT components and were not that interesting

Fortune Town

Pantip Plaza

Siam Paragon mall is big and focusses on luxury goods. There is even a line up of car stores.

The MBK center is a flea market on 6 floors. Many many little sales booths offer everything one can think of.

5 Food

You will eat what's put on the table. Sounds easy, is not quite that easy but it works. We have tried out a lot of thai food and it worked out well.

Breakfast is rather European

Thai noodles

Dinner with Toscha

Deep fried crab shell is quite tasty. The fish was not that good. It contained a lot of fishbones

Coke Zero in Thai

We found a dealer for insects and frogs. We tried the grubs and the crickets. Quite good.

Heinz Ketchup in a Thai version

We had the final dinner in the Thai restaurant Ban Khun Mae at Siam Square, the heart of the city.

6 The custom made suit

Franz needed a suit. You can get custom made suits in Bangkok. Raja's Fashion had a lot of recommendations. Our week in Bangkok was sufficient to make a suit

Selecting the fabric