Jan 15 2014

Thailand Day 4: Heading to Krabi & Ao Nang

We woke up early again this morning, and packed up the last of our things to get ready to depart for Krabi. We headed down for the breakfast buffet, looked at the pool one last time, and then hailed a taxi for the airport. At the hotel’s recommendation, we paid the taxi a flat-fare instead of using the meter. It was 400 baht, and only took us about 25 minutes to get there.

We were a bit worried that our luggage was over the allotment for Bangkok Airways (which was only 20kg [44 lbs], as opposed to the international flights which were 50 lbs). Luckily, though, the representative didn’t charge us for the extra weight, and just let us board the flight with the carry-ons as well! Though the flight was delayed by about 45 minutes, it went very smoothly, and we landed at Krabi Airport. We took this shuttle to the terminal building, but it seemed silly since it was only about one minute away from the aeroplane. We gathered our bags, and paid the 600 baht for the taxi to Ao Nang.

We checked in to the Mercure Krabi Deevana hotel, and it was fairly nice. I don’t know that it is really a five-star hotel, but it was great nonetheless. The only problem that I saw was that our room was fairly far from the rest of the hotel. The rooms are in separate buildings, and we were in the farthest one from the lobby. The pools, however, were beautiful, and wrapped around all of the buildings.


The room at the Mercure Krabi Deevana hotel
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Beautiful cliff view from our room at the Mercure Krabi Deevana in Ao Nang
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We decided to just go see the surrounding areas, and walk to the main Ao Nang strip (with all the shops and restaurants, et cetera). The walk was quick, and enjoyable, especially with the nice breeze that was blowing most of the time. We stopped in at Ao Nang Haven in order to schedule our massages for the next day. I booked the Adventurer’s massage, and she booked the After-Beach massage.


The main strip of shops in Ao Nang
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With that task out of the way, we were both getting a bit hungry, so we went just up the road to Ao Nang Boat Noodle restaurant. I had heard good things about this little, unassuming eatery, and thought that it would be a good place to have our first meal in Krabi. We started with some spring rolls and fried tofu, which were both excellent. The fried tofu was especially good, as it was prepared differently than I had had before. This batter was really light and almost fluffy. For dinner, I ordered spicy basil with chicken (medium heat), and she got mixed vegetables with chicken in a medium brown sauce. Both of the meals were great, and we finished off with some interesting ice cream. I chose the Rua Mit flavour, which I had never even heard of before. It was basically a sweet cream ice cream with some candied fruits and vegetables in it.


AMAZING dinner of spicy basil chicken, some fried tofu, and spring rolls at Ao Nang Boat Noodle restaurant
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After dinner, we walked along the beach back to the hotel. We started off in the Kingfisher Restaurant by ordering a couple drinks. After realising that they were just going upstairs to the bar to get the drinks, we cut out the middle man and went up there ourselves. They had half-priced drinks for happy hour, so we ordered some of them. They weren’t very good at all, but it was the nice end to the evening.

Jan 14 2014

Thailand Day 3: Dusit Zoo and the Museum of Floral Culture

For today, I had scheduled only a couple activities as I wanted it to be a slightly more relaxing day than the past few. To start off, we went down to the breakfast buffet and had some great food. My personal favourite was the assortment of dim sum that they had to offer (including amazing dessert custard buns).

After breakfast, we hailed a taxi outside the hotel and departed for what we thought would be the Dusit Zoo. However, this was the first truly awful cab experience that we had in Bangkok. This driver started heading in the wrong direction, which I could tell since I was using the GPS and maps that I had on my phone. At first, I thought that he was just taking a longer route in order to increase the fare. I then realised, though, that he was taking us in the completely wrong direction. We were about 60km outside of Bangkok (to the southeast) before I could get him to pull over and let us out. He just kept saying that we were going in the right direction, and wouldn’t pull over. He dropped us on the outskirts of Bang Na in the slums of the city, and we had to walk to the nearest BTS station (Bearing), which was about 6km away. I wasn’t all that nervous about it, but it was really aggravating!

Once we got to the BTS station, we took it to National Stadium, which was as close as we could get to the Dusit Zoo. There were still many protesters outside of the Stadium, which made hailing a taxi nearly impossible. As such, we started walking in the direction of Dusit Zoo, and eventually got a cab for the remaining leg of the journey.

The Dusit Zoo was shockingly barren and underwhelming. They advertised that they had pandas, koalas, and elephants… of which, they had none. They did have a penguin exhibit, and by “exhibit,” I mean that there were about seven Humboldts hopping around. The only two parts of the zoo that were actually worth the visit were the incredibly rare White Bengal Tigers and a Caracal. The White Bengal Tigers were sleeping, and were a bit difficult to see, but still worth it. The Carracal was pacing around looking as fierce as ever. We don’t have either of those animals at our zoo, so it was fantastic to get to see them, even if it was only briefly.


Koala statue at one of the entrances to the Dusit Zoo in Bangkok
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Sleeping White Bengal Tiger at the Dusit Zoo in Bangkok
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Caracal at the Dusit Zoo
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After the zoo, we took a tuk-tuk for a short lift to the Museum of Floral Culture. This was a museum that wasn’t really mentioned in many places online, but it seemed interesting to me (seeing as floral macro photography is my big hobby). The museum was only firstly recognised by the Thai government about a year ago (in 2012), and it was a little small, but the tour guide that we had was great at explaining the use of flowers in different ceremonies and within different cultures. At the end of the tour, we were presented with some lovely herbal and floral teas and some traditional Thai sweets. The sweets were all very similar, but had some subtleties that set each of them apart from one another. After tea, we walked around the garden and took some photos of the area.


An example of the beautifully ornate pieces made from flowers
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We hopped in a cab to head back to the hotel, and I thought that we were going to have another experience like the one that we had this morning. Fortunately, though, the driver was just taking a different route in order to avoid the protests. He dropped us off right where I had asked (the Surasak BTS station, directly across Sathorn Road from our hotel).

We were debating either staying close to the hotel and going next door to the Blue Elephant, or going down to midtown Asok for dinner. We had eaten at the Blue Elephant in Swords, Ireland, so it would have been neat to eat at the original in Bangkok, but instead, we went to Asok to eat at Nobita Yakinku, which is a Japanese-style BBQ place. We ordered a bunch of different meats (chicken, pork, bacon, brisket, et cetera), and cooked them on the open firepit at our table. For dessert, they brought out this very interesting mix of sno-cone ice with mixed-berry syrup, pieces of sweet bread, and chocolate chips. I hadn’t ever had anything like it. The meal was fun, but I personally didn’t like the food all that much.

Sifting through the sea of protesters, we stopped by Soi Cowboy (which is a one-block red light district) on our way back to the BTS station. I really didn’t have any interest in going into the highly-overpriced bars in the area, but wanted to see what Bangkok’s RLD was actually like. A couple scantily-clad young girls asked me what I would like, and I politely declined. Actually, some of them looked so young that it was a bit unnerving.


Soi Cowboy – Bangkok’s one-block red light district
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If you don’t fancy the ladies, though, there’s actually a lesser-known gay men’s area in Bangkok as well. It is on Surawong Road right before you get to Rama IV Road (right near Dukes Tower. We didn’t see this area at night since it was rather far from our hotel, but it was rather dead during the day (which is to be expected):


The gay district in Bangkok – Surawong Road near Dukes Tower
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Anyway, I snapped a few photos and we were on our way back to Asok BTS station. We hopped the train back to Surasak, had a couple cocktails at Swizzles lounge in the lobby of the Eastin Grand Hotel Sathorn, and retired for the night. I don’t think that my head had even fully hit the pillow before I was asleep. For some reason, the day really took it out of me.

Tomorrow we leave for Krabi (Ao Nang Beach, really), which should start a whole new set of adventures!

Jan 13 2014

Thailand Day 2: Shutdown Bangkok, protests, and temples

Today, we woke up a little earlier than anticipated, and decided to get going on our second day in Bangkok. I had planned on visiting several temples throughout the day, since they are such a huge part of Thai culture. Our first temple was Wat (which means “temple” in Thai) Benchamabopit, or more commonly known as just “Wat Ben.” This one–along with many of the others that I thought we would see–are located in the Dusit region of Bangkok.

On our way out the door, the concierge indicated that taxis would be very reluctant to travel to the Dusit region today due to the protests. We had heard about the protests before we even left the United States, but didn’t have a firm understanding of the level or intensity. I had researched some of the issues, and found that the some of the Thais even considered the intended political regime to be tyrannical, and that’s why they were so adamant about standing up to the government officials.

We found a taxi that would take us to Wat Ben, but we couldn’t actually get all the way up to it as the roads were closed off to cars. When he let us out, we thanked him for being kind enough to take us that close, and we started walking the rest of the way. Unfortunately, many of the roads were even blocked off to pedestrians, so we didn’t actually make it to Wat Ben.


Shutdown Bangkok – Protests on 13 January 2014
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What we did witness, however, was significantly more incredible than a tour of the temples could have been. We were in the city when many Thai citizens were demanding governmental reform, and were attempting to shut down the city–thus, why many of the available t-shirts said “Shutdown Bangkok – 13 January 2014.” We got to see, first hand, what happens when citizens feel that they are being treated unfairly. Personally, I was honoured to have the experience, and got to see how a photojournalist feels in the middle of such an event. It is something that I may never get to experience again during my lifetime, so I wouldn’t trade it for anything.


Tee from Shutdown Bangkok Protests
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One of the many tents in which Thais were camped out for the protests
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Though we didn’t get to see Wat Ben, or several of the other temples, we did get to see Wat Saket, which is considered to be one of the most holy of places not only in Bangkok, but in all of Thailand. This beautiful temple holds an enormous solid gold Buddha, and is home to The Golden Mount. Visitors can climb the steps to the top of The Golden Mount (for a mere 20 baht per person), and see the stunning views of surrounding Bangkok. Also atop the Mount are some statues honouring many of the Hindu gods. Before leaving The Golden Mount, I stopped and bought a statuette of the Buddha. I tried to get one that was a little more unique than the ones that can be found essentially everywhere in Bangkok (and throughout the world, for that matter).


Young boy Buddhist monk meditating in front of a Bodhi Tree
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We then departed Wat Sraket and headed for The Grand Palace, which is home to many more temples and Thai holy places. However, it was completely shut down due to the protests. Thinking that we could still take a ferry across the river to Wat Arun, we hopped in a tuk-tuk to get to the pier. Instead of taking the ferry, though, we ended up going to Wat Pho, which is the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. After taking off our shoes (as is customary), we entered the ornate temple, and saw a MASSIVE statues of Buddha lying down with his head resting on his hand. I can’t adequately describe how large this statue really was, and the pictures don’t do it justice. This is one that you simply have to see in order to believe.


Wat Pho – Temple of the Reclining Buddha
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Before leaving Wat Pho, we also saw a beautiful statue of Buddha with Mucalinda (the naga [or snake-like being with seven heads]). It was incredible to see the craftsmanship that went into this treasure of Buddhism.


Buddha with the seven-headed naga behind him
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Feeling a bit worn out after a long day of walking, and some disappointments with not being able to see all that we had set out to see, we took a cab back to the hotel. We spent a little more than hour at the pool, which was outstanding, albeit a little chilly in the water. We then freshened up, and decided to head out for dinner in the Asok Midtown area of Bangkok.

We started out by walking down Sathorn Road toward Lumpini Park. At Lumpini Park, we decided to pay the 20 baht per person to take the MRT (the underground rail system that is very similar to the Tube in London) to Sukhumvit station near Asok Tower. When we arrived, we had to walk another 500m or so, which took quite a long time as the protests were happening there. Unfortunately, the restaurant was also closed for this reason, so I went with the backup plan. We hailed a taxi, and went to the Garden of Dream restaurant. It was interesting to go to an Italian restaurant here, and the food was fairly good. I found the prices to be a bit high given the quality of the food, but our server was very friendly, and it was an experience nonetheless. I ordered fish and chips, and she ordered artichoke and tomato pasta. I ended up getting pesto fish with roasted vegetables, which was probably better anyway.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel via taxi. I’ve found that taxi drivers in Bangkok (especially after the ones to and from dinner this evening) drive incredibly fast, but yet, there don’t seem to be as many collisions as one would anticipate.

We got back to the hotel, went up to the pool area bar, and had a couple drinks and some snacks. I wasn’t impressed with the service or the food and drinks in the pool area this evening, so we went down to the one in the lobby (called Swizzles). I thought that their drinks were MUCH better, and they were more fairly priced. Also, they let me start a tab instead of paying for each item individually. We finished off the evening with a few cocktails and some of the best mango sticky rice that I’ve ever had.


Mango and sweet sticky rice at Swizzles – Eastin Grand Sathorn hotel in Bangkok
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Overall, despite the disappointments with not being able to see all the temples (Benchamabopit, Phrakaew, Arun), today was an incredible day—one that I won’t soon forget.