Bangkok
We had an easy journey up here from Penang and arrived at the Shangri-La hotel to find that we had been upgraded to a top-floor room with a view down the Chao Phraya river.
There is endless activity to watch on the river - ferries, long-tail boats, and a lot of commercial traffic too. And at night all the party boats and dinner cruises swing into action….
On our first full day, we caught a ferry up river to see the Wat Phra Kaew temple complex and the Grand Palace. It was extremely busy - hordes and hordes of people, mainly in large tour groups which tended to make everything a bit congested - but we made the best of it. It’s all amazing and you can see why it attracts the crowds.
The first thing you see on entry is the cloister which surrounds the temple complex and is itself 2km long. All the way round the walls are the Ramakian murals, 176 tableau telling the story of Rama, Sita and the evil king Ravana. Rama and Sita are helped by the monkey king, Hanuman, and it all ends happily enter after!
No photos allowed in the main event, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, but very spectacular inside. The Emerald Buddha himself is only about 2ft high, and perched high up in the temple, so a very different approach to all the other temples we’ve visited so far, where the Buddha statues are enormous.
All the buildings within the temple complex are lavishly decorated and whilst photography was a bit tricky (a mixture of overcast skies, trying to avoid including too many people and angles) hopefully these will give an impression.
Then on into the Grand Palace itself, where the grounds are much more spacious and the crowds started to thin a little! The King no longer lives here, but the palace is still used for ceremonial occasions.
It took a few hours for us to wander around the entire complex, at the end of which we were hot and templed out, so back on the boat and down the river to our hotel to relax by the pool with our books.
We found a great spot for drinks and dinner, with a view over the river to the floodlit Wat Arun
On our second day in Bangkok, we’d arranged a day-trip out of the modern capital to the old capital of Ayutthaya. Thailand’s first capital (1350-1450) was at Sukothai in the North of Thailand. We will visit Sukothai later in the trip. Ayutthaya was its second capital, until its sacking by the Burmese in 1767. After a 15 year spell in another location, Bangkok became Thailand’s fourth capital city in 1782.
Ayutthaya is about 1hr 15mins north of Bangkok. We were picked up by a minivan, along with our private guide, who was excellent. Our first stop, on the way to Ayutthaya, was at the royal family’s one-time summer residence of Bang Pa-In, where considerable additions and improvements were made to an earlier palace under the reigns of Rama IV and Rama V, in the second half of the nineteenth century. It was Rama IV who hired Anna Leonowens of King and I fame to teach his children and Rama V was very Western-looking as a result. The palace is beautiful, quirky, with lots of different architectural styles - including a lighthouse! - and surrounded by lovely gardens - including topiary elephants!! And after yesterday’s crowds, it was much emptier and much more peaceful.
Then on to Ayutthaya itself - a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s all ruins now, following the sack of the city by the Burmese, the transfer of many artefacts to be used in the construction of new temples etc in Bangkok, the sale of many artefacts to foreign museums, and the pilfering of stone etc by locals. The royal palace doesn’t survive at all, as it was built of wood - stone and brick were only used for temples. But it’s an atmospheric site and we enjoyed our wanderings.
The first stop was at the temple of Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon, originally founded in 1357 and with the giant stupa (or chedi as it’s known in Thai) added in 1593 to celebrate victory over the Burmese.
Then on to Wat Mahatat, built in Cambodian style. Its most famous artefact is the Buddha head now trapped in the roots of a tree.
After lunch, one more temple - Wat Loyoka Sutharam - with another giant reclining Buddha (especially connected to people born on a Tuesday like me). Diana got a look in too. Her Buddha, connected to those born on a Thursday, is shown in meditative pose.
Today, our third full day here in and around Bangkok, saw us catch the river boat again to visit the other two most significant temple complexes in Bangkok, Wat Arun and Wat Pho. A perfect sunny day, with no clouds and less humidity. These two temples are on opposite sides of the river and each complex covers several acres - they are vast, with many different buildings. The crowds were less ferocious than at the Grand Palace, but they did include a lot of locals dressing up in traditional clothing and having their photos taken around the monuments. We thought they were for engagements or for weddings, but it turns out they just do it for fun. We saw similar in Vietnam a few years ago.
Wat Arun first.
And then Wat Pho.
We loved both these temple complexes, but as you can imagine, we were beginning to feel templed out again - and so this afternoon we went to visit something completely different - the Jim Thompson house. He was an American, born in 1906, who served with OSS, the forerunner of the CIA, during World War 2 and was later posted to Thailand. He fell in love with the country and developed a particularly deep interest in Thai silk. This industry was on its knees and skills were being lost. He decided to set up a silk business in the early 1950s and it is still going today. One of his early commissions was to provide all the silk for The King and I. He disappeared in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia in 1967 and his body has never been found. He was declared dead by the Thai courts 7 years later. Rumours persist that he was still working for the CIA post-WW2, but also that the CIA killed him because of his trenchant views opposing the war in Vietnam. Who knows!?
Anyway, in the 1950s, he bought some land canal-side in Bangkok, built himself a rather wonderful house and settled there in 1957. He was originally an architect by training, though his father had been in textiles. The house is very traditional, and actually consists of half a dozen buildings within a compound. Some of these were built new from reclaimed materials, others were actually moved lock, stock and barrel from other locations. On his travels across the country he hoovered up a significant collection of Thai artefacts - some as much as 1500 years old, some more recent - and these are on display within the house. Some concessions were made to Western taste - for example the inclusion of a dining room - but he obviously tried to stay as close to Thai tradition as possible.
After that, back to the pool for a well-earned swim and an opportunity to enjoy the sun and our Kindles. An early start tomorrow for a two-day side excursion to Kanchanaburi, to learn more of the horrors of the Death Railway and the building of the Bridge on the River Kwai. It will no doubt be a sobering experience, but one not to be missed on a trip to Thailand and a complete change to what we’ve been seeing over the last few days.