Obviously I compiled a really long list of countries and cities I'd like to visit and I then started looking into things within each one that I'd like I pay a visit to, but in terms of scouring the web for photos and videos, I decided that wasn't something I was interested in doing.
Somewhere that I am really looking forward to visiting, like Angkor Wat for example, I felt like looking at other people's pictures on the Internet might dampen my enthusiasm for when I visit. I didn't want to read so much information about each place that I'm going to go, as then it hardly seems worth visiting as you'll have pretty much found out everything you would have discovered when you got there.
I'm all for reading useful bits of information, particularly about 'tourist traps' not to fall into, and anything I need to be aware of, but in terms of background, I did my best to keep it light, ensuring that most things would be new discoveries by the time I arrived.
With so much information to take in about the places I am going, I think it is a good idea to look things up as I go along, having just a vague idea of what I am getting myself into. I wouldn't say I am planning 'on the fly' by any means, but I feel like it has helped me be more analytical and thorough with my research as I am wanting to gain as much information as I can as close to the time as possible. It stays in my head much better that way.
After spending lots of time at two terrific tourist attractions yesterday, I was looking for a way to equal that today with a busy schedule which would certainly test my fitness in the Bangkok heat.
As I wrote yesterday, there are lots of different ways to get around countries in Asia, particularly Thailand, but whenever possible I have done by best to save money and also get in plenty of exercise by attempting to walk as much as possible. I think I wrote before that I was disappointed at the death of my Fitbit as I definitely think I would be doing well over my quota of 10,000 steps a day.
Yesterday I was very impressed with the way in which the river boats are integrated into the public transport system, but you have to get to the water first in order to use them...and as far as I can tell, only one stop on the metro system which connects to it directly. Getting from one place to another doesn't seem as easy and logical as it should be.
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| Colours represent their route across the city - you just have to know which one you are taking... |
I didn't need to change trains on this route at all, and the National Stadium is actually the final stop on the Silom (Dark Green) line.
The penultimate stop on this route is called Siam, Thailand's former alias, and this is considered to be the centre of Bangkok. I looked out of the window as we pulled into the station and it seemed to be a very busy area with all sorts going on, even at lunchtime on a Friday afternoon.
A few minutes later we were at the National Stadium stop and I got off the train, quickly consulted the map, and then started off by first heading in the direction of the stadium itself. I was following a pretty simple route today, but I always have the map in my back pocket just in case I need to reassure myself that I am going the right way.
My first destination was called Wat Saket - also known as the Temple of the Golden Dome. In case it wasn't obvious from my blog yesterday, 'Wat' means temple and there certainly are a lot of them here - not all as fantastic as the one I viewed yesterday mind, but there are believed to be around 300 spread throughout the city.
Wat Saket sits at the top of a hill and is sometimes known as the Golden Mount due to its lofty position. I continued walking down the main road, cross-referencing the street signs I was seeing with the map and grabbing some lunch on the way. I walked for about 30 minutes before I eventually came to a sign post which indicated that Wat Saket was to the right. I'm not sure if I came in the tradesman's entrance or something, but it wasn't exactly the most grand looking route towards the temple. At the top of a huge hill I could see the monument so I figured I was in the right place, but it did take a fair bit of walking around to see where I could buy a ticket and get in.
Eventually I found the ticket office which was being manned by a monk in traditional garments - they're so versatile these Buddhists. It cost me 20 Baht to get in which is roughly around 35p, not bad considering it is one of the holiest monuments throughout the whole country. I actually found this on the way down, but it essentially illustrates the journey I was taking up the side of the monument to the top:
I had been warned that there were a lot of stairs to climb and started making my way up taking some photos of interesting things along the way:
Even though there were a lot of them, the steps were really shallow, and there were places to stop every two minutes or so - I wouldn't say it was any different to climbing a steep hill.
As we spiralled up the view started to improve as more and more of the city became visible, by the time I had reached the top level of the monument it was possible to see quite far despite the predictable city haze:
I went inside the building at the top and there was lots of Buddhist paraphernalia set out around the place. In the last couple of days since starting to see more and more of the religious icon I'm not sure how it is decided whether or not people are allowed to take photos. Obviously it is sacred part of the faith and I know that it is actually illegal to export anything with Buddha's image on it - you can actually get fined at the airport for attempting to do so. It seems as though it is decided by each temple as yesterday in the palace there were at least two areas which were not allowed to be photographed, but in Wat Pho, it was almost encouraged to take pictures of everything.
I suppose there's no particular etiquette in Christianity about taking photos inside a church, but I have to admit that it often feels strange to pull out your camera and start snapping away, because of what it means to at least 50% of the people in there who are usually trying to enjoy a moment of serenity.
Once you had walked around the area inside, there was actually another small staircase which took you to the outside level where the giant bell which has been visible from the bottom stood tall:
There were a few areas where people could pray, and again I noticed that people's feet weren't allowed to point towards the miniature image of their religious icon. It was quite windy at the top, but once again there was an impressive view of the sprawling city if Bangkok:
I managed to pick out the Grand Palace, Wat Arun and Wat Pho as well at the two locations I was heading to next after descending down the steps.
There were a couple of monks up there performing a ritual - well one was performing what looked like a ritual and the other was taking pictures on his smartphone...
Deciding it was time to move on I climbed to the bottom, took a quick look on the map, and realised that I needed to continue straight on to get to something known as the 'Giant Swing'.
Although it wouldn't look out of place in Chinatown, the Giant Swing is actually a religious monument which sits outside Wat Suthat. It's actually rather strangely placed in the middle of a roundabout structure but is one of the cities most popular tourist attractions. It was originally built in 1784, but moved to it's current location in the 1920's and at a height of twenty metres tall it is actually very impressive despite it's simplicity:
After taking a few photos I headed northerly of my current location and began a long walk towards the Democracy monument.
When I arrived on Wednesday, the Germany guy I met on the bus said that his hotel was near here, so I can see now why someone in the airport advised him to get a taxi as I wouldn't have fancied carrying a rucksack this far out from the metro station!
Another piece of architecture in the middle of a roundabout the democracy monument is based around four pillars with a single structure in the middle:
It was built to commemorate the 1932 Siam Revolution, and is on the sight of the former royal cremation grounds. Unfortunately it's a pretty busy intersection so I couldn't get any closer to it than my photo shows (or manage to take one without traffic everywhere).
I had to make my way around the ridiculously busy road to continue on to the zoo which is where I was heading next, and it took me almost as long to cross the road as it eventually did to get to the zoo which isn't exactly in the most convenient location.
I got to the zoo about 3pm so I still had a reasonable time to look around. I brought my ticket and started to make my way around. I'm amazed it has taken me this long to visit a zoo actually - I guess the KL Bird Park was close, but didn't contain a very wide species of animals (as the name suggests). Having still been burnt by the experience of SeaWorld in Jakarta, I was just glad it was open! I'd heard differing reports about the zoo; often I feel like zoos in Asia have a bit of a bad reputation for the condition which their animals are kept in, but I also think that you sometimes get a bit closer access to the animals that you usually would in England.
I remember going to the zoo in Seoul, and being really surprised by how close you could get to some of the animals, and often times it was a little daunting to see that there weren't fences or protective gates in place you would think their might be.
Still, I pressed on, trying not to place too much stock in the fact that many of the animals might well not be able to cope with the hot afternoon Thai sun. Predictably, the first couple of animals I came across were asleep:
But it started to pick up as I went into a very interesting reptile house:
And then to an area where there were some bears:
The two together are Malaysian sun bears, a species I don't ever thing I have seen before and they seemed to be quite willing to get as close to us as physically possible. The other bear alone looked as though it was doing a crazy dance as it swung maniacally from side-to-side, I wish I'd have videoed it actually - I know a few people who could learn a thing or two from his moves....
I pressed on through the rest of the zoo, it was actually really interesting and informative with lots of information about the specific animals in general, but also about the species written in multiple languages. I feel like I picked up a few facts that I didn't know.
Predictably, I spent a lot of time watching the monkeys move around. Annoyingly they had bars rather than glass in front of them, so I wasn't able to take any really good pictures, but it was fascinating to watch them move around, even though I have now seen them do it just a few metres from my face in the wild.
There was also an exhibit on penguins which I was drawn in by, and whilst a few were swimming around in the water, you could walk up stairs and see them waddling around in a little area of land that had been created for them. As much as I like to watch monkeys move, I do find penguins even more entertaining so I spent a good amount of time seeing them in action before completing the rest of my tour.
It was starting to get near closing time, and was quietening off quite a lot so I made sure to go to the last few animal areas before deciding to head towards the exit:
I was a little alarmed as I walked by the lake to the exit to discover that either two animals had escaped from their cages, or were in the wild and just freely roaming around:
The level of panic on the zookeeper's and other people's faces indicated that these were just monitor lizards, but they were definitely much larger than the ones I had attempted to film in Malaysia.
It was about time for the zoo to close at this point so I headed for the exit and continued back onto the main road which had let me there in the first place. Despite all the miles I had probably walked, I was still feeling pretty fresh so decided to complete the circuit by heading back to the National Stadium Skytrain Station to get some dinner and then head home.
Although it brings a certain element of trepidation, I really like walking around in Asia when the sun is going down and all the neon lights are starting to come on. I would definitely say that Thailand is firmly in the middle ground when it comes to bright lights, but I do enjoy watching more and more coming on as the sun completes its decent, and the moonlight begins to take over. I probably walked for about half an hour before I came back to a Skytrain station which is on the same line as the National Stadium, and allowed me to follow the tracks back in the right direction.
It looked as though it was really busy around the station, and as I walked through a small market there was a huge queue of people in all directions. Once I started to pay attention properly I realised that almost everyone was at a standstill, and I remember when I first arrived I came out of the station and was standing on the stairs for ages in a massive queue before it eventually subsided. I figured that it was people crossing the road or something, but then I head some music playing and when it finished everyone got back on their way again.
Since coming home and Googling it, I have discovered that what I experienced was part of a daily routine which involves the Thai national anthem being played in Bangkok at 8am and 6pm, during which period everyone stands to attention to recognise it's importance - I guess there are the kind of bits of information I have been missing by not studying everything about where I am so closely.
Back on my way again I continued on past the National Stadium station and decided to head two minutes further to Siam which is the busy area I was discussing at the beginning of this blog. I felt like it would be a good option for food, and also a chance to explore somewhere new which is always something I relish.
As is my way, I decided to head into one of the shopping malls to see if I could find a food court, and after entering one which didn't seem to have any restaurants, I eventually went next door to a huge mall which is the home of Bankok's Sea World and also it's version of Madame Tussauds.
It took a while as there were lots of very expensive 'boutique' restaurants spread around the bottom floor, but I found the normal and cheap area after circling back and trying my luck in a different direction. It was really busy in there and I had to struggle to find a table, but I enjoyed what I had, and once finished I was only a couple of minutes away from getting back onto the metro and heading back to my hotel.
And so completes what has seemed like an extremely brief visit to Bangkok - it really has absolutely flown by. I'm happy with the length of time I have chosen to stay here as I feel like I have been to see enough of the major sights, and experienced enough of the city to realise that it's reputation for being a little bit, shall we say.....sleezy, certainly isn't true - in my opinion anyway.
I think it caters itself to tourists very well, not quite in the same way as KL, but there are enough ways for people to spend an enjoyable time here, however they may choose to do so.
It's been a good trip, and have relished the opportunity to see a new place, and experiences different kinds of food, and what appears to be a very unique culture in one of the world's most famous cities.
Tomorrow morning I will be leaving the capital for northern Thailand, where I hope to find just as much enjoyment in my second stop here in the country.
Variety is the Spice of Life
The Doors (1971)
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