Birthday in Bangkok

Thursday, January 21, 2016
Bangkok, Thailand
We are staying in W Home, a charming B&B in a neighbourhood of homes and local businesses just off Charoenkrung Road, the first road ever built in Bangkok. Our comfy, if bijoux room, overlooks the lane outside and we were woken on our first morning by cockerels crowing.

Breakfast was served in the courtyard and comprised a savoury dish of rice or noodles cooked with vegetables and maybe chicken followed by fruit and a variety of sweet treats including coconut flavoured sticky rice, lilac sponge cakes and coconut milk custard.
 

 
 



Nui drove us a short way to the main road to make sure we had our bearings and we walked a few minutes to the Chao Phraya river to catch a ferry. The pier is beside a local wat, not listed in any what wat guide guide, but nonetheless home to a huge golden reclining Buddha.



We have been to Bangkok before and visited the main sights including the Grand Palace and several wats, so this time thought we'd do something different. Our first day was also Chris's birthday so we we wanted a memorable day. We began with a food tour of the Bang Rak neighbourhood with Taste of Thailand, guided by Ben and with fellow visitors Hyunsoo and MacKay. We stopped at a drinks van for Thai tea, made with hot tea and condensed milk served over ice, a local delicacy a bit sweet for me and a bit creamy for Chris, but good to try. Other stops included a fruit stall where we tried several unusual fruits, a curry paste shop where we were told about the four flavours in Thai cooking, a cake shop selling similar sweet delicacies to those we had tried at breakfast and then a Chinese pharmacy and grocery where they make a variety of homemade herbal drinks not only to refresh but to relieve ills as well - my rosella drink was definitely the winner! We then moved on to serious snacks - a shop selling roast pork and duck, where they roast 200 ducks each day - I had duck with noodles and Chris a veggie noodle dish; the next stop had spicy salads as its forte - a trio, one papaya which was quite hot, another with minced pork and coriander and the third with lemon grass and dried shrimp. Finally, when we thought we were almost full, we went to a restaurant run by a descendant of the royal family which serves Royal Thai cuisine and we had green curry with jasmine rice, coconut ice cream and jasmine tea - a fabulous end to our tour! 

 



When we were here before, Chris bought a couple of snazzy elephant handkerchiefs at the airport which said Jim Thompson on the label. Despite the guide book referring to him as the most famous farang in Thailand, we had not heard of Jim Thompson, but now know he was an American who came to Thailand with the army after WW2, fell in love with the country and returned to live. He was an adventurer and entrepreneur whose fame partly came from reviving the dying silk-weaving industry, promoting the silk in America where it sold well, especially after his company made the costumes for The King and I on Broadway, depicting the life of King Rama IV. He gained further renown by constructing the Jim Thompson house by dismantling six teak houses, all over 200 years old and reassembling them to make a home which he filled with Oriental art and particularly Thai paintings which he opened to the public. And then one day, while visiting the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia, he went for a walk ... and never came back. His mysterious disappearance has certainly added to his fame. We went on a tour of the house and watched a demonstration of boiling the silk cocoons to extract the thread and spinning it and I added several new hankies to Chris's collection for his birthday.





Later we went to see Siam Niramit, an unashamedly touristy show presenting a history of Thai culture and beliefs with a cast of 150, amazing costumes and sets and flashy special effects including flying deities, a thunderstorm with rain and a river running across the stage with boats not to mention the elephant - stunning! To top it all, we took our first tuk-tuk of the trip!


 
Rama V is still widely revered as the "Beloved Great King" for leading Siam into the modern world as an independent nation. He visited Europe and brought back ideas for updating the capital, the evidence being most apparent in Dusit Park which contains the Ananta Samakhon Throne Hall, a Renaissance style building containing exquisite works of art, showcasing the continuation of traditional Thai metal crafts using gold, precious stones, inlay and even iridescent beetle wings to produce palanquins and howdahs and screens made of embroidery and wood carving.

We saw the Royal Elephant National Museum, housed in what were the stables for the king's white elephants, who now live in the Elephant Conservation Centre. These elephants are revered by Budhists and Hindus alike, and in times gone by it was a huge occasion when one was found in the countryside then paraded to the capital for presentation to the King, who was considered more blessed the more white elephants he had.



We also visited the Vimanmek Palace, built as a summer retreat, but relocated in Dusit in 1901 and occupied for several years by officials, concubines and family. All 81 rooms were out of bounds to male visitors except the King's own apartments. It is built of golden teak without a single nail, and it's delicate latticework verandah overlook lawns and lotus ponds.



Talking birthdays, we've seen a couple of people wearing a yellow tshirt with 'Bike for Dad' on it and discovered that some 100,000 people joined in a bike ride round Bangkok to celebrate the King's 88th birthday in December, following on the success of 'Bike for Mum' for the Queen last August on her 83rd birthday. Apparently these events have been promoted as a chance to rebuild national unity after the latest in a succession of coups removed the civilian government from power 18 months ago and everywhere you look there are flags and posters. Could you imagine British people ever referring to our Queen and Prince Philip as Mum and Dad ... I don't think so!



Later we walked to the Asiatique Riverfront, a recently redeveloped dockland area with a huge night market, restaurants and a Ferris wheel. We had a lovely meal overlooking the river, then Chris was delighted to see Liverpool score the winning goal against Norwich in the final minutes of the game. A little shopping and then home ...



Tomorrow we take the train north ...

Comments

jannys@bigpond.net.au
2016-01-24

Looks amazing!

jannys@bigpond.net.au
2016-03-06

Sounds like a great Birthday Chris.

2025-02-09

Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank