I had already arranged to meet my oldest Thai friend S' here in Bangkok with her husband at 9am, and this completed a promise that I made to her about six years ago when due to my ignorance of Visa requirements I had missed out on going to see her on my first trip to the Far East, having been delayed in Hong Kong and China too long to make it worth my time flying here for only one day.
Together they live outside of the city centre, which is not really a nice residential area anyway being mainly temples and tourist places, and we arrived at the meeting place about the same time. It was so good to meet her finally and although they did not speak English fluently I had no problem making myself understood and so together we made a plan to see some of the big places during the day before they had to return to their home.
The first place that we went to was Suan Pakkard Palace, which being early was good as we pretty much had the place to ourselves, and we casually strolled round the place, taking photos and chatting for an hour. The place is very well kept but a little small and not much of the display signs had English translations and as photography was banned in most of the innter rooms i don't feel that I made the most of the experience here.
As I had woke and left too late to get breakfast I asked if we could stop off for a snack before we did much more, but as we were very close to our second stop being Wat Benchama Bophit ( the Marble Temple ) we agreed to go find something to eat after seing this place. The marble temple was fabulous and I wanted to take so many photos but I had to restrain as otherwise it would make it a day long job just to sort out the photos for the blog.
I was glad that we stopped to grab a bit to eat as the next place was the impressive Phra Thi Nang Viman Mek palace, where King Rama I to King Rama IV lived and also met with foreign royals and dignitaries. Set up in a joint European and Western style the architecture was both modern and traditional and kept the purity of original wood design, being without nails, screws of bolts to keep it together, only wooden piles and spikes.
Not for the first time, I had to take my shoes off, but here being a place of royalty they would also not allow sleeveless shirts, skin tighy pants, flip flops of shorts of any kind, with deposits for saris or trousers available upon request. As I cannot speak Thai my friends allowed us to take the English tour, which was especially kind as this was their first time here and being a former palace the were no placards or information display boards for them in their own language.
While I was wandering around the place, marvelling at the design, the lavishness of the gifts from other countries and the beautiful views from the many windows I suddenly decided that all tours should be done like this. Not allowing cameras meant that you looked but could not get in anyone elses way, not allowing shoes meant that there was much less chance of anyone damaging the flooring and also the noise level was much lower and this added a respectful serenity to the proceedings, and for anyone who did want some great photos of inside then they sold postcards of most of the rooms for only 5 baht each, which at about 10p each is affordable for any budget.
Each room seemed to have plenty of oppulent gifts from a different country and I mildly wondered how many thousands or possibly millions of pounds each country spent as gifts to visiting foreign Royalty, or if such gifts had to be paid out of the royal coffers themselves and not from the state.
Being short of time, we did not stay around too long to take many photos in the gardens, which we were allowed after retrieving them once we had exited the palace itself, and so we jumped in a taxi and rode over to Wat Phra Kaew ( the Emeral Buddha ).
Wat Phra Kaew was set over a huge area and it looked even more impressive from the inside than it had seemed by just the hightly decorated roofs viewed from outside over the walls at a distance. The Thai's might not take too good care of their homes, stalls and markets but there is nothing half hearted at how they decorate and renovate their temples and other places of major religous significance.
Lush green bonsai trees and miniature gardens of contemplation can be found throughout the city and every temple will have many, lovingly tended to daily and gold leaf covered much of the roofwork and spires, when gems and semi precious stones were not enough to display their wonder and magnificence.
Up until that moment I could only understand part of the attraction that Thailand had upon the world, but upon taking in all that beauty and spendor I can honestly say that a small part of Bangkok burroughed its way deep into my heart and will remain there for as long as I live.
It is not just the bare cheapness of everything, the spicey food, the attractive women, the sun kissed beaches, the golden temples or the peaceful religion that holds me in its sway, it is that it is all combined together in such a magical blend that I have found myself happy to while away days at a slower leisurely pace and making plans of what I wanted to do over the next few days rather than for the next few hours.
The 300 baht entrance included that for the neighbouring Grand Palace but as luck would have it, the palace itself it not open to the public over the weekends and so I had to content myself with just walking through the gardens and admiring the outside walls and coloured roofs.
Our last stop together was to cross the river and visit Wat Arun Ratcha Wararam, and so after taking a tuk tuk ride to the ferry point terminal we made our way across the Chao Phraya River which winds and weaves its way through the city hugging the west of the city centre. We could have gone a few miles north or south and crossed via one of the bridges, but why bother when the ferry fare is only 3 baht and there are so many crossing over points that it makes little or no sence to bother unless you have your own car and know where you can park it for free nearby.
After a half day of touring around different temples my friends decided that they did not need to suffer the heat and effort of visitng one more, especially as this one had the added attraction of a scarey flight of steps leading up that were so steep you felt you were climbing with your hands on the rails more than with your feet, even if the view from the top overlooked the river and was magnificient.
However it was not the going up that was tricky, that rarely is, it was the coming down again afterwards, especially as the way down was on the reverse side of the temple and the metal handrail had been exposed to the baking hot sun for hours making it unconfortbale to touch or hold.
It was a shame that I had to say goodbye to my friends after that, but it had been a good chance to meet them both and as my friends siser lives in the UK, S' has said that she will try to visit England next year and of course I offered to be her guide of London and help her get to her sisters who lived in the north of the country.
We shared a taxi back to my hotel, before I hopped out and let them continue on their way back to their home in the outskirts of the city, while I crashed out for a bit to recover a bit of energy for the night ahead as I had planned for myself a visit to both the Thai Royal Puppet Theatre and to once again try to see a show, as there were are few good Muay Thai fights held over the weekends.
Having travelled by plane, taxi, tuk tuk and river ferry in Thailand I decided that I would check out the MRT on my way to the Puppet Theatre as it was almost on top of one of the stops. A short taxi ride to the nearest station was made harder by the fact that I thought I was taking a sky train but instead it was an underground train which confused me no end, constantly looking up to see the telltale tracks leading to the entrance but of course there was none.
The cost of a fare on the MRT was 20 baht and the inside of the stations were about as modern, impressive and well kept as anything I had seen in Bangkok and at one point I thought I had somehow gained access to a private museum or hotel complex, as it was that impressively decorated.
The train was both clean and fast and I arrived at my stop in plenty of time to find my way to the Suan Lum Night Plaza which is where my guide book said that the Puppet Theatre was located and thanks to a bit of lucky navigation on my part I entered the plaza at just the right entrance to see it right on the first corner I came to. 900 Baht got me my reserved seat fairly central and only 4 rows from the front, but the price itself was fixed and so even if it had been packed and I was sat at the back it would have been the same cost.
I didnt have much time to wait before the show started, as I was keen to also watch the half hour documentary about how the art of puppets almost died in Thailand and in fact the luck of the artists and restorers has been so bad that talk of a curse resurfaced when the home of the modern father of puppetry burned to the ground taking with it a collection of over fifty models that had taken over a decade to make by hand to the exacting level required.
Although the performance is narrated in Thai it is only an hour long, has authentic Thai music to listen to, subtitled on overhead projectors on both sides of the main stage and as this is the only place in the entire world that you can see this with 100% authenticity it is not to be missed.
Each puppet required 3 qualified dancers to bring them to life, and the performance has elements of the main puppets, shadow puppets and even live performers taking the stage at moments throughout the show and loving this medium I bought a dvd of one of the other shows as a momento only 190 baht and as I bought it from inside it was a genuine disc with the proceeds going to keeping the show alive and hopefully to be enjoyed by generations to come.
Sadly the man who single handedly brought the Royal Puppets back from obscurity, Joe Louis, had died in 2007 but through his hard work and family he has done his best to ensure that even with arrival of the computer console game, movie and amusement parks that the puppet theatre remain a part of Thai culture in todays modern world.
The show finished around 9:15 which was still early enough for me to get over to Patpong Night Market in time to see a show and get back before the traffic got too crazy, as I didn't want to end up stuck for another hour going nowhere again.
After the show ( read seperate entry for more details ) I returned to my hotel and ordered myself a snack before realising that I had somehow lost my room key, and got a polite admonishment from the hotel who said that I was not meant to take the key out of the hotel complex in the first place, but leave it with reception and collect it again when I returned.
Because of my error I had to pay another 300 baht for a new key deposit and change rooms to down the hall, which wasnt a bad thing considering that my room key was out there somewhere possibly in the hands of someone unscrupulous and realising that the key fob apart from being as big as a cellphone also had the hotels address on it, so they could easily let themselves in whenever they felt like it and help themselves to my whatever they liked.
After the changing of the rooms and my snack I managed to get to sleep a little after midnight and with a full morning having to be dedicated to blog entries and sorting out photos no doubt.
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