Monday, Nov. 17 (later) -- Our numbers are dwindling, as two of our group left for home on Sunday. Our guide also checked out, so adventuresome Rachel became our guide by default. She was great. We headed directly for the royal palace to try to take in some of the funeral procession and imagine our surprise when the soldiers, horses, drummers and dignitaries headed our way, along with the remains of the princess. What a show! Major pomp and pageantry. Two white horses whose riders wore peacock colored hats like British bearskins led off. One of them was quite naughty (the horse, not the rider) and did his business right in the middle of the parade. Fortunately, a white gloved lackey walked behind, and he immediately scooped the poop with those white gloves, dumped it in a bag and ran it over to the gutter. Not a spot was left on the street but there's no report on the state of his gloves. A couple of our higher class fellow travelers recorded the royal dung for posterity and perhaps we can post the photos for all to enjoy. The rest of the procession hardly measured up. The princess' remains were separated into two golden urns, with more elaborate decoration, and they were mounted on two palanquins carried on the shoulders of servants. A kneeling monk rode backwards, holding on to the biggest urn. There were hundreds of palace attendants or military or monks on parade, all dressed in gorgeous uniforms, mostly red or blue. The drums beat in cadence with every 12th step, and when the royal family showed up, we had to remove sunglasses and hats, and photography was prohibited. We think they all went off to a final resting place, but the funeral continues Monday and Tuesday so who knows where that poor princess will wind up.
Next was the amulet market, where you can shop for cures for what ails you, and a quick ice cream at Swensen's! Bangkok, by the way, is home to everything from Burger King to Dunkin' Donuts to McDonalds to 7-11. KFC is all over the place, including Vietnam and Cambodia. Mike was feeling a little punk, so he visited a doctor at the amulet market, for free, and came away with some kind of huge pills. Who knows what they were. We hopped on a water taxi across the river to visit Wat Arun, a landmark temple on the river that's reminiscent of Angkor Wat but is decorated with embedded pieces of porcelain, and then back to the other side to visit Wat Pho, home of the famous reclining buddha. This one is all gold, about 30 yards long and he has really huge feet whose soles are covered with mother of pearl. The grounds actually house about a half dozen temples, all different, all elaborately decorated. There's much more Indian influence here than in Cambodia, and rather than carved decoration, most of the designs are porcelain with lots of mirror mosaics. Extremely beautiful. We were unable to see the famous emerald buddha, closed due to the funeral. Again, all this caused sensory overload. It's hard to appreciate the grandeur of these places in just a few hours. Despite warnings from our guide about all the precautions one needs to take when coming across a monk (women can't look at them, men have to walk behind them and can't be taller than), they were awfully normal. One was smoking and another had very visible tatoos. They're all over the place in their saffron robes, shaved heads and eyebrows. The novices are mini-monks; the same but younger.
We boarded a water ferry to head for some shopping. These aren't the Golden Gate ferries and they cost about 10 percent as much. First you have to wade through sometimes flooded boarding areas (restaurants and markets also were flooded, we think due to tides) and then you kind of leap aboard and sit on benches. They make stops all along the river and are an efficient means of transportation, given the traffic. At our stop, we got on the sky train, yet another mode of transport, and headed for a huge shopping area called BMK. It's about five stories, crammed with stuff for the young and hip. We really felt at home. I just love Juicy Couture and Esprit. A couple people went off for massages and some went to Prantip Plaza, computerland extraordinaire. Anyone who's interested in hardware, software, accessories, camera lenses and all things electronic would have a ball in this five-story emporium, crammed to the rafters with stuff.
That's it for Bangkok. It's an enormous city, bustling, noisy, crowded, really hot. They drive on the wrong side of the road, but unlike Vietnam and Cambodia, they stay in their lanes and don't jump the curb to get around other drivers. No roundabouts. The cabs are neon pink, green, yellow.
Can't believe the tour's over. We said our goodbyes. I hope we all stay in touch.
Next was the amulet market, where you can shop for cures for what ails you, and a quick ice cream at Swensen's! Bangkok, by the way, is home to everything from Burger King to Dunkin' Donuts to McDonalds to 7-11. KFC is all over the place, including Vietnam and Cambodia. Mike was feeling a little punk, so he visited a doctor at the amulet market, for free, and came away with some kind of huge pills. Who knows what they were. We hopped on a water taxi across the river to visit Wat Arun, a landmark temple on the river that's reminiscent of Angkor Wat but is decorated with embedded pieces of porcelain, and then back to the other side to visit Wat Pho, home of the famous reclining buddha. This one is all gold, about 30 yards long and he has really huge feet whose soles are covered with mother of pearl. The grounds actually house about a half dozen temples, all different, all elaborately decorated. There's much more Indian influence here than in Cambodia, and rather than carved decoration, most of the designs are porcelain with lots of mirror mosaics. Extremely beautiful. We were unable to see the famous emerald buddha, closed due to the funeral. Again, all this caused sensory overload. It's hard to appreciate the grandeur of these places in just a few hours. Despite warnings from our guide about all the precautions one needs to take when coming across a monk (women can't look at them, men have to walk behind them and can't be taller than), they were awfully normal. One was smoking and another had very visible tatoos. They're all over the place in their saffron robes, shaved heads and eyebrows. The novices are mini-monks; the same but younger.
We boarded a water ferry to head for some shopping. These aren't the Golden Gate ferries and they cost about 10 percent as much. First you have to wade through sometimes flooded boarding areas (restaurants and markets also were flooded, we think due to tides) and then you kind of leap aboard and sit on benches. They make stops all along the river and are an efficient means of transportation, given the traffic. At our stop, we got on the sky train, yet another mode of transport, and headed for a huge shopping area called BMK. It's about five stories, crammed with stuff for the young and hip. We really felt at home. I just love Juicy Couture and Esprit. A couple people went off for massages and some went to Prantip Plaza, computerland extraordinaire. Anyone who's interested in hardware, software, accessories, camera lenses and all things electronic would have a ball in this five-story emporium, crammed to the rafters with stuff.
That's it for Bangkok. It's an enormous city, bustling, noisy, crowded, really hot. They drive on the wrong side of the road, but unlike Vietnam and Cambodia, they stay in their lanes and don't jump the curb to get around other drivers. No roundabouts. The cabs are neon pink, green, yellow.
Can't believe the tour's over. We said our goodbyes. I hope we all stay in touch.
1 comment:
I hope you get off the plane wearing your juicy sweatpants! I know what I'm getting you for Christmas!
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