A water taxi, a sampan and a tuk-tuk

(note: No luck moving photos around the blog. So sad.)

This morning we awoke to the sun rising over Bangkok. We had arrived at midnight the night before so this was our first introduction to the city.  The Mae Nam Chao Phraya River below us snaked through the city, with long tail boats in reds, yellows and blues and oriental house boats drifting along.  Huge chunks of bright green plants from the northern rain forests meandered between the boats.  Modern skyscrapers arose haphazardly throughout the city, but smaller buildings tucked between palm trees and the remaining jungle growth were more common. Golden stupas from Buddhist wats, or temples, glistened in the morning sun. 

 Steve and I had breakfast in the hotel.  We decided to ease ourselves into the local cuisine and enjoyed the Hilton buffet.  It turned out to be a great choice, with stations of just about any breakfast food served at umbrellaed tables overlooking the river.  After enjoying chocolate croissants, fruit smoothies, Belgium waffles with nutella, and omelets, we hopped on a water taxi waiting at the dock and made our way to The Grand Palace. 

The Grand Palace was built in the 1700s by Thailand's first king as both a residence and a religious shrine to Buddha.  We hired Ann, a Thai woman, to guide us through the palace.  She spent an hour with us pointing out the different nations that influenced the building of the palace, the purpose of each building, including the one that holds the ashes of all the former royal families and another one in which the body of the king's sister has been on display for fifty days and will continue to be displayed until a building elsewhere can be built for her ashes.  The most significant building is one which houses a jade Buddha, which was found 600 years ago.  It was covered in plaster and upon breaking open, it was revealed that it was solid jade, signifying sacredness.  Almost the entire 600 acre compound is decorated in gold leaf or ornate porcelin tiles.  The Grand Palace was fascinating and our tour with Ann was a success. At the end, she kissed us on both cheeks and told us that she wanted to take us home with her.  Apparently she had a good time as well!

New tidbits learned:

1. Thailand changed it's name in the 1800s from Siam, meaning "Land of Smiles" to Thailand, meaning "Land of Freedom" because they thought that it sounded more modern and they had never been colonized.

2. Surrounding countries worship a fat Buddha, representing good luck. Thailand depicts a thin Buddha because Thais are thinner people.

3. In Buddhism, the gods with multiple arms are evil.

4. There are seven levels of progression in Buddhism. Buddhists strive to become an angel in future reincarnated lives, the highest level of progression. (Bangkok is know as the "city of angles.")

Our next adventure  was a sampan ride through the canals of Bangkok. The city is also known as the Venice of the East. Our driver must have had a limited time frame and was quite aggressive. Rather than meander through the back canals of the city, we sped along, with the wind blowing in our faces, a welcome change from the muggy heat. We passed one house after another perched up on stilts, to avoid the disaster of a rise in the canal level. (I remember a book that I had as a child that depicted houses in Venice on wooden stilts. I thought that I would love such a life. However, when I visited Venice, no such stilts existed. Finally years later I have found the houses that I dreamed of living in as a child. I think that my dreams have changed!) We saw men sleeping in hammocks on their porches, children fishing off of their houses and a father and daughter swimming in the canal. The driver assured us that the government ridded the area of all of the crocodiles -- lucky for those swimmers!

With a limited time before our flight to Cambodia, we raced to Wat Pho, a Buddhist temple with an enormous reclining Buddha -- in fact, the largest reclining Buddha in the world. We took a quick tour, enjoyed more gold and porcelin, snapped a bunch of photos and we on our way. Back on the streets, we debated whether to hop back on the water taxi, which made more than a handful of stops along the way or hire a cab, which would have to battle the increasing afternoon traffic. Thats when the tuk-tuk driver entered the scene. We had read that tuk-tuks made their money off of bringing their customers to kitchy suvenior shops where they collect a commission. With making it too clear that we were absolutely in a hurry and wanted no stops on the way and a driver with a little too much testosterone, we were in for a wild ride! Once the driver revved up his engine and peeled out into oncoming traffic, the feeling was no less thrilling than being on the back of a motorcycle in a James Bond or a Bourne Identity movie. The driver's technique to make time was to swerve into the oncoming lane to fly pass congestion and move over just a few inches when an approaching truck was within touching distance. He skidded around corners, once again usually in the wrong lane and ninety percent of our journey I could have reached out and grabbed the passengers in cars flying past us. We took air off the speed bumps leading up to the lobby of the Hilton and came to a screeching halt in front of the bellhop. Steve and I climbed out of the tuk-tuk, straightened our hair and attempted to look civil, knowing well that few Hilton guests arrive in such a manner. We made it back in record speed, which we never imagined was possible, and both agreed that the tuk-tuk was truly better than any amusement park ride that we had ever been on.

We jumped in a taxi and headed to the airport for our flight to Cambodia.  We wondered what new excitement lay ahead.