Last night Scott was sick during the night. 😦 we are not sure what’s caused it as I feel okay. I’m now making sure he’s eating and drinking enough. All the travelling and sun probably aren’t helping. Boohoo I hear you all say 😂
We went down for our breakfast which consisted of toast, scrambled eggs and weird chicken sausages haha. It filled a hole for free nonetheless. I thought we had an ordered breakfast but the waitress didn’t seem to understand what I was asking for. Something I’ve learned quickly here in Thailand is that hardly anyone speaks English. And if they do it is very basic. Also, signs are all in Thai which isn’t even English letters so it’s been very confusing so far.
I looked up things to do in Bangkok on trip advisor and wat pho was one of the top ten. I read you could get a river taxi ( a boat ) up the Chao Phraya river to the nearest pier. So I walked in the general direction of the canal and we came across the pier. The streets of thailand are crazy. Very dirty, messy and chaotic. The pier was surrounded by rubbish, which was funny because there’s a big sign that said “do not litter, fine 2000 baht” – I see that’s working… 😒 I asked the man about the boat to wat pho, he didn’t understand me and thankfully a Thai girl translated for me. He then pointed at the water where people were waiting on a small pier. I asked if we pay him and he said no, we pay on the boat. So that was that. The boat arrived and was PACKED with people standing. The sign said “capacity 100 persons” but there was clearly more than this. Regardless and in a hurry we boarded the boat which must have stopped for no more than 15 seconds before chugging off again. It was only then amongst over 100 squashed foreign people I realised I had no idea where we were to get off. I tried asking a Thai woman who made it clear she had no idea what I was saying. In despair, after around 3 stops, we got off. I looked at the pier map to realise the stops had numbers, wat pho was number 6, and we were now at 5. So back to the pier we went to wait on the next boat. The pier was rocking on the water which gives Scott sea sickness, so he sat inside the pier. It was during this time I met a couple from Liverpool. They enlightened me to how the boats work and that we were actually meant to buy a ticket for the boat. It was 15baht one way (regardless of distance), this is about 30p. After I bought Scott and I’s tickets, the couple told me that they’d been to Laos and advised where is nice, they also agreed we should head to Phuket to get some relaxation. 😁 Shortly after the boat arrived and we boarded to take the one stop journey.
We walked through what appeared to be local shops and houses, which were clearly very poor. The tv store was old tube TVs that no one in the uk would even look at anymore. Every shop had a table out the front where someone was refurbishing…well…anything! Speakers, lights, TVs, radios.. Anything electrical, they were refurbishing it! There were kids playing in the middle of the chaos and it just seemed very bizarre! We saw a lot of homeless people just sleeping in the street. It’s not getting any easier to witness.
We eventually arrived at wat pho and paid the 200baht to enter. This is £4. It was magnificent. The first temple was called “the reclining buddha” which was a huge golden buddha lying on its side. I’ve seen a few large statues in Buddha and Hindu temples now but the size still takes me aback every time. Women must cover up in all temples, and outside the had robes and long skirts for us to wear. Inside reclining buddha we found a litter of kittens. I don’t think they were meant to be climbing over the statues but we loved it haha.
We walked around the grounds looking at all the statues and temples. It really was beautiful. One of the temples was so, so calming and quiet. Whilst we were in, three monks followed and kneeled on an area no one else was allowed. They prayed, along with a lot of others in the temple. It was so peaceful, I could have stayed there all day. I definitely prefer these temples to the churches and services we have at home.
After a good look around, I found what appeared to be a primary school within the grounds. I came across a door that had the picture of the teacher, her name and a sign that said “science class”. Inside, there were about six children and a teacher, surrounded by pictures they had made of the solar system. I couldn’t really take in this was their school. Outside this room, was a row of canteen benches, and at the end, the kitchen. Further down there was a set of swings, a slide and some small playground items. It was very small. Further down the school grounds, there were benches and a blackboard outside. It never crossed my mind that Thailand would be like this. I don’t know why.
I’d like to add there were cats and kittens everywhere in this area. You could see kibbles were being left out for them, but unfortunately they were very skinny and covered in fleas. Some were scared and aggressive whereas some were friendly. It was hard to see, especially for two cat lovers.
We left wat pho and began walking down the road to the grand palace. I stopped for some watermelon, which was refreshing.
A man at an information desk stopped us and asked us where we were going. We told him the grand palace to which he pointed out I wasn’t covered enough to go there today, and maybe I should try tomorrow instead. He then got out a map and circled places we should go today. He told us to go to wat sitaram, a temple where only monks are allowed, but today they were allowing anyone to go. This only happens every 8 days. After that, he advised us to go to a famous tailor, who only exports suits, but allows customers once a year – and that day was today. He then recommended the standing buddha near the river. He said we should get a tuk tuk who would take us to all these places and wait for us at each place, and this in total would be 40 baht. (This is about 80p). We were skeptical but before we could say anything he had hailed a tuk tuk, explained this was a government one (green colour) and we should only use these. Next thing we knew we were in the back zooming off down the wrong side of the road to what I hoped was this wat sitaram temple!
Fortunately, after about ten minutes, we arrived at where the man had said. The tuk tuk driver showed us in and said he would wait for us. The temple was, as expected, amazing. Soon after arriving a man called Chai introduced himself. He asked where we were from, why we were there and if we were Buddhists. We explained we weren’t and he asked how we knew to come today on the only day we would be allowed? We told him about the information man and he seemed so pleased we had come. He insisted he show us inside the temple. He told us to sit and we watched him pray. We talked about Scotland and he told us about his job as an account manager for a bank. He said this had taken him to many places and that he’d been to England but not Scotland. He told us we should only spend a few days in bangkok and agreed, much like the Liverpool couple, we should head to Phuket next. He said a few days there before trying phi phi island and krabi. He was so friendly, you could tell he was such a lovely man. We showed him our map that the info man gave us. He told us the tailor factory we were going to had been all over the news this week due to it opening for customers. He said he got 3 suits for himself. A full cashmere hand made suit, shirt, tie, breast, jacket, trousers etc was 12000 baht, which is just over £200. You’d pay that at home for a topman suit! We showed him our outfits from home in the form of McSqueezy the bear and he laughed. He thanked us for talking to him and said he hoped his English was okay. We assured him his English was excellent. It was such a lovely experience. He really made our day interesting.
Outside, we hopped back in our tuk tuk and off to the tailor factory. We soon realised the man was after a sale. When he realised we were just looking he became abrupt and asked us to leave if we were not buying. Feeling unwelcome, we left. The tuk tuk driver asked if he could stop at another tailor, as if we go in and look, he gets a coupon from them for free petrol. We agreed and this place was much the same. Once they realised we weren’t buying they told us “save your time, your driver has his coupon, goodbye” 😳 I told them to learn some customer service!
Finally no longer having to deal with tailors, we went to the standing buddha. Here we said goodbye to our tuk tuk driver, who had been driving us around for about 2 hours. True to his word, we paid 40 baht and still can’t believe it! 80p!
The standing buddha temples were lovely too. There were lots of cats here too! Yay! Inside there was a wall full of urns. And opposite this was a wooden house. We took off our shoes and went inside. There was a body inside a glass case, surrounded by gifts and candles. As everything was in thai, I don’t know who this man was or if it was even a real body. It was very hard to tell. We lit a candle and wrote a message in the book. It’s a very calming religion. The temples are so peaceful. However, in the grounds there were kids playing around the temples and a big pack of dogs. It’s so wild! You wouldn’t see an army of kids and dogs running around your local church.
We walked back to the pier where we met a lovely cat before we hopped on the return boat, our tickets were 15 baht each, in total 60p. So in total our transport for today cost us £2. 😳 insane! The boat ride back had some beautiful views in the sun, I felt really happy, exhausted and hungry, but had really enjoyed my day.
We were so hungry back at our pier as it was half 6! We walked past a restaurant where we spotted chicken curry so the deal was done before we even looked at anywhere else. I had chicken curry and Scott had pork rib with black bean sauce. It was lovely and for an actual restaurant dinner with drinks this came to under a tenner.
We came back to the hostel and showered before heading out for a massage. I opted for a foot massage whilst Scott went for the head, neck and shoulder. My foot massage began relaxing and soon turned into sheer torture. I was grateful that she massaged my legs along with my feet as my legs ached from all the walking we have been doing. But soon, she was poking my feet with sticks and pulling my toes out their sockets! She hit sore nerves in my feet and when I made it apparent this was sore she just laughed and carried on as if she didn’t care. Haha. Once she stopped I could feel she was relaxing the muscles, mainly by pulverising them but relaxing them none the less. After 45 minutes of drifting into relaxation and being abruptly woken by pain, I was asked to sit in another chair. Here, she began massaging my face, head, neck and back. Then she massaged my arms. Next, I was clasping my hands behind my head and being kneed in the back and twisted like a flump. The more I winced in pain the more she chuckled. I have to confess though, once it was over I felt very relaxed. I still can’t tell whether this is from the massage itself or from the relief that it’s over 😂.
We grabbed some ice cream and crisps before coming back to bed.
I have to say I’ve thoroughly enjoyed today and it’s been the first day I’ve felt like a proper traveller. Packed sweaty boats, meeting locals in temples, zooming on tuk tuks and getting my back crushed by a Thai masseuse. Welcome to Bangkok. 🙏
Ps as you can guess connection is poop, will try upload photos somewhere tomorrow xxxxx ❤️
Around the world in 190 days 