PREVIEW OF HELL…

If you want to know what hell will feel like, all you need to do is spend a day in Bangkok, even though we were there in their “winter.”  How does one describe our experience in Bangkok? 

It started out at 8 a.m. with a 2 hour bus ride from our port to the city of Bangkok.  You couldn’t really see the scenery or the city because pollution is so thick, it covered everything like a blanket.  People here wear masks in order to breathe.  

Pink Cab

Pollution Abounds

Mess o' wires everywhere, lots o' traffic and a pink cab

Tuk-Tuk

Forigners to the right,
Thais to the left.

There are electrical wires strung helter-skelter all over along with transmission towers.  And businesses are belching smoke into the already overburdened air.  Cars, trucks, tuk-tuks, are all honking and stopped on half-done roads – and construction is everywhere.  They also have an abundance of pink cabs! Cute!

And the heat.  At 8 a.m. it was 98 degrees and humidity was equivalent.  You felt like you were covered with a wet, hot blanket with no relief anywhere.  Add to that, we were still in Chinese New Year, which lasts a week, and the crowds were overwhelming.  Pushing, jostling, shoving with long lines everywhere.

Ornate spirt house

Detail

Giant reliquary for relics of Buddha

Throng at palace entrance

The de riguer visit was to the Imperial Palace.  Now this is not just a building.  It is an area surrounded by walls where there are many many buildings considered sacred by the Thai people.  All the buildings are covered with colorful paintings and 24 karat gold leaf.  But first you have to get into the complex.  And that is a trick.  Because we were foreigners, we had a very long “sort of” line that moved minutely.  If you were Thai, you could walk right on.  And once inside, you walked and walked oh, and yes, you walked through temple after temple until you got the most important temple containing the “emerald Buddha.”  Now, he is not really made of emerald.  He is made of jade.  Still impressive.  And the Thais change his clothes 3 times a year.  Right now he is in winter garb, which means you have a hard time seeing the green part.  And he sits high up on a pedestal, making him look kinda small!  In order to go into this temple, you need that sarong again, both men and women, if your ankles would show without it.  And you need to go barefoot also.  So, after herding your way through this temple, you are back to ….walking, walking, walking to get out of the complex.  By now, the sun is at its highest and we are sweating up a storm.  I am complaining loudly and frequently and my hips are also complaining.  An older man with a cane fell down and needed to be helped to continue. 

King's temple

Typical roof detail

Detail of King's temple with fierce 'guards'.

People waiting to get into temple
of 'Emerald' Buddha.

King's palace.

Elephants guarding the palace

And you know where we were “walking”?  Bos and I always laugh on our trips that, to get out of any museum or site, they send you through the gift shop.  Well, Bangkok is no different.  We continued walking as we were supposed to go on a boat ride to a hotel for lunch.  BUT to get to the dock, you walk and walk and walk through the bazaar full of tourist trinkets.  I was so hot and grouchy, I actually took a tuk-tuk to the bazaar, so I could rest a little from the heat and walking.  What is a tuk tuk?  It is a 3 wheel motor bike with two seats behind the driver that makes the tuk-tuk sound when it runs on propane. 

Trinket market on route to boat

At any rate, we finally (and I do mean finally) got to the pier and waited for the boat, which was what I think was anenlarged version of the narrow high speed taxi boats called ‘long tails’.  Which means in order to get in, we had to step off a floating wiggly dock onto the slippery painted wiggly bow with no handles and no help!  Me?  Not my thing!  So…I sat down on my behind and slid across the bow into the boat.  Whew!  And, after me, a lot of the women followed suit!  I was surely not going to fall into the green-brown river full of sewage!

We made a couple more stops, one at the museum where the royal barges are kept – ornate with gold leaf also! These ornate boats have only one purpose, transport the King one special occasions.  Takes 36 rowers and 8 guards.

  And we got to feed the royal fish, who get whole loaves of bread (editorial: while little children are starving!) thrown at them from the boat.  

Typical Longtail boat.  They really go fast!

Our boat with the slippery
red entry on the bow.

One of the royal barges.  There are 52 of them.

And then, at 3 p.m. we arrived at the Mandarin Oriental for lunch.  By then I was so beyond hot, I wasn’t hungry.  And we had been warned to be careful of water, even “bottled water”, as they refill bottles with tap water.  So we munched on a bowl of rice, figuring that had to be safe!  Then another 2 hour trip back to the boat.  BUT the bus was air conditioned and had good bottled water.

What we learned?  First and foremost, won’t ever go back, although there were people staying overnight in hotels in Bangkok.  So I suppose there must be some fun things to do that we didn’t see.  What we saw were crowds and temples.  And gold leaf.. Everywhere.

Homes along the klongs (canals)

Poverty is obvious

Selling bananas by boat

The Thai people revere their king.  He is 89 and in the hospital.  And they have had a long string of kings that live in the proverbial “king life style.”  They are all called “Rama” and this one is the 9^th one.  I don’t know how many countries still have a monarchy that is revered as this one is.  And the Thai people are very sweet.  That is the appropriate word – sweet.  They always appear to be smiling.  And helpful.  And glad to see us.  Poor?  Yes.  The shacks they live in are eye-opening.  And the heat they endure is incredible.  But they are building a country and city.  Many skyscrapers that were not there 10 years ago, people tell us.  So with expansion comes poverty – and later wealth??  We’ll have to watch.  In the meantime, I think this may be as close to hell as we travelers can experience.  Not going back!!