First Day in Bangkok

We were up early and had breakfast at the Marriott's Executive Lounge.

We left the hotel to visit Lumpini Park (recommended by TripAdvisor).  On the corner by the park, while looking at our map, a local Thai approached us. He introduced himself as Tom who worked for the US Embassy. He told us the park was full of drug addicts (“Not safe”). He recommended a canal boat tour to visit Wat Arun. Tom flagged down a tuk tuk and arranged for a 100 Baht (about $3.00) trip to take us to the place to get a boat tour.

The boat tour was 3,000 Baht ($85) for both of us. The boat tour was 1½ hours on a kind of boat called a “long tail.”  These are long boats propelled by old car engines connected to a propeller pole thats about 10 – 12 feet long.  

There many "long tails" carrying an array of tourists through the backwater canals of Bangkok.  The canal water is controlled by a series of locks that resulted in the boats clustering together awaiting a lock to open.

The boat trip was interesting. Maybe not worth $85, but it did provide us a way to see, literally, the backwaters of Bangkok and pushed us out to wander far from our hotel.  We acquired a Bangkok map before leaving the hotel so we could navigate around town and back to the hotel.

The boat trip drops people off at Wat Arun.  Be prepared to pay a "landing fee" of about 30 baht that is not included in the ticket price.

Wat Arun

Wat Arun was our first Buddhist temple in Thailand.  Very impressive.  The central temple structure was wrapped in scaffolding, evidently undergoing cleaning and/or repair.  Nonetheless, there was much to see. 

As was our experience while living in India (2005 - 2007) when we visited many Hindu temples, we concluded it would take us 1,000 years to fully understand the meaning of the temple artwork and the reverence in which these structures were held by the locals.  

After visiting Wat Arun we opted not to take a boat ride, but exited the temple, walked across a bridge and visited other temples.

Hmmmm….tricky finding our way the city center.  A tuk tuk stopped and we pointed to the Giant Swing on our map that was in the old city center.  

Once at the Giant Swing we started to walk in the direction of our hotel.  We learned today what "far" really means when walking on the narrow, uneven sidewalks of Bangkok.  

We stopped for lunch at small noodle shop and then continued to the National Stadium station on the BTS Skytrain. We noted earlier in the day that the Bangkok Mass Transit System (BTS), or more commonly called the Skytrain, had a stop near our hotel.    

We eventually figured out that tickets are purchased using tokens from a vending machine.  There was a manned booth, not selling tickets, but selling tokens for the vending machines. Our one-way tickets cost about 40 baht.

Travel Tips

• Have good walking shoes, wear a hat and sunscreen 
• Be prepared to have street conversation, but maintain a sense of safety
• Have a map; reading the map provided us with unsolicited help from local Thais
• Use tuk tuks and bargain for a fare
• Use Bangkok's Skytrain, very convenient and easy to use