Backpacking in Thailand - 28 Dec 09

Day 10 - Bangkok (Wat Suthat, Golden Mount, shopping and night clubs)

We got the 2nd class aircon seats on the train to Bangkok (sleepers were sold out). It is more comfortable and I was able to catch some sleep on the train. We arrived in Bangkok at 9am.

From the Hua Long Pong railway station we took a tutuk to Wat Chanasongkran (just next to Khaosan road) for 40B each (the first tutuk wanted 100B each!). We had not booked a room yet and we just walked around the Banglamphu area looking for a guesthouse. The popular ones were fully booked. We finally found Sidthi guesthouse and got an triple aircon room for 500B.

We our breakfast in a roadside stall in the Wat Chanasongkran compound. This was the same stall that I ate at a few years ago on my first Thailand trip. The food was really good and cheap. And the cook is a pretty girl (what's with all the pretty boys and girls working as chef?) who looked like she could be pretty popular if she choose to work in a bar or night club.

After lunch, we took a boat ride down the river and got off near the Royal Palace. We walked to Wat Suthat. Around Wat Suthat, there are many shops selling Buddhist statues and religious goods. Years ago, I had bought a wooden stupa here. However, I had donated that away for a temple's fund raising and I am trying to get another one now. Unfortunately, I could not find any. Finally, I came across a shop which owner could speak Teochew. She told me that they just don't make the wooden stupas any more. That was a pity as I was looking forward to adding the Thai stupa to my collection. Well, I guess I should not be attached to it.

We took a rest in Wat Suthat, sitting in the main hall to escape from the hot sun. Among the various temples in Bangkok, Wat Suthat is my favourite. I simply like the peaceful and restful atmosphere of the temple and the impressive Buddha statue enshrined in the main hall with interesting murals.

Sheung and I had already been to the Golden Mount before. But Willy had not, so we brought him there. Sheung and I had more interests in old temples and ruins, but Willy was more interested in living temples.

From Golden Mount, we head to MBK for a meal. What's good about MBK is that the food court has a vegetarian stall. We split our ways here. Sheung met up with the girls for a massage, while I shopped with Willy in MBK. I bought a couple of t-shirts and DVDs. There were stalls selling pirated DVDs. But I bought the copy-righted ones that come in box sets from a DVD shop. They were really cheap. Most of the old titles were going for less than 100B (less than SGD5), the newer titles ranging from 200B to 300B each. I came across the DVD set for the BBC series The Planet Earth. It was going for 600B. I remember this was my favourite documentary during my secondary school days. I found the DVD for the Japanese movie Departures. Unfortunately, it only had Thai subtitles. Another interest find was The Dark Crystal, another memorable movie from my secondary school days. I bought it for 88B.

We meet Sheung, Eileena and Yvonne at the Central next to the Saladeng MRT station. They had ran into another Singaporean Steve. We ate at the Banana Leaf restaurant at the basement. The restaurant offers a vegetarian menu and the food was great. Of course the price is a lot higher than the street food but you would have to pay a lot more to get the same food in Singapore. The other thing interesting was that there appear to be quite a large gay cliente. Later I found that that it was because we were next to the gay district in Silom.

The gang wanted to go to a gay bar and so we ended up in Telephone. The bar used to have telephones at each table which people could call the other tables if they see some one they are interested in. But the phones are not there any more. I found it quite boring. Most of the people there were aged caucasians with their Thai boys and there weren't very much to see.

There was a bear Karaoke bar opposite Telephone. As Willy was into bears, we brought him there. The bar was less intimidating the streets below and the atmosphere were more relaxed. There were 2 Taiwanese "bears" who were singing Chinese songs.

We originally planned to visit the wholesale flower market (which starts about 12am), but in the end we were too tired and decided to head back to the guesthouse instead.

Backpacking in Thailand - 27 Dec 09

Day 9 - Chiang Mai : Cooking class, Wat Sri Suphan, Sunday Market



I got up early to attend the cooking class. As I was walking around, I chanced upon the Chiang Mai Marathon that was going on. And I saw a fairy finishing the race.

Vegetarian cooking class at May Kaidee's I love Thai food and always wanted to learn how to cook Thai food. Sure I can whip up a pot of Tom Yum soup easily using the bottled Tom Yum paste. But those just aren't the share as the soup that is cooked from the raw ingredients. My attempts at cooking green curry at home also failed miserably. So the cooking class was one of my main itinerary for this trip. I went to May Kaidee's at 9am. I was the only student that day. (May Kaidee's only take 4 students for each class) The teacher was the owner of the restaurant Duen (May's sister. May's the owner of the Bangkok restaurants of the same name). I was served a breakfast of tea and a fruit salad before we head to the market. Duen introduced the vegetables and ingredients, most of which I am already familiar with. At the market I saw many tourists from other cooking classes as well. We got back to the restaurant and Duen showed me how to cut the vegetables and prepare the ingredients. And then we started cooking. The cooking is actually very family-styled. We cooked a total of 12 dishes. We used similar ingredients for most of the dishes, changing the spices for different dishes. Initially I was a little disappointed. But then I realized that this was actually good for easy home cooking. The tom yam soup wasn't the best I have tasted but it was still pretty good. The green curry turned up pretty good too. I think what made the course easy was that I am already familiar with asian cooking. Duen commented that most Westerners had problem with stir frying as they are more used to sautee slowly with low heat. I finished cooking at 12:30pm. Sheung had gone for a massage in the morning, while Willy went exploring the temples nearby. They came in and shared with the food I cooked. For about S$50, the hands-on cooking class was definitely worth the money. In most cooking class in Singapore, you only get to see the teacher cooking. Those hands on classes would be a lot more expensive. The class gave me a good idea on how to get the taste in some of the Thai dishes. What was good was that they really turn out to be very simple. I would recommend the class to anyone who is interested in vegetarian Thai food.

After a sumptuous lunch, we took a slow walk back towards Wat Sri Suphan, dropped by a few temples along the way. It turned out that the Thanon Wua Lai, the street leading towards the temple was actually a street of silver crafts and there were many shops selling silver wares.

Back at Wat Sri Suphan, we were able to catch the artisans working on the temple decorations.

Honestly, I did not like the metallic feel of the temple and didn't think very highly of the idea of transforming the temple into a "Silver Temple".

It appeared to be an attempt to claim fame by being the "First Silver Temple" in the world.




For the rest of the evening, we wondered through the Sunday market in the old city. Snacking our way through until it was time to go to the train station to catch the overnight train to Bangkok.

Backpacking in Thailand - 26 Dec 09

Day 8 - Day trip to Chiang Rai (Wat Rong Khun, Wat Phra Kaew, Wat Chet Yot)

Superstar breakfast Today, we got up early to catch the 8am bus to Chiang Rai. We had breakfast at a eatery at the bus station and were all charmed by the handsome cook. He was very good looking. He was wearing a leather jacket and a scarf, and cooked with style. We were all happy to be served by a superstar chef.

Wat Rong Khun Wat Rong Khun was the main reason I decided to make a northbound trip after visiting the Northeastern part of Thailand. The temple is relatively new and the guides books do not have any information on the temple. I searched the internet and figured out that it was just outside Chiang Rai, along the highway between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. We asked the bus to drop us at the temple. The temple is well worth the almost 3 hours bus ride. It is a awe inspiring and very beautiful temple. It sparkled under the sun and dazzled all the visitors. Bus loads of tourists (most of them Thai) came to this temple. The temple is still under construction and is estimated to take another 60 years to complete. The murals in the main shrine was very beautiful. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed in the shrine. The shrine hall was simple. There is statue of a beautifully carved Buddha in the center. A huge golden Buddha was painted on the center wall. Mara was painted on the entrance wall so that anyone one wanting into the hall appears to be walking out of the mouth of Mara. There are many interesting elements on the wall murals. You can find spiderman, superman, handphones, spaceships etc. There is a Master's Works Gallery which showed case the art work of the artist behind the temple: Chalermchai Kositpipat. The art work is simple awe inspiring. It made me wanted to pick up my artistic skills again. I had not drawn or painted for quite a while and here I found the inspirations to start drawing again. What I liked about the temple was the way it raised funds. Given the popularity, it could easily charge an entrance fees and aggressively sell all sorts souvenirs. But there was no charges, even for the foreign tourists. There is a donation box outside the gift shop. The gift shop sells postcards and prints of Chalermchai's art works as well as some T-shirts. What is interesting is that there is a limit on the amount of donations the temple would take. They would not take from another one more than 10,000 baht (about SGD 450)! We spent more than 3 hours wandering through the temple and the gallery. I bought 3 t-shirts and a stack of post cards. Directions to Wat Rong Khun I had a hard time figuring how to get to Wat Rong Khun and kind of piece the information together. Wat Rong Khun is a few kilometers from Chiang Rai. If you are heading to Chiang Rai from Chiang Mai or doing a day trip from Chiang Mai, the bus will definitely pass by Wat Rong Khun. Tell the bus driver to let you get off at Wat Rong Khun. If you are doing as a day trip, you should buy the tickets ahead. We bought the tickets at Chiang Mai bus station for both ways the day before (8am departing Chiang Mai and 5.15pm departing Chaing Rai). The super VIP bus (non-stop with toilet on bus) for 263B per person each way. The bus ride was very comfortable and it took about 2.5 hours getting to Wat Rong Khun. There is a sawngthaew service that runs from Chiang Rai to Wat Rong Khun. We saw the sawngthaew waiting at the junction where we got off the bus and that was the sawngthaew which we took to go to Chiang Rai. It only costs 20B per person! However, I am not sure where the sawngthaew starts in Chiang Rai as we asked the driver to drop us a Wat Phra Kaew instead. Since the temple in not too far from the city, I think it probably would cost only about 100-200B for a tutuk trip. Alternately you can check at the bus terminal if there are any local buses heading towards Rong Khun village. Warning! There is now a new bus terminal in Chiang Rai and the long distince buses departs from the new terminal. This is not found in the guide books! In my last trip I remember I took a Bangkok bound bus at the bus terminal in the city center. However, when we got there, we found only a few local buses. We were told to go to the new terminal. There is a sawngthaew service plying between the two terminal. We had to give 100B to the driver to get the driver to leave for the new terminal immediately (it was about 15 min away) and only got there just in time to catch our bus. It was a nerve-wrecking 15 min ride to the terminal for we would have to spend the night in Chiang Rai if we missed the bus.

Wat Phra Kaew This is one of the temples that once enshrined the famous Emerald Buddha that is now found in the temple of the Royal Palace in Bangkok.

Wat Chet Yot This temple has the same name as the temple in Chiang Mai because it also has the similar seven spire stupa. However, this is not as beautiful as the one in Chiang Mai and there are no stucco ornaments on the stupa. What is interesting is that you can get up to the stupa. There is small chamber where a reclining Buddha is enshrined. On the sides of the chamber are two narrow stairs that provide access to the upper terrace of the stupa. However, there are signs which prohibit females from accessing the upper terrace. Another interesting feature of this temple is the fresco on the ceiling of the front veranda of the main viharn. It features the Thai astrology.

The bus terminal was just a short walk from Wat Chet Yot. However, when we got there at 5pm, we were told that the Chiang Mai bus was at bus terminal 2 (it's new). Our bus to Chiang Mai leaves at 5:15pm and we had it was a "Amazing Race" to the new bus terminal. We barely made it in time. The bus left the terminal 2 minutes after we board the bus.

When we arrive at the Chiang Mai bus station at 8pm just in time to meet the girls (Eileena and Yvonne). We were splitting ways here, as the girls wanted to head to Bangkok for some shopping. We had dinner back at the eatery we ate in the morning but the superstar chef was not there any more.

After dinner, the girls boarded the Bangkok-bound bus and we headed to the Saturday night market that was just outside the southern city walls. The street market here is different from the main night bazzaar. It features a lot more handicrafts and art work. And we chanced upon Wat Sri Suphan which is now modelling itself as "The Silver Temple". We decided it was interesting enough for another visit the next day.

Backpacking in Thailand - 25 Dec 09

Day 7 - Chiang Mai: Wat tours: Doi Suthep, Wat Chet Yot, Wat Ku Tao, Chedi Luang

We arrived in Chiang Mai about 7am in the morning. We checked into the Your House Guesthouse, greeted by grumpy staff who partied till 4am in the morning the night before (it was Christmas eve!).

The girls and guys were splitting our ways in Chiang Mai. The girls wanted a relax day with a massage visit. For the guys, our plan was to make a day trip to Chiang Rai. However, when we got to the bus station, the tickets were fully booked for the morning buses and the next available was at 12:30pm. So we booked the tickets for the next day instead.

Willy wanted to visit Doi Suthep, having heard a lot of it from his friends. So we took at tutuk to the Doi Suthep.

Doi Suthep Doi Suthep is a busy temple atop a hill overlooking Chiang Mai. It's visited by many locals and it has a carnival atmosphere to it. I thought it some what commercialized too.

Wat Chet Yot Wat Chet Yot is outside the Chiang Mai city walls, on the way to Doi Suthep. We asked the sawngthaew driver to drop us at the temple on the way back from Doi Suthep (80B per person). My interest in Wat Chet Yot is the stupa that is modelled after the one in Bodhgaya in India. I had not know about the temple in my previous trip to Chiang Mai, and missed it. So I made it a point to visit this time. It turned out to be an pretty interesting temple. Besides the stupa of interest, the temple had a lot of Burmese influence. In one of the shrine hall, we met some artisans who were painting the murals and had a chat with one of them. The murals were beautiful modernist with a dreamy mood. The whole temple ground is a sprawling garden with a few old stupas. Because it is outside the city wall, it does not see as many tourists as those temples within the city wall. Even though it's slightly out of the way, it's definitely worth a visit.

Wat Ku Tao This temple piqued my interest because of the unique stupa found in this temple. The stupa is shaped like stacks of diminishing spheres. According to the Lonely Planet, this design is commonly found among the Dai Lu people in Xishuangbana in Southern China. However, in Thailand, it is only seen in this temple and in Wat Phuak Hong. Unfortunately, there the stupa was under maintenance and we weren't able to get a clear view of the stupa shape. This temple clearly has a big Burmese patronage. Besides Burmese script, there were statues of nats (Burmese deities) and the Buddha statue in the main viharn was of Burmese royal style.

For the rest of the late afternoon, we dropped by Wat Chedi Luang and visited the nearby temples as well as the Three Kings Monument.














At May Kaidee's Vegetarian Restaurant

For dinner, I suggested we go to the May Kaidee's Vegetarian Restaurant as I wanted to book the cooking class.

The restaurant had a buffet every Friday for 80 baht per person. It was a pretty good deal and the food was good.

Then I had a surprise. My friends paid for my cooking class as a birthday present for me. My birthday is a couple of days away. But my friends thought that the cooking class would make a great present since this was something I wanted to do. I really appreciated it!

Backpacking in Thailand - 24 Dec 09

Day 6 - Day in Lopburi

Day 6 was spent exploring Lopburi old city in the morning and afternoon.

We boarded the Chiang Mai bound train at 5pm and had another sleepless overnight train ride.

Wat Sao Thong Thong This temple is just right next to the morning market. It is an interesting temple, having been a mosque and a church at some point in time. The first unusual thing which I noticed is the pointed arch -- more commonly found in mosques than in Buddhist temples. The main viharn enshrines a majestic Buddha image. There are antique Buddha statues on the niches on both side of the walls. The viharn is only open in the early morning. When I came by again in the afternoon, it was locked. So do drop by early if you want to visit the shrine hall.

Lopburi's "Chinatown" This was not mentioned in the guidebooks. I came upon this area by chance. The northern stretch of Phra Ram Road next to the Lopburi River from San Luk Son northwards has an old town charm to it. There were many old houses and many Chinese shops. It is an interesting area to explore. There are 2 Chinese temples around there. One is the San Luk Son and the other one the temple of the City God (Cheng Huang 城隍庙). There is also a small morning market in an alley.

The Luang Pho Saeng Pagoda and Wat Maneecholakhan The three tiered Luang Pho Saeng Pagoda is at the northwestern corner of Lopburi old town. The pagoda is unusual as it is not the usual like the usual round stupa nor like the Khmer prangs. Opposite the pagoda, there is a temple with a huge Buddha statue that over looks the Lopburi river.

King Narai's National Museum The museum is converted from King Narai's Palace. This is a sprawling compound with ruins in a garden setting. It's a good way to escape the mid-day heat. The collection in the museum is not too big, but still worth the visit. There are some interesting exhibits as well as a few beautiful Buddha images.

Wat Phra Sri Raitanamahathat Although this temple complex features Khmer style prangs, this is a distinctively Buddhist temple. There are images of Buddhas on the frescos, as well as round chedis (stupas). There is also a viharn (main shrine hall). This ruin complex is just opposite the railway station. In the evening, the school kids waiting for the train to get home treat the place as a play ground. There was a group kicking a soccer ball around, never mind the damage the flying ball could cause to the temple. A few couples were scattered all over the temple.

The railway station While quite not a place of tourist interest, the buzz at the railway station was very interesting in the evening. We were only in the railway station because we waiting for our Chiang Mai bound train. The station were full of high school students waiting for the local service train to the nearby towns. There was an interesting and lively atmosphere in that reeked the charm of a simple old town.