We booked a 1:00PM flight from Washington DC to Narita, Japan (Tokyo). Having done this flight already, we knew we were in for a long long flight. About 13 hours. No flight this long is ever even remotely enjoyable. And our hopes of being upgraded to business class were squashed immediately. (Apparently, they don't give free upgrades on international flights unless they're oversold. Bummer.) This flight was not oversold. As I said previously, thanks to extensive travel for work, we enjoyed United Gold status, and at least sat in Economy Plus with an empty middle seat between us. We also got TSA pre-check which means we didn't have to take off our shoes or take out our liquids while going through security. Unless you pay for the service, you just get randomly chosen for the perk when you check in.
At 4:00PM on Monday, May 4, our flight landed in Narita (yes, you're reading that correctly. 27 hours passed thanks to the time change and the long flight). Thanks to our travel status (you're going to hear that A LOT throughout this blog series), we could access the United executive lounge. They had showers which we planned on utilizing, but upon arrival, we changed our minds. Not because they were dirty or inconvenient. Quite the contrary (if you know anything about Japan, the one thing they're not is dirty), but we only had about 2 hours, and to rifle through all of our things to find clean clothes and shower supplies...we just decided it wasn't worth it. Instead, we ate our fill of the free lounge food before boarding our 6:20PM flight to Bangkok. (Bangkok and Tokyo are in the same time zone but Bangkok is much farther south. So even after a 13 hour flight to Tokyo, we still had another 5 hour flight ahead of us).
Unlike our flight from Dulles to Tokyo on United Airlines, our flight from Tokyo to Bangkok was on ANA Airlines, and we were unable to select our seats prior to the flight. Fortunately, they sat my husband (we'll call him J) and I together, though the flight itself wasn't nearly as nice. The plane was much older, the flight was crowded, and my diary from the time says, "J had a man of questionable morals sitting next to him." That makes me laugh. I only wish I remembered the details of that story.
We did our best to sleep on that flight not really having any clue what time our body clocks felt. All I knew was that we were landing in Bangkok at 11PM, and probably wouldn't be in bed until past 1AM.
As soon as we landed, we found an ATM which unfortunately didn't give us the best exchange rate for Thai Baht. The going rate at the time was about 33.00Baht to $1.00. We just divided everything by 3 to give us a rough estimate of relative cost. Even more annoying was that the ATM gave us a bunch of high denomination bills. We knew from our experience in Dubai that we would have a hard time changing these if we didn't do it at the airport. We immediately found a small duty free store, bought the cheapest bottle of water we could find, and paid for it with the largest bill we had.
We then navigated out of the Bangkok airport, but not before getting trapped for what felt like forever on the third floor. Before arriving in Thailand, I read a lot about the Thai taxi system. In short, insist that any driver use the meter. They won't want to, but just insist and don't back down. I've encountered warnings about taxi fraud in other foreign countries. It's sadly too common, and Thailand is no different. From the airport we knew to look for the "public taxi" stand. They have a nice system where you tell a clerk where you're going, pay up front, and then they communicate to the driver where to take you. You never exchange money with the driver except for a tip at the end. The driver took us the 45-50 minute journey from the airport to central Bangkok to the Hilton Sukhumvit.
This is an extraordinary hotel. Thanks to our Hilton Diamond status, we got free bottled water, access to the executive lounge (which came with a complementary buffet breakfast, afternoon tea, and happy hour), and a room upgrade. We also opted to pay using half points and half money (an option that is sometimes available to reward members), so we ended up paying about $50/night for this $250/night hotel.
Day 1 in Bangkok, Thailand we designated as "historical" Bangkok day. Our hotel was not in the historical district, but we were less than a 5 min walk from the BTS Skytrain (same as London Tube, Boston T, Paris metro, etc only it's above ground). We took the BTS from the Phrom Phong station to the river pier and then the tourist ferry up to the Grand Palace. The tourist ferry didn't have any sort of guide or anything, it was just a designated ferry for tourists that fewer locals used.
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| Bangkok, Thailand from tourist ferry |
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| Wat Arun from tourist ferry - Bangkok, Thailand |
Our plan worked out well for the most part with a few exceptions. The Grand Palace that we planned on touring for most of the morning was closed for the Coronation Day holiday (error in my planning) but because of that, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha had free admission. First, however, we decided to see the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. This guy...is HUGE! And there are signs everywhere warning tourists of scammers, pickpockets and other petty thieves, so we made sure to hold tight to our possessions...except our shoes. You can't wear shoes inside any temple.
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| Temple interior near the Temple of the Reclining Buddha |
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| Temple of the Reclining Buddha - Bangkok, Thailand |
From there, we took a cheap ferry directly across the river to Wat Arun. (By cheap, I mean it was 3 Baht or the equivalent of 10 cents.) We didn't get too up close and personal with the Wat because it was undergoing restoration and covered in scaffolding (see above). The reviews I read ahead of time were very mixed. Some said that the whole thing was closed while others said that just part of it was closed while the rest of it was open. When we got there, high chainlink fences surrounded the entire area, so we didn't even try to find a way in. What a waste of 10 cents. <<giggle>>
Instead of hurrying back across the river immediately, we entertained ourselves with some street food. We got chicken skewers...if you can call them that for 20B (less than $1.00). I guess it's true that you get what you pay for. There was no part of these grilled balls that resembled chicken. They were crunchy, and when you bit into them, you saw no trace of white or dark meat. You saw tendons or some other part of the chicken that would result in a crunch when bitten into. Eww gross...I can't even talk about it without making a funny face. You'll just have to make an "eww gross" face yourself and pretend I'm making it with you. lol
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| Bangkok Street Food |
Too timid for Thai street food. I guess I won't be on Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmerman or that Anthony Bourdain guy. I helped choke them down with some fresh watermelon from another vendor (fresh fruit is all over SE Asia). After walking around the scaffolding-covered Wat, we found ourselves suddenly in the middle of a huge thunderstorm. We easily took cover under a pavilion which had picnic tables. J took the opportunity to grab a fancy coffee and cookies from a small stand nearby.
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| Do you see the froggy?? |
After waiting for over an hour, the rain let up enough that we decided to make a dash back to the ferry. We got a wee bit wet. I had my camera tucked under my shirt, and as soon as we stepped onto the ferry, a little old Thai lady took me gently by the elbow and offered me a small plastic bag to use to cover my camera. She didn't speak any English, and I didn't speak any Thai, but it was a very lovely moment. I used that little plastic bag to protect my camera for the rest of the trip.
The rain shower cooled things down for the duration of the storm but not a second longer. The chokingly dense humidity prevented our clothes from drying, and we found ourselves in this perpetual state of uncomfortable dampness.
Back on the main side of the river, we headed back toward the Grand Palace. Though the palace was still closed, they opened the grounds after the holiday ceremonies ended. On the grounds of the palace is the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (aka the temple of the really really small JADE buddha). Compared to the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha left a lot to be desired. I think my pictures make it seem nicer than it was. You can't take pictures inside, so my pictures were taken through the window. (That was probably still not allowed, but oh well). From inside the temple, we couldn't get very close to the jade buddha at all because there were so many people in the temple praying. I didn't want to be that obnoxious tourist that paraded to the front of the temple to gawk and awe at the pretty altar disturbing those around me. The grounds of the palace were lovely though, and I enjoyed walking around despite the oppressive heat and humidity.
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| Temple of the Emerald Buddha exterior |
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| Emerald Buddha - Carved from solid jade |
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| These guys stood guard outside the temples |
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| Temple near the Grand Palace - Bangkok, Thailand |
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| Sacred Elephants - Bangkok, Thailand |
For dinner, we went to the Siam Center (giant Japanese-like shopping center), got some Japanese food for dinner and retired back to our hotel for the evening.
I'll continue our tour of Bangkok in my next post. For now, I'll leave you with the words I wrote in my journal after our first day.
"Thai people confuse me. Some of them are so friendly like the ladies who gave us plastic bags or the strangers who offered directions, but there are also scammers all over. Oy! If only it wasn't so hot!"
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Sunset - Bangkok, Thailand
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Thanks for reading!
- Foxy the Traveler
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