Bangkok, Thailand

We arrived in Bangkok slightly nervous at what we would find. The country had experienced its worst flooding in years and we had seen constant news coverage for the last few weeks about the risk of serious flooding in downtown Bangkok. According to the news, Bangkok's outlying areas of were underwater and the central areas were being kept dry by little more than sandbags.

We decided to treat ourselves to a nice hotel in Bangkok after months of low-budget guest houses in India. Our hotel was on the Chao Phraya river, which runs through the centre of the city. As we got off the metro to catch the ferry to our hotel, we were greeted by the aforementioned sandbags and had to navigate a few gangplanks up to the dock. As we rode up river to our hotel, all the businesses on the river were pumping water out of their basements while the wake from our boat seemed to send water back over their barriers.

Bangkok is a 24-hour mega-city that normally doesn't sleep. Because of the flooding though, the city felt like a ghost town and the business owners and cab drivers continually told us how quiet things were. Even with the flooding though, there was still quite a bit to see.

Bangkok is home to the Thai royal family and the royal palace is open to visitors. It's the top attraction in the city (if you don't count the red light district) and is an amazing collection of temples, stupas, and royal residences. We were immediately suckered by touts though insisting that the palace was closed until the afternoon and suggestion and alternative itinerary for our morning. Since the guards at the royal palace seemed to watch without concern we thought it must be true and headed off on a motor rickshaw ride around the city. After dealing with such scams for months in India, we should of known better. 

We stopped at the Golden Mount and Wat Saket as well as an impromptu stop at a "tourist office," the inevitable destination of all such scams. Needless to say, we weren't interested so our driver grumpily brought us to the next stop and by the time we returned he had disappeared. At least the tuk tuk ride was free and we saw a few temples ("wats") we might not have stopped at otherwise.

After catching a new tuk tuk back to the royal palace, we started to make our way around the complex. Compared to the modest Nepali, Indian, and Tibetan Buddhist structures, Thai architecture is quite ornate, if not garish - often temples and stupas seem covered top to bottom in jewels and gold.

After the palace, we walked to Wat Pho, home of the largest reclining Buddha in the world. The statue is gilt in gold-leaf and about 46 meters long. The complex also boasts a bodhi tree supposedly grown from a cutting of the Bodhi Tree under which Buddha Sakyamuni achieved enlightenment at Bodnath in India.  

We tried to take a ferry back down to our hotel but the water was so high that the boats weren't running. At the closest ferry stop, the water was waist high and even the gangplanks were totally submerged. Needless to say, an alternative mode of transport was required!

We spent the rest of our time in Bangkok enjoying the relative luxury and cleanliness of the big city. We did a good bit of shopping at the infamous MBK, an eight story shopping center with supposedly around 2,000 stores. We also had a few drinks at the 63rd floor terrace bar of the Lebua State Tower which you can see for yourselves in the Hangover 2. As you can imagine, the views are pretty good.

Since the flooding situation in the north of Thailand was pretty bad, we decided to head south to the beaches on the Andaman sea. Next stop, Ko Lanta.