Three Nights in Bangkok

Had we arrived in Bangkok first I’m sure we’d have found it overwhelming. It was hot and the streets were packed five lanes wide in each direction with jelly bean colored taxis, private cars, tuktuks, and scooters. But we’d been in Hanoi, and then Saigon, so Bangkok seemed, well, not exactly serene, but staid by comparison. When the lights changed, cars stopped, and it was possible to cross the street without first finding religion and asking ourselves if we’d led good lives.

On our first day, we went shopping, at a giant shopping center and then, in the amulet market. By our second day in the city, I was ill. It wasn’t just my guts; I had all the aches and pains of the flu. J did all of the looking at Bangkok while I lay in bed, drinking lots of water and eating steamed rice. It was a bore but I was not terribly sorry, I was exhausted from everything that had come before, from Hanoi to Angkor Wat. I did not mind being stuck in the hotel but I did wish for better options on cable.

J went sightseeing, out to dinner, and off to the night markets. He’d come back to the hotel and I’d flip through the photos on his camera to see what I was missing. In the tiny back lit images there were magical demons and elegant figures with the body of a woman and the feet of a lion. And there was a lot of gold leaf, gold tile, gold paint, gold everywhere.

In spite of all I’d been missing, I still wasn’t all that upset about being stuck back in the hotel. There are two main reasons for that. The first is that I’d seen Angkor Wat and was visually satisfied beyond description. The other is that I know, when I look at the photos now and think about Thailand, that we’ll be back.

J’s photos (with a few of mine) from Bangkok are here.

[tags]Bangkok, Thailand[/tags]