Thailand – Not Enough

Cheap air travel may not be the theme today with the rising crude prices. But on 16th May 2008 (Day seven) we flew from Phnom Penh to Bangkok for a paltry Rs.1600 per head (A shade less than 40 USD courtesy AirAsia.com). The flight was rather empty but we were incredibly busy reading up the heavy Wikitravel.com printouts. We understood right then that even if we spent all our four days in Bangkok we would still have more to see. Nevertheless we did have a plan.

Suvarnabhumi International airport is one of the largest terminals in the world. After a half-hour walk evading hundreds of taxi touts we managed to board a pre-paid taxi. There is some kind of a strange logic about addresses in Bangkok. The fundae behind the ‘Sois’ and the ‘Nois’ of Bangkok made for an interesting read but locating the River View Guest House was a real challenge. But it was all worth it ‘coz the view of the Chao Phraya River from our balcony was simply breathtaking.

Every time we stepped out of the hotel room, the first mode of transport was the ferry we took from the N3 pier. We ferried straight to N8, the pier nearest to the Wat Pho. Wat Pho is the site of the world famous ‘Reclining Buddha’. About 49 meters long, this gold Buddha in the “Anantha sayanam” pose is a master piece. To keep him away from gold-scratching tourists there is a barricade with a 2-3 meter wide gap from the iconic Buddha. Till date I didn’t know that around this part of the world the Buddha is considered one of the dasavatharas.

Hunger pangs took us to the Siam center where after a heavy meal and a few rounds of mall hopping we started feeling the tiredness from a week of sight-seeing. Our aching legs made us decide that our next two days at the Pattaya resort were meant for rejuvenation.

Pattaya has something on offer for the tourist of every age. Our first memory of Pattaya is the beach where we spent hours tanning in the waters. Stepping out of the beach we filled ourselves with satays of the choicest meats. We also happened to try out some brilliant banana pancakes. I’ll post the recipe for this simple dessert soon.

Later in the evening we decided to explore the famous Go-Go’s and Beer bars. While these places have interesting themes we soon realized they all these were merely veneers for prostitution. The first place had exhibition Muay Thai (Thai kick boxing). The matches were pulsating but the lady bartenders were vying for our attention hoping that we would pay the bar-fine and take them out with us. A quick exit led us to a place specializing in board games. I was soon with an incredibly striking Thai beauty (Ms. Aio) playing a board game called four in a row. While I couldn’t take my eyes off her, I managed to win a game with a bet of 100 baht. Boy! It was a nice feeling and I kept playing. Only when I was at minus 300 baht I realized that I was being milked. After promising her that I would take her out the next evening we made a second exit and by then it was like 3 AM.

We woke up around noon on day nine and headed straight to the beach. After the ritual dip we negotiated parasailing for 1100 baht (for three guys). Parasailing at Pattaya is quite different from the ones at Miami and Cancun. This one was precision personified with the speed boat driver making you take-off and land exactly on a small launch area. But the aerial sojourn is only about 3-4 minutes long, way lower than the 20 minutes sail offered in the Atlantic beaches. The afternoon and the evening were spent walking along the shoreline and going on a shopping binge at the Big C. We ended up using the bhramastra (a.k.a Bank of America credit card) for the second time in the trip.

Day ten started early. We took a ‘songthaey’ to go to the bus-bay and went back to Bangkok. A heavy rain greeted us but we had made up our mind to go visit the King’s palace. Adorned with so much gold the Royal palace is a great sight. Little did we realize how blessed we were that day. When we reached Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) that afternoon, we came to know that we were seeing the sacred ‘Visaka Buddha’ on Buddha Jayanthi itself. It was a perfect culmination to a great trip. After some more eating in the streets and some evening shopping at Chinatown we packed up to leave next morning to Calcutta and eventually home. There is so much more to see in Thailand and hopefully I can come once more and spend at least a couple of weeks here. Yeh Dil Maange More!