Day 5 - Dusit palace, fishies, river cruise

The Dusit Palace is the residence for the King of Thailand and the area open to public is the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall. The style is entirely Italian Renaissance and Neo Classic, showcasing some replicas and real artworks that belonged to the palace. There's a huge stunning tapestry made entirely of silk that depicts possibly mythical or old stories from Thai history, and 2 wonderful wooden carvings. The roof has paintings of the King Chulalongkorn, his people and the Chakri Dynasty drawn by 2 Italian artists - Professor Galileo Chini and Carlo Riguli.
 In terms of attire, women can only where long shirts pass the knees or sarongs, otherwise they are bought for 50 baht on the palace grounds just outside the building. The patterns and variety of the sarongs are quite plain, so it's best to buy one elsewhere before entering. Also you can't where any sleeveless tops or shorts, and all belongings must be placed in a locker provided - including any cameras so unfortunately no images of the interior. 

Sadly the only time we ever got to enter the busy center of Bangkok was when we went to Siam Ocean World in the Siam Paragon Shopping Mall. As one of the largest aquariums in South East Asia, they have a wide collection of marine wildlife. With such enormous and beautifully arranged tanks, sitting back and just observing the different specimens was a very enjoyable and relaxing experience. Guests can also dress up and dive into the tank for an up-close encounter ;)

To finish off our last night here in Bangkok, we embarked on a river cruise on the RiverStar Princess along the Chaophraya River, with a dinner buffet and live music. It was great to feel the fresh cool breeze for once after spending such a hot and humid week, and the night light views of some of Thailand's famous tourist attractions was too good to miss.

[Mmm complimentary cocktail]

[Typical Thai desserts and fruits (except the chocolate cake). From top left to bottom: mango and sticky rice pudding, choc cake, wide selection of in season fruits (papaya, pineapple, watermelon, honeydew), I forget what the white stuff was but should be something coconuty, sweet gelatin desserts]

 [Dance performance on the ship]

Day 2: The Grand Palace, sky buffet, circus show and Tiffany's show

Today's main attraction was the Grand Palace in Bangkok. It features a series of buildings over a wide area, including a magnificent decorated temple and throne hall (Phra Thinang Chakri Maha Prasat). In contrast to Chinese or Japanese Buddhist temples, Thai temples pride themselves over decorating their walls with bright colours, in particular gold. Inside the temple itself (Temple of the Emerald Buddha), you have to take off your shoes, hat and refrain from taking photos. Inside is a huge monument of different Buddhas with the Emerald Buddha situated in the center high above the rest. It takes about an hour to walk around the whole site, or more if you explore every nook and cranny. Clothes etiquette: need to wear long pants. Women can wear long skirts but men can't. T-shirts are fine.

[hallway paintings]

Being part of a tour, luckily we need not worry about transport or itinerary planning so after finishing the Grand Palace tour, we hopped onto an air conditioned bus and zipped away towards the Baiyoke Sky Hotel for a grand buffet. Along the way, I couldn't help but notice many stray dogs in the streets.  They're not in bad condition nutrition wise so I assume that owners tend to allow their dogs wonder freely in the streets. Although rather than seeing dogs prance about and chasing cars, most were sleeping in the shade and trying to shy away from the sun, which I can't blame them.

At the Baiyoke Sky Hotel, the buffet restaurant is on the highest level (level 77) so you can enjoy the city scenery alongside your meal. The types of dishes available include Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Italian, some Western (steak), seafood and desserts (ohh the desserts! =D). There are plenty of drinks to choose from and top up too, including coffee, hot chocolate, milk tea, ice coffee (a recommendation) and juices. Tea is the only drink you have to pay for. What I like most were the noodles where you can select your preferred vegies, meat and noodles to go with the pre-made hot soup - a must try!

After lunch we went to Sriracha Tiger Zoo. Not much of a fan with watching tigers doing circus tricks, but better than getting hunted in the jungles I suppose? There was also a crocodile show which was slightly more impressive with trainers leaving their hands in between the croc's open wide jaws, then moving on with their heads...i've never seen a trained croc so I'll give them a point for that. There's also an elephant show which we missed.

I don't have specific details of all the dishes we had for dinner, but the Tomyum soup was extremely hot full of Thai chillis (pretty much a soup that I'll be seeing for the next 5 days), rest of the dishes were not too strong in flavour but well balanced. Curry was also a common dish in our meals. We also had a 'specialty” of bird's nest in a coconut. Pretty meh, but apparently you can get the birds nest anywhere in Thailand, which is different from places like China and Hong Kong where it's a mega delicacy. 

In the evening we arrived at Pattaya, a city famous for its sex industry and transvestite shows. With its dimly lit streets and bars, the place was crawling with tourists and live bands, so it doesn't get as busy and lively as this. 

We stayed at the Eastin Hotel, right in the center of the busy city. Personally the only down side was the dimly lit room, which goes with the rest of the city theme I suppose..Otherwise all the facilities were there, except no toothbrushes as usual. They have all the bathroom complimentaries though, with 2 complimentary glass bottles of water (although you have to return the glass bottles to the hotel). Compared to the first hotel, the live music heard outside doesn't stop until around 3am, so if you're a light and early sleeper this won't be the best hotel to live in (but then again being in Pattaya, why would you sleep so early and miss the activity?).

 

So instead of retiring early, my family decided to go watch an extravagant cabaret show starring an all transvestite cast. Being one of the top 10 shows in the world (2001), Tiffany's show was indeed unlike any other. Every single performance was a show stopping musical number, with each style based on an international type of music and dance. Of course they're just lip-syncing, but the costumes, music, dancing, props, lighting and altered bodies looked real and amazing. It's almost unbelievable to think of what the guys have to put themselves through with surgery to get to look super skinny and feminine. No photos of the performance obviously, which is a shame. Prior and after the show the guys in costume would come out to the fountain area in front and people would flock over to take pictures. I was told that they can be quite persistent,  because if you take a photo with them and you end up 'touching' them, it would cost 100 baht. Especially when you touch their boob, which they would try hard to get you to do (and that costs extra I presume). It's weird hearing about it, but I don't think they need to get really desperate since so many tourists love taking photos with them.

Day 1 - Touchdown in Bangkok

Arrived around 6am at the Suvarnabhumi airport and the first thing I needed was a cup of coffee, badly. I was glad to find a 7/11 nearby where they had 3-4 different brands of coffee each in their own disposable cup with added creamer and sugar. A hot water kettle was of course available next to the stand. The Monocca coffee I bought costs 26 baht, and a pork bun was 19 baht. Ridiculously cheap, especially when I exchanged my $10 (Aus) money and still had lots of change left over from the purchase. This trip was going to last 6 days in accordance to the tour schedule that we joined back home, so the first day was supposed to be "free time" as the rest of the tour members arrived in Bangkok. We stayed at a hotel or suite nearby, which was conveniently located near the airport but unfortunately pretty far from the city center. The place is called Crystal Suites, a nice modern looking apartment structure located in a small suburb street. I found the rooms very clean, with sparkling white tile floors and a decent size bedroom and bathroom for 2 people. There's a balcony but sadly our room view looked over a construction site (although you do get to see how the locals live right in your backyard).

The bathroom came with most necessities, except no toothbrushes so luckily I brought my own. There aren't a lot of stores around the area, and like I mentioned before being away from the city there isn't a lot to sight see. There is however a Family Mart next door so you can stock up a few things and grab some snacks. We bought a sim card there as well, which costs 49 baht with 15 baht added credit for 1.25 baht / min (website details)

Besides the lobby is a cafe and small restaurant where guests have a included buffet breakfast. We had lunch in the cafe, and with no one else there at the time we had the place all to ourselves! As our first opportunity to try authentic Thai food, we ordered Pad Thai with shrimp wrapped in an omelet, pineapple fried rice with shrimps and raisins, and vegetarian noodles that needed to be directly order to the chef. The noodles seem to be quite nice here, low in oil and not too high in salt. The Pad Thai was amazing for me, I loved the chewy texture of the noodles mixed in with the typical Thai herbs and flavour. Apparently the pineapple rice was low in the meat side, otherwise the flavour was nice. The spicy seafood salad with fish sauce that we ordered later was indeed very spicy, so take heed in ordering it. At first we were surprised by the small sizes of the dishes, but as we were told later by our tour guide Thai people tend to eat less due to the heat and also because they like to eat a variety of other snacks and dishes other than just one. 

As for the weather, we came during the wet season even though the temperature was an average 35. Yeesh can't imagine what the dry season would be like...

So before I thought the day was made up of just sleeping and hanging out in the hotel room, we were informed that there was a night performance at Siam Niramit, which boasts having the largest and highest stage in the world according to Guinness World Records. Prior the show there's an area where they recreated the 'old country' days of Thailand and as you tour around you can catch a glimpse of what the country life was like. By entering in the evening, the night lanterns and candles added an extra beauty to the tour.

Also be aware that you're not allowed to bring cameras inside, so they have to be surrendered and placed in a storage area where you can collect them after the show (don't worry it's safe, so don't be like me and worry about my little previous baby being stolen through the performance).

Before the performance started, everyone had to stand up for the national anthem as pictures of the current king appeared on screen. It strikes me how Thai people treat the royal family with so much respect, and throughout the trip it wasn't hard to miss photos of the king and queen hung up in shops, houses and billboards. Buddhism is the main religion of the country and just like portraits of king, shrines dedicated to Buddha, in particular the 4-faced Buddha, is found everywhere, even on construction sites.

As for the performance itself, the dancing was average but what amazed me was 1. the size of the stage and 2. the size of the props and the speed the stage changed from scene to scene. The performance depicted different parts and cultures of Thailand, from the countryside with rice-crops to the famous riverside market and imperial palace. The second part of the performance depicted 3 worlds: hell, the mystical animal land, and heaven. I admit the 'hell scene' was pretty graphic as they depicted what the sins were and the punishments associated with them (apparently being an alcoholic would be punished by drinking boiling hot water and bathing in it, criminals would turn into demons, and those who tell lies get their tongues cut out (watch out kids)). But it quickly transitioned to a much nicer world of mystical creatures and heaven, with people flying across the stage as fairies. The highlight of the performance was the way they made a real life river in front of the stage so that performers can row their boats across from one side to another, and during the rain scene water poured from the roof into the 'river' on stage.