I learned never, ever take Shannon on a late night flight. Pumpkin needs her beauty sleep and did NOT enjoy the 3 hour flight and choppy sleep we got at the airport and on board the plane. Fortunately, we arrived at the lovely VIE Hotel and were able to immediately check in, clean up and get some rest. Which we promptly did, sleeping until 1pm or so. Shannon swears she tried to wake me multiple times, and it's all my fault, but I argue she was sleep-deprived and under-motivated when it came to getting me out of bed. In any case, the extra half day I tried to get us by taking the red eye more or less got frittered away in our spacious, ultra-modern, and ultra-cool hotel room. Anyway.... sometimes you just can't fight these things; in the interest of domestic happiness, we took a much-needed pit stop and had a really yummy Thai lunch.
Kind-of refreshed and ready, we headed out to hit the first of many, many Wats, or Buddhist temples. Our first stop was Wat Pho, or the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. This was one of my favorite temples that we saw on our trip. The Buddha is very impressive and the decorative arts on the temple are amazingly beautiful, but it was these things in combination with what Shannon and I ended up referring to as "temple+party" that really made the place come alive. For some reason, the courtyard of the Wat was chock-a-block with food stalls, places to make offerings and buy incense, and monks chanting and singing. Because the trappings of Thai Buddhism are quite ornate, colorful and shiny, the overall effect is one of a carnival. It was great fun. A place of worship like that would make you want to come every day.
After bowing to Buddha's mother-of-pearl toes, we made our way to Wat Arun, or the Temple of the Dawn. Situated on the riverbank, Wat Arun gives you a spectacular view of the city skyline and the traffic on the river...if you're willing to climb the super-steep steps to the top. I thought of Mom, because all of the temples are covered with ornate mosaic work, some in colored mirrors, some in porcelain flowers and figures - it's a pique assiette paradise! I took lots of pictures to inspire my favorite mosaic artist. I almost wished she was there, but not quite...Bangkok might just be the hottest city I've visited to date. By the time Shans and I climbed to the top of Wat Arun, we were literally watering, and the fun continued throughout our time in Thailand. I'll definitely go back, but if I do, it will be wintertime.
Hot and sapped by our brief adventures into the wat-age, Shans and I headed for air conditioning. Bangkok has a number of huge shopping malls and entertainment complexes where people hang out in air-conditioned bliss. We discovered MBK, and found our home away from home in Bangkok. Their food court is huge and operates on this coupon system that makes it pretty easy to get amazing Thai food for super-cheap. We gorged on green papaya salad, pad thai, and a few new delicacies like hoy tod, mussels cooked in a scrambled egg mixture with chili-garlic sauce...mmmm, mmm, good. MBK is also knock-off paradise, so Shans and I got our fill of fake Nars, MAC, Ed Hardy and Burberry, as well as some ultra-cool Thai t-shirts for Dad. And to top it all off....they had Starbuck's! Does it get any better?
On day two, we headed to the Royal Palace compound and were immediately transported into the set of The King and I. The temples and palace buildings are amazingly beautiful and shiny. I don't know how much of the work is original anymore, as the buildings must take almost constant maintenance, but they're still beautiful. Shannon was most chagrined because there's also a dress code, and somehow neither her capris, nor her cute-little-top made the chastity cut. Thus, she enjoyed our tour in two extra layers of men's shirt and sarong - not exactly the stylish figure she's used to cutting - double thumbs down from the Shan-doggy.
Our second stop was the Jim Thompson House museum. An expat silk magnate who popularized the Thai silk industry, Thompson was also a collector of Thai architectural pieces and household goods. After his mysterious disappearance in 1967 (foul play suspected), Thompson's house was turned into a museum, to compliment his very popular eponymous silk stores all over Thailand. The tour of the house and gardens was interesting and a nice respite from the crowded city outside. After the museum, we walked to MBK to cool off and complete our shopping, before heading back to VIE and hitting the pool + cocktails. Now perhaps we lack imagination, or perhaps the heat was a legitimate excuse, but Shannon and I were of one mind when it came to evening plans, and room service won out over the hassle, heat and bother of going back out into the city. We had a very nice meal with a bottle of wine, and hit the sack early, in preparation for our morning departure to Ko Phi Phi, by way of Phuket.
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