I woke up Wednesday morning (my birthday!) to see us entering the city. Upon my first glance, I did think it was a bit different from Chiang Mai. I saw a few tuk-tuks, but the roads were mostly filled with brightly colored taxis.
After arriving at the guest house (it was pretty much a hotel, really), we took quick showers before leaving for our canal tour. The ride in the water was refreshing and perhaps a bit frightening. Well, getting in and out of the boat was the frightening part. Everyone seemed a bit afraid of falling into the water. We got a second shower in the boat as waves crashing into the sides of the boat splattered us. During the ride, we saw houses on the water, several wats, a few teenagers swimming, several vendors in boats, and gigantic lizards!
We visited the Royal Barges Museum, where we saw many heavily decorated ships, and then we went to Wat Arun. By that time, several of us were extremely warm, but several climbed up the many stairs of the temple to get a good view and to see all of the artwork.
We spent the afternoon at the Museum of Siam where we learned much about the history of Siam and of Bangkok. The museum was very interactive, which helped keep me interested after spending the first half of the day in the heat outside. In the last room, we could write our names or thoughts on a screen, and they would appear on the wall, where we could have them follow our heads like thinking bubbles. Jess wrote "Happy Birthday Eva!", and someone took a picture of me standing with the bubble floating by my head.
When we returned to the hotel, we watched a movie about 6 October 1976 and listened to a student talk about the past and present political situations in Thailand in order to prepare for our tour we would take on Friday.
Thursday was a very informative day. In the morning, we went to the Duang Prateep Foundation in Klong Toey--a slum area in Bangkok. We spoke with a volunteer at the foundation about its founder as well as all of the programs that they run. Then, we visited the kindergarten before taking a tour of Klong Toey. It was an experience I will never forget--it is one thing to know that people live in such conditions from reading about it, but to experience it--to see and smell and be in the place creates a whole new sense of reality to the situation at hand.
After lunch we walked to the Bangkok Refugee Center. Here we not only learned about Thailand's take on refugees, but we learned about the actual refugee population in the country. I think most of us had believed that the majority of refugees in Thailand were Burmese, simply from the camps on the border and from the situations that we see in Chiang Mai, but in Bangkok, there are refugees from many other nations. Even though these people are registered as refugees, they can be arrested and removed at any time.
Friday was the busiest and probably hottest day of the week. First, we went on a democracy tour. We visited monuments dedicated to people who died in protests, a monument for democracy, a monument depicting the constitution, and several other sites. At Thammasat University, we heard the story of student protests again, walking through the areas where they actually took place.
The afternoon was filled with temples. First we visited Wat Prakaew--the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The temple is gigantic. I'm not sure exactly how many buildings we saw during the tour, but they were all elaborately decorated with jewels and metallic pieces as well as gold leaf. I think my favorite part of the tour was seeing the emerald buddha. This might actually be because the emerald buddha is actually one large piece of jade, as I was greatly amused to find out. I also was intrigued by the fact that the buddha's garments are changed several times a year and that he has not yet been changed out of his winter garb.
After Wat Prakaew, I went to Wat Po, where the second largest buddha in Thailand resides. He is also a lying down buddha. On the bottom of his feet are intricate designs made out of mother of pearl. After seeing the gigantic buddha, one can pay 20 baht and make merit by putting coins in many bowls. After spending the day walking around in such intense heat, I was relieved to relax in a park as we waited for the rest of the group before heading back to the hotel. All of a sudden, I thought someone threw something at me. When I looked again, though, the something was a pigeon! I was quite terrified and waved around to get the bird off of me. Then I was quite ready to hop in the shower and relax for the evening.
Saturday was a free day. After Jess, Shannon, and I walked around a bit, we decided to go to JJ Market. Of course, as we were advised to go early to avoid the heat and the mobs, we managed to show up exactly in the middle of the day. I think we lasted about an hour and a half. Any longer, and we probably would have melted. From the skytrain, we could see the market--it's gigantic. We had been told that it's in the Guinness Book. I would not be surprised. A lot of the stores are somewhat inside--under roofs at least, which provides some shelter from the broiling sun. We saw the same products that seem to be at most markets--clothes, food, jewelry--just in much larger quantities. I think I would like to go back and explore that market more if I had more time.. and an ability to not sweat.
When we got back to the hotel, we rinsed off, changed, and headed back to the train station. Everyone purchased food before the train left the station--having been greatly disappointed the first time around--and we set off on our final journey for the weekend. I slept much better on the train back to Chiang Mai, and I was very happy to see that it was a good bit cooler back here than it had been in Bangkok.
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