Bangkok Day 2 (and arrival in Pranburi): Thai Time part 3 - see previous episodes below

Whew, I'm taking a deep breath and preparing to plunge into a narrative of our second day in Thailand.

Once again we woke up (fairly) early for another great hotel breakfast, then arranged a late check-out so we could do some sightseeing in the morning before returning to the hotel to catch our taxi ride down to Pranburi, our second destination, later in the afternoon.

Darcy's original plan this day was to visit another temple (whose name I forgot), the major feature of which was supposed to be a flight of 300 stairs we could climb (presumably for a view).  So off we set by foot because it was only about 2-3 km away and we thought it would be interesting to see what was along the way up close and personal.  We had a full compliment of all 5 of our party with us again.  We had to fend off offers of tuk-tuk rides but we were glad we did as we passed some interesting street life and shops and many smaller temples and ornate public buildings (you can't swing a dead cat in Bangkok, or anywhere else we visited for that matter, without hitting compounds of buildings with ornate colorful crenelations and statuary) and eventually found a super-back alley along a canal where I had to continually duck my head under makeshift lean-to awnings but at least it was shady and it gave us interesting glimpses into peoples homes and shops, which are often one and the same.  Max and Owen seemed equally, if not more, taken with the motorcycles and scooters which were everywhere, parked on the side of the road and roaring by in large packs, delighting the boys no end.  Unfortunately I don't seem to have gotten pictures of any of this.

Update: Darcy sent some pictures corresponding to this walk...

Interesting things to see on the street.

The electrical infrastructure seems a little questionable!

More Bangkok street scenes.

Here's a glimpse of the approach to the back-alley area I was mentioning, from the Darcy/Eddie collection (probably Eddie since Darcy's back is in it).  This was just before we jogged right (and Owen crossed the bridge and went rogue for a couple hundred meters).  But you won't see this from a taxi or tuk-tuk or even a bicycle!

Just as we were nearing our destination we bumped into a nice local guy who said he was a student and offered to help us find our way to where we were trying to go but then told us the temple we wanted to visit wasn't open until noon that day (contrary to the info Darcy had from the internet) and that it was a special holiday called a "Factory Holiday" and he could get us a tuk-tuk ride to 3 other tourist destinations then back to this one later when it was open all for the low low price of 40 baht (which is about $1.10, and was much cheaper than the already reasonable regular tuk-tuk rates, especially when you consider there were 5 of us crammed into the thing).

The helpful guy took our tourist map and annotated it for us, showing us the places he was proposing we go, ending up at our original destination (number 3 on the map above) which we never did make it to.  Instead we ended up going to #1 on the map above.

Just then a tuk-tuk appeared (as if by magic) and the guy motioned him over and he stopped and we hopped in and he took us to the "standing Buddha" temple.  When we got there I tried to pay the driver the 40 baht but he wouldn't take it and said he'd wait for us outside the temple and we could go meet him there when we were done seeing the Buddha and he'd take us to the next place.  I didn't want to keep him waiting so I urged him to take the money and told him we'd find another ride, or maybe walk, later, but he refused.  So we went in and enjoyed the standing Buddha.

Standing Buddha

While we're in there, Darcy is checking on her tablet and discovers a story almost identical to ours about tourists in Bangkok getting scammed (Here's their article).  So we realized we're caught up in a scam, nothing dangerous, just annoying and a waste of our time.  We've already been diverted from our original goal (the temple with the 300 steps) but at least we got to see this standing Buddha.  But we don't have any more time to waste because we have to get back to the hotel in time to check out and we don't want to get taken to a suit factory or a jewelry place and pressured to buy stuff, which seems to be the point of the scam.  So instead we depart the standing Buddha by a different route and leave our tuk-tuk driver in the lurch.  Oops!  Oh well.  This put us back on foot and after figuring out where we were and where we wanted to get to (the hotel) we decided to walk along a canal to the river and take a water-taxi/bus back down river to our hotel.  This turned out to be a really pleasant time because we ended up passing by a bunch of stalls selling plants and landscaping stuff, then getting a nice little boat ride (just one stop) along the river.

We all agreed Darcy would fit right in with a shop along this street.

At first I thought this was a plant like the one I've been trying to grow at home in Colorado for many years (unsuccessfully) but upon further examination I think it's not because the leaves are different.  But it's pretty cool and later on I've got a picture of one that's blooming, I think.

On the water bus heading south back to our hotel.

We got back to our hotel just in time to take another shower and check out by noon and leave our bags behind the reception desk so we could go off for yet more sight-seeing before our 3:00 taxi pick-up was scheduled to take us down south to our destination on the western coast of the gulf of Thailand, which we had originally chosen as the primary destination of the trip because Owen was the first to sign up and he said his prime objective was kiteboarding and when I searched the internet for the best kiteboarding opportunities in Asia Pranburi, Thailand, was one of them and they were supposed to have good wind conditions at this time of year.  But after the rest of the crew signed on there was some talk of wanting to see some of the rest of Thailand as well so we compromised a bit and added our first two nights in Bangkok (rather than blitzing straight down to Pranburi from the airport upon arrival).  And I'm glad we did because it was definitely a different view of the country than what we viewed in the country.  In the end I think we got our timing just about right because you can get enough of tramping around city streets (even doing wheelies in tuk-tuks) and standing in lines and viewing temples and art objects and eventually you want to be able to ride motorbikes up and down the shore and feel the breeze and sit on the beach and play in the water.  So I'd say we split our time pretty perfectly given the finite amount of it we had to work with (Owen wanted to be back for a New Years Eve concert).

So off we went to see some sort of national art gallery.  Another tuk-tuk ride over there, (this time with 5 of us in a single tuk-tuk!) then everyone had to put on sarongs because only Owen was dressed appropriately in long pants (Darcy also had long pants but women weren't supposed to be wearing pants).  Then viewing the art, which was mostly all contemporary stuff created in the traditional style by artisans who were trained in the program promoted by the queen as a way to prevent the loss of the cultural heritage.  No picture taking was allowed in there.  The stuff was pretty impressive but I'm not sure you couldn't also appreciate it just as well by looking at pictures online.  I think we all agreed that the focus of the descriptions of each piece was a bit of a turn-off (there were dual-language plaques and we also were given little recorders that we could enter the item number into and hear a description of the object) because they focused monotonously on how many artists had worked on it and how many months it had taken to complete.

5 tucked into a tuk!  Actually I think this was later, on the return trip, because I wasn't in the "ejection" seat the first time we did this but the point is the same.  Darcy, Eddie, and Max are on the actual seat behind Owen and me, and Owen and I are sitting where their feet are supposed to go.

The art gallery building

A temple on the grounds of the art gallery building.  I was super impressed until I learned that it had been completed only earlier this year.  Most of the art pieces and buildings had been created as tributes to the birthday of one or another of the royal family, it seemed to me.

This was on the approach to the reception building where we had to buy our tickets and check all our bags and hats and cameras and get our sarongs.

Happily, we all got sarong so well on this trip!  Reid, note my shoes!

Eventually we left there and one surprise was that when we tried to return our sarongs (which had been free to rent) we were told that they were ours to keep.  So the joke's on Owen because he's the only one who didn't get a sarong, not that he seemed too troubled by that.  I sent mine back to the US so Owen, you can have mine if you want.  Max seemed to like his the most as he continued wearing his the rest of the day.

Sarong, Max!  It was great seeing you!

 On our way back to the hotel for the last time we stopped for a bite:

Final lunch in Bangkok.

We stopped for one final lunch then got back to our hotel just in time for our 3:00 pm rendezvous with our taxi transport to Pranburi.  It was supposed to be about a 3 hour ride and I'd arranged it with the kiteboarding instruction service we were planning to use (KBA) but I was a little nervous because I'd sent them a deposit for this taxi ride and for a downpayment on the kiteboarding lessons and I hadn't been able to get confirmation once I landed in Thailand that we were still signed up for this ride, and I didn't want to be left standing on the curb in front of the Bangkok hotel and have to make alternate arrangements to get down to Pranburi.  But my concerns were unfounded because as I returned to the hotel one of the reception people asked me if I had arranged a taxi ride and I said yes and he said it was already there and he pointed to a large white step-van type of thing (they called it a minivan but it was quite spacious and luxurious) already waiting in the driveway (which was quite a trick because there wasn't a driveway.)  So I know I said it once before but I have to reiterate what excellent professional service we found in all our dealings with Thai vendors (with the one exception of the rogue tuk-tuk scam, which is to be expected).  Everyone with whom we arranged service always showed up on time with excellent equipment and was very professional.  I was extremely satisfied.  As Eddie said once or twice, "I trust these people more than most of the folks back home."  And I agree with him.

Our driver to Pranburi.  He ended up being the same one who brought us back to the Bangkok airport at the end of the trip (in the same van).  Notice his shifting lever.  I was having a fantasy during the ride that it was a beer tap.

The rest of the not-so-mini van.

Traffic was heavy getting out of the city but once we hit the countryside we sped right along and enjoyed the views of the hills and clouds and roadside businesses and temples and shrines.  The light began to dim and I think everyone except Max fell asleep.  We eventually pulled into our next hotel, the Golden Pines Resort, around 6:45 I think, by which time it was dark.  We checked in and took our stuff to our "deluxe rooms with ocean view" (costing all of $55 each per night, upgraded from the regular rooms which were only $33 per night) and then everyone except Max (who now, inexplicably, was tired) went off for a walk into town searching for dinner.  We had an interesting foot tour of the original town built at the mouth of the river, as opposed to the tourist places which have sprung up south of there all along the beach, and eventually picked a restaurant that had several other groups of diners, many of whom seemed local, and had a nice dinner there which some of us finished off with some homemade coconut ice cream.  Then back to the hotel and bed and our second day in Thailand was complete!