Ep.45
“Traveling is the thing you buy
that make you richer” – Me.
BKK
– Bangkok, Thailand.
7th-11th
May 2012.
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| Me and Buddha |
After
finishing the probationary period in this company, I got the full right to
apply my leave. I got 28 days of leave, 7 days from last year carried forward
and 21 of them for 2012. So I decided to split it into two leaves. First two
weeks would be on May and another two would be on October. So for the first
leave, I got planned my vacation with my university friend, D Class member, Rosiana,
or called her Ochie and we decided to go on a vacation to Thailand, a land of
thousands smiles.
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| Temple of Gold Buddha |
We
had talked about going on a vacation together since years before and now we
could finally make it come true. We agreed to meet each other in Svarnabhumi
Internaional Airport. Ochie took Airasia from Jakarta and I took CX from
HongKong (on the return sector, I would come back to Jakarta with Ochie by
Airasia to spend the rest of my leave in Jakarta). We both arrived at around 9
pm already on the first day, which means we just need to settle our luggage and
checked in to the hotel.
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| Travel Lady! |
We
booked a budget hotel in Khao San Road, the shopping district, called Green
House Hostel. The twin bed sharing room, with air-con and bathroom. I guess
that’s all we need for a vacation, considering we will be out of the room for
the most of it. The second we enter the room, we chose our bed and undoubtedly
we go out immediately to do what we call area familiarization. As it was
located right on the shopping district, or more likely the market that is still
open late night, we went out to grab some local food, ate them by the road
side, spent our first baht on a summer hat, few t-shirts, and accessories. What
a girly time! (there’s no way you can stop girls from shopping). We finally
reached our room, past midnight, still in one piece and went directly to bed.
Grookkk!
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| Thai's Architectural |
The
Second day start on the ring of Ochie’s alarm, and mine 5 minutes later. We
took turn to take a bath and by the time of 10 am, we were ready to stroll Temples
of Thailand. We opened our map, which I snatched from the airport the night
before and jot down some places. Temple of Reclining Buddha, Grand Palace,
Black Buddha and many other temples. We walked out down to the big street and a
man came to us to show us some recommended places. He said that the Grand
Palace would be open after 1 pm so that it would be the best for us to take
tuk-tuk and do some temple sightseeing first. He pointed at some tuk-tuk
waiting point and said that we could get a ride for a 4 hours trip just for THB
20 due to it was a “Buddha Day”. Well, seriously? It was just nonsense, way top
cheap (even though we knew that it was cheap here in Thailand). We gave it a
shot with my suspicion radar ON. The tuk-tuk driver was also saying the same
thing regarding the special price due to some special occasion for today’s
only. It make me more curious, but whatever. You give me peanut? I give you
monkey.
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| where do we go? |
He
drove us to the president house, to the Black Buddha Temple, to the Standing
Buddha, we did took monstrous amount of pictures, and something I realize,
there was no pattern of this tour and n one in the temple knew about this
“Buddha Day”. And actually, common sense wise, if there is a big day like that,
temples should be crowded right? These temples were just normal as nothing was
going on. Really, he made the list according to his recommendation and when I
asked him to skip one or two and just go straight to the other one, he seems
not so happy. Well, it was kinda irritated me already. When we arrived at this
monastery, where monks were everywhere, I told Ochie about my curiosity and let
her know that if there was a chance of escaping from this tuk-tuk driver, I
would rather be charged more rather then get on his tuk-tuk again. So be it. There
were two different gates in this monastery and we decided to go through the
other gate. And…yes! He was not there, at least not in vicinity. We hailed a
taxi and told the taxi driver to take us directly to the Grand Palace.
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| it's hot hot hot.. |
It
was almost 1 pm at that time. It cost us THB 70. (See, it was only one way trip
and it cost more than a 4 hours tour? That tuk-tuk driver was really up to
something and he did some conspiracy with the first man that recommend us at
the first place). And guess what? The fact is, the Palace doesn’t open after 1
pm (which was what we told), instead it closed at 1 pm due to the governmental
reason. Great! So we got to do some quick re-plan of our day. But before that,
we need some fuel. So we bough ourselves hawkers food (ranging from THB 30-45),
some nice sliced mango (Thai’s fruits are the best! THB 20 each mango), and a
great gulp of young coconut (THB 25). Full and energized, we shop around the
Grand Palace area and walked down to Wat Pho, temple of the Reclining Buddha.
Just across the river, we could see the Wat Arun, Temple of the Dawn. If we
want to go there, we should take a ferry ride (THB 30 per person) and we
decided not to because we need to catch up our schedule. (what schedule?) Haha.
We went to Wat Pho and tons of people were there (that’s how a place of
interest should be). The entrance fee was THB 100 each person and we strolled
the place like crazy. It was 35°C and I was sure enough that I would got tanned
by the end of this trip.
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| Wat Arun + water bus |
Wat
Pho is one of the largest and oldest temple in Bangkok and is home of the
largest single Buddha images of 160 ft length: the Reclining Buddha. The
complex consists of two walled compounds running east–west. The northern walled
compound is where the reclining Buddha and massage school are found. The
southern walled compound, Tukgawee,
is a working Buddhist monastery with monks in residence and a school. Outside
the temple, the grounds contain 91 stupas
or mounds, four viharas
(halls) and a bot
(central shrine). 71 mounds of
smaller size contains the ashes of the royal family, and 21 large ones contain
the ashes of Buddha. That big place with us with our camera? No kidding, I need
spare battery! It was so crowded there that we had to squeezed through people
to get a decent picture. Taking off our shoes to walked around the reclining
Buddha and there we saw a great magnificent statue of Buddha.
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| reclining buddha |
 |
| Wat Po |
The
image of reclining Buddha is 15 m high and 43 m long with his right arm
supporting the head with tight curls on two box-pillows of blue, richly encrusted
with glass mosaics. The 3 m high and 4.5 m long foot of Buddha displays are
inlaid with mother-of-pearl. They are divided into 108 arranged panels,
displaying the auspicious symbols by which Buddha can be identified like
flowers, dancers, white elephants, tigers and altar accessories. Over
the statue is a seven-tiered umbrella representing the authority of Thailand.
There are 108 bronze bowls in the corridor indicating the 108 auspicious
characters of Buddha. People drop coins in these bowls as it is believed to
bring good fortune, and to help the monks maintain the wat. Ochie do the coins
thing and I took “few” picture of her doing so. Ochie is a Buddhist and I knew
it would be such an experience for her to visit this kind of places. Mesmerized
by the Buddha, we finally decide to move to our next schedule.
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| Calypso! |
As
we have to swap the Grand Palace tour to another day, we decided to swap it
with the cabaret lady boys show. We took a taxi back to Khaosan area and can’t
help to shop again. Such a tempting place. Hundreds of street hawkers selling
clothes and stuffs were there and we were just hopeless, we bought again and
again. Bargain and bargain again. We went to a travel agent across the hostel
and booked a ticket for the cabaret show. It called Calypso Cabaret, located at
Asia Hotel. The published rate was THB 900 each if you bought it on the ticket
box, but we got it for THB 600 each from the travel agent. NICE! We went back
to our room, get ready and there was something quite funny that we always did during
this trip. Every time we got back to our room, we will note down and calculate
our cash flow, how much did we used already and what items that we bought.
Girls! (rolled eyes).
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| isn't it heaven??? |
After
we dolled up ourselves, we hail a tuk-tuk to take us to Asia Hotel (less than
THB 200). As we arrived, we could see some people queuing up to buy the ticket
at the ticketing booth. Us? We just show our receipt from the travel agent and
there we go, seat number in our hands. We could see the floor plan and
according to that floor plan our seat were at the fourth row from the stage.
Yes! Show Time! A “guy” (as we were in this king of place, I couldn’t confirm
which one is a real guy and which one is a ladyboy, or at least on the way to
become one) escorted us to your seats and took our welcome drink order. People
kept coming in and after 10-15 minutes or so the light was dimmed.
 |
| those lady boys in Burlesque mode |
One
lady boy was opening the show (the MC, I guess). introduction, the show began.
One…two…more than three dozens (repeat: dozen) of lady boys were there. They
sing, dance, and act at the same time, taking their role as one of the famous
person in the world. The first lady, Italian dance, feathers cabaret (there’s
no cabaret without feathers), Chinese ballad, ostrich show, wonder girls from
Korea (yes they nailed it!), geisha show (where the lady boys showed particular
interest towards one male guest), blossom and taco fantasy, Marilyn Monroe,
Arirang dance, all that Jazz, Burlesque, and the closing with all of them
dancing wearing white, reds and black dancing together. The show itself took at
least 1.5 to 2 hours and those minutes, all of your eyes got stuck on stage.
They absorb your attention in every way possible.
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| which one is the 'real' deal? |
The
fact that they’re still boy (technically) and they’re appearance, which made me
and Ochie motivated as a women to reach that kind of shape of body, just blew
us away. At the end of the shows, they all lined up at the side of the room
towards the exit, they welcome us to take picture with them. All got their
chances. The point is, some of them were just nice and easy to be approached
and some were just too snob and frankly (and loudly) ask for tips after you
take a picture with him/her (indecisive).
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| peeking *wink* |
That
was the beginning of our trip here in Thailand. After watching the shows, we do
think that we deserve a good sleep for tomorrow’s itinerary. BUT, the fact is,
by the time we arrived at Khaosan, we still attracted by the food hawker and
those cute dresses and accessories and t-shirts that we (again) bought some!
*palm to the face*
“A
single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world.” - Leo Buscaglia.
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