Bangkok, Thailand

Shortly after noon on Wednesday, March 21st, our ship arrived in the port of Laem Chabang, which is as close to the city of Bangkok a cruise ship of our size can get (even though there is a very busy commercial port on the Chao Phraya River in the center of Bangkok itself).

Before describing our experience during this visit, a few facts about Thailand itself.  The country is about the size of France or Texas and has a population of 68 million.  It borders Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia and Laos.  The population of greater Bangkok is 13 million.  Thailand has been a constitutional monarchy since 1932 when the king, a member of the Chakri Dynasty founded in 1782, was forced to cede absolute rule.  The king continues to serve as head of state but otherwise has no power except to the extent he is able to exercise moral authority, which the current king's father, Bhumibol Adulyade (also known as Rama IX) who ruled for 70 years, had in abundance because he was so revered by the Thai people.  Rama IX died in October 2016  but was only recently (October 2017) cremated.  The current king, Vajiralongkorn (Rama X), Rama X's son, was 64-years old when he succeded to the throne and has yet to be coronated.  He is a rather controversial figure for a host of reasons, but time doesn't permit getting into them here.  Suffice it to say that Thailand's law of lese majeste, which prevents any criticism of the king or any other member of the royal family, mutes any public discussion of his history.  Our Thai guides have repeatedly referred to Thailand as a democracy (and with apparent pride), but there have been so many military coups since it became a constitutional monarchy that that designation seems questionable.

According to our Bangkok excursion guide, the country's biggest industry is the assembly of automobiles produced by a number of well-known brands.  People who work in factories earn an average of $10US per day and those who work in large cities and have a bachelor degree earn an average of $500US per month.  An ever increasing percentage of young people choose not to marry and, whether married or not, choose to have either no children or one child, all because of cost.  Young people are generally resigned to the fact that they will never be able to afford to buy a house or condominium and, instead, set as purchasing priorities a cell phone and car (even though the latter is also out of reach for most people).  Fifteen to twenty percent of Thailand's population is Chinese.  The overwhelming majority of Thais are Buddhists.

The excursion we opted for on Wednesday was called "Bangkok By Night."  It was scheduled to begin with a 2-hour-plus bus ride from the port into Bangkok leaving at 12:45 p.m. and to end with a return to the ship at 2 a.m. Thursday.  Janis has not been feeling well lately and was, in fact, quarantined by the ship's medical center personnel for a brief period at this time, so I reluctantly went without her.  (She is feeling better now and is out of quarantine.)

Laem Chabang is, among other things, a very large industrial port.  (Click on any photo to enlarge it.)

     

As far as the eye could see there was row upon row of autos assembed in Thailand awaiting export.

 

Traffic on the highway to Bangkok was heavy all the way in despite the fact that for most of the trip we were on a multi-lane toll road (4 lanes each direction).

 

As we got closer to the city I was expecting a dramatic skyline, but for whatever reason I never saw one.  To be sure, we passed some modern hi-rises like these.

    

But for the most part, we drove on elevated roadways by endless scenes like these.

     

Our first planned stop was at Wat Traimit (Temple of the Golden Buddha) located in Chinatown.  The Golden Buddha is the world's largest solid gold statue, weighing 5.5 tons.  There are a number of gems in the temple complex in addition to the buddha and the temple building itself.

                                            

After leaving this temple we walked through part of Chinatown.

Not unlike other such ethnic neighborhoods, the streets were crowded, the sidewalks narrow, food smells of all sorts abounded  -- in short,  stimuli overload.

                                                                                              

Our next stop was the Chinese-Buddhist temple Wat Mangkon Kamalawat which is regarded as the center of festivities during important festivals such as Chinese New Years and the vegetarian festival.

                                                                                    

Although we had originally signed up for an excursion that included a tour of the royal palace on Thursday, we ended up not returning to Bangkok that day.  As a consequence, the only photos I have of the royal palace are these of some of the exterior that I took from the bus as we passed it.  The palace is, in fact, a compound containing a number of buildings.  Others from the ship who did the palace tour described the place as quite amazing, although their own ability to appreciate it and its detail was impacted by the fact there were thousands of tourists crowded in there pushing and shoving their way along.

       

Next on our schedule, believe it or not, was a stop at the Chetawan Health Center where we were offered the choice of a 1-hour full-body massage or foot massage.  Never having had a foot massage for a full hour, I opted for that.  This was a legitimate place and the massage therapists who work there are well trained and quite serious about their work.  Given how much walking we've done in so many different places and on such varied terrain during this cruise, I was happy I chose the foot massage.  It was quite amazing.  I've included a photo of the message therapist who worked on my feet.

   

By the time we were done there it was dark out.  Just before getting back on the bus we were led down a narrow street to the Chao Phraya River for this nighttime view of Wat Arun, another famous Bangkok temple located on the river's west bank.

We were next driven to a very small restaurant located on yet another narrow street where we were treated to drinks, pad thai and delightful music played by a very good live band.

              

After dinner we were driven to a nighttime market, which is part of Bangkok's famous (or infamous) red-light district.  The market itself consists of stalls set up in the center of a narrow street on either side of which are endless bars full of scantily clad female pole dancers.  Hawkers standing outside of these places do their best to lure customers inside.  While I snapped a few photos from the outside looking in open doorways, I am not including any of those here in the interest of good taste and because this whole scene is inextricably related to the notorious sexual exploitation that is practiced and permitted in Bangkok.  Instead, I used the bulk of our time in this area to sit in a Haagan-Dazs ice-cream shop eating ice cream and updating my iPhone, iPad and MacBook Pro.

           

My tour group was instructed to meet the bus across the street from this market at 11:45 p.m. for our drive back to the ship.  We were on our way by midnight and arrived back on board precisely at 2 a.m.

This very limited view of Bangkok left me feeling underwhelmed about it.  Perhaps had we really had two full days in the city (we didn't, for reasons explained in my next blog post) and an exposure to more parts and features of it I'd feel differently.  But this particular experience is all I have to go on and I was disappointed.

I will next blog about our visit to Pattya, Thailand, an hour's drive from the port of Laem Chabang where the ship remained docked overnight.