My friend Cynthia and I have been talking about traveling to Thailand for well over 2 years now. Finally, in April, we booked our tickets and planning began in earnest. Funny how times flies by, because after months of research and several itinerary iterations, we boarded a plane to Bangkok, via London last Friday. Thanks to Cynthia’s extensive work travel, she had a gazillion aeroplan points at her disposal. She decided to, very generously, use her points to spring for our business class tickets. Thank heaven she did – the entire trip from Toronto to Bangkok clocks in at a staggering 22 hours. What a difference that made. We arrived in Bangkok on Sunday morning, well rested and ready to hit the ground running in the City of Angels.
After checking into our hotel, the Sheraton Royal Orchid, we quickly set out to take in the sights and sounds of Bangkok. First stop was Wat Pho – also known as the temple of the reclining Buddha and is considered to be one of Bangkok’s oldest temples, located on Rattanokosin Island. The temple is thought to have been built between 1688-1703 during the reign of King Phetracha. We toured the temple for about an hour, snapping a multitude of photos, while marveling at the construction, decoration and beauty of this impressive complex.
Fun Fact: This temple houses the largest collection of buddha images in Thailand, including the 46m long reclining Buddha. It is also known as the birthplace of traditional Thai massage, which is still taught at this temple site.
In keeping with tradition, we made sure to stop by the massage school and schedule ourselves in for a foot massage – actually, there was no established tradition, we just decided to start that one given that it was our first day in Thailand – and it was GLORIOUS!
After touring the temple, we made our way back to our hotel to join a tour of the Choa Praya River – we had signed up for it upon arriving earlier that day – we wanted to make sure we visited as much as we possibly could given that we had a very short stint in Bangkok before moving on.
The Chao Praya river, snakes through the city then ultimately into the gulf of Thailand. Our river tour lasted about 3 hours and it took us along the river, past the Wat Pho and Wat Arun temples, as well as the Grand Palace. Our tour guide’s English wasn’t that great and the sound system sucked so the tour was mostly scenic versus informative. We didn’t really care though, we were on a longboat on the Chao Praya river in Bangkok! We made our way along the river for a bit, then turned down one of the main canals off the river, which allowed us to get a glimpse of the more typical Thai wooden houses along the canals. We spotted a few fisherman in boats and women selling their wares from longboats, we even stopped to feed the catfish. After a few minutes of feeding catfish, our boat turned around and made it’s way back to the river. Once there, the tour stopped for a quick tour of Wat Arun – Temple of Dawn.
Wat Arun is located on the west bank of the Chao Praya, directly across from Wat Pho and the Grand Palace. Commonly referred to as the Temple of Dawn. The main feature of the Wat Arun is its massive central prang, encrusted in porcelain tiles and seashells, the porcelain and seashells had previously been used in the ballasts of ships traveling between China and Thailand.
If you prefer to visit the temple independently, there are ferries that transport passengers along the Chao Praya to the Maharaj pier, where the temple is located. The entrance fee for the temple is 50 baht.
After a day of temple tours, tuk-tuk rides and river ferries, we decided to cap off the day with a cocktail at a riverside bar before retiring for the evening. The next morning, we would be hitting the ground running again.
Buying souvenirs is hard, so is walking and talking.
The next morning, we had planned to make our way to Lumphong Station to pick up our tickets for the overnight train between Bangkok and Chiang Mai. After which, we had decided to visit MBK to find some tacky souvenirs for our friends and family (sorry guys). We had our route planned out, once we picked up our tickets, it was back on the subway to the National Stadium skytrain stop where we would hit up MBK, pick up some souvenirs, visit the Jim Thompson House, the skytrain it around the city to get a great view of the city. We had plans, big plans.
As planned, we arrived at Lumphong Station to pick up our tickets, and while we were there, we thought we would buy our tickets to Ayutthaya for the following morning. What we didn’t know is that you can only purchase tickets for the local trains on the day you travel.
Language Barrier:
At some point, we got sidetracked by a sign for a Thai foot massage…um, for 200 baht…yeah, we were definitely getting a massage. For a massage in a train station stall, it was pretty fucking awesome. So awesome in fact, that I noticed Cynthia studying her Thai phrase book near the end of the massage, she wanted to thank her masseuse, she was so impressed with her massage. As the massage ended, Cynthia continued to study her phrasebook in earnest. Once her masseuse told her the massage was over, Cynthia proudly commented “that was amazing!”, in Thai. The masseuse looked a bit confused and Cyn thought that perhaps she had cocked-up the pronunciation…so, she showed the line she was reading from the phrase book to the other therapist who then burst out laughing. He then explained what Cyn was saying to her therapist, who then also broke into laughter. Even as we settled up, and walked out of the stall, their laughter could still be heard echoing down the hall behind us. I suspected something was up and asked Cyn to see the line she had used to compliment her masseuse.
Now, I’m not sure if you are familiar with Lonely Planet phrasebooks, but they’re really cool because they break the phrases into sections, like ‘Basic’, ‘Getting Around’, ‘Shopping’, ‘Social’, etc. When Cynthia showed me the phrase she had used, I realised that she had pulled it from the ‘Social’ section of the phrasebook, from the ‘Getting Closer’ tab (which relates to dating, hook-ups, etc.). She had basically complimented her masseuse on her sexual prowess and her ability to please her. I died. Interesting side note, Cynthia has stopped using her phrasebook and has restricted her interactions to ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’. Probably best.
Despite our 1-hour massages, we still had plenty of time left to pick up souvenirs, visit Jim Thomson house and tour the city on the the Skytrain. We boarded the subway and made our way to Si Lom station, located across the street from the Skytrain station.
Scammed! UGH!
Now, Cyn and I had done a significant amount of research prior to traveling to Thailand, a lot of it focusing on potential scams. Every bloody blog, book, or article we’ve read about scams in Bangkok had warned us to be wary of anyone who was overly friendly or helpful. That’s how they get you…
Anyway, we had just left the Si Lom subway station and we’re trying to locate the SkyTrain stop nearby so that we could grab it and make our way to MBK shopping centre. As we stood there, a very friendly chap approached us asking us if we needed directions. He explained that he was on his break (he worked the information booth in the subway station). We asked him where the entrance to the Skytrain was. He asked us where we were going, and we told him that we were headed to the MBK shopping centre to buy souvenirs. He then explained that there was a big sale on at another mall, due to the king’s birthday and that the sale was ending that day at 2pm. If we went to this other place, where they had an entire floor of souvenirs, that we could get up to 30% off – but only until 2pm. The next thing you know, he’s called us a tuk-tuk and we’re on our way to this other ‘mall’. We arrived at the other mall, only to discover that it was a jewellery and silk outlet mall. For fuck’s sake!
We immediately, asked our tuk-tuk driver to take us back to the Lumphong station, or take us to the National Stadium, where we had originally wanted to go. He refused to drive us there for less than 140 baht – we had only paid 30 baht for him to bring us to the outlet mall in the first place. We left his tuk-tuk and approached a taxi driver, he also refused to drive us away from the outlet mall unless we paid and exorbitant rate. Luckily, there was a hotel up the street, so we walked to it and asked the concierge to call us a taxi, which he did. We finally made it to the MBK mall, having wasted an hour of our day. So frustrating. Luckily, we were only out about 100 baht, but it was the principal of the thing. For the next 2 days, the very thought of having had our time wasted instantly filled me with rage. Fortunately, there are massage shops everywhere in Bangkok…the rage subsided after a few foot massages.
Jim Thompson was an American architect who resigned from his practice in 1941 to enlist in the Delaware National Guard. He was then transferred to the Fort Monroe, Virigina military outpost. While at Fort Monroe, he met Second Lieutenant Edwin Fahey Black, a West Point graduate who encouraged him to join the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) the CIA’s pre-cursor.
Mr. Thompson was given several assignments throughout his military career with postings in North Africa, Europe, and Sri Lanka. Once the war ended, Mr. Thompson was appointed military attache to Thailand 1946. Having fallen in love with Thailand, he returned home later that year to apply for a discharge from the military and file for divorce from his wife. Upon receiving his discharge and filing for divorce, he then permanently relocated to Thailand.
In 1948, he founded the Thai Silk Company with George Barrie. The Thai Silk Company, through its contacts, was able to broker several lucrative silk contracts, including providing the silks for the costumes featured in the very successful Hollywood production of the “The King and I”. He is credited not only for reviving the silk trade in Thailand, but for also lifting his numerous employees and their families out of poverty through the jobs the industry provided.
Mr. Thompson purchased 6 traditional teak houses and using his background as an architect, had the houses relocated and reassembled on an estate lot located on the Klong River. The house took over a year to complete and once finished, he went to work filling it with this collection of buddha statues and various objects d’art including pottery, and rich silk tapestries. The place is fucking gorgeous, by the way and well worth the visit!
The circumstances of Mr. Thompson’s disappearance remain mysterious. He vanished on March 26, 1967 while hiking through the Cameron Highlands in Malaysian. A few theories exist as to what ultimately happened to Jim Thompson, but to date, no definitive answer has been found.
Seven years after his disappearance, he was officially declared dead.
Mr. Thompson was, at one point, the most famous American in Asia. After his disappearance, the house was converted into a museum, with much of the original decor and objects d’art remaining as it was before his death.
The house can be visited between the hours of 9am to 5pm. Admission is 150 baht for adults and 100 baht for students under 22.
OMGaggan!
On our final night in Bangkok, we had reservations at Gaggan. If you’ve never heard of Gaggan, it was named the best restaurant in both Thailand and Asia in 2015 and 2016 by Restaurant magazine in their list of the Worlds 50 Best Restaurants, placing it 10th overall (2015) and 23rd overall (2016). It is also the only Indian restaurant to make it on to the Top 50 list. The chef Gaggan Anand who was born in India, moved to Bangkok in 2007 and studied molecular gastronomy at the famed elBulli in Spain. The progressive Indian cuisine featured at Gaggan incorporates many of the techniques he learned during his apprenticeship at elBulli such as foams, spherification, and smoking. The menu at Gaggan is updated every 2 months to introduce new dishes.
To say that I was excited about this meal is an absurd understatement. The restaurant is quite beautifully decorated, with a simple and elegant white palette featuring whimsical Jim Thomson silk print cushions of elephants lining the banquette. The lighting is soft, yet not so soft that you can’t see what you’re eating. The staff is absolutely delightful. They had us in stitches and laughing out loud. Wonderfully friendly and extremely knowledgeable about the food they were serving us.
On the night of our visit, the tasting menu was presented as a list of emojis, with each emoji hinting at what the dish might be.
Gaggan’s current tasting menu consists of 22 dishes. Some served separately, while others are served 2 or 3 at a time. Some of the dishes were absolutely delicious, such as the yogurt explosion, the spicy chocolate ball, the mini tuna taco and the crab curry, while others were a bit of a mind fuck. What I mean by that is that the presentation was extremely playful and at times it was a challenge for my mind’s eye to connect what we were seeing on the plate to what we were tasting when biting into these amazing dishes. Case in point would have to be a delicious serving of foie gras topped with passion fruit, served in a hollowed out passion fruit. The other would have to be the wasabi and unami ice cream cone with mango…totally confusing from a visual perspective but ultimately delicious. My absolute favourite dish was the goat brain pate, incredibly smooth texture and perfectly seasoned. Cyn’s favourite dishes were the savoury ones, the goat brain, the crab curry and a delicious pork concoction served on a deep fried stringed potato crisp.
Our experience at Gaggan was everything we’d hoped it would be and more. By the 19th course, we were both feeling stuffed to the gills, and were not able to finish the crab curry, which was an absolute shame, it was that good. Upon seeing that we couldn’t finish our curry, the maitre d’ was notified. He quickly came over and inspected what was left on our plates. He jokingly scolded me then ceremoniously stirred the remaining crab curry into my rice and proceeded to spoon feed me the rest of my curry in front of everyone in the restaurant. This man had us in stitches!
The absolute highlight to this food fueled magic was Gaggan himself stopping by our table to introduce himself and ask us about our meal. I was completely tongue tied and barely able to cobble a sentence together, absolutely star-struck. He was warm and friendly and so incredibly nice. It really was a perfect night at Gaggan.
I’ve heard that he is planning to close the Bangkok restaurant in 2020 to open a restaurant in Japan. I’m already planning a trip for 2020, perhaps a stop in Japan is required?
I want to add that this experience was a relatively inexpensive one. The entire meal cost us a little over 11,000 Baht – about $412.00 CDN, including wine and tip, between the 2 of us. I would have happily paid more, it was wonderful!
Tips on getting around in Bangkok:
Tuk-tuks: Never, I mean NEVER accept the first price they quote you. If they quote 200 baht, offer then 1/2 of that. If they refuse, walk away – and don’t worry, they’ll change their price once you start walking. Tuk-tuks are great for zipping through Bangkok, but notorious for overcharging unsuspecting tourists.
Taxi: Again, notorious for overcharging tourists. If they quote you a flat rate, insist that they use the meter, it’s always cheaper and by a large margin. If you’re staying at a hotel, ask your concierge to call a taxi for you. Taxi drivers always turn the meters on at hotels, and train stations (if you catch a taxi from the taxi stand). The taxi stand supervisor ensures that the meters are turned on before the taxi leaves the train station. If your taxi driver tries to turn the meter off and quote you a flat rate once you’ve left the train station, insist on the meter. We had one taxi driver curse us out the entire way back to our hotel, at one point even blasting the music so loudly that we wouldn’t be able to hear each other talk, he was that angry that we insisted on the meter.
Subway: Bangkok’s subway system is very easy to navigate, and very inexpensive.
Skytrain: Another great and inexpensive way to see Bangkok, also has some pretty fantastic views.
Chao Praya Express: These boats shuttle passengers between various piers along the Chao Praya river for 14 Baht a person (one way), which is a little more than $0.50 CDN.
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