Easter in Thailand Day 6: Homeward Bound

Another early start to the day, going around to the temples I marked for exploration in the morning instead of yesterday afternoon.

I start at Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon south-east of the island, whose main attraction is an outdoor reclining Buddha. As I take my camera out of the bag for pictures, I hit upon a snag. Apparently the air con in my hotel room was very cold, and now my camera and lenses are fogging up in the same way that people's eyeglasses fog up going from a cold to a hot environment. This was very frustrating, as I could do nothing but watch mangoes fall from the tree above while waiting for my equipment to defrost. Eventually it took more than 20 minutes, and I give up after a few quick snaps of the Buddha and the large chedi structures. On my way out I encounter a number of cats running around the temple, and spend a bit of time following them around.

Next stop is Wat Mahathat, another highlight in Ayutthaya. Besides the usual collection of chedis, prangs and Buddhas, the piece de resistance here is the dislocated head of a Buddha statue tangled up in the roots of an old tree. The clever people at the temple roped off this area, set up a make-shift altar, and ask tourists to pray, photograph and make donations.

From here I move to Wat Lokaya Sutha with its large reclining Buddha. Here my strategy failed. The Buddha here faces west! Choosing to visit in the morning has backfired, and I am unable to take any decent pictures.

Frustrated, I stop at Wat Worachetha Ram next door. Here we have a Buddha statue housed in a structure with the walls intact but no roof. Lots of old, French tourists climb up and take silly pictures with the statue. I wait until they leave to take my pictures.

Moving on to Phu Khao Thong northeast of the island, this "Golden Mount" chedi is large and tall, and is built in the Burmese style. It is painted white and now has black marks due to age. This is what I expected Wat Phra Borommathat in Kamphaeng Phet to look like before it was painted gold. The legend behind this temple involves cockfights, and here on the grounds one can find numerous cocks running around. In fact, there are so many of them that kept crowing nonstop, it was very, very annoying. I can't imagine staying here for any length of time without being driven crazy by the cocks.

Wat Na Phra Meru is kind of on the way back to the island, and we stop to take a look. This is supposed to be the original temple which wasn't sacked by the Burmese in the 18th century. However, this is another modern temple so I left quickly.

Before going back to the hotel, I decide to go to Thanon Dusit east of the train station, and check out the few temples along the country road. First we come to Wat Mahaeyong, which has a meditation retreat next door staffed by nuns.

Then we cross the street to Wat Kutidao. This is the more interesting of the two, with a few roofless structures still standing. The main structure still has most of its tall supporting columns intact, and I also find the toppled tips of chedis lying around.

Done with all the sights that I wanted to see, I head back to the hotel for a shower and a change of clothes. After checkout I head to the train station, and bid Ayutthaya farewell as I head back to Bangkok.

I have about 4 hours before my flight back to Hong Kong, so I decide to head to Chote Chitr for a late lunch. Unable to figure out the system (is there even one?) of taxi rank at Hualamphong station, I go out to the street to grab a cab.

Why are most of Bangkok's taxi drivers assholes? Almost every one I met during this trip fit the description, and this one was no exception. First he pretends not to understand me when I ask him to go to Thanon Tanao, and show him my map. Then he tried to head for the wrong turn at a roundabout, and only circled around after I complained loudly. Then this jerk has the gall to talk on his mobile phone while driving, and end up missing the turn off to Thanon Tanao. When I complained about it, he actually yelled back to me with impatience, as if he hadn't done anything wrong.

We finally reach my destination, and I exit the taxi while handing him a 100 Baht note for the 59 Baht fare. He pulls out a single, 100 Baht note from his pocket and proclaimed that he had no spare change. What the hell is a cab driver doing out on the road with absolutely no money and no change? I know he is just trying to get him to give him a 40 Baht tip, but after his poor attitude, I have no intention of giving him any tip. I insist that he go and get change from one of the many street vendors around us.

He pretends to run around but actually never asks anyone, and returns to tell me that no one will give him any change. He throws the ball back to me and tell me to go get change. This is ridiculous, as it would be inifnitely easier for a local Thai to get change than a foreigner. After much mutual yelling and having informed him that I will not be paying the fare if he cannot produce change, he finally runs to a vendor and find some change. The ordeal is over. I've showed this asshole that not all foreign tourists are willing to roll over and get ripped off.

I reach Chote Chitr at 3:30pm in the afternoon. The restaurant is open but there are no customers at this hour. Tim the owner and chef takes my order. She tells me the specialties of the restaurant (even though I have read about these on the net), and I order the prawn mee krob and the eggplant salad, passing up the banana flower salad.

The mee krob is every bit as nice as one can expect, achieving a nice balance between sweet and sour notes for the deep-fried vermicelli. It was always a dish I ignored on Thai menus, but this creation changed my mind about this dish.

The eggplant salad also hit the spot, as the smoky, chargrilled vegetable soaks up the fish sauce and lime juice. The dried shrimps complete the tastes. I devour these two dishes, and there is almost no room left for dessert. I thanked Tim for a delicious meal and promised to return for the banana flower salad. Failing to find the sweet shop nearby that supposedly sells mango and glutinous rice, I hop into a taxi and head for Suvarnabhumi Airport.

I change my return flight to an earlier flight on Emirates, and once again have another dose of the Emirates service. Can this airline get its act together? The crew is really poorly trained, and nothing more than a hodgepodge of inviduals recruited from all over and thrown together. There is absolutely no team work here, and the meal service continues to baffle me. The Chinese-looking flight attendant is rude, and she rolls the cart down the aisle shouting "Rice or noodle?" instead of asking passengers whether they wanted chicken curry (with rice) or fried fish (with noodles). Must be leftover from her days on the domestic Chinese airlines. I roll my eyes, and tell myself again that this would be the last flight I take on Emirates.

Easter in Thailand Day 4: Leaving Sukhothai

Had breakfast early in the morning, and bid farewell to Debbie before her flight back to Bangkok. I really enjoyed her company yesterday.

Set off to Si Satchanalai-Chaliang Historical Park, another part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was about an hour by car, and we arrived a bit after 8:30am. My guide Tong tells me that the name Chaliang is actually a foreign word, having been translated from the Chinese name "Choeng Lieng", as the area was called during the time of Xuanzang (玄奘) and the Journey to the West (西遊記).

The first stop was Wat Phra Si Ratana Mahathat in Chaliang, with a central Khmer-style prang dominating the grounds. The wihan in front has a large, seated Buddha under a canopy to protect it from the elements. I also witness graceful examples of the walking Buddha, while I found that the Buddha here actually had an "Indian" nose - curve downward and back in.

As we pulled up in the car, my guide Tong remarked that it "snowed" the day before. In reality, there was a night market outside the temple and the crowd left behind an incredible amount of garbage, especially in the form of white plastic bags. Cleaning crew was in the middle of taking care of this when we arrived. It's actually quite sad and shows how people's lack of consideration can easily damage a valuable part of our history.

The other wihan housed 2 seated Buddhas - a smaller one in front of a larger statue. Tong called it "brother Buddhas" and said it was in the style of Si Satch. I find this very interesting.

We make a quick stop at the Archaeological Museum, where they dug into the ground and showed the different layers of the earth during specific historical periods. They also excavated skeletons buried with heads toward the west, which you can see clearly from above. 

Next door is Wat Chom Cheun, whose seated Buddha actually sits inside a well-restored structure with a roof. The Buddha is not in good shape, though, since the stucco is pretty much gone and the statue is now faceless.

Finally we get to Wat Chao Chan behind, whose main feature is a Khmer-style tower that has been well-restored. It's small but pretty.

We drive a bit further and enter the Si Satchanalai part of the park, and enter Wat Chedi Jet Thaew - the largest temple in the area. The central chedi is a smaller copy of the one at Sukhothai's Wat Mahathat, with the lotus bud on top. The outstanding feature is the statue of Buddha being sheltered from the rain by the 9-headed naga. The amazing thing here is that there is a bee's nest hanging from the central head of the naga. According to Tong, this is a rare occurrence and a sign of good fortune. I spend time walking around the grounds, exploring the 7 rows of chedi here.

Crossing the street, we come to Wat Chang Lom. Yes, there is yet another one in the area! This one is the largest of them all, and the very first one. It has 39 elephants on top of the base level, with the ones at the corners being twice the size of the others. The elephants here are in relatively better shape, though, as most remain standing albeit with broken trunks.

Next we go around to Wat Nang Phaya, dominated by a chedi surrounded by some old trees. The wihan in front shows the baroque decorative style, no doubt influenced by the French.

Now we go to the bottom of the hill, and climb a steep flight of stairs up to Wat Khao Phanom Ploeng - temple of the fire mountain. The stairs are made of laterite and now are full of holes. One can see lots of lichen growing out of these holes. Tong and I pause a couple of times on the way up, and finally reach the top. We get a pretty good view of the surrounding area from here.

I head west behind the temple, and follow the path to the top of the other hill next door to Wat Khao Suwan Khiri. Debbie was kind enough to tip me off about the path connecting the two temples, so that I don't walk back down the hill only to have to climb up again to reach the second temple.

This was the last stop in the area, and I head back to the Tharaburi for a shower, lunch and nap before my afternoon flight back to Bangkok. On the ride to Sukhothai airport, I realized that all the passengers in the van were Japanese (except for me, of course). At one point, even the others thought I was Japanese, and spoke to me in their native tongue! Now, while I do understand and speak Japanese, and I do like the Japanese as a people, I really resent being thought of as Japanese!

After checking into the Conrad again, I dropped my bags quickly and duck out for dinner. I walk back to Soi Polo to get some fried chicken. This time I am directed a couple of doors down, to the new, air-conditioned dining room I had passed a few days ago. I am skeptical, as there were reports on the internet that there is a fake "Polo chicken" restaurant around.

At this point a girl speaking perfect English tried to convince me that this is the real thing. According to her, the two restaurants are the same - the original, open air venue opens during the day and also serves as the main kitchen, while the newer, air-conditioned salon does a lot more business at night.

So I sit down at Polo Fried Chicken, and order the trademark chicken (only half). Service is quick, but I guess it doesn't take much to chop up a half chicken and spoon mounds of deep-fried garlic. The chicken is fried but without the heavy layer of breading. The skin is very tasty, and the meat is reasonably tender and moist - although it's clear that this isn't a freshly fried bird. I am not convinced that the sweet and sour dipping sauce adds a lot to it, so mostly I do without.

I eat quickly, and soon the bird is gone. I am pretty stuffed. Was the chicken good? Yes, it's a pretty good chicken, and a healthier alternative to KFC and Popeye's. But would I go out of my way to have this chicken again? Probably not. In the back of my mind, I am still drooling over the deep fried drumstick I had from the Sukhothai night market on Friday night...

Easter in Thailand Day 1: Starting at the bottom

Today was the start of my Easter break. I would be spending 6 days in Thailand, mainly visiting the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Ayutthaya and Sukhothai. But first I have to get in via Bangkok and spend a little bit of time in the capital.

I was pretty excited about getting into Bangkok, since this would be my first experience with the new airport. In December I transited through on the Emirates flights to and from Dubai, but wasn’t allowed to get off the plane. The funny thing is that the new terminal actually bears a lot of resemblance to the new terminal at Dubai International, although Dubai has a slightly sleeker look.

Upon landing, we were parked at Gate B5 (which I learned the next day was for domestic flights). As I got off the plane and walked onto the sky bridge, I realized that my fellow passengers were walking down flights of stairs and boarding a bus on the ground level. I was a bit puzzled and annoyed. Isn’t the point of having a gate (and a sky bridge) to have direct access to the terminal itself? Why bother parking at a gate if you still need to board a bus?

Well, I guess I didn’t have a choice. I boarded the bus like everyone else, and soon we were weaving through the traffic on the tarmac.  Eventually we stopped next to Gate D6, and finally entered the terminal itself to line up at Immigration.

At this point I decided that the new airport had been poorly designed. There are multiple areas for people to line up for Immigration counters. Many airports (and indeed much of Asia) have the same setup. The difference is that in Bangkok, the separate areas are segregated by greenery, and hence one does not have a full view of the whole place at a glance. I was in one area with 5 open counters and I eventually counted 9 officers. The lines were incredibly long, with probably 40-50 people in each line. It was excruciatingly slow. But I had no way of ascertaining whether there were more counters open at the other area, or how quickly the officers were processing people in that area. I stuck to my line, and about an hour after we landed, I finally got through Immigration and picked up my luggage.

I checked into the Conrad after a pretty uneventful cab ride. I’d never stayed here before, but heard a lot of good things about the hotel. The room was indeed very nice, with a nice, big bathtub in addition to the shower. I nibble on the tiny bananas the hotel had laid out for me.

After resting a little and having checked out the adjoining mall at All Seasons Place, I left the room to try to catch sunset at Wat Arun. The plan was to get to the riverbank opposite of Wat Arun, snap some pictures of the temple’s silhouette against the setting sun, and then take pictures of the Grand Palace area when buildings are lit at night. 

Unfortunately, this was not meant to be. I waited for a taxi at the hotel around 5:30pm, but no taxi would take me. Bangkok’s infamous traffic jams haven’t gotten any better, and every time the doorman asked, the taxi driver would shake his head. One asked for THB 300 but couldn’t tell me how long the trip would take (and whether I would get there before sun down). I was fed up.

In other cities in Asia, taxi drivers would have no choice but to take the passenger to whether he or she wanted to go. In Bangkok, apparently the cabbies call the shots. I went back to my room in disgust and waited for the traffic to ease up.

At around 8pm, it was time to go out for a bite. In all my internet searches, Chote Chitr has consistently come up as a place frequented by foodies from out of town. There has been much discussion about this on boards such as Chowhound. So I hop into a taxi and head in the general direction.

While I do have the exact address, the restaurant is on a lane that is too small to appear on any tourist map or the Lonely Planet maps. I have some descriptive directions, and was sure I could find my way. We drive on Thanon Tanao, and headed north past Thanon Khaosan. At this point I realize that I could never find it sitting inside a speeding taxi, so I got off and started to double back. Khaosan Road is a touristy circus at night, and I walk past without going in.

Slowly, I make my way south on Thanon Tanao, checking the name of every lane on both sides of the street. Finally, I reach a dark lane whose name is not translated into English. I had the feeling that this was the right place, and decide to wander in. Sure enough, the name Chote Chitr appears on a sign above one of the doors.

But the place was CLOSED! Didn’t Lonely Planet say that the restaurant opens until 10pm? A piece of paper taped onto the front gate informs me, in English, that the restaurant is closed from March 14th and will reopen on the 24th. So I have trekked over to this side of town but failed to find out for myself what the fuss is all about. My only chance to return would be on the last day, after I arrive from Ayutthaya by train and before my evening flight back to Hong Kong.

It’s 8:50pm and I am still starving. I flag down a cab and ask to be taken to Wireless Road (Thanon Wittayu), and to Soi Polo. 2 cab drivers claimed that they didn’t know this road. This is utterly bullshit. Wireless Road is a very central road, with landmarks such as All Seasons Place and the American Embassy located on it. And everyone knows Soi Polo, since it is named for the Polo Club, part of the Royal Bangkok Sports Club. I was hanging out at the Polo Club 20 years ago when my parents lived in Bangkok. Anyway, I digress.  I am utterly fed up with Bangkok cab drivers who simply don’t take passengers when direction doesn’t suit them. A third cab finally takes me, and we make our way to Soi Polo.

My initial plan for the evening (before heading for Chote Chitr) was to have the famous Soi Polo Fried Chicken for dinner, since the location is within short walking distance from the Conrad. Now, as I reach my destination around 9:15pm, I am told by the staff at the restaurant that they are done for the day. That’s the third set-back of the day. A restaurant next door with newer décor claims to be “Polo Fried Chicken”, but I had heard that there are imposters out there, so I choose not to go in.

Dejected, I make my way back to the Conrad on foot. Fortunately I had bought some glutinous rice with mango from the supermarket next door, and this became my dinner on my first night in Thailand. I am exhausted and decide to call it a night.