After Myanmar

At least one of you out there has wondered what happened on the rest of our trip. Alas, I’ve dropped the ball—and I offer no excuses. But there really is more and it would be a shame not to report it, if for no other reason than to preserve our own memories. Thus, even though some time has passed, here below is an account of what happened after our two week trip to Myanmar.

We spent a mere two days in Bangkok--sadly-- because it remains my favorite city of the ones I’ve seen in Asia. We stayed in the Peninsula, on the recommendation of our Asia Transpacific agent Pat, and we have no regrets. It is on the other side of the Chao Phraya, the Thonburi side, almost directly across from the Oriental, so one’s daily perusal of that mighty river is from a different perspective. Some call it the “wrong” side of the river but we didn’t see it that way, perhaps from ignorance—I don’t know. In any case, from our window high above in the Peninsula we could once again watch the water taxis, the barges, the private hotel junks and dhows, and all the other fascinating river traffic that makes the Chao Praya so magical. Across from us was the Oriental, looking small and unassuming compared to the rest of the buildings, but that after all is the way they want it; the Sheraton to our left where we girls stayed on our first trip to Bangkok; and on our right the Shangrila and the bridge into the main downtown. And of course all of the other impressive office buildings and condos and hotels as backdrop to the activity of the river itself.

We rode the Peninsula taxi down the river the first day and took the Sky Train into the city, an experience that, for some reason, I really wanted to do. Okay, it was your basic Dart train, but it is the way the majority of the locals get around, and quite efficient it is—and a great way to get a feel for the actual city of Bangkok away from the river. One more day and we would have been experts, but a single ride gave us our “experience” and from there on in we walked or taxied. We mostly hung out in the markets and people watched.

The second day we took the water taxi from our hotel all the way to the end of the line, about an hour up the river into the “burbs.” Along the way we got off and visited the River City Center, next to the Sheraton, a swanky antique complex that I had heard about but not made it to on my two previous visits. What a place! A veritable Galleria of shop after shop of antiques of every kind, mostly Asian of course, and mostly too rich for our blood. But so fun to look at.

On the water taxi ride back to the hotel we stopped at the Temple of Dawn, the landmark pagoda that you can see from almost every river vantage point, but we had not visited it the last time, nor the time before. It is actually called a “prang”, not a pagoda, but it is similar in shape to what we had seen in Myanmar. In the daytime it looks like a large gray pagoda, impressive in its size and surrounded by four smaller look-alikes, but there is no hint of its adornment from a distance. At night it is beautifully lit, but we know that one can do miracles with lights.

But, expecting it to be pretty ho hum since it isn’t on the “must see” list—except from a distance--we stopped anyway. Well, oh wow. Yet again, the Thais have outdone themselves. Every square inch of the huge pagoda and its smaller cousins is covered with mosaic tile and ceramic animals and the familiar demons, the gargoyle type creatures we had seen at the Grand Palace. The tile is Chinese porcelain, actual pieces of plates that came on boats from China, along with colored glass and brightly painted fragments of pottery and gold nestled into white grout. You can walk forever up steep steps to the top but of course we didn't. We climbed to the first or second level which was scary enough. From there you can get yet another spectacular view of the river and the city.

Unfortunately, we only planned two days in Bangkok and the next day we were off to our next adventure, DUBAI—or as it was described to us, lots to do and lots to buy. And that’s no lie! Can’t wait to tell you about this amazing phenomenon.