Naveen’s Travel Blog

Feb 02 - Bangkok

Wednesday, March 26, 2008 – 10:03 pm

Its the first day of my landing in Thailand and after a sumptuous lunch, i take a good look at the map of Bangkok. Seems i’m staying in the South-eastern corner of the city and there is nothing touristic to kick-start the tour from the neighbourhood. Luckily i was wise enough to get the hotel close to the Metro line. And a combination of Subway Metro and the Skytrain network, gives the idea that i can visit the Victory monument. Nothing complex, just a monument in the centre of a traffic island.

After a spell of initial helpless state, i did manage to traverse a series of Underground and Elevated trains to reach the Victory monument. The whole place is swarming with people and vehicle of all sorts with several shopping centres around. Nobody is visiting this monument which stands in the middle of a intersection of roads and my guidebook makes no mention about it !? I never snapped it. A bit of initial reluctance? Rather i just walked around the whole circle to get a first-hand experience of Thai city life. A disturbing eye-sore of the place wasn’t the crowd but the elevated platform of the Skytrain which takes a distinctly large semi-circular path around the monument. Seeing the extreme crowds, i hope the Thai officials had no choice to preserve the visual appeal of this monument environs.

A quick check of the city map again and i decide to head from Victory to Democracy, a monument located in another traffic island.

My second round of interaction with Thai people resulted in boarding a public bus. It was only 11 bahts but the value of travelling by an air-conditioned bus escaping from the extreme pollution of Bangkok’s roads was fully worth. Whats more its not even travelling rather i was just cooling my heals practically in the bus for 45+ mins with the traffic, thats going nowhere !! Perfect for a traveller !!!

The Democracy monument was erected in 1932 to commemorate the establishment of the constitutional monarchy in Thailand. The monument consists of four wing-like structures representing the four branches of Thai armed forces.

The whole irony of the monument and its cause, was the democracy movement of 1932 was by a military coup and this monument was commissioned by a military ruler and again it is designed by the Italian artist Feroci who also designed monuments for the Italian dictator Mussolini ! For me, this monument summaries the dilemma of Thailand’s democracy which continues to be breached by as many military coups yet all being considered to be well under a democracy. To add up Feroci buried 75 canon balls in its base to signify the year 2475 BE(1932 AD) !

The centrepiece of the monument represents the Thai Constitution held atop two golden bowls.

As i walk away from the monument, i catch my first discovery: several tall spires of a temple. Approaching in its direction, i find Wat Ratchanadda. The temple was actually farther away from the road and a large open space lay in front. Named as “Lan Plabpla Maha Chessadabordin”, it has few striking architectural structures, a monument and gardens which is used to celebrate various events.

That was an impressively decorated building used during ceremonies.

The Roofline of any temple or royal building or ancient structure looks like this and many times much more grander. Now I want to show you for once and all, the intricate designs of Thai architecture. Here we go…

Wow,….but ofcourse its not gold. Possibly grab a sunglass before continuing…

The pillars, walls and ceilings are all painted with floral patterns in bright and gold lacquer and embedded with glass jewels.

The intricate designs made of fine square pieces of colored glass on the hand railing.

Typical wooden ceiling of Thai architecture coated with red and gold lacquer

This is a wooden column painted in black and gold lacquer.

The Tiles of roof are brightly coloured mostly in concentric rectangles (is it good grammer ?) and the wooden frames painted golden. Now lets stop with the architectural close-ups here.

In the large courtyard of Lan Plabpla Maha Chessadabordin, lies a royal memorial for King Rama III in whose regime the Wat Ratchanadda was built.

After all the talk around Wat Ratchanadda, let me reveal it. Here we go…

Getting into the temple wasn’t easy; its surrounded by a small but extremely dense market.

yes dear, the market doesn’t sell vegetables but magic charms and Buddhist amulets, literally in all shapes and sizes ! And this snap was done with the due approval of the merchant lady. Too early to take any chances !

Wat Ratchanadda is a Buddhist temple and popularly known as Loha Prasat. It’s the only one of its kind in Thailand with a unique pagoda influenced by Burmese style. The pagoda consists of 37 metal spires signifying the 37 virtues toward enlightenment.

Each metal spire is 36m tall.

The Wat building is coated in fresh white paint with red coloured window frames and black varnished rich and thick wooden rooflines.

Finished with the Wat, I loiter across an intersection of roads to find…

Mahakan fort

Such commemorative archs (again in glittering golden colour) can be found in many road intersections and in almost every city, town and village across Thailand. Always honouring the Royal family and mostly in respect of the King like this one with a multitude of royal emblems.

Bangkok is interlaced with several canals known as “khlong”. Here is a sample.

Then I walked a long way trying to find the Golden Mount with my map but its already 5 PM and its closed. So I wanted to break my first-day tour by getting back to Hotel. There were several tuk-tuks up for grabs or vice-versa outside the Golden Mount. The Tuk-tuk is just the Thailand version of autorickshaws plying in India. And they are no different from the Chennai autowallahs, infact as notorious in pricing and as trustworthy in most cases.

Here is the first tuk-tuk that I took. Surprisingly the driver was really a nice and trusty fellow. On arriving at subway station where he is dropping me, I found that I didn’t have any change to pay him. He didn’t bother or argue, he waited patiently as I dived underground to the subway station to exchange the notes.

Hua Lamphong railway station is the main station from which you can go in all directions of Thailand from Bangkok.

Now thats it for the first day, I’m already sliding down into the Hua Lamphong Metro station. Catch you later.

Places visited :

• Victory Monument
• Democracy Monument
• Lan Plabpla Maha Chessadabordin
• Wat Ratchanadda
• Mahakan fort
• Hua Lamphong railway station