A big picture of the revered King of Thailand was hung at the center of the main road.
We could see the Democracy Monument ahead of us, so near yet so far.
We turned around and saw the Golden Mount in the dusk.
We walked passed the Pom Mahakan fortifications and saw a beautiful park across the street. While we were slowly strolling along the roads and appreciating the surrounding, some policemen on the street were asking us to move along quickly. We didn't know what happened but saw that the policemen were clearing all pedestrians off the streets and blocked the cars from moving.
Soon enough, a few VIP cars with escorts drove pass the streets. We couldn't tell if those were royalties or government officials, but we did encounter this kind of situation several times again on the following days. Hmm, if those were royalties, they sure go out a lot.
After the policemen freed up the streets, we crossed the street and came to the Rama III park. There was a statue of King Rama III and a delicate gilded pavilion that looked simply stunning in the night.
From the park, we could see the Loha Prasat temple with the most unusual but beautiful architectural design for a Thai temple.
I read that this temple was featured on the Thai 500 Baht bank note. Too bad that we didn't visit it while we were there.
We spent quite some time in the park taking pictures before moving on to walk towards the Democracy Monument. The monument is located in the center of a huge roundabout with busy traffic. We didn't see any traffic lights for pedestrians to cross the roads to the monument, so we assumed that we couldn't go near it and could only see if from across the roads.
Finally, we concluded our walking tour and decided to have dinner at the Siam Paragon. We contemplated on whether to take the bus, the cab, or the tuk-tuk. Since riding on a tuk-tuk is a must-try for every tourist to Bangkok, we decided to go for that. It cost us THB100 per ride for three persons.
Here's a video clip i took during the ride, trying hard to narrate the journey, but the ride was too bumpy and exciting that i just couldn't talk properly or even sound normally.
I wouldn't say the ride was fun, but it sure was an experience. After taking the ride, i totally understand why some travel insurance do not cover tuk-tuk accident. It's just hard to feel secure sitting inside this small vehicle covered in thin metal and maneuvering in the heavy urban traffic. The polluted air was also something that made the ride less enjoyable.
The way the driver drove his auto rickshaw was as if he's a F1 racer. When there was a traffic jam, he'd drive into the lane of opposite direction to overtake the other bigger cars. The sudden acceleration when overtaking really sent my heart beating faster. And the interesting part was that the driver would switch of the engine whenever we came to a red light. I reckon that was the way they save the energy.
We arrived at Siam Paragon safely. We had our dinner at the food court, and i ordered beef noodles, which was somewhat too salty to my liking.
After dinner, it was almost 9.30pm already. We decided to split up and shop around, even though the mall was about to close for the day already.
There was a Bread Talk bakery in the mall. I guess this bakery is really growing internationally huh. I saw one in Taiwan, and now in Bangkok too.
This dessert looked very appetizing but rather expensive.
We left the mall at 11pm+ by taking the BTS skytrain from Siam station to Nana station, where we gotta walk a bit to the hotel. On our way from the station to the hotel, there was a night market of some sort, with hawker stalls selling all kinds of stuff along the street.
We bought the supposedly freshly squeezed tangerine juice that was a real thirst quencher.
Then we saw a stall selling deep fried insects, something that Sui had wanted to try since she missed it in her last trip. Unfortunately, the street vendor does not sell single piece but a whole packet, and none of the others in the gang was willing to help Sui out (even though i offered to try one piece), so she didn't get any in the end.
Again, i guess this would become one of her regrets of the trip.
To compensate for it, she bought a Thai dessert, mango sticky sweet rice ( Khao Niaow Ma Muang), from the market. The mangoes were freshly peeled and cut on the spot.
We ate it when we were back at the hotel. It was delicious, especially the sweet mangoes.
By the time we went to bed, it was already passed mid-night. The days that followed were filled with more walking and sight-seeing.
Labels: travel
