I'm off for another six months or so of travel. First, after getting a visa in Bangkok, I'll head to Burma (or Myanmar, its official name, though I've read that the democratic opposition still prefers "Burma"), then to southern India (Tamil Nadu and Kerala states, the two southernmost), and later Sri Lanka, with a possible side trip to the Maldives. That's the plan, anyway.
Though Bangkok is almost due west from Saipan, my flights took me first northwest to Seoul (or rather Incheon, just west of Seoul), then south to Manila, and finally west to Bangkok. A long trip, 16 1/2 hours in total, but it cost me only 15,000 reward miles and $12. I left Saipan just after 2 in the morning on the 18th and arrived in Bangkok about 3:30 in the afternoon, local time, three hours earlier than Saipan. On the way I had a fantastic view of the multi-channel, wide bulge in the Mekong called 4000 Islands in the far south of Laos. I had been there in 2010.
I slept some on the first two flights, but was tired upon arrival in Bangkok. I went to bed early and woke up the next morning about 4, though I didn't get up until about 5:30, before dawn. Sometime after 10 that morning I arrived at the crowded Myanmar Embassy and was able to submit my application after about an hour, my passport with the visa to be picked up the next day. I walked back to the river on a street that a motorcade escorting the visiting prime minister of New Zealand drove down and made my way to the river ferry and took it back upriver, but only as far as the pier for Wat Pho, with its huge, gold covered, reclining Buddha. I had some pad thai (the standard Thai noodle dish) at a street side restaurant and then spent a couple of hours at the wat, flooded with tourists. Lots of Russians in particular.
Leaving, I walked past perhaps a dozen big buses with their motors running and walked along the high white walls of the old royal palace, with the Emerald Buddha inside, through the large open parade ground to the north, and eventually to Thanon Ratchadamnown Klang, a very wide street (maybe 12 lanes wide) where there is an ongoing demonstration around the Democracy Monument at a big intersection. This has closed the street for several blocks, and in fact had made it difficult, and twice as expensive than usual, for my taxi to take me to my hotel the previous day. I spent more than an hour at the demonstration, with a band followed by speakers. The crowd blew whistles and clapped with hand held plastic clappers in lieu of actually clapping with their hands. This demonstration, with all sorts of booths selling food and other stuff and with wide screens displaying the speakers, has been going on for days, calling for the government to resign. Most of the signs were in Thai, but those in English were quite rude, obscene really, about the Prime Minister and her brother, a previous Prime Minister overthrown in a coup after similar demonstrations. It seems the opposition, based in the richer parts of the country (Bangkok and the south), keeps losing elections to a party based in the poorer north and northeast of the country, and then resorts to civil unrest to try to get the army or the courts to throw the government out. I got back to my hotel just before dark.
The next morning I didn't do much, but after lunch I took the river ferry down the river to the Oriental Hotel pier and spent a couple of hours in the Oriental Hotel. This hotel was Bangkok's finest in the late 1800's and now the old hotel is dwarfed by its new, high rise wings. I looked around the old building, filled with interesting photos, mainly of the royal family around the turn of the 20th century. The hotel claims Joseph Conrad stayed there in 1888, though I've also read that while he may have visited the hotel for meals, he stayed on his ship while in Bangkok. Somerset Maugham did stay there in the 1930's. I spent some time reading and people watching in the very cold new lobby, and then walked to the Myanmar Embassy to get my visa. From there I walked back to the river and took the pleasant ferry ride back upriver to my hotel.
Though Bangkok is almost due west from Saipan, my flights took me first northwest to Seoul (or rather Incheon, just west of Seoul), then south to Manila, and finally west to Bangkok. A long trip, 16 1/2 hours in total, but it cost me only 15,000 reward miles and $12. I left Saipan just after 2 in the morning on the 18th and arrived in Bangkok about 3:30 in the afternoon, local time, three hours earlier than Saipan. On the way I had a fantastic view of the multi-channel, wide bulge in the Mekong called 4000 Islands in the far south of Laos. I had been there in 2010.
I slept some on the first two flights, but was tired upon arrival in Bangkok. I went to bed early and woke up the next morning about 4, though I didn't get up until about 5:30, before dawn. Sometime after 10 that morning I arrived at the crowded Myanmar Embassy and was able to submit my application after about an hour, my passport with the visa to be picked up the next day. I walked back to the river on a street that a motorcade escorting the visiting prime minister of New Zealand drove down and made my way to the river ferry and took it back upriver, but only as far as the pier for Wat Pho, with its huge, gold covered, reclining Buddha. I had some pad thai (the standard Thai noodle dish) at a street side restaurant and then spent a couple of hours at the wat, flooded with tourists. Lots of Russians in particular.
Leaving, I walked past perhaps a dozen big buses with their motors running and walked along the high white walls of the old royal palace, with the Emerald Buddha inside, through the large open parade ground to the north, and eventually to Thanon Ratchadamnown Klang, a very wide street (maybe 12 lanes wide) where there is an ongoing demonstration around the Democracy Monument at a big intersection. This has closed the street for several blocks, and in fact had made it difficult, and twice as expensive than usual, for my taxi to take me to my hotel the previous day. I spent more than an hour at the demonstration, with a band followed by speakers. The crowd blew whistles and clapped with hand held plastic clappers in lieu of actually clapping with their hands. This demonstration, with all sorts of booths selling food and other stuff and with wide screens displaying the speakers, has been going on for days, calling for the government to resign. Most of the signs were in Thai, but those in English were quite rude, obscene really, about the Prime Minister and her brother, a previous Prime Minister overthrown in a coup after similar demonstrations. It seems the opposition, based in the richer parts of the country (Bangkok and the south), keeps losing elections to a party based in the poorer north and northeast of the country, and then resorts to civil unrest to try to get the army or the courts to throw the government out. I got back to my hotel just before dark.
The next morning I didn't do much, but after lunch I took the river ferry down the river to the Oriental Hotel pier and spent a couple of hours in the Oriental Hotel. This hotel was Bangkok's finest in the late 1800's and now the old hotel is dwarfed by its new, high rise wings. I looked around the old building, filled with interesting photos, mainly of the royal family around the turn of the 20th century. The hotel claims Joseph Conrad stayed there in 1888, though I've also read that while he may have visited the hotel for meals, he stayed on his ship while in Bangkok. Somerset Maugham did stay there in the 1930's. I spent some time reading and people watching in the very cold new lobby, and then walked to the Myanmar Embassy to get my visa. From there I walked back to the river and took the pleasant ferry ride back upriver to my hotel.
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