Thailand has long been a country which has held a particular fascination for me. Over the years I have spoken to many people that have visited, lived or been brought up there and the descriptions I listened to only served to fan the flames of mystery the culture and country holds for me; and when deciding where to stop over on the long flight from the UK to Australia it seemed like an obvious choice for a short break.
I remember the stifling humidity when we stepped off the coach and began our short walk to the hostel down the road, but this was easily ignored as the senses were overloaded with new sights, sounds, and smells. Everywhere I looked as we walked through the streets of Bangkok I could see the different temples with their brightly coloured roofs and gables down nearly every street and was keen to get a closer look.
We spent our first day visiting several of the main temples in Bangkok, a name which westerners use in preference for the rather longer full Thai name of Krung-dēvamahānagara amararatanakosindra mahindrayudhyā mahātilakabhava navaratanarājadhānī purīramya utamarājanivēsana mahāsthāna amaravimāna avatārasthitya shakrasdattiya vishnukarmaprasiddhi (which translates to “The city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarm”.) The first visit was to the Grand Palace and the temples and monuments within. The colour and boldness of the architecture was breathtaking, with gold, red, green and blue rooftops of tiny tiles and many different statues of demons, mythological creatures, and soldiers. Inside the palace is Wat Phra Kaew or The Temple of the Emerald Buddha – the most sacred Buddhist temple in Thailand wherein the ‘emerald’ (jade) Buddha sits atop a large highly decorated plinth and the whole temple grounds are decorated by statues pagodas and other holy buildings. The next temple we visited was Wat Pho, The Temple of the Reclining Buddha, surprisingly containing a massive (46m) reclining Buddha. The day progressed with more visits to monasteries and temples, markets and shops, and restaurants and street vendors’ carts.
Having grown up eating pretty much any food that was put in front of me, Thai cuisine was something I was quite used to. The strong and diverse flavours and aromas make it a distinctive and highly enjoyable style, and the propensity for explosive additions of chilli only add to the excitement of eating an indistinguishable pile of food bought from the back of a trolley on a random street corner. Sometimes this would mean enjoying the most amazing curry which would make my eyes stream with tears of happiness as much as tears of pain as the blend of flavours assaulted every taste bud in my mouth; and other times I would choke on the last bits of leg and wing of a cricket before reaching straight for a nice squishy meal worm to take the taste away. Sticks of barbecued chicken or pork (I am guessing) were sold on every street in the centre of town and were often quite different in flavour – so at just a few pence each, it was worth trying them everywhere they were found. And if the walk to the restaurant at the end of the day seemed a little bit too long it was worth grabbing a delicious bag of dried fish or soft-shelled crabs to munch on during the journey. The Thai food has always been one of the main reasons I have wanted to visit the country, one of the main reasons I will go back, and the only reason I needed to buy some larger trousers during the five days I was there.
A couple of days in Bangkok was all we could really afford with our flight to Australia in just a few days and so much of the country yet to experience, so our remaining time there was split between cruises and dinners on the Chao Phraya River, a trip out to the Island and city of Pattaya, and a visit to the ancient capital of Ayutthaya.
The journey to Pattaya was a long one and the scenery which passed by was intriguing and varied. Paddy fields, marshland, farms, temples, and all manner of wildlife. As we approached Pattaya the roads were flooded after heavy rains throughout the morning and the residents were struggling to keep the water from entering their homes and shops. a quick change into swimming shorts was required before we paddled out to the boat in the bay and set off for a nearby island. The speedboat was incredibly fast, and the sea was somewhat choppy which left most of us passengers with bruises, newfound adrenaline addictions and stomachs lost several feet up in the air above us. Halfway out we stopped off at a jetty and I couldn’t resist a quick paraglide, and so locked in and suspended by a very inconveniently located strap between the legs I leapt from a jetty platform and soared through the air like a very inelegant and somewhat uncomfortable bird. After all that excitement it was with a certain amount of relief that the rest of the day was to involve lazing on a beach, swimming in the clear waters, and eating piles and piles of freshly caught seafood.
Ayutthaya the next day was a markedly different experience. Travelling all over the area we saw countless temples from the bell-shaped chedi to the tall prang temples. The place is teeming with history, as it was once the most important city of the old kingdom, and as we travelled back to Bangkok along the river we saw and learnt plenty more about this fascinating country.
Thailand is a huge place, and to try and see it in under a week was never going to happen, but I like to think that I managed to cram a lot in, both into my brain and my stomach, and still managed to have an afternoon lazing in the sun on a remote island beach. Next time I hope I will be there for a lot longer.
If you’d like to see some of the pictures I took please visit my Thailand gallery page.
As always, your writing is excellent – I felt I was there with you. Please send it to the Telegraph Travel and wait for the cheques to roll in! Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Love Mum xx
Good one, I’m glad you enjoyed Thailand and I can understand why you liked it. Martha and I spent a week in Phuket about 2 years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Riding elephants and all that.
Great post, made me peckish.
Lovely photos too, as always. Struck by the colour of the place.
Fabulous. I am ridiculously jealous. Ridiculously. As I sit on my 2nd hand sofa in my cruddy house I just love that you can transport me across the world! Xxx
I so love street food! And I love that you actually go out and experience a place. So many people come back off holiday saying they’ve ‘been’ somewhere whereas in actual fact all they have done is seen the hotel and swimming pool