Leaving the air plane in Bangkok was like stepping into a different world for us. We noticed the differences at the airport, everything was more… tidy and shiny. It’s not that we felt that Ethiopia was dirty but often things were done in a manner to get them done but not to make them pretty. Using an airconditioned, underground metro also felt very exciting to us. During our first visit to a supermarket we wandered the aisles just looking at all the stuff they offered. I’m not kidding. It’s surprising how much you get used to certain things and you only notice afterwards. In Ethiopia we were only in one large supermarket in Addis and there some of the aisles were only stocked with one product, only one item deep but placed in equal distances from each other. Of many products there was only one choice but here in Thailand we were overwhelmed with choices.
Being so comfortable in our AirBnB it took us a while to get started with sightseeing in Bangkok. We went to see the Royal Grand Palace which is certainly not to be missed. There is a dress code forbidding shorts and sleeveless tops. It is strictly enforced but not really understandable. Shorts are usually not ok, a skirt the same length is, even when it’s still showing the knees. Long pants may not be rolled up at all. At the entrance there are people checking if you are dressed accordingly. The rules result in a rather ridiculous image. Do you know these wide pants with elephant and other patterns? Everyone, me included, brings them and wears them over their shorts. People are changing in the entrance region and wear these rather ugly pants that never make a person well dressed. At times it looked like an open-air pyjama party to me. So, the rules, created so that people would dress respectfully resulted in somewhat of the opposite. But maybe that’s just me, in northern America it’s perfectly acceptable to leave the house in pyjama bottoms.
The temple of the palace is really gorgeous. It is so colorful and finely decorated. There are several buildings with fine porcelain and gold decorations, a small model of Angkor Wat and everything kind of sparkles. I was deeply impressed by how fine everything was worked, it’s astonishing. The other buildings of the palace we could only visit from the outside.
Close to the palace is Wat Pho where we could see a lying, giant 46m-long Buddha. It belongs to the Wat Pho where we saw colorful Chedis and many Buddha figures.
We also visited the largest gold Buddha and took a stroll through China Town and the market there. We also had some very regular things to do. We wanted to get a SIM card and see the not-so-new Star Wars movie. Yes, I know the reviews haven’t been good and you have all seen it already, but we haven’t had the chance. And we were actually looking forward to just going to the movies. We found a theatre, well the last theatre in Bangkok showing it. It was really nice because it played in a theatre with very comfy lounge chairs where you could put your feet up and popcorn and a soft drink were included in the entrance fee off 400 Baht. I have never been in a cinema like that and don’t go to the movie often but it was really cool. I think this would make me go more often, but maybe the entrance fee would be too high in Germany and I’d choose to watch it on my own couch after all.
