"Thailand Trip - Bangkok and Ayutthaya" Bangkok by csuresh

Thailand capital Bangkok can be called as - "The Venice of East" in terms of waterways,
"Amsterdam of East" in terms of entertainment and "Rome of East" in terms of history and
ruins. 3 things to mention about Bangkok are Temples, Entertainment and Shopping.

We reached Bangkok at 11:30 pm [12:30 am Singapore Time] by Fin Air. Visa-on-arrival
formalities took 30 minutes to complete. Immigration officer did not talk to us, but
played dumb charades with us, as he did not know English. After crossing lot of fly-overs
reached the Hotel around 2:50 am.

On next morning, we started our 1/2 day guided city tour from Chao Phraya river. Took a
ferry and saw Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kheo and Wat Arun along the banks of the river. Then
our ferry entered the Floating market area. Floating market is where people carry
fruits/vegetables in boats and surround the tourist ferries and sell them. We did not buy
anything here. Then we stopped at Wat Arun, also known as Temple of Dawn. Wat Arun appeared
in one of the recent Surya's movie. Then we were taken to a leather factory. Surprised to
see goods made of leather taken from Snake, Elephant, Lamb, Shark and Crocodile. We did not
buy anthing here also. We next went to a Gem Factory and bought a Garnet and Coral stone.
Travel guide then took us to a Thai restaurant. We had a Steam Boat Lunch and this was really
funny. After lunch, our travel agent related tour was over and we were left independent.
We took a taxi to Grand Palace. A Thai police came to our help, when the taxi driver did not
know what we were saying. You can compare Bangkok taxi drivers to Chennai auto drivers, they
round and round the roads so much that you will finally end up paying 100 Bahts per trip.
Traffic Jams were also very common in Bangkok. It will surely frustrate any one. We reached
our destination. Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kheo's architecture will definitely stun you. After
that we went to Prathunam market to buy clothes for more than 1000 Bahts. It is similar to
Burma Bazaar in Chennai. To enjoy the night life, we went to a Thai show "Mambo Cabaret Show".
You can check in internet if you are not sure of Steam Boat Lunch, Mambo show etc.

Next day, we started our trip to Ayutthaya. State Government bus took us in 1 1/2 hours.
It was really surprising, we were the only tourist travelling in that. All tourist must
have taken an expensive guided tour of 1500 bahts per person. Our to-and-fro travel cost
only 80 bahts. Ayutthaya was the old capital of Thailand. Ruins of majestic old stupas,
templeas give a wonderful look. We returned back by train. As we were late, we got inside
a crowded 3rd class compartment and moved into 2nd class air conditioned one. After reaching
Bangkok, we saw the Golden Buddha in Wat Traimit. History of Wat Traimit will be interesting
one to read. In the evening, we went to a movie theatre with Seperate individual seats, Carpet flooring, Colourful curtains inside WTC.
We stood for one minute to pay respects to present King Rama IX before the start of the movie.
It was surprising to hear Thais pronouncing rugby as lugby and Rama as Lama.

Only 1/2 day left to use on the 3rd day, as we needed to leave to airport by 12:30 pm. Took
a taxi from our 3 Star Bangkok City Inn hotel directly to Wat Pho, where a majestic reclining
Buddha is present. Massage done here will be very rought, so did not go. Then we went to
World's biggest teak wood palace, Vimanmek Mansion. There were some cultural dances too in
the palace.

As we were short of time, we bought few souveniers in airport only. It was little expensive
compared to one available inside city.

Notable things that happened in Bangkok include, respect given by Thais to monks, Thai
alphabets resembling our Oriya alphabets and Thai dances looking more with Oriya touch.
I went for a Oriya wedding and my friend's brother joined both hands and welcomed me.
Same thing we were able to notice in plenty of places inside Bangkok.