My great Arventure

Bon Voyage to Thailand: Part II

When we purchased our admission for the Emerald Buddha we also got admission for Vimanmek Mansion, which was built in the early 20th century by King Rama V. It is the world's largest teak house. It was a residence of the royal family when it was first built, but is now a museum and used occasionally for entertaining high profile guests and dignitaries. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos inside, but it basically is a HUGE Victorian style mansion. I think there were 72 rooms, over 200 windows.... you get the point. Here are a couple of photos from outside though.







The grounds were well maintained as well, sporting beautiful trees and shrubbery.





(Portrait of a Brown man in front of a Thai Styled Gazebo)



Even Kiran had to express her love of the vegatation.


The other great thing about the estate was the fact that they put on a daily cultural dance show. Spanning 45mins. the show displayed various styles of Thai dancing that have evolved through the ages.

They had ones with pretty colours


Ones with fighting


Ones with stories


Ones with an elegant feel.


And ones with Canadian flags!!!!




Now, what would a dance show be without audience participation? Probably a dance show without audience participation, but not as fun as one with a.p. A couple of times they grabbed our friend Martin (from Germany) for some hilarious a.p.

They tried making him fight.


They even tried letting him win.

He did win!!!! But with a little help :P

The even had him try and dance.

No Martin, this isn't swing dancing :P

Afterwards we split up into three groups of 4 because ppl wanted to do different things. I am not sure exactly what the other groups did but Kiran, Erin, Serena & I went to Pratunam Market, one of the more "authentic" markets in Bangkok. We were all excited to go. The girls because they could do shopping for clothes and get it so cheap. I however was excited because I could do some haggling and bargaining. It's such a game, and when you get a shopkeeper who is willing to play along it's fun to see who is willing to give up more. Of course there are times when the spread between the bid (your price) and the offer (their price) is so small that it becomes and ego-thing because neither party wants to lose... even if it is only 5Baht.

Anyways, here are a couple of quick photos I snapped.



It reminded me alot of the markets in Delhi. Crowded, smelly and dirty. I love it!!! Just like my room back home :P

I didn't buy much. Just a knockoff polo shirt, a cheap no-name t-shirt and some "beach" pants/pj's. Actually, part of the reason why I didn't buy that much is because we found that alot of the shopkeepers who were indoors were not willing to bargain down as much as those who were outdoors. We guessed it was because they are indoors and have to pay rent, thus have a smaller margin for profit. Kiran, Erin & Serena went home as very happy campers. They picked up nice Japanese style robes for only 150Baht each. Then when some of our friends met up with us we sent them to the same shopkeeper for the same robes. In total our group bought 22 robes that day!!!! At that price and that many robes one could almost say we "robed" them... hahahha hohoho.

Anyways, after that we grabbed some food at some food court where I got the chance to snap a photo of the main road in the area. Trust me, the traffic is ALOT worse and more chaotic than it looks in that photo.


The next morning (Saturday) Kiran and I had to leave for Singapore. Everybody else was staying an extra day. If we could have Kiran and I would have stayed the extra day, but unfortuately the flight on Sunday was filled when we booked meaning we had to come back on Saturday. We took one final Tuk-Tuk ride to the train station.


(Portrait of a Brown Man + guest in a tuk-tuk)

The trip ended on a really really high note. As we were getting off the tuk-tuk our driver put his hands together (as is customary in Thai culture) and said, "Happy Happy to Singapore". Well, Mr. Tuk-tuk driver I wish you and your fellow country men "Happy Happy" as well :)

posted by Arvind @ 10:00 AM