Location: Bangkok, Thailand

I’m just going to start with the fact that I have never been this warm in my life. It’s the rainy season and yet it was 33 C today, which is hot, yes, but like the sun hurt when it hit my skin. For the first time ever I pulled my umbrella out not for rain but for shade. I am sure I have sweat off all the sunscreen I put on this morning thinking ‘it’s going to rain but it can’t hurt to put it on!’

I was heading out on a tour of Ayutthaya, the ancient city. On the way our guide told us that Ayutthaya is 700 years old, which is relatively young in Asia, and was the second kingdom of Siam (what Thailand used to be). The first is further North, and Bangkok is the third. Basically kings just keep changing the capital every 500 years or so.

We went to a few special sites around the city, mainly different temple ruins made of brick and mortar that really displayed some of the grandeur of what the city must have looked like. Huge reliquary towers (called prangs) still stood, while most of the surrounding walls and buildings were broken down to the foundation. In the 1700’s the city was razed to the ground by the Burmese and abandoned, and later they used some of the bricks to build structures in Bangkok. I find it crazy that the city was abandoned given that it was literally a global centre for economics and trade. Is it really easier to just like… start again?

There was a particular temple ruin in the city where our guide explained that twice a year Thai’s needed to drink holy water to honour the King. Like… legally you had to do this. I’m a bit unclear on why and if that was enforced in some way??

We went to a local house for lunch owned by a woman named Ping, who cooks fresh Thai food for over five tour groups a day, which works out to like 100 people. Each person gets their pick of four meals and apparently I picked the one she never gets to make! She ended up sitting with me and chatting about what her day looks like, and her English lessons, and how she got her degree in English at 61 so she could cook for tourists more easily. Ping kind of saved me a bit because I had been sat with three women who clearly weren’t interested in being friendly (or even polite for that matter). At the end of the meal Ping kept holding my hand and was pretty insistent that I come back at some point with my parents because she wanted to meet them. It turned out to be quite a nice lunch!

The tour guide dropped us off at MBK mall in Bangkok, and Thai malls are places of legend so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to check it out. When you walk in you have to pass by a metal detector and a security guard, but then you are just slammed right in the face with 7 floors of chaos. I could see up to the top and the incredible amount of shops that were not laid out like a North American mall. Oh no. Some of it was sort of familiar but most of it felt more like indoor market stalls with no discernible order. I walked around for about an hour but kept stopping for a drink or a little snack or dessert just so I could take it all in. I’ve been in some particularly crazy places but this was overwhelming!

I realized during my ‘calm down cake’ that I was really close to Jim Thompson House, a WWII era architect’s house turned museum. I had heard the name enough times that I knew it was likely worth seeing and I am so happy I did. I was worried it was going to close right away so I speed walked over and showed up with about 2 minutes to spare for the final tour of the day. Phiew!

Jim Thompson was sent to Thailand shortly after WWII and decided to move here permanently when he fell in love with the country. He bought land near a small silk making village on the canal and began working with them to create a silk trading company, and is credited for bringing silk to the west. When he built his house he adhered to early Thai customs like building it a full story above the ground for flooding, firing the roof tiles in Ayutthaya, and painting it a particular dark maroon colour found in ancient Thai buildings. There isn’t even a single nail used in the construction of the house! The gardens surrounding the different parts of the house are a thick lush jungle of local plants and koi ponds with thin little brick garden paths snaking through the brush. I could have spent hours and hours walking the same little paths. I think this might be my favourite place I’ve seen in Bangkok.

I asked one of the museum guides about a tiny ornate house in the corner on the garden – I’ve been seeing them on other Thai properties and knew it was a spirit house, but didn’t really know what that meant. It turns out that when you build a new house you are disturbing the spirits of that land, so in order to appease them you should build a little house for them to live in too! It can never be in the shadow of your big house and you should make offerings of food, flowers, water and little figurines. If the spirits are kept happy you will be protected in your home. Isn’t that just like the sweetest thing ever?!

It was only a few extra things but Bangkok feels more ‘complete’ now, and I feel more content. I went back to Thipsamai, the restaurant Garrett and I went to on our first night in Thailand for one last plate of the best pad Thai I’ve had.

What a good way to leave the city.

Sav

P.S. One thing I think I’ve forgotten to mention about Thailand is that there is a 7/11 every few hundred feet. Like literally on almost every block! You never ever have to worry about water or a snack or whatever because you’re going to see another 7/11 in literally a few minutes.

*shrugs*