Tuk Tuk, Buddha and Shopping Mall

Travel Day 652 – Bangkok, THAILAND

This only full day in Bangkok was quite a busy one, especially because everything hat to get done that I couldn’t get done easily in Nepal…

Standing Buddha of Wat Intharawihan

So after some nice breakfast in the hostel, it was time to do some packing and organizing as some items needed to be posted home. Everything worked out fine and some street food lunch later, I was off to one of the big Bangkok shopping malls to buy a new camera and some shorts. But I didn’t get very far as someone on the street started talking to me, mentioning that today was a special holiday. He recommended seeing two different Buddha statues while taking advantage of the cheaper tuk tuk rate on this very special day…

I declined, thinking it was a scam. But after he walked away, a tuk tuk driver came up to me and confirmed the extremely low price that the other person had even written down for me on a piece of paper. So I gave in and instead of going to the shopping mall, I went with the tuk tuk driver to see the first Buddha statue. As it turned out, it was the 32 meter tall standing Buddha of Wat Intharawihan, which allegedly took over 60 years to complete due to its golden mosaic surface…

Temple of Wat Intharawihan, Bangkok

Seeing Wat Intharawihan and the big standing Buddha was actually great, especially because I had never been there before, and I was excited to see the next one. But the temple of the second Buddha was all of a sudden closed, although it was supposed to be a special Buddhist holiday. So the funny feeling about the cheap tuk tuk deal came back to surface and I could only image what the third stop on the driver’s list was. And sure enough, the tuk tuk driver rather suggested moving on than to wait for the temple to open…

But I told the tuk tuk driver that the only place I wanted to move on to was the shopping mall, which I intended to go to on the first place. When he then requested to see the piece of paper again that the stranger on the street had given to me, I started to understand what was actually written on it. Refusing to show it again and ignoring the driver’s claims that he would get free petrol at the next stop if I would only come with him, I told him again that I only wanted to go to shopping mall…

Typical Tuk Tuk in the Street, Bangkok

When the Driver finally realized that I was actually serious, he all of a sudden seemed to remember that the traffic on the way to the shopping mall was really bad and he could only drop me off at a shuttle boat on a canal. This was fine with me, especially because I didn’t have to pay for the tuk tuk ride. So, it wasn’t a holiday after all but at least I learned something today and I got to see the tall standing Buddha for free… : )

The rest of the day was then spent on the many levels of the shopping mall, comparing all the prices of the camera shops and trying on all kinds of shorts, until I was finally comfortable to make a decision. In the evening, it was then back to Khao San Road for some more Pad Thai, sticky rice with mango, Thai iced tea and of course another Chang. Even if my time in Thailand was very limited, at least I had made good use of it, got everything done and even saw a Buddha… : )