The morning was breezy and hopeful. I had conquered the city the day before and had the blisters and scabs on my feet to show it. Today, I was going to conquer the bus system.
But first, the teak mansion, and this was walkable from my hotel. Walkable if you don't walk in circles around it a few times first. Lesson #1. This walking tactic (circling then attacking) helped to further inflame my blisters, but I did manage to misdirect another tourist along the way, so not all was lost.
The teak mansion was the King Rama's palace for five whole years of his life. The grounds are finely manicured -- filled with scents of tropical flowers, trees that droop and brush the ground and a steady breeze -- the whole place encased by tall maroon concrete walls that shut out the rest of the city. her world, You get to see how the King Rama and his royal family lived in the early 1900's. The guides are very nice. The tour groups are minimal. I could have spent all day strolling inside the grounds and it made me wonder if the city and all the pollution were getting to me.
The teak mansion and all the buildings surrounding it (the honeymoon suite, the queen's vacation house, the carriage house, et al) are all stunning in their own rights. The mansion is constructed from teak wood. Guests must all remove their shoes, but since only the teak mansion had a crowd, foot odor was kept to a minimum. It is all grand. 300+ windows, 78 rooms, wide planked wood floors and carved wooden details in the interior that hushed even the guy in the football jersey and sarong on my tour. (The sarong was a loaner to cover up his shorts.)
After the teak mansion, it was onto the bus...
It was easy. Except that the bus numbers at the stops often do not correspond to the bus you may get on, navigating the city by bus is a great way to go. Just hold your breath, get on, enjoy the scenery and trust that the bus will generally go straight (most of them do).
The bus took me to the lettuce farm, more traditional teak houses. And from there, I took the skytrain and cruised in air conditioning high above the city to my destination -- more shopping!
Pantip Plaza, Thailand's Smithsonian of computer stores. Six floors connected by escalators. Booths and lights abound. Stacks of CD cases with Japanese characters, notebooks of DVD jackets which vendors flip to entice you to their stall, and the insides of computers spilled out in the windows of stores that line the interior walls. And in the middle of it all, two thai women wearing white vinyl minidresses and go-go boots shouted into their microphones calling men of all ages to try a new game.
The #23 bus was air conditioned and got me all the way home. I mean, back to my hotel.
