Travelling to Thailand Part 2: Bangkok's Temples

The phone screeched. My eyes burned. I hopped off of the single, stain-covered bed, staggered along the dirty hostel floor and rubbed my hair, reddened eyes and stubble-covered cheeks on our second official day of travelling Thailand. Sun beamed through the dust and dead bug-covered windows. The phone screeched again. I picked up the receiver.“Hello?” I grumbled.“This is Tank. Are you and Greg coming on the temple tour or what?”I yawned, turned towards Greg and squinted. Greg rolled around on his single bed, propped himself up and gawked at me. The sun shadowed his crumpled sheets. I looked at my phone. The phone read 12 o’clock. I stared at Greg, then at the phone, and then back again.“Yeah, we’ll be right down.”“Try and hurry, otherwise we may leave without you. We were supposed to all meet in the lobby at 11.”“I know, sorry about that. Last night –““It’s all good. Just hurry down.”I hung up the phone, turned towards Greg, grabbed my backpack, yanked out my camera, books and clothing packs, pulled out a pair of black Lululemon yoga pants and a white tshirt and dressed. Greg’s bed creaked, as he rolled off the bed.“That was Tank,” I said, “the rest of the group is downstairs waiting for us so we can go on the temple tour. It’s noon.”Greg stood, pressed his palms against his eyes and stretched.“Holy shit,” he said, “I guess we didn’t go to bed until like 7 am though.”I grinned.“Yeah, totally worth it though. I hope we can eat something before we go. I’m starving.”Greg pulled his GoPro, sunscreen and clothing out of his backpack, pulled out jeans and a tank top, and dressed.“We’ll find something. There are street vendors everywhere in Thailand.”We pulled our key card out of the wall. The power in the room fizzled out. We exited the room, locked the door, and walked down the stairs into the lobby.Bangkok’s humidity and dense air hit us for the first time while travelling in Thailand, as we walked into the open lobby. The sun beamed on the orange and white dirt-covered tiles. Cats lay on the floor. About twenty five people in their twenties (some of which we recognized from the night before) sat at tables in the lobby. Sweat beaded on their foreheads. Half-empty water bottles, bug spray and iPhones lined the tables. Tank smirked at us, as we sat down at the table.For the next hour, our tour leaders introduced themselves to us, ran us through the rules and asked us to stand and introduce ourselves to the rest of the group that would be travelling Thailand with us. My stomach rumbled. My head ached. After we all introduced ourselves, the guides told us we were about to walk over to some of Bangkok’s most famous temples. I stood, looked around the lobby and alleyway beside the hostel, and searched for a food source. The hostel restaurant served classic Thai meals like Pad Thai and curry, but I knew it’d take a while for them to make those meals. A few members of our group, along with Greg, lined up at a smoothie stand outside the hostel. I stared at the stand, the cooler filled with fruit and ice behind the bar, and the blender on the counter. I frowned. I’d heard one thing you should avoid while travelling in Thailand is ice cubes because they can come from the local tap water (which you aren’t supposed to drink). Greg ordered a smoothie for breakfast. I did not.Our group leaders called us towards the back of the hostel lobby, led us through a back alleyway and marched us into Bangkok’s city streets. Greg and a few other members of the group held their purple, yellow and green smoothies. Condensation pooled around their hands in the city’s humidity. My stomach churned. Our group continued up the sidewalk.After about thirty minutes of walking, large buildings with red clay roofs and golden details shimmered above the streets. Our guides halted us in front of a cement archway that led into the temple grounds, spoke with one of the temple tour guides, and then ushered us in.Inside the archway, white and golden temples rose into the sky. Tourists snapped photos, walked around the red tile floor and lined up in front of the different temples. The man our tour guides spoke with stood in front of us. He placed a megaphone to his mouth. The megaphone muffled his voice, as he told us the history of the various temples in the area, the rules for the day and where the amenities were located. It was at times hard to hear everything through the megaphone, but there is one important rule that we were all told and should be mentioned here: shoes are not allowed to be worn inside the temples while travelling in Thailand.Once the man finished speaking, our group leaders led us over to the first temple (Wat Pho), which contained the 46 m long Reclining Buddha. We lined up on the temple’s stairs, slipped our shoes off and then entered.Inside the temple, a giant, golden Buddha reclined on its side against the back wall. Tourists snapped photos on their smartphones, peered over the railing and continued across the tile floors towards the exit at the other end of the temple. I leaned against the rail, peered up at the giant Buddha and asked Greg to take a photo of me. You can see from the photo how hungry I am at this point. After I snapped a few photos of Greg, we stared at the Buddha for a few minutes more, as a new group of tourists entered into the temple, walked through the exit at the other end and retrieved our shoes from our tour guides.At another temple, a row of Golden Buddhas sat in a line against one of the exterior walls. My stomach growled, my head felt light and my legs ached, but I handed Greg my phone, stood in front of the statues and grinned. Greg snapped my picture. I looked at the photo, tossed a filter on it and posted it to Instagram. My stomach growled again. Sweat pooled on my forehead. Our tour continued.After another hour, our guide led us back to the entryway. He thanked us, showed us where the restrooms were and disappeared into the crowd. I studied the facilities by the restrooms.There had to be a gift/snack shop here, I thought.I wandered towards the washrooms, found a gift shop and stepped inside. My eyes widened. My stomach tensed. There were snacks.After sifting through and trying to figure out what each snack item was, I grabbed a can of almonds. I stared at the can. My eyes furrowed, as my stomach growled again."Do I really want my first meal while travelling in Thailand to be almonds?" I thought, as I held the can closer to my face, "this is a serious issue though. I haven’t eaten since I was on plane towards Bangkok."I walked over to the cashier, pulled out some Thai Baht, paid them, walked out of the gift shop and opened the almond can. My fingers struggled, as I pulled off the aluminum safety seal. The seal popped. I placed an almond in my mouth. The salt dissolved on my tongue.As I approached our group, a girl with blonde hair approached me. She studied my can of almonds, my yoga pants and my backwards hat. She grinned.“You would get the almonds,” she said.I laughed.“Well, it is beach body season now officially.”Our group guides huddled us together. Everyone stood amongst one another, stared at pictures on their phones and drank bottles of water. The sun started to dip towards the top of the temples. Their golden roofs glistened.“Ok everyone,” one of our guides said, “we’re going to head back to the hostel now. We’re going to hop on the bus towards the ferry port around 8 o’clock, so you’ll have a bit of time to grab some food and rest up beforehand.”I smirked, as I finished my can of almonds.“The bus ride will take about twelve hours, so we’ll be getting to the ferry port around sunrise. Don’t worry, we will be making a few stops throughout the trip for everyone to use the washrooms and grab snacks.”I turned towards Greg, as our guides led us out of the temple grounds and back into the streets of Bangkok. Cars raced past. Humidity thickened the air. My Vans hat, white t-shirt and tapered yoga pants stuck to my skin.“Dude,” I said, “we need to get food as soon as possible when we’re back. I’ve only eaten a can of almonds since we got off the plane, and it’s hot out here.”Greg grinned.“Should have had the smoothie.”I shook my head, as we walked back towards the hostel.When we returned, a girl in our group, Shannon, who is from Toronto, wanted to go out for food too. Greg, Shannon and I left the hostel, walked down an alleyway that was filled with empty Chang bottles, cats and food stalls, and stopped in front of an Italian restaurant. The restaurant, which was completely outdoors (as most restaurants in Thailand are), held patio tables and chairs, large fans and a giant pizza oven in the back corner. We turned to each other.“Should our first full meal travelling in Thailand be at an Italian restaurant?”Shannon and Greg nodded.“I’m starving,” Greg said, “So I’m good to eat anywhere.”“Agreed,” Shannon said.We stepped into the restaurant. The smell of pizza wafted amongst Bangkok’s humidity. We sat at a table towards the back, picked up the menus and ordered waters from our server. My hands shook. My head dizzied. I gazed at the menu.“I’m ordering an entire pizza,” I said, “I’m actually about to faint.”When the server came back, we placed our orders. I slouched in the patio chair, pressed my sweat-covered palm against my eyelid and my stomach ached, as Shannon told us about her time spent teaching English in China. The cook slid pizza dough into the oven. The fans above swirled the alleyway’s humidity around the patio.When my meat lover’s pizza arrived, I devoured the whole thing. My body relaxed. The heat in the alleyway simmered. I grinned.“I don’t know if it’s because I’ve barely eaten in twenty four hours, but that was probably the best pizza I’ve ever had.”Greg and Shannon nodded.“I don’t know,” Greg said, “I wasn’t that hungry, but that was still some of the best Italian food I’ve ever had too.”I frowned.“I’d heard that Thai food was amazing, but maybe they meant all food in Thailand was amazing.”We paid our bills, grabbed Chang beers and granola bars at a convenient store for the bus ride, walked back through the alleyway to our hostel, packed our backpacking backpacks, and then hung out in the hotel lobby with the rest of our group. Greg returned our key to the front desk. A pack of cats purred beneath one of the lobby’s benches. I studied the cats, the group, and then the hostel’s restaurant. A large, faded menu on one of the columns displayed Chicken Pad Thai, Red, Yellow and Green Curry, and Vegetable Bowl options. I frowned.Hmm, should I get more food to make up for the lack of food I’ve had over the past day? I wondered.My hand rested on my pizza-filled stomach. My fingers clenched my bag of snacks and Chang beer. Our guides arrived in the lobby.Will I even have time to order anything?I sighed, decided to wait until our bus stopped to grab more food, and walked over to Greg and some of the other people in our group.After a few minutes, our guides rallied us out of our seats. We all grabbed our backpacks, phone chargers and Chang beers, strolled out of the lobby, down an alleyway towards Bangkok’s busy streets and sauntered into a parking lot.The parking lot contained several coach buses. The buses glimmered bright oranges, reds and greens under the streetlights, golden dragon decals covered their sides, and windows protruded from the top and bottom levels. The bus driver opened up the storage areas along the bottom of the bus. I threw my backpack in the storage area, clambered on the bus, walked up the staircase and sat in one of the first rows of seats in front of the stairs.Greg sat beside me. A fan rattled behind us. My bag of Chang beer rested between my calves. I studied the curtains and neon blue lights around the bus’s windows, grabbed a Chang beer and opened it. Foam fizzled around the rim of the large green bottle. The bus pulled out of the parking lot. The red and gold curtains rattled against the windows.Check out the first part of the Travelling to Thailand story series here or the third part here! For more content like this, follow me here.