Birthday in Bangkok

We spent four days in Bangkok at the end of June because of my husband's work, and this trip coincided with my birthday.

I started exploring the city while he was working. First stop was Jim Thompson's house. Jim Thompson was an American former CIA operative who spent 22 years in Thailand rebuilding the silk industry, before mysteriously disappearing in the Cameron Highlands in 1967. His house has now been turned into a museum.

in the garden, Jim Thompson house

The house is beautifully and tastefully decorated.

On the night of my birthday we had dinner at the Banyan Tree hotel at their open air Vertigo restaurant on the 61st floor.

view from Vertigo

The next day my husband wasn't working, and we took the Chao Phraya express boat along the river of the same name:

Next we visited the spectacular Grand Palace. This has to be one of the most richly decorated royal palaces I've even seen.

The statues of mythological giants are known as yaksha.

The nearby Wat Pho temple houses Thailand's largest reclining Buddha :

The Giant Swing, known as Sao Ching Cha in Thai, is a religious structure originally constructed in 18th century.

Giant Swing, near Wat Suthat temple

candles on sale

Democracy monument

Lastly, to head back to our hotel we took one of the river taxis that ply the klorng (canals) of Bangkok. They go very fast and don't stop for very long, so you have to be ready to jump out or in as soon as they do stop.

In a four day visit we could only scratch the surface of Bangkok, but it gave us a good first-time view of the city, and we'd love to go back some time soon.  In any case, it was very different to our following trip, only a few days after we'd got back to Seoul : the Trans-Siberian train across Russia.

If you enjoyed this post you might also like:

• Thailand - the Andaman Coast - our second trip to Thailand

Suggested reading:

• Lonely Planet Thailand (Country Travel Guide)
• Bangkok: Lonely Planet Citiescape (Lonely Planet Citiescape Bangkok)

A vocal tour of Asia

Here are a few songs with the names of Asian countries or cities in the title. Can you think of any more ?

1. Bangla Desh - George Harrison
2. Big in Japan - Alphaville
3. Cambodia - Kim Wilde
4. China - T'Pau (although this song is actually about the porcelain, not the country !)
5. China - Tori Amos
6. China Girl - David Bowie
7. One Night in Bangkok - Murrayhead
8. Taste of India - Aerosmith
9. Turning Japanese - The Vapors
10. Vietnam - Jimmy Cliff

Vietnam - Halong Bay

Halong Bay is one of the most beautiful places I have been given to see. I think that here I'll mainly let the photos speak for themselves.

We went on a 3-day 2-night trip, the first was spent on a junk like the one below, the second night was spent on the island of Cat Ba.

Ha Long Bay junk.

view from our junk

In the bay are about 3000 karst islands. Halong actually means 'where the dragon descends into the sea', and legend has it that this is how the bay was created.

sunset

more sunset

moonrise

woman in traditional dress, floating village, Halong Bay

Cat Ba island

Cat Ba island

Suggested reading :

Lonely Planet Vietnam (Country Travel Guide)

Vietnam - Hanoi

After visiting Saigon/Ho Chi Minh we flew to Hanoi :

where we visited Tam Coc, known as 'Halong Bay on the rice paddies'.  Named after three caves through which the Ngo Dong river flows, you let yourself be rowed along the river :

Tam Cốc

This is some of the surrounding countryside :

farmer on water buffalo

We also visited the Perfume Pagoda, about 60km southwest of Hanoi. 

cable car, Perfume Pagoda

at the Perfume Pagoda

unidentified animals, near Perfume Pagoda

Back in Hanoi we went to see the Temple of Literature, founded in 1070 and which saw the creation of Vietnam's first university six years later.

at the Temple of Literature

pineapple seller, Hanoi

We sometimes saw women from the hill tribes dressed in traditional clothes and headdresses.

pagoda, Hanoi

The Hoa Lo Prison, now a museum, was nicknamed the 'Hanoi Hilton' by the American POWs during the war.

'Hanoi Hilton'

mural, prison museum

The centrepoint of old Hanoi is the Hoan Kiem Lake, which means Lake of the Restored Sword according to a legend associated with the lake. The Ngoc Son temple sits on a small island in the northern part of the lake.

Ngoc Son Temple

bridge, Hoan Kiem Lake.

One evening we went to see a water puppet show, which is a thousand year old tradition originating in northern Vietnam. The lighting made it difficult to get a usable photo of the puppets themselves unfortunately, but here are the musicians !

Our last visit in Hanoi was to the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology.

traditional house on display at the museum

close-up

traditional houses at the museum.

From Hanoi we made a trip to Halong Bay.

Suggested reading :

Lonely Planet Vietnam (Country Travel Guide)