My Thailand Blog by Richard Barrow

While I was exploring the BRT bus route today, I came across this beautiful park between MRT Dokmai and MRT Rama IX Bridge. It is dedicated to H.M. The King of Thailand.

It is close to the Rama IX Bridge as you can see from these pictures. The tall building on the other side of the river was known as the Thai Farmers Bank building for a long time. They are now know as Kasikorn Bank.

The park seemed popular with Thai families who came to have a picnic on the grass. I don’t think they see foreigners here that much as I got some long stares from the adults. Smiling back seemed to break the spell.

- Posted from my iPhone

While I was creating a google map for the BRT Bus route in Bangkok, I came across an interesting sight between BRT Wat Dokmai and BRT Rama IX Bridge.

This is the satellite image of what looked like a capsized ship close to the Rama IX bridge. I used Google Earth and GPS on my iPhone to help me track down this ship.

This is an older shot from Google Earth showing the ship before it capsized. A security guard allowed me to go and take a closer look at the ship.

This is how it looks today as they have already started to cut it up for scrap metal. The guard told me that it was called the Siritara Ocean Queen and sunk here on 13th October 2006.  The reasons are still apparently a mystery.

- Posted from my iPhone

While I was exploring the BRT route I came across this fascinating museum near Wat Pariwat. I have never heard about it before so thought I would go in and take a look.

The museum is opposite BRT Wat Pariwat so it is now very convenient to go and visit. It is also next door to the David Beckham Temple so you could do both at the same time. The best news is that this museum is free to visit!

The museum covers an area of 1,500 square meters and is full of images and relics of the Buddha and his followers. Items in the museum come from all around the world such as India, Nepal, Tibet, Burma, Taiwan and Sri Lanka.

The items on display, including the ones that you can see here in the shop, are from different areas of Asian Buddhism. Such as Mahayana, Vajrayana, Teravada, Hinayana, Taoist and also Brahmanism. I was only allowed to take pictures in the shop so I am afraid I cannot show you the wonderful museum.

You could easily spend a good hour here. There are a lot of information boards in both Thai and English. There are also priests and fortune tellers on hand. I saw one that looked like a Hindu priest. There was also a Buddhist monk. However, I thought it odd that he gave me a one hand “wai” at chest level as he was adjusting his robe with his other hand. Real monks don’t “wai” lay people.  Click here to see location on a map.

- Posted from my iPhone

About four years ago the BBC had a story about an image of David Beckham that could be found at a Thai temple in Bangkok. I had forgotten all about it until I spotted one of the names of the BRT stations which rang a bell with me. As I was exploring the BRT bus route today I thought I would check it out.

It is now very convenient to go to this temple as it is right next to BRT Wat Pariwat. You walk down a lane until you reach the main buildings. I asked a nun if this was the right temple for David Beckham but she had never heard of him. Obviously she doesn’t watch English football. But, she took me to a monk who does!

The monk confirmed to me that Wat Pariwat was indeed the famous David Beckham temple. However, he said in the last few years hardly anyone has come to see the image of the footballer. The building with the blue roof is normally locked but he asked someone to go and open it for me.

This is the main Buddha shrine inside the chapel. It is easier to find it open on “wan phra” days which are the Buddhist holy days which coincide with the phases of the moon. If you find it locked then they don’t mind opening it for you.

To the right of the Buddha image in the far corner you will find that one of the images decorating the base to be very familiar. It is indeed the famous English footballer David Beckham! Watch my video clip to help you find the exact location.

It is also worth visiting around the back of the temple alongside the Chao Phraya river. I was told that this is a popular location in the evenings where people come to eat and also feed the fish. The people there were really kind to me and gave me a free iced fruit drink! Click here for location on a map.

- Posted from my iPhone

At Wat Pariwat in Bangkok, you will find this image of the famous English footballer David Beckham. He is one of the images decorating the base of the Buddha image. Football is worshipped in Thailand so they thought it wasn’t such a bad idea to use Beckham’s image in a Thai temple. Click here for location on a map.

- Posted from my iPhone

Today was the first full day of operation for the new BRT bus in Bangkok that runs in a dedicated lane. So, I thought I would head into Bangkok to check it out. Looks like thousands of other people had the same idea! Check out my google map of the route.

This first picture shows the special buses that are used for the BRT route. This stands for Bus Rapid Transit.  The buses go from Sathorn Station to Ratchaphreuk Station. There are 25 buses and 12 stations on the 15 kilometer route.

BTS Chong Nonsri is an interchange skytrain station for people wanting to catch a bus at BRT Sathorn. There is a special sky-walkway which only take about five minutes. This pictures is looking towards BTS Chong Nonsri.

This is the terminal station called BRT Sathorn. The bus is trying to do a u-turn here. It is a sharp corner for them. Up above is the ticket hall where you purchase the tickets. At the moment it is free until 31st August 2010.

This is a picture of the ticket hall. Even though it is free at the moment you still need to go to the ticket office to get a ticket. In September, I believe the prices will go up to 10 baht until the end of the year.

You then go down an escalator to the waiting room. I couldn’t believe that it was air-conditioned! There are monitors here and and up in the ticket area that tell you in Thai and English the expected arrival time of the next bus.

This is a shot of the inside of the bus. This is air-conditioned too. At this time it wasn’t too crowded. Later it was so packed that the air was starting to get hot. They have a monitor in the bus too that tells you your location and the next station.

I took this shot from the taxi on my return trip. I was trying to race the bus to see who was quicker. You can see here that they have a dedicated lane. The taxi took 27 minutes (including about 7 minutes when he got lost and had to do a u-turn) and cost 137 baht. The BRT bus took 51 minutes & was free.

The drivers are not very experienced yet and have to approach the stations very slowly as you will see in my video. In this picture you can see the guiding wheels they have and also the scrapes on the side of the bus from the first day of operation. By the end of the day they were more efficient and they reckon they will do the route in only 30 minutes!

- Posted from my iPhone

I shot this video on my iPhone today to show how difficult it is for the drivers of the new BRT buses to approach the stations. The first clip is of the bus approaching BRT Ratchaphreuk terminal station. Here the passengers wait in an air-conditioned waiting room. The second clip is from my taxi showing the bus in the dedicated lane. The final clip is from inside the bus showing how difficult the approach to the station is for him. But, with experience, I am sure they will get better. Today was their first full day.

This evening I went to Wat Asokaram in Samut Prakan to take pictures at the mini-marathon that had been organized as part of the activities for Wisakha Bucha Day.

There were two races. The first to set off were the runners. They were mixed ages and both men and women.

The second race were the walkers ledt by the governor of Samut Prakan Province. All of them were doing it in the name of Wisakha Bucha Day.

- Posted from my iPhone

A new set of tourists that are now visiting certain locations in Bangkok are called “Disaster Zone Tourists” as they want to see the places hit hardest by the red shirt protests.

One of the more popular locations for them to visit is from Siam Square to Ratchaprasong which were the hardest hit by the fires and looting. Many were taking pictures of the burned ruins of Siam Theatre and Central World. Some of the Diaster Zone Tourists were making use of this army bunker to pose for their picture.

It seems an ideal location to take your picture as the burned ruin of the Zen building can be seen in the background. I have been here many times in the past few months but I don’t remember seeing the army setting up a bunker here. I get the feeling that these sandbags were moved here recently in order to make a new tourist attraction.

- Posted from my iPhone

During the occupation of Ratchaprasong by the Reds, the shrines in the area remained open, though they didn’t see that many worshippers.

I visited all the shrines during the occupation as I kept receiving emails from concerned people who wanted to know if they had been damaged in any way. The nearest shrine to the red shirt stage was the Erawan Shrine. Although it saw few worshippers, it remained intact.

Today I went back to see if things had got back to normal yet. Only a week had passed since the violent army crackdown but Thais and foreign tourists were already back here though not in the numbers of the past.

Also back were the dancers. If you receive good luck at the shrine then you can pay the dancers to do a dance for the gods. I am sure many people have been praying for the safety of the Erawan Shrine.

Today I only saw about 3 or 4 flower vendors. As you can see from this picture, there used to be a lot more. I guess there are not enough tourists for them all yet.

- Posted from my iPhone

One of the hardest hit areas during the red shirt protests were the shopping malls around Ratchaprasong Intersection. Most of them were shut for two months and some were burned and looted on the last day.

This is the intersection that I have come to know so well the last few months.  However, I haven’t seen it like this for a long time.  Beneath the sky train bridge was the stage for the rally. Where the cars are now were hundreds of red shirts sitting down listening to their leaders on stage.

This is the same road looking north. On their busiest days, this was also crowded with red shirt protesters. In latter days, this was turned into a kind of night bazaar with people selling food and other items as far as the eye could see. Now it is all traffic jams. In some ways, I miss the light traffic and walking streets of the red zone. But I don’t miss the craziness of the aftermath when they set fire to the malls.

- Posted from my iPhone