Bangkok, Thailand: The Ping Pong Show

On Saturday July 23rd we had purchased tickets to go see a Kathoey Cabaret Show, otherwise known as a Lady-Boy show. A Kathoey (aka Lady-Boy) is an effeminate gay male or male-to-female transgender person. Kathoeys may dress as women, or some only wear makeup but still dress as men. Because of the predominance of Buddhism, which places a high value on tolerance, Kathoeys are widely accepted throughout Southeast Asia, much more than in Western cultures. They are also very common in every day lives here, and can be seen working in shops, restaurants, beauty salons and many other main stream jobs. A lot of Kathoeys work in the entertainment industry putting on Cabaret shows, so we were very excited about the opportunity to see one.
Unfortunately as we were leaving our hotel we were stuck in a major torrential downpour! The streets surrounding our hotel were flooded! We set out barefoot through the flooded streets trying to convince a taxi to drive us across town to the show. Not a single taxi driver agreed.

Once we realized we wouldn’t be attending the show, we decided to embrace the rain:

We bought some drinks and went for a foot massage while we waited for the rain to stop:

We then decided we would go see a different kind of show that night.
A few months ago while Mads and I were chatting about our trip on Skype she told me that when we were in Bangkok she really wanted to go see a Thai Ping Pong Show. I’m not really a big fan of watching sports, especially table tennis, but I reluctantly obliged. I figured if it was a traditional Thai show then I should be experiencing it. Shortly before I left Toronto, during my going-away lunch at my office the topic of my trip was brought up. My boss had been to Thailand before and I wanted his advice on things to do and tourist attractions. I innocently asked him about going to a Ping Pong show while in Bangkok, and his face froze. He carefully asked me whether or not I was referring to “Table Tennis” or a “Thai Ping Pong Show”. When my response was “um…. is there a difference…?” he was put into the very awkward situation of explaining to me (and the entire lunch table) that yes in fact there was a big difference.
A Thai Ping Pong show is an adult entertainment show where women use their pelvic muscles to do a number of interesting things with a variety of objects, including ping pong balls. They will shoot the ping pong balls into the air, shoot darts at balloons, open bottles, and even blow out candles. The shows take place in strip clubs and are very popular in Thailand. After learning about the real meaning of a ping pong show I was shocked. Most of my Contiki tour group went to see them 9 weeks ago when our trip started, but I decided not to attend. Mads and I decided that since we were in Bangkok we wanted to experience everything it had to offer, even the less appealing experiences.
The only problem was that we were two girls traveling alone, and we didn’t think that going to a ping pong show alone would be safe. So we decided we’d make friends with other travelers and go together as a group. We didn’t have to look for very long before we met our new friend Matt (aka. The Hulk). He was a 6 foot 3, extremely muscular man from Canada who was in Bangkok for a few days. He was super nice, and we decided he would be the perfect bodyguard for our ping pong experience. As a side note: he refused to put a shirt on all night, and as we walked through the streets people kept stopping him, calling him “The Hulk” and asking for his photo.

The Ping Pong Show was a very interesting experience. We somehow ended up in the front row, next to a very drunk Irish guy. The show lasted about 45 minutes, while girls would come out, one by one, and perform their trick. After each act the Irish guy would bow down and yell out things like “will you marry me!”, “that was amazing!”, “you are a God!”, “there’s no way the next girl can top what she just did!! No Way!!”, then he would turn to Mads and ask her if she had those talents. He was thoroughly entertaining.
It was really sad to watch the girls. When you looked at their faces you could see how miserable they looked,. You could tell they only worked there because they had no other options, and they are paid so little for their work. They also undergo a lot of injuries from the different objects used in the show. I am happy that I saw the show and am now aware of one more traditional Thai experience, but this is definitely not a show I would see again.
It was a very interesting night, one that we will not be forgetting anytime soon.

Bangkok, Thailand: Temples and The Golden Buddha

On July 23rd we set out to see the Golden Buddha. We had really wanted to see it the previous day, but since we had a few issues with our tuk tuk driver we didn’t have time.
We decided to get into a taxi and go directly there instead of attempting to find it ourselves. We asked the driver to take us to the “Golden Buddha”, and I pointed to where it was on the map. His English wasn’t too good, but since he reacted with secure understanding we trusted that we would be taken to the “Golden Buddha”. We were actually taken to the “Golden Mountain”, but of course we didn’t figure this out until after we paid him and he drove away. We really do not have any luck with these taxi and tuk tuk drivers!
We decided to climb up the “Golden Mountain” to see the Wat Saket temple at the top. The Golden Mountain (also known as Phu Khao Thong) is an artificial hill built on the Wat Saket grounds which houses a Buddhist temple on top.

The walk up the mountain was very enjoyable as the path is surrounded by a lot of beautiful greenery and plants.

Once we got to the top we looked around the temple:

There are 8 Buddha positions, one for each day of the week (Wednesday has two, one for day and one for night). If you want to make a donation to a temple then you always donate to the Buddha that corresponds to the day of the week that you were born on. In the below photo you can see each Buddha pose, and the days go from left to right: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Morning, Wednesday Night, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. (I mentioned this in a previous blog post probably about 6 or 7 weeks ago).

We had a great view of the city from the top:

After visiting the mountain we really wanted to see the Golden Buddha, and finally were able to get a tuk tuk that actually brought us there!
The Golden Buddha is a Buddha statue made entirely from pure gold. It has a height of 15 feet 9 inches, and is 12 feet 5 inches in diameter and it weights approximately 5 tons. It is the world’s largest solid gold statue and is over 700 years old.
The Golden Buddha was originally covered in plaster so it would not be discovered by Thailand’s enemies. It was moved to Bangkok about 200 years ago, and it’s true composition was completely forgotten. In 1955 there was construction on the building where the statue was being housed and the it was to be moved to a new building. During the move the Buddha statue was dropped to the ground, and was then completely covered with mud and water when a huge storm flooded the city later that day. With the mud and rain, the plaster began to crack, revealing that the Buddha statue was in fact made of pure gold. It has been cherished as a sacred object ever since.
The Golden Buddha is housed in the large temple shown below, on the top floor:

From there we wanted to walk around the area, but got a little disoriented. A security guard from a store hopped outside to help us with our map and suggested a few temples to visit. He then arranged a tuk tuk to take us to the temples and wait for us while we visited them. This all sounded a bit too familiar from our previous day’s adventures. For some reason we decided to take the deal (about $1.5 CAN for transportation to a few temples).
Our first stop was the small temple of Wat Chamongkhon. It was very pretty and had a lot of greenery around the temple.

After visiting this temple we started getting a bit suspicious with our tuk tuk driver when our next stop was a jewellery shop. We told him we were not interested in buying jewellery and didn’t want to stop but he insisted that he needed to fill up his gas tank. He said we could look around in the shop while he did it. It all sounded too familiar…. We said we would wait on the benches outside the shop while he went to get gas. He said no, and insisted that we needed to go inside for 10 minutes and then he would take us to our next destination. We finally unhappily obliged, but knew that he must be getting something out of it.
When we got back into the tuk tuk he told us that our next destination would be our last stop and if we wanted him to take us back to our hotel we would have to pay an extra $7 CAN (on top of the $1.5 CAN we were already going to pay him for taking us around to the temples). We argued that this was not part of the deal and without much arguing he smiled and agreed he would return us to our hotel. We weren’t too confident with the arrangement.
Our next stop was the Wat Benchamabophit, also known as the marble temple. It is one of the largest and most beautiful temples in Bangkok. It was built in 1899 and is made from Italian marble. The temple has been submitted to UNESCO for consideration as a possible future World Heritage Site. The grounds are very large and beautiful.

When we came out of the temple our tuk tuk driver was gone! He had waited for us outside every location but this time he was no where to be found! Luckily we hadn’t paid him anything, so we had gotten all our transportation so far for free, but we still felt ripped off! We were far from the center of town and very far from our hotel!
Some locals saw us and told us our driver left, and they filled us in on the common practices of local tuk tuk drivers. Tuk tuk drivers will offer to take tourists around to all the sites for a cheap price, but in addition to the sites they will stop at extra stores and tourist offices along the way. If the driver can convince their passengers to spend 10 minutes inside the store then the driver will receive 5 liters of free gas from each establishment. Even though we didn’t pay our driver, he received free gas from our visit to the jewellery store, so he didn’t actually need our money and that’s why he took off and left us stranded. He left us to go looking for another set of innocent tourists to scam. We finally understood what happened to us the previous day with our tuk tuk driver. We couldn’t believe how devious these Thai people can be! They all look so nice and helpful, with big smiles on their faces, but really they were lying to us and using us for free gas!
At that moment we decided to make a rule to never use another tuk tuk again! The good thing was that we didn’t actually lose any money since we hadn’t paid him, so we hopped in a real taxi and went back to our hotel.
We have been enjoying our time in Bangkok thoroughly! It’s a great city with so many things to offer!

Bangkok, Thailand: Fish Spa and Reclining Buddha

On July 21st we flew from Koh Samui to Bangkok. We hadn’t booked any accommodation, but since we had both already been to Bangkok we weren’t too worried about finding a place. The first guesthouse we walked into had rooms available for $12 (CAN) per person with a king sized bed and private bathroom right next to Khao San Road (the backpacker area of the city with lots of shops and restaurants). We booked the room immediately!
We then decided to check out a Fish Spa. The Fish Spa is a spa where you put your feet into a fish tank full of garra rufa and cyprinion macrostomus fish - otherwise known as Doctor Fish. These fish feed on dead skin, and they will nibble away at all the dead skin on your feet leaving the healthy skin to grow. I had seen these spas when I was in Bangkok 8 weeks ago, but I had a bad cut on my feet at the time, so I couldn’t try it. Now that my feet were healthy I was ready to try this unique spa experience! (They are banned in most areas of Canada and the United States).
It was a very interesting experience! When we put out feet into the water all the fish swarmed us and started nibbling! We screamed in shock and kicked our feet out of the water! We eventually got used to the sensation and we allowed them to eat away our dead skin as we tried to hold back giggles (we are both ticklish).

After the treatment our feet felt amazing! They were so soft! I guess these Doctor Fish worked pretty well!
The following day (July 22nd) we decided we would spend the day seeing a few temples. We thought we would walk from temple to temple, but quickly got disoriented on the confusing Bangkok streets. A Thai man stopped to help us out with directions and recommended a few temples for us to visit. He then arranged for a tuk tuk to drive us around to each temple, wait for us to visit them, and then bring us to the next spot, all for only $1 (CAN). We thought it sounded like an amazing deal! Anytime we’ve tried to get a tuk tuk to bring us anywhere we had been paying at least $3 just for one way. We didn’t think much of it, and started on our journey to see the temples.

Our first stop was the Wat Inthara Wihan: the home of the 32 meter high, 10 meter wide standing Buddha called Luang Pho To or Phrasiariyametri. The Buddha was enormous, very impressive and beautiful as it is decorated in glass mosaics and gold. It took over 60 years to complete. The complex consisted of the Buddha, a temple and a courtyard. Since there was a festival going on, the temple courtyard was decorated with lanterns. The festival was to celebrate the changing of the dress on the Buddha for rainy season.

Our next stop was the Wat Thewarat Kunchon. This was a small but pretty temple and our Thai friend told us it was one of the oldest temples in Bangkok.

After that temple things got a bit strange with our tuk tuk driver. He took us to a tailor shop so we could have custom clothing made. We both weren’t interested as we had already made clothing in Vietnam. We were then dropped off at a tourist office and he told us to go inside and look around while he filled up his gas tank. We obliged but we really just wanted him to take us to our next stop!
We decided we didn’t want his services anymore and asked if he could drop us off right along the river, close to the Grand Palace, so we could walk along the river and find somewhere to eat. He brought us down to the river, and pointed over to the water and said that this is where we asked for. We assumed he was right, so we paid him and hopped out. He quickly took off before we realized that we were actually in the middle of Bangkok, miles from anything touristy, but still along the river.
We were surrounded by locals, none of whom spoke English. We asked them to point to where we were on our map so we could figure out how to get back. It turned out we were very very far from where we wanted to be. I guess a $1 tuk tuk chauffeur was too good to be true! After waking aimlessly for about 10 minutes we finally found a taxi (a real taxi, with real doors and a meter) to take us to where we actually wanted to go. We paid almost the same amount for our 20 minute taxi ride back than we did for our tuk tuk driver’s few hours of work!
We were a bit discouraged after our abandonment of our tuk tuk driver, and laughed at how lucky we thought we were with how cheap his services were. Oh well, I guess you win some and you lose some. At least we were safe and made it back to civilization in one piece!
Once we were back in the tourist area, we walked to the Wat Pho, otherwise known as The Temple of the Reclining Buddha. This temple was built on the site that was the center of traditional Thai medicine, and thus the temple is known as the birthplace of the traditional Thai massage. There is a massage center and massage school on the temple grounds, and tourists can experience traditional Thai massages there.
The Reclining Buddha is one of the largest Buddha statues in existence and is housed inside the temple. The gold plated Buddha is 46 meters long and 15 meters high.

 

Outside the temple housing the Reclining Buddha is a small garden centered around a bodhi tree, which is said to be grown from a cutting of the original tree where Buddha sat while awaiting enlightenment in India.

The temple grounds were very beautiful and we spent some time walking around them. They reminded me of visiting the Grand Palace (here in Bangkok) 8 weeks ago.

After all this touring we were exhausted! We spent the remainder of the day shopping for souvenirs for our family and friends and resting up for the following day of touring in Bangkok!