Reclining Buddha, Wat Pho, Bangkok
This, not that, is what we were looking for in Bangkok
We settled in for a week at the Feung Nakorn Balcony Rooms, the only hotel in a quiet section of Bangkok’s old quarter. The largely residential neighborhood is within walking distance of some of Bangkok’s popular sites, including the GrandPalace. But the sightseeing began just steps from the hotel. Across the street was a lovely temple we had almost all to ourselves.
The Thai royals’ former residence is a splendid, sprawling complex of buildings, halls, pavilions, gardens, and courtyards. Built in 1782 and today used mostly for ceremonial purposes, the Grand Palace glitters with ornate detailing, bold colors, and gleaming spires, all competing for the eye. Bronze lions, gilded mythological creatures, and giant, three-headed guard statues are on display here. So is the world’s longest wall painting.
Grand Palace mural
But the main attraction is a mere 26 inches tall and tucked away inside a darkly lit temple. Spot the tourists acting like paparazzi, and you know you’ve found the right place. On a veranda at Wat Phra Kaew, cameras are pointed through a small open window, zoom lenses trained on a specific object. People jockey for space to capture its image since photos aren’t allowed in the temple.
What is all the fuss about?
1$ Tapas night at Ivy Guesthouse is hard to beat
Siem Reap gets no respect. It’s true, it’s a western enclave. There isn’t much to see in town, and it exists mostly as a basecamp for Angkor Wat. And if you’re looking for immersion in Cambodian culture, this isn’t where you want to be. But having said all of that, it’s wrong to conclude, as so many people do, that Siem Reap isn’t “real” or is somehow inauthentic. Siem Reap is very much a real city, albeit a heavily westernized one. I say that because there are plenty of places in the world where people live and work that are very much like Siem Reap. We know, because we used to live in, and still love, one such place.
To us Siem Reap felt like the Hoboken of South East Asia. Now that probably doesn’t mean anything to anyone who hasn’t lived in our former city, but suffice it to say, Siem Reap felt a bit like home to us.
We spent seven days in Siem Reap, Cambodia, and three days exploring the temples of Angkor Wat. Here are some of the things we wish we knew before arriving at the largest religious monument in the world.
Iguazu Falls courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons
Now that we have our 2015 plans buttoned down, we’re starting to think about winter 2016. We have only the vaguest idea of what we want to do at the moment so we figured we’d ask our readers to help us fill in the blanks. Here’s what we know:
We’ll ring out 2015 in Key West, Florida. From there we’d like to go somewhere geographically nearby. We’re not interested in enduring more 20 hour flights just yet so that rules out Asia, Africa, Oceania and the like–for this winter, anyway. Cold weather and visa issues rule out most of Europe. Sunny South America, Central America and the Caribbean, meanwhile, are all on our radar.
We’re going to try to limit our time spent in transit, which means we’re not likely to plan a multi-country tour of South America with loads of overnight bus rides and internal flights. Our preference is to pick one or two countries where we’ll have plenty to do while we travel slowly and mostly overland for a couple of months.
So with all that in mind, tell us where to go this winter. What’s your ideal itinerary?
Everywhere Once 