Rama IX – Jconcetta's Journeys

In 2009 I traveled to China with a company called China Spree, a small outfit formed by Chinese folks who had settled in Seattle and still had contacts in China. I’d heard good things about them from a friend and the price was right. It was a marvelous trip and I have devoted a post and related pages to it elsewhere. Fast forward seven years and China Spree has grown into World Spree, now offering trips to several countries in southeast Asia, starting with Vietnam, as well as China.

I was not particularly interested in traveling to Vietnam. It seemed like a too long, expensive plane ride and the aftermath of the war had no special attraction for me. But when World Spree announced a new tour in 2016, at introductory prices, to Thailand I took notice. The clincher was three days at the end of the Thailand trip for Angkor Province in Cambodia. I have been fascinated with Angkor for a long time; it was one of my must see places in the world. Find out more about Angkor in the forthcoming pages and posts about Cambodia.

Bangkok

Traveling to Bangkok via Beijing was indeed a grueling plane journey replete with lost luggage, missed tour guides and initial disorientation, but rest, good food and good company restored our spirit of adventure. Several days exploring this humming capital city were followed by a short plane ride to the northern city of Chiang Mai, then a bus journey to Chiang Rai and down the spine of Thailand to Sukhothai and Ayutthaya, the Thai analogs to Cambodia’s Khmer ruins.

Map of Thailand

Bangkok, whose given name means City of Angels, became the fourth capital city of Thailand at the beginning of the Chakri Dynasty in the 18th century. About 12% of the country’s nearly 70 million people lives there.

One could not help but notice ubiquitous images of the late king, Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX), who had died in Oct. 2016, the month before we arrived, and was officially mourned for a year. His images were everywhere in the city but also in the countryside. He had reigned as king for 70 years, the world’s longest reigning monarch when he died. This monarch was respected, revered even, by many Thais. Criticism of the royal family, however, is against the lese-majeste laws in Thailand and critics may be (and have been) jailed for 3-15 years.

We were treated to an in depth history of the Chakri Dynasty (Rama I through IX) on the lengthy bus ride from Chiang Rai to Sukhothai. Afterward I asked our guide if she could give us more information about the ordinary people of Thailand. She seemed puzzled by the request and never did.

Bangkok is also called “the Venice of the East;” its once extensive network of canals, known as khlongs, reminding European visitors of the Italian city. Historically canals crisscrossed the city. Life revolved around these canals: goods moved along them, neighborhoods lined each side and they were the primary means of getting around. Today the relatively minor network of canals are no longer critical to the city’s trading activities. Like Venice, tourism is now the primary business activity along the canals.