Totally Thai

THE RECLINING Buddha. The Royal Palace. The floating market.
Those were the top three in my must-see spots the first time I got to Bangkok two years ago. Alas, I did not see any of them. Our tour guide named Otto herding our company of Mayor Boking Morales and his beloved Nina, Mabalacat councilors and their better halves, and five other mediamen to malls, night markets, a jewelry workshop and store, and more malls in the four days we stayed.
To my requests of but a reverential bow before the reclining Buddha, Otto’s reply was always: “No time for that, we go shopping.”
Truth be told, there was more to that trip than Otto’s preferred itinerary.
So I got to see Pattaya and one nearby island – the profusion of Indians bathing in their saris evoked images of the Ganges rather than the sea.
So I got to see an elephant show – the pachyderms playing football and basketball, painting and socializing with tourists.
So I got to savor tom yum goong – simply divine! And street food too!
So I got a panoramic view of Bangkok from the 360-degree revolving roof deck viewing deck on the 84th floor of Baiyoke Sky Hotel, Thailand’s tallest building – the splendour of the city by night, its immensity by day.
Still, I did not get to feel the soul of the place, which, to me, makes the defining essence of travel. I left Bangkok trying to assuage the feeling of emptiness in my heart with five images of the Buddha I bought in a store, two in the reclining position.
The second time I hit Thailand was last year via a day-tour of Phuket, a stop in the three-port-call cruise of Star Virgo, embarking in Singapore.
More than the Thai soul, it was the souls of those who perished in the 2004 tsunami there that impacted my consciousness, warnings all over the place. The heavy rains made that stop all the more dreary. A standing Buddha in resin and two smaller sand-cast images buoyed up my spirits back at the ship.
The past weekend and through Monday and Tuesday (June 18-21), I was back in Bangkok on a “fam” tour with the Alliance of Travel and Tour Agencies of Pampanga.
The itinerary did not look anything of promise, where immersion in local culture is concerned. It was thoroughly hotel hopping – check-in, inspection, overnight, check-out of Siam City Hotel, Amari Watergate, and Centara Grand; lunch, inspection of Sofitel Centara; inspection, dinner at Renaissance. And a lot of “free time for shopping” with a visit to Madame Tussauds at Siam Discovery Mall and dinner show at Siam Niramit serving as breaks.
The hotels are truly impressive – from comfy rooms to excellent facilities as pools, gyms and spas, to food, glorious food! Magnificent even, to guys whose closest brush with hotel luxury is with the Sogo chain.
A short stop at a temple with Bangkok’s tallest standing Buddha did compensate, in a way, for the failure anew to see the reclining Gautama.
Call it serendipity. I got to kiss Britney Spears and flirted with Madonna, interviewed by Oprah, exchanged quotes with Mao, walked with Gandhi, find relativity with Einstein, played with Beethoven and found Picasso with his brushes. This and more, I did all, at Madame Tussauds. Pretty awesome, no?
Still, there was the pining for the Thai soul. And I could not have found it anywhere better than in Siam Niramit, which lived up to its billing as “Journey to the Enchanted Kingdom of Siam.”
With spectacular sets, including rainstorms and a running brook on stage hailed by the Guinness World Record as the highest in the world, magnificent costumes and amazing special effects, Siam Niramit in three acts takes the audience through Thai history, spirituality, and festivities. Yes, that which makes a nation’s soul.
As much a feast for the senses as a food for the soul is the Siam Niramit experience. If only for this, my Bangkok trip this time was all worth it. But then, our travel coordinator, Kosol Boonma, managing director of KBS Travel and Intertrade Co., had still some surprise in store exclusively for us mediamen – Peter Alagos of Businessweek, Noel Tulabut of Sunstar, Ashley Manabat of Observer and three other weeklies, and Joey Pavia of Punto who made his hilarious onstage debut at Siam Nirmait as a bamboo musical player during the intermission.
An hour and a half by van from Bangkok is the one place I have long dreamed of finding – the Damnern Saduak Floating Market. The colors and scents, the food and goods, the rush of people of all races, the boats gliding through the narrow canals bumping one another, the cacophony, nay, the symphony of languages with the singsong Thai a-crescendo enlivening the spirit…
And to soar, some miles later at the Nakon Phatom Chedi, the biggest pagoda in all of Thailand where a relic of the Buddha is known to have been entombed.
The spirit sated, the body takes full nourishment at the Rose Garden Riverside, a 70-acre property along the Ta-Chine River comprising a 4-star hotel with 160 rooms, six antique Thai houses, a spa, restaurants, a botanical garden, a farmers’ weekend market and an 18-hole championship golf course.
Rose Garden’s Thai Village is the venue of the nation’s longest running cultural show – for all of over 40 years.
Here is where sustainable development is put to actual practice.
Arrut Navaraj, managing director says: “Going organic is the only way forward.”
Rose Garden makes its own organic composts and fertilizers used in its gardens and organic farms. The produce, fruits, vegetables and herbs are used in its kitchens, spa and the herbal products it also markets.
The commercial and the cultural, the spiritual and the ecological, my Thai experience this time is total.
Sawasdee.