Bashing Bangkok began as soon as our tour van crossed the Don Muang Airport in the opposite direction. Putting two and two together, yes. You are right. Bangkok and Pattaya are 180 degrees apart to each other from the point of view of the airport. Bangkok was more like the Parrys in Chennai with modern buildings with the only exception that they didn't speak Tamil. Before checking into our hotel, The Buddha's temple was where the van stopped to get a Darshan of the great Lord himself. It was really a tragic irony to see a massive reclining statue of the Buddha when he authoritatively emphasized that he was against Idol worship in any form, pun intended. Yet, the huge idol was extremely similar to Lord Padmanabhaswamy @ Thiruvananthapuram and Lord Ranganathar @ Srirangam. I am not saying that they had copied it. But, still saying.
Anyway, the temple was a lovely place of deep calmness. You could actually feel the peacefulness pervading throughout your body like ink spreading in water. So, when it was time to depart, I had to do it with a heavy heart as the whole temple was an atmosphere of pure tranquility in the midst of thundering madness outside its gates. Heading straight to the hotel without any further halts, instructions were clearly given to be ready very early in the morning to visit the zoo. There was no second thoughts. Having had my dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant, of course Veg, with directions given by the polite and courteous receptionist, it was easy to locate, dine in and come back to the hotel to switch off the lights for the day.
Getting ready and the van was sharp on time to wade through the traffic to the zoo. All the animals were free to roam within their enclosures and the jeep was slowly cutting across them to take snaps of the magnificent beasts especially the Tiger. The entrance to the incredible feral being was akin to the doorway shown in The Jurassic Park 1 with giant doors slowly ajar to the incoming visitors to give a sense of awe and wonder. But, the highlight of the zoo was the various shows and activities like the Orangutan Boxing Fight, Tiger-Feeding, Dolphin Show, Sea Lion Show, Stunt Show etc.
Yes. You read that right. It was actually a real live cutey tiger in my hands and it drank milk from the bottle. No no no. You shouldn't ask me about the price to do it. It was worth every rupee, okay Thai Bhat. However, I had heard about the atrocities that happens to these fearsome and ferocious animals in a place called Tiger Temple in Thailand. I didn't have time to go there but such an act did not happen to the pretty and adorbs tigers in the zoo. At least, not in my presence.
So, once when the zoo was done and dusted, we were free to explore the lovely place for the remainder of the day. As The Batman Vs Superman movie was also being released, I asked the guides for their guidance to the nearest best theater to catch up with the movie. SIAM Mall was the closest and Krungsri IMAX was my choice of viewing without knowing that the film would be so horrible and I was mentally lamenting & cursing that the IMAX ticket was not worth the hype for the film.
With nothing else to do in the mall and being dead tired after the tiresome walks @ the zoo, I dispersed to my hotel by the train with the name of the stop and everything explained by the guide initially itself when I asked them the cheapest mode of transportation to commute from the mall to the location of my hotel.
Sleeping like a log after returning to the hotel, I woke up to the blaring alarm in the morning. As the itinerary was completely unoccupied and with every inch of my body screaming in pain, I decided to sleep through the morning instead of visiting other Buddhist temples in the vicinity. I couldn't even stand up to use the rest room. That was the situation I was in after the tedious and laborious walks for the agenda that we had in the previous day.
Maybe next time in the distant future if at all I visit the beautiful Bangkok with family that I would have the privilege to see the splendors of Buddha's teachings. Oh yes. There are so many places like the Tiger Temple, Floating Market etc. that was not included in my schedule. But, one thing was sure. As I was boarding the flight from Bangkok airport to Chennai, I felt an over enveloping sense of relaxation and chillness for which I started to travel in the first place.
As they say, Destiny always has a trick up its sleeve.
X--Concluded--X
PS 1:
I missed out the Skydiving @ Pattaya. Kindly don't ever crib after coming to Bangkok as you don't have any in the capital and the nearest is Pattaya. It's the cheapest and best skydiving near India.
PS 2:
It's always fun to learn new things when you hear other people talking about their travel experiences or, for the fact, any experience in general. No, I am not talking about eavesdropping. That's outright wrong. In my case, there were other tourists who were talking about Leh-Ladakh being the Land of Monasteries and an absolutely chill out place for solitude and self-reflection. As far as I knew until then, Leh-Ladakh became famous because of Dil Se or Uyire in Tamil and 3 Idiots movies.
PS 3:
I did forget the name of the Mall where I saw the dismal Batman Vs Superman. Google came to the rescue as I remembered the IMAX screen name. How could you forget this vital piece of information when your all-day-sweat-out money goes down the drain?
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