Memulai hari dengan sarapan well, brunch tepatnya karena jarum jam sudah di angka 10 saat kami selesai makan.  Penerbangan Jakarta - Bangkok kemaren cukup menguras energi.  Belum lagi perjalanan menembus kemacetan senja Kota Bangkok dari Don Mueang ke Sukhumvit yang teryata jauh juga cuy!  Alhasil untuk mendapatkan kembali tenaga, kami tebus dengan tidur nyenyak yang bablas kesiangan hehe.

Back to today's itinerary.

Itinerary yang dirancang pada hari pertama liburan di Thailand ini ada 3 spot yang hendak dikunjungi Sesuai tema, semuanya bersinggungan dengan peninggalan sejarah, yaitu:

Ketiganya terletak berdekatan, di sekitaran sungai besar yang membelah Bangkok yaitu Sungai Chao Praya.  

Untuk lebih meyakinkan rute yang akan dituju, kami ngga semata mengandalkan info Google Maps. Perlu ditambah dengan sistem GPS alias Gedor Penduduk Sekitar hihihi.  Maksudnya, nanya-nanya sama penduduk setempat dalam hal ini kami tanya information desk hotel. 

Dari hasil obrolan dengan petugas hotel ternyata rute Sukhumvit ke Garden Palace lebih ekonomis dengan menggunakan taksi dikarenakan tidak ada stasiun BTS (Sky Train) di sekitaran lokasi yang dituju.  Kalau toh bersikeras menggunakan BTS, harus berganti moda transportasi.  Setelah BTS, nyambung lagi pakai taksi terakhir bis.




Selain biaya, waktu juga bisa lebih dihemat mengingat hari relatif masih pagi.  Dan saya masih ingat pengalaman semalam naik bis dari Bandara Don Mueang ke hotel.  Keterangan akan informasi halte tidak sejelas dibandingkan naik BTS.  Duh, bukannya ngga mungkin kesasar nih.

Ditambah lagi, makin siang pengunjung Garden Palace makin ramai loo.  Demikian petugas hotel ramah menjelaskan.  Ok, point taken.

Kesimpulannya kami akan memakai taksi.

Berkendara roda empat dari hotel hingga ke Garden Palace kami tempuh sekitar 60 menit dengan kondisi jalan bukan di rush hour alias jam macet.  Jadi memang lumayan jauh.  Setelah diperhatikan, memang betul keterangan crew hotel, Garden Palace tidak dilewati jalur BTS.  Itulah hikmahnya batal menginap di area Chao Phraya.  Kenapa?  Nanti dijelaskan di postingan yang lain yah! :)

Yang sempet bikin kaget, mendekati tempat tujuan tetiba taksi yang kami tumpangi diberhentikan oleh petugas Polisi setempat.  Waduh!  

Rasa-rasanya, pak supir si pengendara taksi was normal for the the whole time; not exceed the speed pun tak ugal-ugalan.  In fact, he considerably nice and friendly to us.

Sang supir taksi pun terlibat pembicaraan serius dengan pak petugas.  Tak lama, pak supir pun keluar dari mobil.  Wah, beneran serius nih, batin kami.  Lalu masuk lagi dan melanjutkan perjalanan. Didorong rasa kepo, kami pun kepo-in pak supir.  Rupanya pak petugas menghentikan taksi yang kami tumpangi tanpa alasan yang jelas dan ujung-ujungnya minta 'jatah'.  Hihihi, ada aja ya yang seperti ini.

Garden Palace

First time I visited this place was in 2016.  It's been six years ago and the place is exactly as I remembered.  Nothing has changed.  Evidence that they really preserve everything in place except for the visitor.  It was also a lot of people but I think this time is a lot more.  

The place was packed of people.  From the language hearing in the air, they are most likely from everywhere.  You could hear people talking in Chinese, Korean, French.  Even language that is barely heard before.  Proven that this place was one of the most tourist attraction. 





The palace was crowded either by big group of travelers or individuals like ours.  Dengan membayar THB (Thai Baht, 1 THB = ~ 390 IDR)  250 per person, kita dapat berkeliling komplek kerajaan.  Melihat barang-barang koleksi kerajaan, mulai dari mata uang, replika pakaian beserta peralatan anggota kerajaan seperti perangkat makan, mainan yang digunakan keluarga kerajaan semasa mereka kecil.  





Tata letak Garden Palace ini somehow mengingatkan saya akan Kesultanan Ngayogyakarta.  Masuk dalam komplek kerajaan kita dikepung oleh berbagai bangunan dengan bentuk dan peruntukan yang berbeda.  Walau kita ngga akan ingat nama dan fungsinya, jangan khawatir karena disediakan denah oleh pihak pengelola.  

Baca juga Sudut Unik Garden Palace

Selain ada maket replika mini Angkor What, ada banyak bangunan yang berfungsi sebagai tempat beribadah.  But the biggest one is Temple of The Emerald Budha.  Unlike the name, patung Budha dengan posisi duduk di atas bunga Lotus setinggi hampir 0.5m ini terbuat dari batu giok.  Kain yang disampirkan menutupi tubuh Budha diganti 3 kali dalam setahun.  Yaitu pada saat musim penghujan, musim panas dan musim dingin.  Uniknya, pergantian kain jubah tersebut harus dilakukan oleh Raja Thailand.  Bukan oleh pemuka agama setempat.





Selain keunikan bentuk bangunan yang gambar-gambarnya bisa dilihat sebagian di sini, kita akan melihat lukisan dinding memenuhi bagian dalam tembok yang mengelilingi Garden Palace.  Mulai dari sejarah berdirinya kerajaan Thailand hingga hikayat Rama dan Shinta.  Saya tahu itu hasil curi dengar dari penuturan seorang tourist guide pada sepasang wisman dalama bahasa Inggris.  I guess, both Indonesian and Thailand are sharing the same folklore.

Temple of Reclining Budha, Wat Pho

The place is just a walking distance from Royal Garden Palace.  But because of the heat, around 10 minutes walk could feel like hours!  So, better bring your hat or umbrella along with you.  A mineral water could help as well.  





My 9-yo son was complaining the whole time due the heat.  When we arrived in Bangkok last March, temperature was already about 30's something Celcius.  It could have been even more during summer.  Eww!

Kinda surprise when found out that we have to pay THB 100/pax for entrance.  Even hough they provide a bottle mineral water for free.  Because based on my earlier googling during making itinerary, it says it was free to visit the place.  Well, that's fact we can not always rely on everything read on internet, can we?





Since we already got there, no point for turned back.  Paid the tickets for 4 then we hit it.  No discount for my son since discount is charged based on toddler's height, not based on aged.  Interesting!

My curiosity paid as last time I didn't manage coming to this temple.  Finally I could see the epic 46m length, 15m height reclining Budha.  And it was very challenging to take a photograph with such dimension.





Likely in Garden Palace, inner part wall of the temple also full traditional mural pictures.  It is more to the story of Budha and his wisdom.

It worth taking to take a look around the temple which also known for its traditional massage. Most likely it is due to inheritance as being the 1st uni in Thailand for science, medicine and literature. What I also found interesting about this temple is numerous Budha image in different position.  After amused myself taking photos, we left Wat Pho.  It passed 1 o'clock.  Time for us looking for something for our rumbling stomach.





Just across the temple, there are stores for souvenirs and cafe's.  Perfect!  After look around we  to sit our tired feet at one of restaurant.  We chose it based on quick decisions; it is open concept restaurant while others was not.  The visitors mostly foreigners means the taste and the variant is already according to global's taste.  Last thing was they played Bob Marley's!





What Bob Marley's has to do with that?  Nothing.  But Hubby and I thought it was an interesting.  Luckily the choice was correct.  Not only the food was accepted by the kids, that the most important thing.  But the owner also very friendly.  Seeing the way I dress wearing hijab, the owner nicely asked where we come from.  When we said we're from Indonesia, he happily said that he is going to Bali sometimes in April.  

We welcome and wish him a pleasant hospitality for his planning.  Same wished from him for our staying.  Wishing each other somehow create a warm and friendly atmosphere.  We chit-chat for a while, exchanging information.  That one of the beauty of travelling, meeting new people from different part of the globe.  While saying good-bye, he also hope that we could visit his resto again on our future visit.  Nice to meet you, Dude!

Since the place also worshiping Budha, all visitor must dress properly.  Otherwise we could rent a cover near the entrance.  Unfortunately the temple was under construction during our visit.  As the kids said it is enough for another temple so we just walked around the yard of the temple.  Well at least save THB 5/person for ticket ^_^.

After a while, we decided to go back to the other part of river, still using the ferry.  We did not wait until dawn because it would be too long, a couple hours to go.  It is possible using taxi from Thonburi where Wat Arun located to our place but it is too far.  It should be drive around the river for cross the bridge that connect east and west part of the city.  It surely cost us a lot.

We then headed back to harbor where the ferry is awaiting for passengers.  Mostly seen tourists but we could also see local using same transportation.

It was around 4 o'clock when we held taxi to drive us back to hotel in Sukhumvit.  Most of them refused to use meter.   There is no other choice than bargaining.  Different driver offering different numbers. Starting from THB 500 until down to THB 150 which we accepted.  The most argument we heard was because of traffic jump since it was time where people also headed home from offices.

Well, it's true that the traffic was packed but since we used to with Jakarta's traffic, my husband and I both agreed it was still OK than Jakarta.

Our taxi passed MBK the shopping centre where we spontaneously asked the driver to stop.  It still afternoon and too early if we just straight to hotel.  Since Sukhumvit is in one line, we will take BTS on our way back.

Turned out the way back to hotel by BTS was not simple as we thought.  We got lost!  Instead of expected 15 minutes, we finally reached hotel after almost 1 hour later.  And that's because we ignore the sign.  And this ignorance somehow urged me to write another post about tips on how using public transportation in Bangkok.

Stay tuned!