Bangkok - What ever day

 I have been in Bangkok attending the ICET conference where we partnered with ICET to produce some EDtalks videos of international education research, and I also had the opportunity to present my Masters research paper. The conference was held at Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University and we asked if they had a space we could use to film the EDtalks. Well they gave us a huge studio complete with a studio crew! Once they set up the lights for us, they realised we were fine to keep working on our own for the rest of the time.

Our "small" studio

I was staying outside of Bangkok at the Novotel Hotel in the Impact arena complex at Muang Thong Thani which was about a 45 minute cab ride into the city of Bangkok (which only cost about $20). It was a very strange place. There was a car show on and young girls dressed up like manga cartoon characters draping themselves over the cars. On another day there was a dog show on and all of these dogs were running around dressed up in much the same costumes as the manga cartoon girls. On the day I left there was a racing car show, soccer game, and Bosch tool convention starting, so the range of people and sights were astounding.

All around the complex there were high rise apartment buildings which were numbered. The area we were in wasn't heavily populated so I wondered where all the people were who were in these apartments.

There is a real mix between the high tech and traditional.

On the last day I went into Bangkok to Pratunam market. The market is across the road from some huge high end shopping malls which are at the intersection of what seems like three levels of major roads, the skytrain and pedestrian crossings. It is chaos. On the very corner is a busy place of worship where people were lighting incense, chanting, praying, laying flowers. It was hot, steamy, noisy, smokey ... I stood there in wonder of it all.

Day 1 - Bangkok

Today we had a day of sight seeing in Bangkok before the week of work at the conference starts. It was a rather mixed bag of the day. To start with we went to see the number 1 item suggested in the guide book - The Grand Palace. It seemed like all the other tourists were working from the same book. It was quite grand and palatial. The colours were amazing, jewelled buildings, golden statues and animal gods and gold leafed wall murals. The most precious part of the monastery is the Emerald Buddha which sits proudly at the top of an alter in a prayer room where pilgrims were taking the time to spend a moment in contemplation.

One of the more sedate buildings in the grand palace compound

A small element from one of the massive wall murals that lined the building walls

An unusual statue that stood out because of its lack of adornment

Gold leafed idols

The next phase in our day was to go to the MBK which is a large shopping centre. It was a bustling crowded affair and we walked into a shop that resembled a department store until we realised that once again bartering was expected. This was a bit much for me, I longed for the days of well thought out solid prices that you could complain about because you knew you were being ripped off.

We came out of the shopping centre (which was number 10 in the guide book) straight into the middle of an anti corruption protest. We could hear all this singing and chanting and wondered what on earth was going on. The square below us filled up with people wearing white masks, and they slowly filled the space around us as well. The police were on one side of the road keeping a close eye.

Luckily the police watched and the protest was 'peaceful'

That was an exciting first day - temple worship - shopping - political protest!