[860] Of the second half of the second day in Bangkok, Thailand

If you’re interested, read part one and two.

After Wat Pho, we made way to the Bangkok National Museum while the day was still relatively bright and almost cheery. We passed along several landmarks (tag). One of them was the palace:

I wonder if those yellow stuff are actually gold. I’d presume they are. This looks inside the inner wall of the palace:

Somewhere nearby, there’s a large open space, much like the Mall in Washington D.C. There’s a university there too and there were many monks, as you can see:

After all these and a few other photos, we reached the museum.

The museum has a large compound and the galleries are scattered all over the place. Despite that fact, we had mere two hours and so, we managed to roam a gallery. There were 20 galleries there and one of the galleries that I wish I had visited is the Srivijayan gallery.

I’ve always feel that it’s wrong for Malaysians to think the Sultanate of Malacca was the most prominent civilization in our history. The truth is, Srivijaya was far larger and lasted much longer than Malacca. I strongly feel Malaysian history book should give Srivijaya more credit instead of over glorifying Malacca. Perhaps, the reason why Srivijaya sat in the shadow of Malacca these days is because Srivijaya was a Hindu kingdom while Malacca was Muslim. I’d imagine many conservatives in Malaysia hated that idea. I believe it’s just history and it doesn’t matter what the religion of any kingdom. Regardless of the religions of Srivijaya, the empire deserves more befitting treatment than it currently receives. It’s part of our history and it’s important we all know it, regardless what these conservatives think. If the country falls to them, they would rewrite our history, destroy our culture like they’re doing in Kelantan and turn us all into Arabs.

There are no photo from the museum. Unlike museums in the United States and Malaysia, photography is forbidden in this particular museum complex.

While I was visiting the Metropolitan Museum in New York, I frequently found myself being left behind by my friends; museums usually fascinate me. That didn’t happen in the Thai museum because I am kind of familiar with most of the subjects that were on display. Nevertheless, it was still taxing. I felt like I was going to lose my legs after we were done with the museum.

When we got out of the museum, which was around 17:30, the bright sunny day had into a gloomy one. It even rained for awhile though it wasn’t too bad. What was bad was the fact we didn’t know where to go and that we were very hungry. My dietary restriction didn’t make the situation any easier. The saddest part was, we opted for McDonald’s. I call it sad because I don’t really like fast food. Well, I like fast food but I have issues with large fast food chains.

Anyway, we asked around for the nearest McDonald’s and three girls directed us to Khao San. We didn’t know the name of the place actually but when we got there, it was like Thai version of Malaysian Petaling Street or Chow Kit Street.

I later found out off the net that Khao San is a backpackers’ haven. The next I visit Bangkok, I know where I’d want to stay. I’ll bring my backpack too just to blend in. While at Khao San, we didn’t get McDonald’s but instead, we got falafel. That was the first time I tasted falafel since I returned to Malaysia from the United States.

And yeah, we did meet Ronald McDonald despite not buying anything from him.

While Khao San looks dirty, it isn’t too bad. Moreover, there are some cool
restaurants with great atmosphere:

Another one:

Some are hidden inside an alley:

Another one:

The distance between the museum and Khao San isn’t too demanding to traverse. What made it challenging was crossing the road. As mentioned earlier, crossing the street in Bangkok isn’t the best of all hobbies. We had to cross something like a busy six or eight-lane street. If jaywalking is an offense in Bangkok, we should be punished with life sentence with no possibility of parole. We came out alive. I suppose living in Kuala Lumpur does teach you one or two things about crossing a seemingly “un-crossable” street.

Once done with Khao San, we headed for the Democracy Monument. I however have a few deadlines tomorrow. Therefore, I’ll stop here for now.