THE BENEFITS OF A
TOURING COMPANY Guidebooks and advice
from friends and online videos offer a good start in traveling to a foreign
destination, but you will never be as prepared to see and experience that
destination as with a tour guide. Traveling alone does allow one to make an
unexpected turn or deviate from a schedule, but in the long run the benefit of
a guide far outweighs the freedom you think you have lost.
Take for instance one
of our days in Bangkok with the Overseas Adventure Travel, OAT, whose subtitle
is “Embrace the Unexpected”, we could not ever replicate the day on our
own. Of course, we did go to Wat Pho and the massive reclining Buddha statue
there and then took a ferry across the river to visit Wat Arun on our own the
other day, but in hindsight we came away from that day not learning or
understanding everything we saw.
KUDEEJEEN
On this particular day
in Bangkok we started with a bus drive to the far side of the river, past Wat
Arun, where we visited the Santa Cruz church and the Portuguese diaspora
community of Kudeejeen. Over 90% of the people of Thailand practice Buddhism. |
| Kudeejeen cupcake |
Portugal was one of the
first European countries to establish trade with Siam in the 1500s and helped
grow Bangkok into the massive megalopolis it is today. The Kudeejeen
neighborhood was gifted to the Portuguese by the king at the time in the late
1700s and today there’s roughly 500 Portuguese still living in this section of
town.
Who knew? Our OAT guide,
Sek, took us there and we entered a warren of little alleys edged by trim neat
homes before visiting a cupcake factory where they use duck eggs for their
confections. The entrance was otherwise unmarked, but Sek had us enter and we
watched the process from mixing to baking the little cakes that are sold
throughout Bangkok and then got to sample one!
Afterwards we drank
refreshing Thai Tea (with Coconut milk) at the Baan Kudichin Café with a small
free museum chronicling Portuguese history in Thailand on its second floor.
VENICE OF THE EAST
We then boarded a long
boat to ply the busy Chao Phraya River and we passed Wat Arun and dodged the
ferry traffic crossing the river and watched a garbage scow scooping up
vegetation and debris before entering one of the many canals in Bangkok. Originally
dug to shorten trade routes in the 1300s in some places of the Bangkok area,
the canals are still today the main source of transportation. |
| garbage scow |
At one point our guide
handed out bread for us to feed the countless catfish that roiled the water as
we tossed our morsels.
LUNCH ON THE CANAL
Part of the allure of
traveling with OAT is arranging to actually meeting locals. We had lunch with a
family whose home is directly on the canal. An interesting tidbit about
Thailand, they don’t use chopsticks for food. Janet was disappointed as she was
getting good at using them.
Afterwards from some
unknown reason the family gathered our group together and video-taped us
singing Karaoke to Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling In Love.” Well, at least
the family sang.
JIM THOMPSON HOUSE
The next stop on the
day was a popular tourist destination. Known as the “Thai Silk King” Thompson
was an American entrepreneur that revitalized a declining Thai Silk Industry becoming
a major contributor to the country’s economy through creating jobs. His Thai silk was used in the original production of the King and I, which really
boosted the exposure of Thai Silk to the world.
Thompson also collected old Thai
paintings, Buddhist artifacts and Chinese pottery which are now displayed in
his house.
He disappeared mysteriously in 1967 while in Malaysia for vacation while
going on a walk. Declared dead in1974 his house and the house and the retail
store are a bustling destination. Just 200 Baht for the forty-minute tour.
It
was optional for us, some decided to return directly to our hotel by the bus
provided by OAT. After the tour the rest of us got back taking the Bangkok Sky
Train, part of the extensive metro system of this massive city. Great fun, and
our OAT guide, SEK, held our hands navigating us through the entire way.  |
part of the Jim
Thompson collection
|
LADYBOY “SCENE”
This brimming day ended
with an optional discussion arranged by OAT about the LBGQT situation in Thailand
and how it’s accepted, sort of. Scene is a man who has decided to be a woman
and though has all the male parts, including a prostate, lives like a woman.
The government of Thailand won’t allow “Scene” to change his biological designation
on official documents like driver’s licenses or passports but also waves the compulsory
requirement to register for the military because of their selected “trans”
status.
I did not partake in
the offered hug session at the end of the “discussion” with “Scene”, not that
there’s anything wrong with my choice.
BTW "Ladyboy" is an actual term.
IT’S WORTH YOUR BAHT
So, considering the sheer volume of details covered in a typical day traveling with OAT, these tours are well worth
it. To explore and plan such a day on our own would have been daunting, but we
didn’t even have to sweat the details and we just enjoyed the ride.
Thanks for reading.
Come back there will be more.
Love, Janet and greg
© 2025 by Gregory
Dunaj
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