Bankok
Stephanie's First Visit to Thailand's Metropolis
Vun was again kind enough to fetch us from the airport. Don Mueang airport is toward the north end of town. It was a bit early to head to our motel. We didn’t have an extremely long time in Bangkok, anyway. We decided to head out to Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya was one of my favorite stops in Thailand when we visited during the summer of 2024. It had been the historical capital of Siam from the mid 14th century until 1767, when the Burmese sacked and burned the city. You can see photos and a description from the 2024 visit (here).
The ruins at Ayutthaya are visibly burnt, and the heads of most of the Buddhas have been removed. Nevertheless, it is obvious that it was once a grand and powerful city. The kingdom here sent emissaries to royal courts around the world, from Versailles to China, and from the Mughal empire in India to Persia and Japan. Even the ruins make it clear that this was once a powerful and religious city. The grounds – now a UNESCO world heritage site – are adorned with large monasteries and tall prangs, towers built to house sacred relics. It’s quite impressive to stroll around, if not quite at the level of Angkor Wat or the Taj Mahal. We did not walk around the surrounding auxiliary sites like I did in ‘24. Stephanie had her fill with the main site. It was hot, and I had seen the rest of it already.
We headed back into town and checked into our room at the Hyatt Place Sukhumvit. I reserved two rooms, so Vun would have one separate from mine and Stephanie’s. We pawned Caleb off on Vun, so Stephanie and I could share some privacy. We used some of that time later in the evening to walk the more salacious parts of the city.
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Thailand is notorious for its sex tourism industry. I was overwhelmed with emotion and grief at the plight of so many young women working in this industry. The magnitude of it weighed on me. I felt, and still feel like there is a huge opportunity for a ministry here. I had done some investigating when I was here the previous summer. I talked to some of the sex workers – those who would talk to me. Although I told Stephanie about this, and she didn’t really suspect me of any out-of-bounds activity, I don’t think she ever really understood why I went down there. Part of her wondered if I was merely fascinated by the exotic nature of the entertainment, and the excitement of something erotic.
I didn’t really fully warn her of what we were going to do. I just asked if she would go for a walk to see some things with me. She may have had her suspicions. I wanted her to see how unenthusiastic and even reluctant many of the workers looked. I wanted her to see how flagrantly in other places they tried to grab and pull you in. It isn’t flattering. It doesn’t seem like it would fulfill anything but the basest of human needs. Seeing it all in the big picture was a heavy weight on my heart, and I felt like the only way Stephanie could really understand the weight and sadness of this massive industry was to see it first hand. So I walked with her through the beer bars where women reached out and grabbed my arm to try to pull me in with her right there. I walked with her through the window shopping pole dance clubs. We passed the street walkers, and saw the reluctance and negative emotions in their eyes.
There is no way to see all this and not come away with the impression that it isn’t romantic, or even really erotic. It’s not sexy at all. It’s sad. It’s just devastating. Whether she still carries the emotional weight of seeing all of that like I do, I could not say. But at least at the time, I think she walked away with the same sense that none of this was really particularly attractive, and that something really should be done to help make it so not nearly so many women felt the economic need to sell their bodies like this. It was a somber way to end the night. I’m glad she was willing to take that walk with me. I don’t think many wives would have.
On Saturday, we went to see the standard Bangkok tourist destinations. We saw the royal palace, with its interior temple. We saw the reclining Buddha at Wat Pho. Caleb and I had visited all these sites before, which you can see and read about here. Wat Arun was a new one for us, though. We took a ferry across the river to this temple. The centerpiece of Wat Arun is a thin, bell shaped prang, colorfully decorated with porcelain shards. You can climb up and walk around the higher parts of the prang, which is a bit different than other locations I had visited. I walked around and took in the atmosphere for some time before rain started to fall. This thinned the crowds, but made our visit a bit less pleasant. We headed down to the night market once back in town. Vun, Stephanie, and Caleb got shawarmas. I tried some other Thai dish. Stephanie began her souvenir shopping, but decided the vendors there weren’t willing to dicker enough for her liking, and so did not come away with much.
After a short adventure trying to catch city buses back to the Sukhumvit neighborhood, we finally made our way back. We cleaned up and cooled off, then walked down to the corner of our street and enjoyed a wonderful seafood supper. It was a bit more expensive than most of what I had eaten on the trip. The food was good quality, though, and the atmosphere was pleasant.
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Sunday was the grand finale for Stephanie and Caleb. I still had another month of travel, and five more countries to visit. Caleb and Stephanie were set to fly out at about midnight, however. We got up and went to church that morning at Somprasong4 Church of Christ, the same place I had worshiped the previous year. I saw a few friends I had met on the first visit. We enjoyed a nice collective meal with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Somprasong4 does this every Sunday. That Sunday, there happened to be a group of mission students from ACU in attendance. We enjoyed hearing about their mission work in a remote, rural part of Northern Thailand.
That afternoon, Stephanie and I decided to go our separate ways. Steph wanted to pick up some souvenirs for the boys, but had also heard about the vaunted, inexpensive Thai massages. She shelled out a whopping $6 per hour to try one, while I took her shopping list back to the vendors she had found distasteful on our previous visit. I bought T-shirts for whichever kids we hadn’t already bought something for. I took Caleb for a swim while we waited for Vun to get back and say our goodbyes. Caleb then laid down for a rest while Stephanie and I had a “last meal” at a Burmese restaurant just down the street.
After we had our fill, Vun and I escorted Stephanie and Caleb to the airport as evening fell. We bade them farewell as they went through security. I assured Vun that there was no reason for him to drive me all the way back down to my motel in Sukhumvit. That would have added an hour each way to his trip, and I was willing and able to take the metro system back to my room. We all parted ways, and I collected my things and made ready for my short puddle jumper trip the next morning over to Siem Reap, Cambodia.
