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Many thanks to my colleague Kame-san for the gift of some fancy ramen, which I enjoyed for lunch with the Moomin chopsticks I got in Thailand! 🍜

Many thanks to my colleague Kame-san for the gift of some fancy ramen, which I enjoyed for lunch with the Moomin chopsticks I got in Thailand! 🍜

AWS APJ Community Summit in Bangkok, Thailand

I headed off earlier this week to Bangkok, Thailand to attend the first ever AWS APJ Community Summit. This event brought together 130 AWS Heroes, Community Builders, and User Group leaders for two days of learning, sharing, and networking.

It was about a 10 hour flight for me from Munich straight to Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok.

Landing in Bangkok

I found a couple of my coworkers in the airport – Rohini and Mark! We agreed to carpool to the hotel together.

Me, Rohini, and Mark

Unbeknownst to us, we were about to hit rush hour traffic so it took us more than an hour to get to the hotel. I had a great first view of the city though.

Bangkok

The event was being held at the Anantara Siam Hotel Bangkok, and wow, it did not disappoint. Rohini and I were invited to sit down and have some tea while they checked us in.

Checking in

My room was lovely! I felt very welcomed. 🙂

Welcome sign on TV

It felt odd to be taking a trip without the Snook! I sent him a selfie to show him I’d arrived safely.

My room

I was pretty hungry, so I headed downstairs to have dinner with my colleague Ridhima.

Me and Ridhima

To my delight, we ran into a crowd of AWS Community folks from Australia and New Zealand! A few of them were familiar faces to me, but others I was meeting for the first time. For most of them, this was the first overseas trip since Covid.

Aussies and Kiwis

The next morning, I headed out on a city tour with the full contingent of Aussies and Kiwis. (Because of their long travel time, the Antipodeans all arrived a day early.) I’m sitting with my colleague Jason, who runs the Community Builders program.

City tour

Our first destination was the Grand Palace, the residence of the kings of Siam (and later Thailand) for hundreds of years. We parked some way away and then walked over with our local guide.

Grand Palace, Bangkok

We entered the Palace complex, and it was already turning into a brutally hot day.

Grand Palace, Bangkok

We walked past amazing murals showing scenes from Thai history and the Buddhist religion.

Grand Palace, Bangkok

The Palace was very opulent and beautiful. I loved the colourful statues.

Statue

The Palace complex also contains Wat Phra Si Rattana Satsadaram, also known as the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The gold tower here is the Phra Si Rattana Chedi.

Phra Si Rattana Chedi

You might notice in the photos that several of us are wearing questionable skirts and trousers. This is because the Temple is the most sacred Buddhist temple in Thailand, and having bare legs is not allowed. I bought a sarong from a local seller to tie around my waist.

Me

Wat Phra Kaew

The Temple of the Emerald Buddha itself was amazingly beautiful. It’s covered in gold and colourful tiles and precious stones.

Wat Phra Kaew

You have to take off your shoes to go inside, and no photos are allowed. A crowd of people were sitting on the floor, just having a moment of peaceful contemplation. Many people brought in lotus flowers as offerings. After a short visit, I went for a walk around the outside of the temple.

Wat Phra Kaew

I ran into my colleague Belinda, who helped organise the tour for us! ❤️

Me and Belinda

Even the ceiling was elaborately decorated.

Ceiling

We had some time to walk around, so I just wandered on my own, taking photos of beautiful statues and peaceful corners of the Palace complex.

Statues

Lotus flowers

Grand Palace, Bangkok

This is a statue of a kinnara, a mythological half human, half bird.

Kinnaree

I was starting to feel a bit pink by this point…

Me

…so it was time to break out the sun protection. Behind me is the Phra Thinang Boromphiman, where visiting Heads of State stay when they visit Bangkok.

Me with umbrella and mask

From the Palace, we walked the short distance to the Chao Phraya River, where we caught a ferry across to the other side.

River ferry

Me and Belinda again.

Me and Belinda

That river water did not look very inviting, despite the heat of the day.

River

Our destination was Wat Arun (“The Temple of Dawn”), one of Bangkok’s most well known landmarks.

Me and Wat Arun

The central tower (“prang”) is encrusted with porcelain.

Wat Arun

I climbed up a couple levels and walked around, checking out the statues and decorations.

Wat Arun

Wat Arun

The final part of the tour was a long-tail boat ride along the river. We had to scramble out on the prow to get onboard!

Long-tail boat

I’m on a boat! And thankfully by this point the sun had gone behind the clouds.

Long-tail boat

Our guide took us down some of the canals off the river and pointed out landmarks along the way.

Long-tail boat

River cruise

At one point, we stopped along the riverbank near a temple. Our guide had a surprise for us, he said. He pulled out a bag of bread rolls, and I thought for a minute he was going to hand out a snack. Then he chucked one of the rolls in the river, and the surface suddenly ERUPTED with giant catfish fighting over the bread. It was one of the most astonishing things I’ve ever seen.

Giant catfish

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Visiting the Ammersee

It’s still quite warm in Bavaria, so we squeezed in a day trip to the Ammersee. This lake to the southwest of Munich is the sixth biggest in Germany, and it’s just a short 45min train ride to the end of the S-bahn line to Herrsching. As soon as we disembarked we hopped on a couple Deutsche Bahn “Call a Bike” bicycles to go for a ride along the shore.

Little Mermaid statue

Herrsching is on the eastern shore of the lake, and along the Promenade there is a statue called “Die kleine Seejungfrau” (“The little mermaid”). Rather than having a fish tail herself, she sits on top of a giant fish.

Kurparkschlösschen

Nearby is the Kurparkschlösschen, a “little castle” built in the 1800s. Apparently you can rent it out for events!

We rode south along the Promenade dodging crowds of tourists and families, and then eventually got onto a hiking/cycling path right along the shore.

Cycling along the Ammersee shore

The Call a Bikes are pretty sturdy, and they do have a couple gears thankfully.

Fording a stream

At a couple points we had to ford small streams running down into the lake!

Fording a stream

Our goal was the Froschgartl, a little biergarten around 6km (3.5mi) south of the Kurpark. Eventually we made it there and put in an order for our lunch.

Lunch at the Froschgartl

Not a bad little burger! It’s not really much of a biergarten; more a couple picnic tables around a snack bar. Still, you can’t beat the view.

View at the Froschgartl

After our lunch, we walked over to the rocky beach to sit and digest for a bit.

Sitting on the beach

We had our swimsuits and there were people swimming, but that water was pretty cold! Instead we took off our shoes and socks and went for a little wade.

Wading in the Ammersee

That water is SO CLEAR. The rocks were pretty slippery though so we soon retreated back to safety.

Relaxing on the beach

Ahhhh, can’t you just feel the serenity? Look at that sky! (Also, there was a fully nude old dude like 10m to my left. Germans, man.)

Eventually we put our shoes back on and rode back to Herrsching, this time using the paved bike path along the highway so it was a lot faster. We went further north this time to the “Fischbach” part of the lake, where there’s a marina and a sailing club.

Fischbach

Soon it was time to head back, so we returned the Call a Bikes and caught the S-bahn home. The Ammersee was honestly one of the prettiest places I’ve ever been. If you’re in Munich and you have nice weather, this makes for a lovely day trip!

Me and Rodd

You can see our ride on Strava here: