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Bec and Simon round the World!
Sawadeeka!
Arrived safely in Bangkok on 31st May, first impressions were it was HOT!!! The heat was amazing even in the shade. We managed to get to our hostel using the public transport (with some slight difficulties along the way!) only to find it was quite a way from the town centre and all the sights, although it was a very nice hostel. The following day we found out we'd need to be in Bangkok until the following Thursday to sort out our visa's for Laos and Vietnam, so we headed off to find somewhere else to stay closer to the town centre which meant the infamous Koh San Road.The journey here was a nightmare. We were told which bus to take what they failed to mention was the traffic in Bangkok is so bad it takes 90 mins to get there about 5 miles away, and with rucksacks on a packed bus it aint fun!
After walking round and finding some real dives, but at bargain prices we managed to find one that wasnt too bad and booked in for 6 nights...added extra bonus was the roof top swimming pool an oasis in this place, where we spent a lot of time!
Koh San road consists of numerous pubs, bars, guest houses, masseurs, food stalls, market stalls selling a fake of everything you ever wanted but could never afford (if your coming to Thailand don't bring anything with you just a suit case and buy it all when your out here its so cheap) and women dressed in traditional clothing trying to sell you everything from wooden frogs that croaked if you rubbed a stick down their backs to massive zippo lighters the size of your head, along with lots of other crap that you don't want! A very lively place and was really close to all the attractions but the novelty soon wears off and after 6 nights here we were sick of the place and couldnt wait to leave!
But of course we saw all the sights and did as much as we could in the heat. Our first day we tackled the river that runs throughout the city and crossed it to go to Wat Arun, or the temple of Dawn. Its quite impressive although decorated in a very peculiar way with what looked to be plates and crockery...very odd! but we took some photos and i'm sure you'll see for yourselves!
The following day we decided to explore Chinatown and took a tuk tuk (which are brilliant to go in!) but he agreed to take us there for only 20 baht if we went to tailors and had a look round so we did even though we insisted from the start that we were not going to buy anything. Chinatown was odd, after just leaving there to come to Thailand we were now back in China like we could never escape it! Memories of men in pyjama's and spitting came flooding back, although they seemed to be much more "normal" if thats the right word, and we had a look round the markets, by the time we'd seen live frogs in nets and all sorts of other animals it was time to leave.
Our next adventure out was to see the "main attractions" so to speak, so we did Wat Phra Kaew (the emerald Buddha), the Grand Palace and Wat Po (the reclining Buddha) and to be honest they were amazing. The architecture and the design was astounding, even though there was a lot of renovation works going on it was still beautiful, again though instead of going into detail i'll let the photo's speak for themselves.
That same evening we headed into Bangkok's seedy area, Patpong. There was a market and loads of Go Go Bars, and all sorts of obscure things like fetish clubs! There we hundreds of girls there and to be honest if they were boys you couldnt really tell. We were reading on the internet that apparently the way it works is a bloke will go in and buy a drink and he can also buy some company whilst he's drinking. If he then likes the girl enough he can have a word with her boss and pay to take her home early! The other thing going on was the sex shows, you get hassled about them every where in Bangkok namely by the tuk tuk drivers who will say " Tuk tuk?" nope, "Ping pong show/p**** ping pong!" and when you say no again they head off to hassle the next unsuspecting traveller. But down here you got to see where it all happens, we spoke to a couple who had just come out of one and they were in hysterics! Apparently its free to watch but they charge you about 300 baht (which is a lot over here) for a beer and you get mobbed by what they think were girls when you first go in, and they can do some weird stunts with their private parts! including blow out candles, smoke, and obviously fire a ping pong ball out of it! We declined their invitation though!
On our last full day here we went to Jim Thompsons house.To get there we took a cruise down the river which was nice apart from when you get splashed as the water doesnt look too appetizing but you can see most of the sights from where you are. He worked in Thailand during the second world war and fell in love with the place, and he moved here and revived the Thai silk making industry. He then dissapeared when he was on holiday in Malaysia in the 60's but his house is amazing! He brought 6 traditional teak Thai houses and moved them all to Bangkok where he had them rebuilt but into one house instead of the 6. We couldnt take any pictures, which is a shame, but it was really lovely the website is http://www.jimthompsonhouse.com/museum/content.asp if you want to have a look at it.
Our last night was spent at a Muay Thai boxing match. There are 3 classes that you can watch from, 1st, 2nd or 3rd. Third being the rowdiest and first the most subdued we went with second. We sat with the other 4 farangs (foreigners) that were in there, and it was something to say you've seen. As the fighters got bigger the spectators got more intense, it consists of 5 rounds per match each 3 minutes long, with a minute interval in between. The first couple of rounds are fairly quiet then the third round the crowd would just explode! Third class was separated from second by a cage, and people in there were practically scaling it to shout over their bets and shoving theirs hand through the holes with the signals they use to indicate who they are betting for and how much, and the longer the match went on the louder and rowdier they got! Before the match began there were a lots of ceremonial things that had to be done, bowing to teachers and the crowd, exchanging of flower garlands and this took quite a while. The boxing itself looked a bit brutal some harsh kicks to the ribcage, chin just about anywhere above the waist they could get and they could get their legs above head height most of the time! At first it would be quite slow as they scoped each other out (as the slow drumming music would indicate) then whenever something exciting was happening the music would speed up and the shouts would get louder it was craziness! You never knew who had won until the end when the ref collected in the score cards and held up the hands of the winner.
Finally on Thursday morning we managed to head off towards our beach holiday in Koh Samet, the 3 hour long bus journey was fun but now were here its so realxing, anyways more about that in the next blog we're off to have a massage on the beach!
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