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Due to the delays in Sydney my flight landed later than scheduled in Bangkok, getting in at about 21:00 local time or 00:00 Sydney time. I'd been up since 05:00 so I was pretty tired. Bangkok airport (Suvarhnabuhmi) is massive but quite easy to get about. I made my way fairly quickly through immigration, collected by backpack and made my way to the taxi rank. Now, I could have been adventurous and made use of the sky train however I was pretty damn tired and the taxi is cheap as chips mmm… chips. The taxi journey cost about THB400 plus THB40 odd for tolls. It's about a 30-45 minute journey from the airport to the city centre. The sky train would have been a lot cheaper but involved one or two changes to get to where I was staying, which happened to be right at a train station
My hostel (insert link to Lub d) was located in Siam Square which is a great shopping district with a few big shopping centres like MBK less than 5 minutes walk away. This was handy for a decent easy meal and almost anything else I needed (groceries, etc). The hostel appeared to be quite modern and new with decent facilities. There was a film being made when I arrived which happened to be blocking the stairwell so if you're in to Thai films then keep an eye out for me. It looked to be a little art house for any of you hipster/indie groovers out there. I was in a small 4 bed dorm which was air conditioned thankfully because it was uber humid and pretty warm. The hostel had free wifi throughout the building, including in the rooms, which is great. Free wifi really needs to be more prevalent in Australia. There are plenty of other countries offering it yet we're lagging behind. But anyway, I digress.
I was up at 8 on my first full day and decide to head out walking with map in hand. Quick stop at the 7/11 for water and some snacks and off I go in the direction of the grand palace and Khao san road. I'd been walking for about 20-30 minutes when a nice thai gentleman approaches me and comments on how tall I am (185cm for those playing at home). He strikes up a conversation about where I'm from and where I'm off to. I play the naïve tourist believing him to be sincere and he offers to direct me to some worthwhile places to visit. He tells me it's a budhist holiday and that the grand palace is closed until later that afternoon. He'd told me he was a school teacher and he seemed trustworthy. He drew on and wrote on my map the places to go and flagged down a tuk tuk. He said it would be THB10 plus fuel to visit all the places he marked. How could I argue with THB10? Jump in the tuk tuk and off I go. The driver took me to some pretty lame temple and a standing budha first but I pointed out a large temple as we were driving and kindly pulled over. It was nice, had a great view of the city from the top of the pagoda (are they pagodas in Thailand???) Part of my tuk tuk journey was a visit to some tailors and jewellers by which time I'd realised this was likely a scam arrangement between tuk tuk drivers, various shops and the "school teachers"of Bangkok. I was a little worried but I did get to see plenty of the city and I had a suit tailor made and a business shirt too all for about $200 Australian. Considering what you can pay for an off the rack suit in Australia I was OK with it. I'd made arrangements to go back to the tailor for a final fitting the following afternoon.
One of my stops on the tuk tuk adventure was at a travel agent. It was no flight centre, that's for sure. The agent's name was "Nicky" and he made some suggestions on what I should do and see. I decided on a trip to the river Kwai one day and a trip to the ancient Siam capital of Ayutyyah. Both day trips cost me about $120 Australian all up so I thought that was pretty good value. Pretty sure I'd pay through the nose if I'd made arrangements back home.
The final stop on my first Bangkok tuk tuk adventure was the grand palace. I was in shorts and T-shirt so I wasn't able to enter unless I covered up. I wasn't that interested in the palace so I decided not to go in and instead wandered the nearby markets. It didn't take me long to remember that almost every market sells the same crap and claims it to be "handmade" or "authentic". None of it appealed to me other than the look and smell of the food on offer. As dodgy as the food looks on the chicken wire grills it smells pretty damn good. I resisted temptation, and avoided a likely bout of the Bangkok bog, and instead chose to eat somewhere a little more sanitary. Jumped in a taxi and made my way back to Siam Square and the MBK for a wander around in the air conditioned cool. MBK is massive! About 7 floors of shops, restaurants and market type stalls. I grabbed a feed in the international food court, along with the first Singha of my trip. You'll be glad to know that I did NOT purchase a Singha singlet during my entire Bangkok stop. With the tour pick up time being 07:00 I decided on an early night (how exciting of me)
So Day one involved being scammed (which turned out to be not so bad), buying a suit I probably don't need and growing tired of the same old s*** in the markets. Not a bad day I reckon. My next update will be about the trip to the river Kwai. Thanks for reading and thanks for the comments!
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Jane We should of taken you sounds like you had lot of fun