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(1 Feb - 4 Feb 2009)
Greetings from Bangkok!!!
After spending the last 3 hours trying to upload the photos, we have finally completed the Bangkok update! I thought my computer at home was slow but this computer seems to have taken on the laid back hippie lifestyle that surrounds it here on the Khaosan Road!!After decamping the coach transfer from Bangkok Airport after an 11 hour flight, we turned the corner into the infamous road which I can only describe it as a 'pirate town'...To say this road is full of freaks is an understatement!!
Having left London in our winter clothes we could not breath in the 90 degree heat, and you can only imagine what I looked like trying to wheel my rucksack/case along the road......We arrived at the Buddy Lodge hotel which is conveniently located at one end of the Khaosan Road and behind a 24 hours Mcdonalds, or should I say 'McThai', which is what they call it here...We went into the room and Lee had to carry out a 'bug/cockroach' check, as I had read some reviews the day before departure stating there were more bugs than residents staying in the hotel...Pleased to say, Lee's search was a negative result...
Lee and myself decided to go and explore....We took a stroll down the Khaosan Road and I can honestly say it was an eye-opener!! I have never seen so many limbless people in all my life, not well at all................They even had a midget lady selling individual sticks of chewing gum (please see photo of midget in yellow t-shirt). Also one of the market stalls was selling cooked dead bugs, which I kindly declined....In all seriousness what a wicked atmosphere it is here, really busy with no trouble, and everyone having fun and enjoying themselves. There appears to be no laws/regulations/rules getting in the way of anything, the UK has it soooo wrong...
After having a beer and people watching we jumped in a 'Tuk Tuk' taxi....OH MY GOD...I thought I was going to die!! they drive like nutters, cutting everyone up, pulling out straight in front of people without checking for the solo!!Our Tuk Tuk kindly took us to Patpong Night Market, again my jaw dropped! as we literally got to the start of the market an older Thai gentleman approached me, shoved a 'menu' in my face and said 'p**** ping pong lick lick?" For once I was speechless, We wanted to see one of these shows, so we went with him into this place that I can only describe as a minging dump...Dark and dingy....We sat down and got another beer, as I looked up onto the stage area I was greeted with an ugly Thai doris weighing rather alot to be polite, she was shoving a marker pen up 'her' and kindly wrote on a piece of paper beneath her "WELCOME TO THAILAND"...Jesus what a catch Lee thought!! This woman went further up in Lee's estimation when she had an uncanny knack of opening beer bottles and firing darts at balloons...As Lee was having these thoughts I was thinking perhaps I am in the wrong job??!!!!.....
After leaving that lovely place, we had a little look in the market and then returned back to our hotel.Back in our room we needed to open up the in-room safe (which had absolutely everything in), there was me thinking I had put the wrong code in as it would not open and seemed more secure than fort knox.....What seemed like half of the Khaosan Road maintenance turned up, with only one screwdriver, the safe was not opening under any persuasion. Lee went down to reception and whilst he was downstairs building on Thai - English relations I decided to pick up the safe to make sure the contents was still inside. After shaking it I thought that someone had wiped the code and nicked everything in it as it felt empty. In a panic I sprinted down to reception only wearing my 'cheeky monkey' nighty (no bra I may add), I shouted to Lee and the lovely man in reception "some 'skank' has nicked the lot from the safe". I don't know whether the receptionist was more shocked at my outburst or the sight of me in my nighty, but he kept asking Lee "Who's 'skank'?". Lee calmly said "no worries, we'll get it all sorted bubs". To cut a long story short, 2 hours later the maintanance guys drilled a massive hole through the safe......Another 2 hours on from that the safe finally opened! and the contents retrieved!! If only we had some of our regular customers from Dagenham, we would have been in in under 2 minutes..... What a classic way to start our adventure!!! We eventually went to sleep at 6am, therefore having been up for 40 hours!!
The next day, feeling fully refreshed we hit the Khaosan Road again, and actually bought a few bargains. Had lunch in a lovely Thai restaurant called 'Molly's Bar". Another silly Garvey moment soon arose, I decided to go to the toilet and realised as I was walking out that I had actually gone in the men's toilets, due to a Thai man standing up against a urinal...I don't know who was more shocked, me or him!!!
That night we hit Patpong Night Market again and brought some 'real' gifts namely a Breitling watch for 1100 THB (25 quid!). On route back to the hotel we popped into a foot massage place in the Khaosan road,...which cost 5 quid for the both of us for 1/2 an hour!! beautiful!!!
We woke up bright and early the next morning and went for a swim in our hotel and had a Thai massage. Definately not a massage that you could fall asleep with...Oh my god the Thai's are strong people! This was after they had stopped laughing at us as we had put the bottoms on, that they had given us, back to front....This cost us 10 quid for the both of us for a 1 hour massage. Bargain!!The evening was spent at Lumpinee Thai Boxing Stadium where we had ring side seats...It was brilliant, thoroughly enjoyed it. Amazing fights and a chilled out approach to meeting the fighters and having our pictures taken with them.
Here we are now...still uploading the photos and Khaosan is still in full swing....Tomorrow we are off to Hong Kong, will update when we can.....Hope you are all well and enjoying the snow, did I say it was 90 degrees out here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!xxxxxxxxx
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