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I am back in Bangkok and preparing to fly to India! Sorry I haven't blogged for a long time, but, ok I have no excuse, other than I guess being too busy enjoying myself to spend too long on the internet.
So where have I been and what have I been doing? Perhaps I'll start from the end and work backwards. Well, the middle. So this morning I arrived in Bangkok after three different bus journeys in 24 hours. I set off from Laos yesterday at 6am, took a bus to Vientiane, then had to somehow get a nightbus to Bangkok as I absolutely had to be in Bangkok this morning to pick up my flight tickets. That part did not go to plan (more below). After wandering round for a bit and arguing with tuk tuk drivers I ended up on a bus to Nongkhai (border town) at 6pm with no clue where I'd go from there. I was the only falang on the bus and managed to succeed in going through border control by being nudged, propelled and steered by a variety to Lao/Thai people to various stations including narcotics control, how exciting, but I obviously looked non-suspicious as they ignored me. Lo and behold on arriving in Nongkhai, which actually looked like a pretty nice place if I had longer to hang around, I got a nightbus to Bangkok. Again I was the only falang, but this journey was less eventful and I was very happy, as not only did I pay less than half the price they'd quoted me in Laos, I also got free biscuits. I am very easily pleased. I was less pleased however when they woke me up by dragging my blanket off me at 4.30am, which I'd tucked over my head whilst managing to sleep through the lights being switched on and hideous Thai karaoke music being played at full blast. It takes more than that to wake me up! I spent the next three hours drinking coffee and watching Thai news, which featured lots of burning buses and police barricades, which worried me slightly, especially as someone I'd met in Vientiane had said, "I hope you don't have a problem in Bangkok with all the protests" to which I said "what protests?" - Remind me to read the news on all my forthcoming destinations before I get there in future.
Anyway, once I'd got my hideously overpriced tuk tuk to my reassuringly cheap guesthouse, and having seen no burning anything or protesters on the way, I decided to set off straight away to get my flight tickets sorted. My helpful STA travel man Simon had arranged for my paper tickets to be sent to Bangkok for me to collect on my way out. I don't actually need them until I get to New Zealand, but it's best to be organised. It so happens that it is Thai New Year, or Songkrat, at the moment. I knew this, but it wasn't until I set off I thought, "hmm, I wonder if the office will be open". Luckily the office was in the ping pong district so I knew where I was going, but it didn't look good as every single office block and shop on the way was closed. Still, I persevered, and rocked up at Wall Street Tower, so be met with a chorus of "happy new year! oh, STA, no, all home for new year" from the security guards. They were massively helpful and seemed very sympathetic; they even let me go up to the floor by myself where I could peer through the locked glass doors and be about two feet away from my tickets. This may be a huge security breach, but at least they meant well. I did briefly consider doing a Sydney Bristow and trying to break in, but I didn't fancy spending the rest of my time in Thailand in prison. So that's that then. Hopefully I can get them in New Zealand, otherwise I'll be staying there indefinitely!
As it was about 10am by this point I thought I may as well make the most of the day and set off to the Royal Palace by my old favourite mode of public transport, river boat. As I was walking round the very wide wall surrounding said palace of royalty, a tuk tuk driver pulled up next to me and said, "oh, no, Royal Palace closed for ceremony, I take you to see Big Buddha, 10 Baht". Ok, I knew it was a con, 10 Baht is like 20p, and bearing in mind they'd tried to charge me 200 Baht from the bus station to Khao San road earlier. I also have friends who'd been asked the same thing and been taken to tourist shops for commission. I raised this with my blokey and he said I just had to go in the shop and he'd get a free petrol voucher. In the end, I thought, "what's the worst that can happen", so I got in the tuk tuk. We made it as far as doing a U-turn before being flagged down by the tourist police who told me Big Buddha was closed for ceremony, Royal Palace was open (I already knew it was open but wasn't too fussed about going there), and we were going to a silk shop which it seemed he was trying to persuade me to go to, before pulling me out of the tuk tuk and the driver racing off (as fast as a tuk tuk will allow one to race). Well, that was a bit of excitement, and after finding out it costs 7 pounds to go to the Royal Palace and realising I could see quite a bit of it by walking round the gates and peering in, I decided against going in after all and went to Wat Pho next door. This was either free or I sneaked in by going through the entrance marked "no foreigners, use other entrance", but I couldn't find the other entrance and it was really hot. That was pretty cool as they had loads of stuff going on for Songkrat, so there were plenty of locals doing religious type Buddhist stuff, and eating lots of food.
The main activity of Songkrat is spraying people with water (it's also called the Water Festival). In Laos (they celebrate it at the same time) this involves kids spraying water pistols, throwing cups, or even entire buckets of water over people. Tourists are not excepted from festivities! It's actually a lot of fun, especially as it's starting to get really hot (it was 40C today). We met a Scottish bloke (that is actually his name, no, really) in Laos who spent all day chasing down kids with his own makeshift water pistols. You're going to get soaked anyway, you may as well retaliate, and it's more fun that way. It has something to do with Buddhism and blessings. Today at the temple I saw people pouring water over images of Buddha, so it's obviously a mark of respect if you get water thrown at you. Also, it's very good for cooling down in the hot weather. It's great fun to be a kid here, you just get to have water fights all day.
Ok, so that's Laos. I thought Thailand would be same same, but it's different (traveller's joke). It was the same, or I thought, nicer, as it was little sprays and not soakings when I was walking around earlier. In Laos, they stop at night. In Thailand, they don't stop. In Thailand, it starts at night. I went to try and find transport to the airport earlier and went to a travel agent round the corner from my guesthouse, where they told me I had to get a taxi as the buses weren't running. Being skeptical, I went to find out by myself at the bottom of Khao San Road. I thought I'd got a bit of a soaking earlier. I now know what it really means to be well and truly soaked through. I had cups, jugs, buckets, water pistols, hoses, showers, you name it; if it contains water, it went over my head, on my back, down my front. I gave up dodging in favour of trying to keep breathing. It was a lot of fun though, and completely mad. For 362 days of the year, Khao San Road is the backpacker district. For the three days of Songkrat, it's carnage. There were hundreds upon hundreds of Thai teenagers dancing and throwing water around. They also have this white paste they use as sun block, and they put this on people's cheeks as they walk past. I got this a lot. I also managed to make friends with an Indian guy who let me share his paste, and then used this as an excuse to try and put his arm around me and literally beg me to go for a drink with him whilst following me down the street. A little taste of India! Anyway, after all that I went back to the travel agent and stood in the doorway dripping a mixture of water and paste on the floor whilst the woman looked at me in astonishment. "What happened, you were not this dirty an hour ago?" she asked. "I went to Khao San Road, I think it means they like me? I didn't find bus, I'd like taxi".
So that has been my day, and I fly tomorrow. I will try and write more tomorrow but I think I'm keeping the bar up so I'd better go!
PS The nice man in the bar, Cafe Lampu, has told me I can stay as long as I want and has given me a free drink. He's also taken pictures of me using the internet to go on his website. My modelling career is taking off! It's a really nice place and only opened two weeks ago (which explains why I didn't see it when I was here last month, I'm not stupid. Well). It's a good spot in the cheaper backpacker area down from Khao San, in Banglampu, and the food is very good and cheap, they have free internet, and you can choose your own music, what more do you need?!
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