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(23rd to 28th October, 2008)
Woohoo!!!
...the long await to our dream trip is over.. we are finally here!! It is crazy!!
After a long, tiring journey we finally arrived in the city of Bangkok. After collecting our luggage, getting our passports/visas stamped we hopped onto the airport express bus (AE2); at a mere 150 Bahts we thought that was a bargain! The bus ride took approximately 45 minutes to get to Koh San Road, our first destination.
Erawan House was our first pont of call. A cute little guest house situated on a narrow street away from the hustle and bustle of Koh San Road, which we were glad of. The hotel rooms are clean but basic - although at 750 Bahts (15 pounds) a night I think this is quite expensive for Bangkok Koh San area.
After a power nap we hit Koh San Road.. such a hectic street with so much going on it was a real shock! The streets are filled with bright lights, music from street bars and the smell of different foods from so many vendors (some of which were a bit too fishy at times). Every ten seconds we were acompanied by some kind of vendor selling random suiveniers tailored suits, Tuk Tuk rides and tickets to see 'Ping Pong' shows, haha... Chris and I decided to celebrate our arrival by going for a drink in a cool bar - 'shots bar', pouring out with smoke and buzzing with live music. We walked Koh San Road and indulged in some famous chicken 'Pad Thai' - a delicious stirfry noodle dish - yummy!!! Feeling tired and jetlagged from such a long flight we headed back to the hotel.. On the way however, we discovered an amazing outdoor masage parlour! It looked so funny, people laying down on deckchairs being massaged in a row. We decided on a foot and leg massage - it was soooo good!! It felt like we had a new pair of feet afterwards! They were so professional and used many techniques to relieve the stress. Some were on the pressure points of our foot, it was funny watching Chris squirm, toes curling too!
In the time we have been here we have explored I think all there is to see in and around Bangkok.. we have literally walked our legs off!!!
As the theory goes.. EVERYONE will in one way or another get caught into a Thai scam.. and yep- so did we!! A very friendly TukTuk driver kindly offered to take us to see the the Grand Palace, Wat Pho and Wat Phra Kaew for 20 Bahts- what a bargain!! Only he took us everywhere but. He then told us after dropping us off at the Lucky Buddha that he needed us to go look in a suit shop so that he can get some petrol 'tokens'. Ok, we thought.. sounds abit dodgy but we'll do it! we came out after five minutes.. our TukTuk driver was not happy- "No! you need to be in there for ten minutes or I wont get my tokens!".. So off we go again. Thinking that he was finally taking us where we wanted to go.. Nope! We stop off at the most glam jewellers in Bangkok!! "You stay here for ten minutes.. and I get my tokens".. what a joker this guy was.. We stayed in the jewellers (greeted by a Ladyboy- hehehe) - the guy gets his tokens, we get our 20 Baht ride- hey ho we are all happy!! Basically, dont trust any 20 Baht Tuk Tuk ride- they are ALL out to scam you!!
Anyway, we finally went to visit the famous Wat Phra Kaew which is the home of the Emerald Buddha - regarded as the most sacred Buddhist temple. It was truely beautiful!!! The architecture and artwork that went into building this temple was fantastic. We couldnt take pictures of the inside of the Ubosoth which was the building which contained the Emerald Buddha, but believe me it was nothing that i'd ever had imagined it to be. We then moved on to view the Grand Palace, which used to be the Kings home of residence. This was a memorable experience in its own right.. however after seing Wat Phra Keaw it would be hard to match up to such standards. Finally we visited Wat Pho, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. The biggest and the oldest Buddha in Thailand. The size of this monument took our breath away. At 46 Metres long and 15 metres high this gold plated Buddha was HUGE!!!
After inhaling tons of smog from the past few days of the streets of Bangkok, we decided we needed abit of carma and relaxation (and some semi fresh air!) so we took a longtail boat trip on the Chao Praya River. Thiswas a really enjoyable experience as it gave us our first look into real thai life. Along the river there were children swimming and diving into the water, people fishing in their boats and people doing everyday chores such as washing on their river side huts, literally on the brink of the river bank. The hut, some nicer and bigger than others were literally wooden frames with corregated iron roofs - but it seemed to work for them, they didn't have a care in the world. The English could do with adopting this approach!!
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The longtail boat dropped us of at the infamous Wat Arun which was very impressive. We climbed the very steep steps to the top which gave out excellent views of the river and the surrounding of Bangkok. Unlike the striking gold colours of te other temples we had already seen, this one was covered in millions of mosaic porcelain tile. When it came to walking downthe steps, I litterally felt I was about to fall down because they were so steep and close together. So scary!! Chris found it hilarious, the gentlemen that he is.
One night we took a trip on a tuk tuk to China Town to try out the chinese food restaurants (in fact literally a simple vendor with plastic tables and chairs - but the food was gorgeous!) Similar to Koh San Rd China Town is filled with neon lights and food stalls but after eating there at night we were stuck for things to do there. So instead we took the tuk tuk drivers advice and headed to Patpong!! Haha.
I think Patpong is the place to be when it comes to a good lads night out. It has everything for gay men ....... to straight men! We went to see a Ping Pong show but we we will leave that to your imagination - you name it they did it. Chris was stuck for words, hilarious! After the show we headed to Patpong night bazarre (its famous night market). I was looking at all of the fake bargains, whilst Chris's eyes were fixated on all the GoGo bars - which to be fair was quite an eye opener. Each bar was like a night club with a huge table with about 40 women, maybe she/hes parading round doing their thing. After the market we decided that was enough of the seedy side of Bangkok and headed home.
Wanting to see modern Bangkok we headed to Siam Square for some shopping. There isn't much to tell here as we didnt buy anything but it gave us a look into the more modern side of bangkok which we hadn't really seen yet - with its brand new shopping centre's, high rise buildings and skyscrapers. One of which had a sky bar/restaurant on the 61st floor called Vertigo. We went up, the views were absolutely fantastic but we had the wrong dress code - after looking at there menu we realised it was for people..... not on a shoe string!
For a relaxing end to the day weheaded to Lumphini Park which we both loved. The parks energy was unreal. We got there at 3 and the park was empty. We walked round the lake and Chris noticed a head pop out the water - it was a tortoise! so cute. An old Thai woman with some children sat by the lake and fed the fish. Out of knowhere a ridiculous amount of big fish and 5 toroise came to feed. The tortoise literally climbed up the river bank and took bread out of her hands. Even more impressive, further around the lake, we noticed a monitor lizard which are surprisingly quite shy but really big (our Joe would have loved it). About 4.30pm came and in came floodsof people, using the park as anoutdoor recreation ground. There was aerobic classes, football voleyball, joggers, people doing Thai Chi..... While others came to unwind after a hard day. It was crazy how busy it was but the atmosphere was so so so fun! Everyone was so full of life, definitely a place to lift your spirits.
Seeing as though we saved our money that we were going to use at the shopping centre, we decided to go to Chatuchak Market one of (if not the) biggest in the world. With over 15,000 stalls and over 200,000 people visiting it each day. We arrived pretty early to get a feel for the place but it was soon jam packed.The market sold everything you can imagine - from clothes to furniture to pets (lizards/snakes) and other crazy looking animals, eek! Alot of the poor animals were crammed into one cage which did seem really cruel. Many were even dressed in clothes to look more cute to buyers - to be fair it did haha! Chris didnt end up buying anything but I had a good spend. After a long walk around the market we decided to treat ourselves again to a leg, foot and shoulder massage - it was so relaxing...
A few evenings we decided to hit Koh San Rd for a night out. Although it was buzzing with life it was more a relaxed pubscene than a club scene - which was fine by us after our busy days. However we still managed to get drunk - Chang and Singha's are pretty strong lagers!! As we found out on an empty stomach (good Times!!!). We started most of our night outs at the Wild Orchid, a cool relaxed big cabin style hut opposite our hotel, very convenient!
All in all our trip in Bangkok was a real eye opener..We were glad to see Bangkok as a mixture of the past, present and future. ALthough after 5 hectic days and no sleep it is clear to say that we were ready to move on. So long for now, our next stop is Kanchanaburi, on the River Kwai, ahhh....
Talk soon xxx
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