Bangkok

Day 1-3: 1st - 3rd Feb 2008

After a day spent getting ready to leave and say our goodbyes, the airport trip was just as nerve racking and anxious as we thought it was going to be. Whilst we both managed to stay strong hugging and saying goodbye outside the airport, as soon as the cars drove away I burst into tears. As quickly as the tears came I forced them to stop so that we could be strong again for saying goodbye to family inside the airport.

True to form, things didn't go perfectly once left to our own devices!!! Our flight to Heathrow was delayed by 70 minutes and so it was a hairy transfer to terminal 4 to make our connecting flight to Bangkok!!!

Lee wasn't impressed when he looked into the jet cockpit and exclaimed "oh s***, it's a woman driver that's all we need!" He was then convinced that the plane had 'goat hooks' when in fact, they were coat hooks!

Bangkok airport - safe and sound although immigration was a nightmare! Finally got through and managed to find the right bus pretty easily and started our way to the famous Khoa San Road.

It certainly lives up to expectations being full of colour, life and hustling trade; we didn't really appreciate the experience with our packs on for the first time and headed off to Lamphu House; our quiet little oasis in the middle of it all with a lovely room, with balcony and clean facilities.

We headed out for dinner at a nearby café called Sawasee Lounge; the food was traditional Thai and very tasty. Meal and beers = 380 baht!! About 5 pounds! We braved the hustle of Khoa San as we headed out for drinks and sat on the street drinking and people watching (of course). Our nerves were just beginning to turn to excitement about the whole trip when we saw a man collapse and have a fit right next to us. He had split his head on the street and looked in a pretty bad way so it was a bit of a shock but all the locals were quick to look after him and call an ambulance.

We must of recovered pretty quickly as we headed out to sample for Thai beer! Cool little place called 'Roof' where, although the beer was a bit more expensive, we got a view of the street below at three floors up, listening to a guitarist/singer as he played everything from the Beetles to Sting and Limp Bizcit!

I stupidly made the mistake of noticing a sign saying announcing 'Man U v Tottenham - 10.00pm' and even more stupidly pointed it out to Lee; I'm sure I don't need to describe his reaction! We ended up meeting an Australian Arsenal fan and a Swedish Manchester United fan for Lee to bore the pants off and declare his love for Ronaldo to over and over again! I won't even mention 'hand ball' but after telling Lee that the guidebook mentioned that Thai people do not like loud behaviour or yelling - yelling, jumping, screaming and shouting is exactly what he did in the 94th minute! He even ran up to a poor Thai waitress and kissed her! I should mention that in a packed bar there was only about 6 of us watching the football and only Lee, that made any noise throughout the match! Needless to say, as the final whistle blew we were paid the bill quickly and called it a night.

Backgammon Score: Kelly 1 Lee 0

Up at 7.00 and ready to take on Bangkok beyond the Khoa San Road! Monsoon showers in the morning so had breakfast and set off at 8.30 to Tourist Information. Being the first time we had really seen Bangkok during the day, we quickly realized that it had some very, very odd smells…

Went to the National Museum and surrounding temples, admission 40 baht (just 70 pence each!) The museum held all sorts of national artifacts including past thrones, Thai dance costumes and puppets (very scary) and of course, Buddhas.

Started to make our way down the road to the Grand Palace, stopped to buy some more water when a local 'student' stopped to talk to us as he liked practicing his English. He asked where we were from etc and where we were going. He said that there were some temples nearby that were only open on a Sunday and that maybe we should visit them first and then return to the Grand Palace later, as this would be open any time. He even marked his suggestions on our map, flagged a tuk-tuk and bartered the price for us….seems nice?? NO!!!!!!!!!!! W thought so too but throughout the day we realized that everywhere you try and go, there is always a 'student' or local who just happens to start talking to you and suggests other places to go that are fairly nearby and would be cheap in a tuk-tuk. We even got told that one Wat we were just about to enter would be better to come back to 2 hours later on as it was Thai prayer time and they wouldn't appreciate pictures being taken; needless to say we went in anyway and the place was crawling with tourists!

Anyway, in the end the tuk-tuk took us to (1) the Tourism Authority of Thailand to try and get us to buy our ticket to Siem Reap (who soon lost the initial Thai smile when we said we weren't going to buy the ticket), (2) Wat Traimit - which holds a huge Golden Buddha, well worth the trip, (3) Wat Thai - small prayer square with more Buddhas, nothing special, (4) Thai Voelle - tailors that supposedly export to Armani etc but are guess what, open to the public for one week of the year only and this is the last day!!! Quite embarrassing but he soon gave up on us! (5) Thai Jewellery Export - same thing again but with a quicker exit! (6) Back to the Grand Palace where we started! All in all, 1 place we wanted to go to and 4 for the tuk-tuk driver! I know it sounds awful but lesson learnt, don't trust anyone! We have quickly become hard faced and good at loosing the attention of locals trying to push something or other!

Lunch in traditional Thai café near the Grand Palace saw Lee blow all the taste buds off his tongue ordering spicy fried spaghetti - even the waitress laughed when he ordered it! 10 minutes and 3 bottles of water later we're finally heading to the Grand Palace but have decided to leave it until tomorrow when we will have more time. Instead, we checked out the boat crossing to the Temple of Doom ready for tomorrow and walked to Wat Phra Chetuphon (Wat Pho), home to the famous 'Sleeping Buddha'. This place is amazing - everywhere you turn there is a temple housing something spectacular or a wat monument towering above you. The sleeping Buddha is absolutely huge and gob-smacking when you first walk in and see the size of her. Next to most temples, there seems to be a series of tin donation pots where Thais place a coin in each pot in the line, creating a constant clinking throughout the temples - when I asked Lee is he wanted to do this he said no as couldn't I see the Sleeping Buddha was trying to sleep??!

Wat Pho is definitely the most spectacular place we have been to so far although we couldn't help but think that once you've seen one tall, tiled pillar, surrounding a big gold Buddha you've seen them all! We're just hoping we don't get to blasé about it all by the time we reach Angkor Wat!!!

An epic walk back to Lamphu house via the Department of Justice, Minisrty of Defense and the City Monument, plus waiting for this sodding computer to load our pictures has made us hungry again so we are off to China town.

More soon!

Backgammon Score: Kelly 3 Lee 0