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To say Bangkok was a culture shock is abit of an understatement, it is completely the opposite to the laid back Sydney. We arrived just before midnight and it was tanking it down so we didn't really get to experience Bangkok until the next morning.
And what an experience it was! Walking out of the hotel into the heart of chinatown with the intense heat and noise, a 24/7 traffic jam moving 1mph, thousands of people weaving their way through the hundreds of street stalls that overflow the pavements and the odd Thai man saying "Tuk Tuk sir?" pointing at his three wheeled battery powered taxi is an experience we will never forget. The main tourist attraction here is definately the Grand Palace which was first on our sight seeing list. The architecture is unbelievable and the temples look amazing, we spent a few hours looking around and then went on to another temple, the Wat Po. Here there is a huge 45m reclining buddah that looks like it is crying out for the endless tourists to take photos of it.
One thing many people visit Thailand for is the shopping. Fake? Knocked off? Seconds? Copied? Stolen? Call it what you like but most of the stuff here is quality gear and we were in our element when we visited the huge MBK shopping centre that has floors and floors of stalls selling everything under the sun. It was worth visiting here just for the air conditioning!
People say that when you visit Bangkok you should try Thai food, watch a traditional Thai show and take a boat ride down the Chao Phraya River. We managed to "kill 3 birds with one stone" and went on a dinner cruise down the river where we were treated to a gorgeous 3 course Thai and seafood meal and a Thai dancing show that was interesting to say the least! The boat cruised past the Grand Palace, Wat Arun, Rama VIII Bridge and many other sights and temples that lit the Bangkok night. To be honest the pictures do not do it justice, it was simply breathtaking.
We visited the Chatuchak weekend market that we read is the biggest outdoor market in the world. We got here quite early as by mid day it is supposed to get very very busy and started to take a look round. One thing that really suprised us is how laid back it was and that apart from the odd stall nobody was really pestering and pressuring us to buy anything, which was pretty good. We got ourselves a few bargains and headed off as the heat was just too much!
Im sure there is many high rise building that offer overhead views of the city, but we opted to climb Golden Mount that has a temple at the top. Even though it was pretty cloudy day we still got a really great view of bangkok.
Next stop is Phuket which will hopfully be a bit of a slower pace!
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