Day 5 - Trip out of Bangkok

Today we got off to a dodgy start... Or at least I did ( Simon ). I woke up feeling ropey as hell and had gone to bed with a sore throat... Combined with " The Pillow " I was far from feeling my best.... Having had only a few hours sleep all night. I mainly sat around what you could describe as our hostel lobby come dinning area... Its an open air courtyard set back from the Main Street which gives us a really nice little heaven of piece amongst the constant kayos of Bangkok. Its a b**** to find when arriving, even when you know where it is as the only link between the courtyard and the Main Street is a dark 6 foot wide alley way that looks like a dead end when you first enter, and if it was not for our poorly lit, tiny hostel sign which itself is among many hundreds of other sings along the street you'd walk past for years without knowing there was even a hostel there.
After eating some lunch we decided to go for a walk around what are becoming more familiar roads to us now, we were not really looking to buy anything, just walking, but Shiree noticed a sign for a show that the Vietnamese woman had recommended very highly called Sian Niramit, and as I was beginning to feel more human again after drinking more water than I'd usually use to shower in we booked up..
The tickets didn't include transport to the theatre but we were reliably informed that a tuk tuk should cost no more that 100 Bart enticing us to believe the theatre was local.
On arrival back at your hostel Shiree decided she would go have a foot massage whilst I continued to sit around in the shade of the trees in the lobby.
The sun was beating down and I was half asleep when Shiree turned up again, I'd lost all track of time so had no idea how long she'd been.
Evidently she'd been gone longer than she had expected herself, sitting down she informs me there had been yet another " holiday massage " foe par...... And this one didn't involve a Thai style happy ending. Shiree had missed a rather important word out whilst asking for her foot massage.... This being the word " foot " so had ended up with a bleach blond haired Thai guy giving her a full body massage which involved cracking most of her vertebrate back into place and testing the elasticity of some tiered over worked tendons..... So not the relaxing massage she had expected.
Having decided I now feel fine and placing a ban on sleeping with the air con on for fear of dehydrating myself to death from the inside out we head out looking to find the temples we didn't get chance to see on the first day, this time taking a TukTuk instead of the ferry. Its turns out the temples we want to see had been closed due to the proximity of the political demonstrations so the TukTuk driver became our tour guide and took us off to see some others that were open for a rock bottom price of 40 Bart provided we went to a suit Taylor as part of the tour, as the Taylor would buy petrol for the TukTuk if we went, so off we go...
The suit shop became 2 suits shops by the time we arrived back at the hostel, but it really didn't matter, one of the temples we went to looked good from the outside but was having a gentle refurbishment inside.... The main door was open and there were sandals littered around outside so we wonder in, minus our flip flops... It was only at this time did we work out the inside was getting a make over, there were paint brushes everywhere with ladders and scaffolding up into the ceiling area but no workers anywhere so we had a wonder around. The quality of the work inside was amazing, with four massive chandeliers hanging from the roof, with insufficient light to do them justice, the walls were mainly red in colour with a huge sitting Buddha statue at one end. I'm not sure what material the Buddhas are made from but there covered in masses of gold or orange paint and sometimes almost look a mix between mythical and cheap with only the splendour of the building itself to give it credibility, although I'm sure the thais will disagree.
At one of the three temples we visited today we got to purchase some birds in little wooden cages.. We were drawn in by the constant, incessant tweeting and once found, there freedom was a given..
You pay 90 Bart and you get to release the birds In front of a 50 foot high Buddha wearing a traditional monks robe for good luck... I'm not sure who's good luck yet, as the birds got lucky getting set free and the birds seller made a fast buck selling them to us, but the day is young so I'm holding judgement for now....

We were advised to arrive at the theatre at 18.00 for a showing at 20.00 so we set the alarm for 17.30 and headed off for an afternoon snooze.
Running typically late and without appreciating the 18.00 time suggestion we depart our hostel at around 18.30 and head straight to the closest TukTuk where we get quoted 1000 Bart to get us to the show... A little more than the expected 100.
After a indication from the TukTuk man of where we are, and were we need to get to we can see the reason for the higher price..... Its miles away. We decide to get the under ground there as advised by the TukTuk driver and he whisked us off in a cloud of dust, bumps, bangs and lights to the tube station, which was around 15 mins away informing us it was two stops down the line..
We enter the tube station expecting the kind of mayhem we've been watching take place in the demonstrations, but it was on the contrary a pleasant surprise. Very clean, calm and airy, ultra moderne and cheaper than walking...
We jumped on, then back off again within a few muinites "that was quick" I thought.....
Well, it would appear the thais can speak English fine, but they sure as hell can't count... 2 stops meant 9 stops, and we had plenty of time to work this out as the train we now needed to catch was delayed... By 30 minutes. Time was getting on, as was half the population of Asia when the train finally arrived, but with plenty of pushing and shoving and a good place in the crowd, earned by having waited so long we both made it into the busiest underground train I've been on and 7 stops later we arrive...Late and Lost, but in what we believe to be the right part if town....
My running shoes were packed for our trip to asia and I have every intention of using them, I didn't however expect to be in a position so early into our trip where I wished I had put them on, and I least of all expected to be running with Shiree...
But, 20 mins late we arrive at our seats for the most fantastic show we've seen... 150 people, a running river with a traditional kayak,live animals including cockerels, goats and two fully grown elephants where all put to good work in a brilliantly choreographed illustration of Thai history through the ages... With only music and written text to help the viewers follow the story.
Shirees jaw almost stopped moving for a full minute before erupting into an inaudible high pitched babble when the elephants were walked into the viewing gallery as part of the show and when selected from the crowd to assist in the lighting and floating of lateens for the river a thought she was going to wet herself, but the girl did good, becoming for a brief moment part of the set, and in her eyes a supper star....
We caught up again with the elephants whilst leaving, as they are homed in the car park which gave us the opportunity to quietly feed the them without anyone else around as by this time the car park was almost empty..
I few whistles announced the presents of the elephants keeper who allowed Shiree to get close enough to touch her first elephant... I thought she was going to cry she was so happy and processed to inform me the elephant was a happy elephant, she could tell this by the look in its eye on our more humane underground journey back to central Bangkok.
Because of the demonstrations certain areas of central Bangkok are closed off at road junctions, so the tuk tuk drivers use whatever side of the road they like to get you back avoiding such road blocks..., but your never far from the action... We passed a pick-up truck passing through a roadblock into the conflict area with a bloke in the back that, if it not for the lack of a raffle looked like he belonged to the Thai Taliban.... All gas masked up, black and white head wrap, political flag wrapped around his arms and black overalls, combined with a look that said he'd had a hard day..

We get dropped off by the Khao San Road all the time... It's easier for the TukTuk drivers and for us a 3 or 5 min walk dependent on which end your dropped off at. Khao San Road is back packer capital and the bars all play English music as loud as they can make there speakers go... It's almost a no talking zone as one bars sounds system fights relentlessly against its neighbours making for a strange sound track as you walk the road... Hearing almost perfectly each bars music for the brief moment your walking directly In front of it before it's instantly downed out as you cross the threshold into the next bars sound space... The whole street is full of bars so the noise is incredible, its packed with people from all over the world all getting to know each other under the cover of the Thai speaker systems, combined with cheap drinks and plentiful clubs....

Back at our little hide away now... Lamphu House's quiet courtyard, and soon off to bed.