Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Eleven hours later and we finally touch down at Bangkok Airport, what a relief. The flight was terrible due to the cramped, overly packed conditions and the exitement and anticipation of actually living the dream.
Not long after ariving it became apparent that Bangkok is absolute kaos.A mixture, or rather jumble of different and conflicting cultures, races and classes, all thrown into one huge melting pot. The number of tourists is unbelivable, its levels of annoyance just rivaling that of the stifelling,poluted heat and the smell
Although only in the city for two nights we managed to see quite a bit, but anyone traveling to the area should be aware of organised tour opperators - if they can get one up on you in any way then they will. We arranged a trip to the floating market on the first day that actually turned out to be the Bangkok Canal Tour, which we were a little disapointed about but oh well. The tour was half a day, a tour quide came to pick us up from our hostel were we were driven to the canal to catch a long boat along the canal. An english speaking tour quide then talked us through the sights of the canal, including alot of the temples and statues that were all clearly visible. In Bangkok alot of people live along the canal in little shanty houses, it was very interesting to see how these people live. Their house were practically sinking into the banks yet you could see how much pride they took in them and themselves, in the way we saw people patching up their roofs or scrubbing their cloths in the river. The tour took a break at a snake farm where we saw a snake show and alot of other animals, including lots of birds, monkeys, bears, lizards and even a tiger. They all looked a bit sad as the inclosures were quite small but we did see alot of attendants cleaning out cages so it seemsd like the people who worked there cared. We then returned up the canal were we were met by the original tour giude who said "as the tour has finnished a little early the company insists that we must take you to see some other sites, company tradition! Do you like gems?" And there it was, after that we were dragged to two gem factorys, a hand craft workshop and a suit shop all in the hope that we would buy something and all apprantly in the name of "tradition", ha!!!! Once finished the driver dropped us to the Grand Palace which was nice of him.
The Grand Palace and Temple of The Emerald Budda are definate must sees and were absolutly stunning, although it was very hot and the place is a bit of a maze. Id definatly recomend taking lots of water and a pair of sunglasses to to protect your eyes from the glare of the sun reflecting of the millions of mosaic tiles that cover most of temples. It is definatly a beatiful place but the concept of having to donate money to the King to pray to Buddah is a little strange.
No visit to Bangkok is complete without a visit to a seedy strip joint or two. So after dinner at the gimick resturant Cabbage and Condom we visited the Cowboy Soi which was just a road full of strip bars swarming with young Thai girls and creepy old foreign men. It was very funny and all the girls seemed to love ant.
Bangkok homes one of the best shopping districts. From our hostel we took the Sky Train to Siam Station were there are some huge shopping centres, one of which deals only in designer shops and has the biggest food court ive ever seen. The Siam Parogon Shopping Mall is the most amazing shopping experience and the centre even comes with its own stream, lagoon and Acuarium
We have to say that having to leave Bangkok wasnt the saddest experience ever, we were glad we went but wont be back in a hurry.
Next stop Kho Panghan, the home of the imfamous Full Moon Party. Cant wait!
"TAXI! Train station please!"
- comments