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The Kingdom of Thailand....
Arrived in Bangkok International Airport at about 4 o'clock and were very disorientated, and a metered taxi took us to Khao San Road. Bangkok is a huge place and very hot and polluted - apparently 10 million people live there and each one must have at least 3 cars and a scooter! As it is coming up to the Kings 80th birthday the whole city is drapped in yellow and everyone wears yellow t-shirts with the royal symbol on.
Our first proper day was Wednesday. We moved accomodation to the Shambara boutique recommended by Catherine Hallam (our travelling guru) and it was lovely - you had to take your shoes off before going in which is quaint but not too good for the old veruca-phobia ey. Then we decided to flag down a tuk tuk...
If only one had opportunity to flag anything down in Bangkok - after being offered 600 tuk tuk tours, 900 taxi rides and more wooden frogs than anyone could ever possibly require, we jumped in a tuk tuk at the offer of a splendid thai fellow who said "10 baht i show you tour of temples". No no no - firstly he took us to a crazy buddhist teaching centre which was interesting but rather strange (there was a monk who was shouting through a mega phone at everyone); secondly to a ruin of a temple which was under complete reconstruction for the Kings birthday (here a lovely man who was waiting for his wife who was shopping (women!) walked us round and told us about Siam and Mrs. Anna!); and then we went to 2 of his pals suit shops and then to a dodgy tourist information place - apparently they get gas coupons for their tuk tuks for ruining peoples day! I think this must be the initiation for bangkok though - see the positive and all that. Eventually we were dropped off at the Golden Mount which actually had a lovely view of the vast city.
That evening we went to the Thai boxing at Rachadamnern. This was very exciting - lots of Thai John McCrirricks waving and shouting to one another from the second and third class seats to get the best odds (NB. Lots of Thai people like talking to Brits to improve their English which is very sweet - although it tends to end up as a football conversation (men!) ) Hopefully i've successfully uploaded a video clip of the boxing - they knee each other quite a lot for those with a nervous disposition.
On Thursday we rested by our roof top pool (thats right! we moved AGAIN to D & D) and in the evening went to Siam Square. This is the posh shopping district and is rather wonderful - Versace, Chloe, Jimmy Choo and even a Lambourgini shop?! There are also street markets (i.e. people selling things off the floor) and other shops - a lot how I would imagine Japan or somewhere - lots of shoe shops but as a size 8 I was discriminated against. Thai's have small feet. Moreover we saw a cele-bra-tay!!!! Who I dont know, but apparently it was an asian Pop Star and he had a lot of teeny bopper fans. Me included.
We then caught the sky train to Patpong. Visited 'Radio City' as recommended by Lisa!! This is a bar with Thai impersonators of Tom Jones and Elvis! Very funny indeed - please have a look at the videos they are immense. The End (!)
On Friday we decided to walk to the temples - very hotto. Its kite flying month so there are lots of kites to distract your attention from the roads of death. The temple district is Ratanakosin - we saw the Emerald Buddha, the Grand Palace and the Reclining Buddha in Wat Pho - 46 metres long which is amazing. There is a small and very unfortunate feeling of 'once you've seen one' however. You have to take your shoes off to go into the temples, and you can't point your toes at the shrine as it is very rude (Simon took this VERY literally and was walking in a very strange yet amusing fashion for a while!) In the evening we visited Chinatown and saw lots of strange foods (sharks fins, pigs faces, all yummy).
The next move is North to Chang Mai on the overnight train - 14 hours! Sheesh.
(I might let Simon type one day but probably not.)
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