Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
... after a couple of hours of jumbo jet fun, we're back in Bangkok. Our plan is to meet Keren, my sister, for a trip down south to the beaches - she arrives on 17th January and all goes smoothly. Its the first time she's flown this far and on her own, and we are excited to meet her at the airport, even if it does mean a 4am start.
Keren's plane is delayed by half an hour, but she eventually arrives, looking remarkably chipper after her 11 hour flight. We get a taxi back to our hotel and send her for a nap while we potter around Bangkok. We return to wake her at 1pm, and she reluctantly gets up for a shower... ten minutes later she knocks on our door and announces that "a bad thing has happened"... it turns out she's picked up the wrong bag at the airport.
We ring the airline, who tell us we need to get back there asap with the bag, as the girl who it belongs to has a connecting flight in four hours, and that for some reason she keeps her medication in her bag. We pay the taxi driver extra to go faster (one of the more useful sides to being viewed as walking ATM's), and get back to the airport in record time. Keren is relieved to get her bag back, after a team effort at searching from it by most of the Thai Airways staff (which involved a lot of clapping at the end), and a swift hide from the owner of the bag who arrives just after we do.
It turns out that Keren's actual bag is about half the size of and a different colour to the one she picked up originally, so we tell her that since there was a happy ending, we will be teasing her about it for the rest of the trip.
Undeterred, we arrange our transport down to the islands...
Bangkok Continued...
We set about showing Keren the sights and sounds of Bangkok, even though we're both a little disappointed that rather than feeling exciting and exotic as it did when we first arrived here; the bustling Khao San Road has lost its shine and just feels grimy, busy and tacky, and the boozy commercialism all around us is more noticeable.Rather than feeling left out though, we feel as though we've moved on past it... yep, we're proper travel snobs now!
The tourist part of Bangkok is also a lot busier than it was in October, as it's now peak season - although Keren is so excited to be here, and I'm so excited to see her, that no one minds and we potter about the city, stopping for a few drinks before bed on her first night.
The next day, we randomly, bump into a couple of Keren's friends - Jo and Jimmy - and arrange to meet with them again later.We know it's a cliché, but it's a small world!Our next stop is the Grand Palace, although it's closed when we arrive as its hosting part of the King's sister's funeral.Instead, we spend the rest of the afternoon at the beautiful Wat Po, giving Keren her first sight of the level of detail and scale of Thai temples.The temple grounds hold a huge reclining Buddha, and plenty of amusing monkeyesque Confucian men statues.Later that evening, after Kez has experienced her first tuk-tuk ride and met her first elephant in the street, we meet back up with Jo and Jimmy for some drinks, and are persuaded into going to a ping pong show in Patpong... the less said the better here really... suffice it to say that we emerged feeling a bit grubby, and very sorry for the working girls.We were also glad that we had safety in numbers, as in our group of five we were mostly left alone - unlike others who were constantly pestered for money.
It's time to leave behind the sleaze and crowds of Bangkok.We've spent some time reading up on the islands, and have decided to travel to Kho Phan Ngan, and to try to get to Bottle Beach, an island which is only accessible by boat, and therefore should be nice and quiet (for me and old man Dave), but also close enough to Had Rin so that we can go to the full moon party.
Our bus is meant to be at 6pm, and we trundle along behind the chap who comes to collect us, along with about forty other backpackers, to a duel carriageway about half a mile away.We are left standing at the side of the road while we wait for the bus... and wait... until at 7.30ish it turns up and we are herded across the busy road and onto the bus.The bus is relatively comfortable, and we are treated to doubly translated (and therefore very strange!), subtitled versions of 28 Weeks Later and a rubbish film with someone out of Home and Away in it.Keren is overjoyed with her first encounter of a squat toilet at the service station, and we travel on through the night...
- comments