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By around 10pm on Friday 7th November we had finally reached our humble abode in Bangkok after our delayed flight had landed in Don Mueang International Airport and we'd made our way to our destination Khaosan Road. This must have undoubtedly been the busiest, loudest street in Bangkok...market stalls, bars, clubs, hundreds of people, Thai people everywhere in your face trying to sell you everything from knock off goods to scorpions on sticks! Sam's face was a picture, he was convinced we were in the wrong place, actually hoping we were in the wrong place was more like it, not the peace and quiet he likes. By this time we were both very much in need of hangover food after eating very little since waking up like zombies earlier this morning. And by hangover food we meant not curry and rice or noodles. As if like a dream but what should appear out of cloud at the end of the street…Burger King…what up! Happy bellies here we come. After demolishing what felt like a feast after the tiny portions we'd become accustomed to we headed back for a much needed hangover sleep!
Fresh and ready to take on the city that never sleeps we headed out to explore on the morning of Saturday 8th November. After breakfast at a cute little French feeling Thai run café we headed to the Grand Palace on foot. A Thai guy who apparently taught English in London told us it was closed until 2pm…but with the advice of a good friend prior to our trip we headed there anyway and low and behold it wasn't closed, so that guys 'information' was obviously a ploy to get us to go to other temples/shops…GRRRR! This aside we headed into the palace…we had to loan some clothing so we were adequately covered up…rice pants are definitely a good look for Sam! The palace was VERY busy but very fascinating and beautiful especially the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. We had to take our shoes off before going into all of the temples and there were Buddhist monks everywhere! There were a few other museums in the grounds of the palace that were pretty interesting too. We then headed to the Temple of the Reclining Buddha...it was bloody huge! After a nice Thai lunch and whole coconut smoothie outside the Museum of Siam we headed into the museum for a visit. It was a very interesting look into Thailand's history. On leaving the museum we could hear a live band playing; there was a Thai rock concert at the end of a row of market stalls in the park next to the museum haha! We took a stroll through another park where they were setting up for an annual puppet show. From here you could see he palace all lit up against the dark sky…beautiful! After freshening up we got a tuk tuk to the Playhouse Theatre to see a ladyboy cabaret. We had tickets to seats on the third row back. The cabaret was hilariously cheesy. There was an obvious divide between the more successful very passionate lead acts and the very jealous unmotivated backing acts that couldn't look anymore depressed to be where they were...however they put on a good show and we loved it! Some of them were very pretty and you could easily not tell that they were pre-op trannys. Afterwards there was an opportunity to have a photo with them...it wasn't until now that it was more obvious they were men, you could see their stubble and stuff. I handed my camera over to one of them so we could have a picture, who proceeded to drop it and they all screamed like girls...after they'd all calmed down we got our picture with them. It wasn't until afterwards that we realised the shutter on my camera had broken...the lady boy's had broken my camera haha! We left and got offered a tuk tuk to go and see a ping pong show but by this time it was easy to see that Sam was all trannied out...so we got a tuk tuk back to Khaosan Road where we had a beer and the most un-Thai Thai food we'd had in our time in Thailand, Sam's was like chicken nuggets on a bed of cabbage with rice and Lou's was like Heinz tomato soup with a few pieces of duck and lots of tinned veg; Lou in particular was not impressed! We had a few drinks there and then headed back to bed.
We started our day on Sunday 9th November with breakfast at the little café again where Sam sharted hahaaa! So back to the room for a quick bum wash and pant change for Doyle. We then got a tuk tuk to the pier where we hopped onto a long tail boat along the river to the Thonburi canals. We passed by lots of locals shanty looking wood houses along the river where they were fishing and swimming, the kids waved at us as we sailed past and eventually we reached the floating markets. Here locals were cooking and selling crazy traditional Thai food from boats...we ate sea bass, deep fried squid cakes, porkballs on sticks, marinated pork steaks and some crazy sweet rice crackers with whipped cream and grated prawns on top. In the canals around the floating markets were thousands of fish...big fish all being fed by the locals and tourists, obviously in an attempt to fatten them up before they got cooked on a locals boat. It was a well worthy visit and a fascinating insight into local life. We continued on our journey on the long tail boat through the remaining canal network and back down the river to the pier. On arrival back at Khaosan Road, we had a wander up and down the markets where Lou bought a cute little dress and some MORE elepant trousers for the temples in Cambodia…any excuse! We both then had a Thai massage; one word sums up this experience…bizarre! We were taken upstairs to a big room full of mattresses laid on the floor, we were taken to the corner where two Thai ladies proceeded to fold us into shapes we didn't think possible for the human body to go into...a very rough 'massage' indeed but afterwards we actually both felt surprisingly relaxed! Much to Lou's delight tonight's dinner was a lot better than the previous nights. We hopped on a tuk tuk to Ratchdoeman Stadium for a night of Thai boxing...ring side seats, second row back BOOYAH! Some of the fighters were as young as 10...it certainly was not pleasant watching the youngest fighter of the night getting knocked out by a kick to the neck! But luckily they got older as the night went on. All of the fighters were Thai except for one French and one Aussie guy who fought eachother. They were all so quick and tough! They hardly seemed in any pain even when receiving swift powerful punches and kicks...crazy guys! We were sat amongst loads of yanks like the British meat to an American burger...Sam described it as like being in a film. The ones up front were a group of students from Canada on an exchange trip...they were bearable but the group behind were so loud and typically yank, annoying much! Sam got asked about three times if he was a boxer because of his blank eye haha! After fight night was over we headed back to our crib to get packed up ready for our early transit into Cambodia the next day.
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