THAILAND Bangkok- Part 1

The electricity poles are still a mess but a lot cleaner than India!

Even though I do love India, we were definitely ready for a break from the noise and crowds and pollution, and were on our way to Thailand. I had only been here once before for 2 days on either side of a trip to Cambodia about four years ago, so I remembered a few bits about it but most of it was new to both of us. We landed in Bangkok airport and made an attempt to gather ourselves together and work out how we were going to get from the airport to the hotel. While clearing out my room before leaving England, I had luckily come across some Thai currency- Baht, hidden in the depths of under my bed (benefits of being a hoarder!) and it totaled about 400 Baht- about £8. Great- we can use it to get to the hotel before worrying about changing up money or paying the high charges of an ATM at the airport (we checked- about £3 per transaction). We first went to check out the train/bus situation as this was probably going to be the cheapest. No buses we could see, but there was a metro line. We had a quick look and we couldn’t immediately find that it stopped at the area we wanted, so thought we would give it a try and see how much a taxi costs. However, we couldn’t go straight up to a taxi and ask, we first had to take a ticket and queue up, then find the allocated taxi for us. After all this, the driver told us it would be at least 500 Baht, which we didn’t have. So we had to mess up the whole system and walk away, leaving the taxi driver having to go and explain to his manager he would need another allocated passenger as the first lot were cheap skates.

So, back to the metro line, and this time we found an information desk who told us which line to get on. We boarded the clean, organized train (after some train staff had done a quick safety sweep for any bombs and such) and got our first sights of Bangkok. Like the train, the area was clean and organized- rows of identical houses formed neat roads, the scenery was green rather than dusty.

So organised and clean!

 Once we reached the stop that we needed, we got off only to find that we were still quite far away from the hotel and would need another mode of transport. There were two available- a taxi and a rickshaw. Thinking we would be smart and save money, we chose the rickshaw option, only to discover that it was 250 Baht- £5. In India we would have refused immediately- this kind of price could have got us from Goa to Delhi- or pretty much anyway. However, we had no idea about Thai prices, so went for it anyway. On reading up about it, apparently rickshaws tend to be more expensive than the metered taxis as they know tourists will pay- oh well. Anyway, we arrived at the hotel we had booked, which was so clean for our current standards- we had towels which had been washed and packed in plastic wrapping, no scuzz in the bathroom- amazing! We did have a lizard friend who had made the bathroom his home, but he didn’t make too much noise and was kind of cute so we let him stay.

Then came the good bit- time to explore! Apparently we were located near where all the action took place, and it didn’t take us long to realise we were definitely not the only white people here. In fact, in most places, white people outnumbered Thai people. We found our local supermarket- a 7/11, which is definitely not a rarity here. In fact, most roads had 2 or 3 7/11s. Now, one of the things Jonno has a passion for when we go abroad is food shops. He can spend hours looking at all the weird and wonderful foods and brands. I don’t think I have ever seen this level of excitement from him- he was prancing about the aisles, picking up items and exclaiming “what’s this?” So I let him play around for a while and eventually dragged him out to go and find somewhere for dinner.

The excitement of food shopping!

As usual, we were looking for the cheapest places to eat and lucky for us, Thailand has an abundance of street food which ranges from about 30 Baht (60p) to 80 Baht (£1.60) per dish. This is often noodles in some form- either noodles with a broth and some meat and vegetables, or Pad Thai which is noodles stir fried with egg, chicken, peanuts and mung beansprouts. So we dined at one of the fine street establishments and continued our exploration.

Dining at these fine establishments

 We turned one corner and found ourselves on the famous Khao San Road- a hedonistic mess of bright flashing lights, bars with blaring music, waitresses in miniskirts advertising deals on beers and buckets (it is what is says- a bucket- filled with spirits and mixers), market sellers with wristbands you can buy that say anything you want, with some premade ones people had obviously not paid for saying ‘cock salad’ or ‘I <3 c***’, and tourists stumbling about after too many drinks. At first, we were in shock. Coming from a country where it is not appropriate for women to show their shoulders or legs and having not been to a bar in months, and landing headfirst into Khao San Road, we were not sure what to do with ourselves or where to look. Eventually we decided on the wise old saying- if you can’t beat them… so we sat ourselves in a bar an ordered one bucket with two straws. It seemed to take the edge off, so we had another. We still didn’t feel fully ready for Khao San though, and moved onto the next road along which was a bit quieter and had some acoustic live music. We settled there for a while with some more cocktails. We got back to the hotel and it wasn’t even midnight but it felt so rebellious!

Crazy Khao San Road

Mobile cocktail bar

The next day we found a cosy riverside restaurant with some cheap food to start the day, and tried to work out what we wanted to actually do in Bangkok- we hadn’t really thought about it until that point. We had been told that a good way of getting around was by riverboat taxi, so after finding the closest place to board it we bought a ticket for 40 Baht one way which apparently was for tourists and gave you a guide to explain points of interest along the way. We thought this would be a good idea to do, but were pretty disappointed when all the guide did was mumble the name of each stopping point, in a language that sounded vaguely like English but not enough to understand anything. We got off at the last stop and after this took every other boat journey on the regular 15 baht (30p) boat. We found a few market places to wander around and a shopping mall, which enabled us to sort out a Thai SIM card, and spent the rest of the day getting used to our new surroundings and getting our bearings.

The wildlife in the river next to our hotel

The day after we thought we had better do some sightseeing, one of the main attractions being a temple called Wat Pho. This is a temple famous for a huge reclining Buddha statue which lies in one of many elaborately decorated buildings and is among many thousands of Buddha statues in the complex.

One of the famous reclining Buddhas

Someone copied my wardrobe!

 We spent a while wandering around admiring it, then planned to continue on to the grand palace but by the time we had reached it they had closed. So alternatively we made our way on foot to the china town of Bangkok, and although we had arrived too late for the market or street stalls, the area did have a definite Chinese atmosphere with some streets adorned with lanterns and shops with Chinese produce. It was then that Jonno started to feel unwell, so we went to sit down on a step in one of the side streets. While we were there, a little old Chinese woman emerged and about 10 cats came out and surrounded her, and she proceeded to feed them while trying to maintain order and tutting at them when they did not behave. We then heard some gongs and some singing, and discovered we were next to a Chinese Buddhist temple and a service was beginning. We poked our heads around the corner and some women beckoned us in and motioned for us to sit in the congregation of about 8 other people. It seemed pretty interesting, so we took our seats and watched the Buddhist monks at the front give blessings to the large Buddha statue with two other small Buddhas, with musicians behind them playing traditional Chinese music and the congregation singing from hymn books that there was no chance of us deciphering. It was pretty soothing though, so we stayed for a while to enjoy the ceremony.

The Chinese Buddhist Temple

Chinese cat lady

After getting the boat back to the guesthouse, we decided it was time to brave it and fully immerse ourselves in Khao San Road. We were still carrying cheap Indian rum with us that we had bought in Daramshala, so we cracked it out and headed for some bars. After a couple of buckets at a fairly tame bar, we then found one that had on the front in big writing ‘VERY STRONG COCKTAILS. WE DO NOT CHECK ID’ so we ventured into it- more for the first reason than the second. The cocktails were indeed strong and it also had the bonus of a heavy set ladyboy in red lipstick and some very small hotpants waving a sign for laughing gas and pouting. There was also a customer who was also wearing short shorts and was trying to seduce a girl by dancing in a very effeminate manner and ended up braiding her hair- I think he might have been a bit unsure of which way he was swinging. So we stayed there for a few hours and enjoyed the crazy atmosphere before making our way back to the hotel.

Say what you mean

The ladies here are really something

The next morning we were feeling a bit delicate but had to get up and ready as we had planned on getting a bus to our next destination. We first went to get some lunch, which Jonno then made the mistake of ordering a wild card on the menu- sticky soup. It arrived and looked like congealed snot- not the most appealing thing with a hangover. Fortunately once you got past the appearance and the texture it didn’t taste too bad.

We picked up our bags from the hotel, and started the walk towards the bus stop. We had to get a local bus to the South Bus Terminal where we could then get on another bus to our next destination, Prachaup Khiri Khan. Jonno looked on the map and the bus stop was apparently a 20 minute walk away, so still feeling rough we heaved our bags there. When we arrived at the bus stop the number of our bus was not on there. As we were not really sure where else to go we stood around for a while hoping that they had made a mistake with the sign. But 15 minutes later and still our bus did not turn up. After walking up and down the street a few times we eventually found a tiny sign with our bus number on it, but a stern woman told us it was not here, in fact it was outside the museum, wherever that was. We then found a more helpful man who directed us to the bus stop outside the museum, and soon after our bus shows up. Hoorah! We arrived at the south bus terminal which was more like a shopping centre with an added extra of being a bus terminal, got on a beautifully clean air conditioned bus and started the four hour journey to the seaside town of Prachaup Khiri Khan.