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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| Crazy Khao San Road |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| One of the famous reclining Buddhas |
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| 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.
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| The Chinese Buddhist Temple |
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| 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.
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| Say what you mean |
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| 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.
