Bangkok

Thailand, the land of elephants!
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Why is it that whenever you want the night trains to arrive late they always end up being early? Well, I got to see a very quiet Bangkok as the train arrived at 5:30 AM. This was my first night train experience in Thailand and I have to admit that I didn't sleep so well. When I took the trains in India I remember always getting a good sleep. I think that these trains were a bit different in that the lights didn't turn out and my window was wide open (by my choice) so every time we stopped somewhere in the middle of the night I woke up to the announcement at the station. So other than being a bit sleepy I was safely at my final destination. I was also well fed thanks to an Israeli couple who shared their leftover dinner with me on the train so I treated them to the taxi that we shared to get to the Koh San road area, backpackers heaven in Bangkok.

Can you see the resemblance?
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I stayed at a place off from the madness of the Koh San road area but although I escaped the noise of the people I was overwhelmed by the number of roosters! I have never heard such loud roosters in my life! It was insane!!! These things were waking me up at 3:00 AM, rather confused roosters as it was pitch black. I have never wanted to kill an animal before, but I was devising schemes of getting into the temple complex where they were housed and doing some damage.

Although I have a couple of "must see" things in Bangkok I am not too sure what to do after I wake from my nap in the morning so I wander over to the information center and get some maps and ideas. First off I walk over towards the grand palace and Wat Po, I walked past the grand palace but I did make it to Wat Po where I saw my first (of many to come) reclining Buddha statue. It was very impressive and I was enthralled with the variety of the temple architecture as each complex is composed of several different styles and types of temples. I had fun exploring the different buildings but this particular complex happened to be under some serious renovation so I was a bit disappointed. Not that the buildings couldn't use some TLC, they are definitely ancient and it made me happy to see that they were making an effort to maintain them.

The beautiful temples of the Grand Palace
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I have to admit that coming from India, where I don't have any memory of being scammed into doing something that I didn't want to do or paying more for something than I should I went into Bangkok extremely naively thinking that people here were really friendly and nice. So I should have just written gullible across my forehead. I was aware that there were some scams going in the city but I wasn't expecting them to be such devious scams. I was heading from Wat Po on my way to see the Grand Palace and I looked in one of the side gates, thinking that it was the main gate at the time and a man, in an official shirt, even with a badge, told me that it was closed already but I could take a tuk tuk to see the happy Buddha and then do some shopping. Well, I decided that it would be fun to head off and do something so I took the tuk tuk. I am embarrassed to admit this, by the way. The worst part is that it wasn't the only thing that I gave into. The next day I headed off to the main city area with the intention of buying a train ticket at the station before seeing some more of the city. Well, on my way to the station a local man started talking to me about what I was doing and he led me to the local TAT office to see about tours to Chiang Mai. Now I haven't booked a tour like this before but I must have been feeling tired after my misadventure from the previous day so I let myself believe that the price that I was paying for my trek, guesthouse, and train ticket were fair. Of course, after the fact I find them not to be fair at all, but I was definitely stupid. These two experiences definitely soured my overall experience of Bangkok and I'm sure that if I had not let this happen I would have been much more inclined to stay a bit longer and explore the surrounding area but I decided to leave.

These details were really great!
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I did make it to the Grand Palace and I am so glad that I didn't miss out on seeing this because it was definitely worth it. I spent a lot of time here and I would encourage anyone to do the same. I also took a boat tour on the river taxi as it was a rainy day. I also walked around the narrow, weaving market streets of Chinatown in search of some lunch, mistaking the large signs of the jewelry stores to be those of restaurants, finally finding a place off the beaten path after feeling like I was going to have to eat some unidentified street food because I was desperately hungry.

The river on a very rainy day
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I also hit some of the shopping areas and I can honestly say that if I were to ever come back to Bangkok it would be to hit all of the shopping options. There are so many shopping centers and markets to explore it is a bit overwhelming.