Bangkok, tuk tuks and westerners everywhere

We arrived in Bangkok at about 1am, and like sheep about 25 people with backpacks on their back headed towards Kao San road.  We went to the D&D hotel, who I had phoned the previous night.  Thank goodness I had bothered to make a booking - they couldn't find it and were now full.  So we headed off to another guest house and got some kip.

I woke up at 9am to my phone ringing - Larissa and Steve had made it to town and were downstairs.  We dumped their bags in my room, and then I sat downstairs with them while they had breakfast.  We spent the morning on the net, burning eachother's photos, and at 12 we changed guesthouses.  We all had some lunch, and we heading back up to the room when we bumped into Naomi from KL!  She had had a rather unfortunate sting from a jellyfish on the Perhentians, and had been treated by a vet, since there was no doctor on the island, so was flying home to get checked out by her GP there.  So maybe we'll see her again...

So Larissa and Steve shared a cab with her to the airport, after some more farewells.  They were off to India for ten days, so hopefully we'll see them soon too.

The rest of the day was spent doing not much.  We left in some washing, and while the others went for a bit of a wander, I decided to do some blogging and planning.  They arrived back a few hours later, and went for some food.  I met them in the restaurant, after which Mike and Nikki went on the net.  I went to get some food, and Rick came with me for a beer, and to watch the movie.  All restaurants in 'western' areas of Bangkok show about 4 films a day, usually a fairly poor quality burned dvd.

We watched The Beach, and had a drink.  At the end of the film, Rick turned round to ask the guy behind him what beach it had been filmed on.  We got chatting to him - Ely, a kiwi who owned a bar in Laos, who was flying to England since it was now off season - and another girl Joanne, from Glasgow, who was sitting nearby.  We all ended up going to a bar on Kao San road (an Irish bar, apparently), and had a few drinks there.  After there, the others went home, and Rick and I went to a few more bars, eventually ending up back in Shamrocks.  It was a funny night, and we didn't make it home till about 9am the next morning.  If only Rick had known what beach the movie had been filmed on, none of this would have happened...

So I didn't do much the next day.  We got up in the afternoon and had some food.  I blogged for a while, but nothing more exciting than that.

Mike and Nikki were keen to go out that night, and I went out for food with them, but started yawning in the first bar they went to, so gave it a miss.  They must have had a good night though, because they came knocking on our door at 3.30 in the morning!

We were getting pretty bad at co-ordinating eachother's awake time.  The next morning the other two were not at all well.  Rick and I had some brekkie, and waited for them to recover and surface so that we could go to the weekend market.  Unfortunately they weren't feeling any better an hour or so later, so we left them to it and headed off.

We jumped in a tuk tuk (my first one in Thailand!), and promptly jumped back out again when the driver tried to pull one of his 'stopping off in the tourist office - good for me, good for you' scams.  We got another one, convinced him to take us straight to Chatuchak Market, and off we set.

The market was cool, and massive.  There were stands selling everything under the sun, and then some.  There were also some strange creatures performing and playing various instruments around the stalls.  We had a long wander round, and then went in search of the pet stalls, looking for the live chickens and snakes we had read about!  We found about a hundred stalls with the cutest little dogs ever, all with their fur blowdried so they looked really fluffy.  They were just gorgeous!  No snakes or chickens though.

After the market, we headed to Chinatown, to have a wander around, and to go see Wat Traimit, which shelters a 5.5 tonne solid-gold buddha.  It was pretty difficult to find our way round Chinatown, since the streetname signs are few and far between.  We wandered through Thieves Market, and then after much effort found our way to Wat Traimat, only to discover that it had closed 5 mins previously!!  How annoying!

We had a look around the grounds anyway, and then went on another of Ricky B's find-the-restaurant hunts.  He had read about an Indian in the Lonely Planet, and finding it was quite a mission!  We made it eventually, and, in his defense, the food was pretty good.  But then I don't think I've had a bad meal in Thailand - this place is great.

That evening I phoned Dave, who we had met in Cairns.  He had been in touch to say that he was in Bangkok, so I arranged to meet up with him.  So Rick, Joanne (from Glasgow) and I headed out to Kao San road.  When we got to the pub, it turned out he had bumped into Mark, an English guy who had been working in the hostel we had stayed in in Cairns!

Rick wanted to watch the Arsenal Chelsea match, so we headed to Shamrocks.  After the match, we headed upstairs to watch the band, and well, the night turned out to be similar to the previous one.  Joanne and Dave left around 3, but Rick and I were there till 7!  I wish that place would close at some stage.

On the walk home, we got chatting to a group of people who were also still out from the night before, and ended up sitting with them.  Turns out one of them went to school with Derv!  It's a small world...  So we walked home at 9 to the sound of roosters - it's weird hearing them in such a massive city, and man they are everywhere.

Later that day I didn't do much really.  Blogged, ate, that's about the lot.

The next day, however, I was on a mission to do some touristy things!  Rick, Nikki and I headed off to Wat Pho, Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace.  Mike had seen them before and wasn't bothered about going back.

Nikki and Mike had been to Wat Pho the previous day, so Nikki sat reading while we had a look around.  Inside was the biggest Buddha I had ever seen, although granted, at this stage, I've not seen too many of them.  The grounds were also pretty impressive, but man it was so humid, it was really uncomfortable just walking round.  From there, we went to Wat Phra Kaew, which housed an emerald buddha (which is in fact made of jade, but never mind).  Again, the grounds contained dozens of really impressive buildings and temples, it was magnificent.  The Grand Palace was also quite a sight, but we weren't allowed inside of it.

Rick and I had a quick look around the museum, which housed old sections of the buildings which had been renovated.  It would have been cool to see them in their previous state.

Back at the guest house, Rick went for another Thai massage (they were all at it these days!), and I just chilled out and read for a while.

That evening the other three decided to venture out to a Bangkok speciality - the ping pong show, so after a film and some hawker stall food, they headed off.  I decided it was a bit too seedy for my liking, and got an early night.

Unfortunately the next morning, everyone was feeling a bit worse for wear, so plans for an early morning trip to the floating markets and the afternoon train out of Bangkok were postponed for another day!  Instead, I spent the day blogging, so it wasn't all bad.  I also saw a snake in the street - which caused great commotion with the ladies at their stalls, but muesli guy saved the day.  And I came across some thai boxing practice on another street - nothing too violent I'm happy to report.  But other than that, it was a fairly chilled out day.  I had a wander round a street market in the evening, and made a Doremon purchase, making me a very happy Patrice.

The next morning, Mike and I got up at 5.30 (nice) to go to the floating market.  It was actually about 2 hours out of Bangkok, so we had to get there early to avoid the crowds.  (And yes, it should have gone in a different entry to this one, but I'm being lazy.)

The market was cool.  We got there, and had a bit of a bargain for boats, eventually settling on a price of 250 Batt per person, which was considerably cheaper than the 800 Batt each they tried to charge us.  After that, it was off down the water, and past stalls selling all kinds of things.  The ladies at the tourist stalls had umbrellas, and would use the hook end to grab your boat and pull you in!  We bought some fruit, and some batteries for my newly acquired Doremon fan, but no tourist tat.

After an hour of floating round, we were back on the bus, and bound for Bangkok.  Back there we met up with the others, had some lunch and set off for the train station.

So what did I think of Bangkok?  Crowded, overrun with backpackers and hippy westerners, and pretty much what I was expecting.  Having said that, it's a pretty huge city, and I'm ashamed to say that other than the odd trip out, we didn't venture much further than the Kao San road.  Had we done so, it may have been a different experience.  But I was ready to leave, and see some more 'real' Thailand.  Bring it on.

Click here for the Bangkok photos