Bangkok, Thailand - 18th December 2008

The Grand Palace
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Bangkok is a busy city, although not as busy as some we’ve visited – though I suppose that the recent difficulties with the closure of the airport and the political situation has made it somewhat quieter than normal. We arrived at 6am on the night bus and luckily our hotel let us check in early so after a couple of hours more kip we were ready to roll. We decided that on the first day we would visit the MBK shopping centre as I wanted to buy some prescription sunglasses. Instead of paying for a tuk-tuk we decided to brave the buses so we bought a bus map and hopped on. We were amazed to find it was free (we discovered later that it seems to be free in the middle of the day on weekdays, but even when you have to pay it’s only about 15p or 25p if the bus is airconned). We’d heard that the MBK was big but that was an understatement. It’s about 7 floors, each about two thirds the length of Meadowhall. There is every type of shop you can think of, including a whole floor full of little market type stalls selling electrical equipment including mobiles, cameras, games consoles, dodgy dvds and you can even get consoles chipped there. Mat was in his element....especially when he found the cannon shop selling lenses for his camera! On the top floor to our delight there was a cinema showing films in English with Thai subtitles, we couldn’t resist and went to see a film. I ended up buying some daily disposable contact lenses instead of sunglasses, they’re the same brand I get at home but were cheaper! We managed to feel a bit Christmassy here because there were xmas decorations and music and we even found somewhere to buy Santa hats! We spent the rest of our time in Bangkok visiting some of its major attractions including the spectacular Grand Palace (I’ve never seen that much gold in my life!), Wat Pho with its 45m reclining Buddha (I paid a donation to get a cup of coins and then you have to place a coin in these pots lined up down the wall of the temple, I think that it’s good luck or something), various other Wats including one up on the top of a hill which shows good views of Bangkok and also Vinnamek mansion which was built for one of the Kings and is made entirely of Teak wood with no nails, only wooden pins. We also spent a day at the weekend market which is MASSIVE beyond belief. We stayed about 6 hours and only scratched the surface. There are in excess of 8,000 stalls and they sell everything from handmade crafts, clothes & Accessories, shoes, 2^nd hand clothes, antiques and pets. There was a huge pets section, mainly consisting of very, very cute puppies, but also kittens, rabbits, hamsters of all varieties, guinea-pigs, iguanas, snakes and I even saw hedgehogs. I’m not sure what sort of a pet a hedgehog would make but you can buy one here! We again had some interesting food. Mat had some fried quail eggs, I had coconut ice cream and we had a pick and mix of hot sausages too!