C-hampden's travel blogs:
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Learning lessons in Bangkok
Entry 33 of 67 | show all | print this entry |
So the real adventure has now begun - I arrived in Bangkok at 1am in the morning on 16th Jan. I was expecting to get hassled at the airport but it was very easy. Whilst at the baggage claim I got talking to 2 guys who were also staying on the Khao San Road, so we split the cost on a cab (and we didn't get ripped off!). By the time I got to my hotel/hostel I decided to drop my stuff off and go for a few beers with the guys from the taxi. We went to a few bars, and I had 4 large bottles of Chang Beer, each costing about a quid. These beers are 6.4% and are pretty potent, thus explaining my haziness the next day. 4 bottles probably equals 7 pints at home!
I got up the next day and had my free brekkie and got talking to the hotel manager - Pat - who is going to London next month. I wrote him a list of places to go in London (Croydon wasn't on that list) in exchange for some advice on Bangkok. I had a wander around the local area, and went to go to the museam but a guy told me it was closed and recommended I go to see some other places. The kind man stopped a tuk-tuk and told him to take me to 3 places an it would cost 30 baht. How nice! Well, not exactly..... Apparently the museum was open; he just wanted to send me to a few places including a jewellery shop and a tailors!! I managed to avoid buying anything, and at least I got taken to a small Buddhist temple that had 4 massive gold buddhas. I also went up Golden Circle, which had some great views.
The weather is so hot it is hard to do much in the day it seems, so I headed back to my place. I ended up meeting Ross (from Cape Trib) and spending the afternoon catching up with him and chatting with Pat. Pat then organised for us to go on a river cruise with dinner for 150 baht - 2 pound! I love this place. After that, me and Ross headed to the bars in Patponng - we now know it is the red light district. When we got out of the canb, a guy said "don't go that bar - ladyboys, don't gop that bar - gay bay. come my bar - nice, quiet". Naively we agreed and ended up in some bar where as soon as we sat down 15 thai girls lined up and the bar manager said "you choose one!". Well so we didn't offend we got a beer and bought 2 girls a drink - it was really weird and the girls towelled our faces and touch your leg. Me and Ross looked at each other and said "lets finish the drinks and go". After being offered the girls for the night for 3000 baht we politely declined. The bar tab then cam,e - 1700 baht for 2 beers and 2 drinks for the girls. Lesson definitely learnt!!!!
After that interesting intro to the seedy Bangkok area, we decided to get back to Khao San and just get on the beers there. A few drinks were sunk and plans were discussed - me and Ross are gonna travel together for a bit and try and get of the tourist track a bit. We reckon that's where the real experiences lie.... We're heading to Kanchanaburi tomorrow to see the Bridge over River Kwai - at last some culture after 2.5 months in a convict colony!
UPDATE
We ended up going to Thailand Tourist Association to try and sort our visas for other countries and ended up getting stitched up a little by paying for most of the things to do in North Thailand. It is good that we know what we are doing but I think we paid too much. Ah well, these things happen. Its only 2 weeks planned out of the next 4 months!
It was a hectic day as I had to get some money to pay but the ATM wasn't letting me have any. Turns out HSBC had blocked my card. As a result, I had shoot round Bangkok on the back of a motorbike to cash all of my travellers cheques! Pretty crazy but enjoyable all the same! The good news is my card now works.
Oh yeah, not going Kanchanaburi first now - we'll go there towards the end. Next stop The Ancient Kingdom of Ayuthaya.
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