Bangkok Hotels
|
  | |  |
Bangkok City Centre
Entry 4 of 68 | show all | print this entry |
|
We slept briefly and then woke at something like 6am. Got up and after an ok breakfast (but not The Marriot) asked what the cheapest way into town was. "Ferry", replied the hotel receptionist, "just around the corner". So being up for new experiences etc, and at the time quite excited about getting the ferry into Bangkok, we went and waited for the ferry.
Once again, no signs, had no idea which way on the canal we needed to go. In the we decided to get on a very bust ferry, it seemed the best option. Turns out we were right. But once on the ferry, it was obvious that westerners don't often do this. Apart from no signs, no one could speak English to help us get off at the right stop. Apart from that, the canal seriously stunk of sewage. The water was black and it was splashing up onto the sides of the boat. To cut a long story short we ended up getting off one ferry and got on another one - following the crowds on their way to work. Eventually we reached the end of the line and ended up about a half a mile from Koh San Road (a tourist street famous for guest houses etc. - we did ok!) We had to dodge a few scam artists trying to get us into their tuk-tuks and off somwhere to spend all our money - not that we have any!
After a cold tiger beer (50 Baht - 70 pence) and a rest from the suns heat we ended bang in the shopping centre. Huge shopping centres everywhere, but without cash, it's wasted! We decided to make a bee line for The Pathumwan Princess Hotel - my Mum stayed there when we got married here in April. We tried not to look bedraggled and confidently made a beeline to the elevator and went up the the pool on the 9th floor. We didn't dare ask for towels, as this could give away the fact that we weren't staying at the hotel, so we sat on some unoccupied sunbeds and pretty much immediately fell asleep! Woke up about an hour/maybe two later feeling like crap, realising the hotel staff were looking at us and sheepishly headed out.
At this point we needed to get home so we decided that "we had to have a go on the sky-train". Once again we ended up on a platform, with no signs in English (at this point was starting to think that all this that I've heard lately about tourism being Thailand's' number one import being rubbish), anyway after about half an hour we worked it out, how to buy a ticket and then we figured out which train we needed to get and which platform to get it from - we'd been on the wrong platform previously.
Well we got off the sky-train, which was fun but no different to the tube really (except that it's in the sky and not underground), and got a taxi. The taxi then gets stuck in traffic and an hour later we're still there. Eventually got to the hotel. By now maybe you can understand that we were wanting to get out of Bangkok. We bought food from a supermarket - didn't want to risk wandering around all evening again, went to sleep with the plan of getting up early and getting out of Bangkok to Sukhothai(the old capital of Siam - est 1300ad).
|
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries from Thailand or try a new search. |
| |
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
3 votes 
