Bangkok... non-stop
Trip Start
Aug 04, 2008
1
4
16
Trip End
Aug 21, 2008
Bangkok,
Thailand
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Having fallen asleep so early in the evening, we were both up and ready by 6am this morning. We had made our way through the fantastic breakfast buffet by 7am, and were ready to walk the streets! We roughly mapped a route, and headed out... to find that aside from streetside grocerers, nowhere opens until at least 10am! Undeterred, we made our way out, checking out the strange and wonderful produce being sold along the streets. Rambutans, lychees, dragon fruits, mangos, pineapples, some other green thing I hadn't seen before... everything was being sold... for crazy cheap. I'm talking 1kg of lychees for 40baht... that's $1.25!! Craziness! Prawns, whole chickens, all sorts of fish... just laying out ontop newspapers covered in ice cubes! After taking a bunch of pictures, we ended up walking past rows and rows of closed storefronts. After some wandering, we found ourselves on Rambuttri Rd, a major touristy spot for food and drinks... just not this early in the morning.
We came across several Thai massage shops, but only one of which opened at 8am. Looking through the window, it seemed legit enough, so in we went! 1hr massage for 200baht! Six dollars!! Craziness! I didn't know this, but Thai massage likes to incorporate lots of stretching... lots. A relatively relaxing 1 hour later, we stepped back onto the streets... where the shops were all just starting to open up.
Making our way a few blocks down onto Khao San Rd, we were ready to open our wallets. On both sides of this car-free road, there were shops selling T-shirts, silver jewelry, souvenirs, sling-bags, fake sunglasses, CDs... everything you could really need for 300 bahts or less. A few 150baht t-shirts later, we made our way back to the hotel.
Our first destination was the Grand Palace, no longer where the king lives, but where major ceremonies, etc are held. Tracie had been itching to experience a ride on a tuk-tuk. We flagged one down... or rather, they flagged us down... we negotiated a price, and put-put-put-putputputputputputput... we were off! To describe what a tuk-tuk is: it's a three-wheeled contraption... which is essentially a motorcycle modified to be able to carry the driver, and two other people on a short bench attached to the back. Tuk-tuks are absolutely everywhere in this city... EVERYWHERE.
To describe the streets in Bangkok, it's chaos. There are lane markings, but not even the cars use them. The motorcycles are skinny little versions of the motorcycles back at home, and they have these little thin tires that allow them to turn and swerve sharply in between cars and other motorcycles. The motorcycles and scooters rarely have only one person riding on them, and they zip through traffic like they're on a bicycle. Of course, there are bicycles everywhere too. Helmets and seatbelts are a rarity. And, cars and motorcycles honk their horns like they are a brand new discovery. No one gives way for anyone else, and if you want into a lane... you just take it first, and shoulder check after. Cab drivers accelerate like they have an open highway in front of them, and slam on the brakes when they reach the car that had only been a few metres ahead of them. Pedestrians just cross the street regardless of what the light says... mainly because cars just drive through crosswalks, regardless of what the light says. And yet, strangely enough, we did not see a single accident or injured pedestrian during our entire stay. It was like controlled chaos, controlled through a mutal understanding of "I'll watch out for myself, you watch our for yourself, and we'll all be fine".
Either way, the tuk-tuk ride was an experience. A face full of car exhaust, speeds in excess of common sense, an offer to take us on a cheap city tour, 10 minutes and 50baht later, we ended up at the gates of the Grand Palace. Turns out that men's shorts were unacceptable on palace grounds, so I had to rent a pair of baggy pants from the ticket office. Without going into too much detail, the palace was nice to visit. Lots of pictures. Lots of tourists.
By now, it was just past noon, and it was getting smoking hot outside. Humid, hot, breezeless... we needed air conditioning. We were flagged down by a taxi as we left the palace, and we directed him to MBK centre... a shopping mall and cinema. This mall was enormous... 7 floors. Each floor had it's own theme/items for sale. After booking our tickets and seats for The Mummy, we made our way through the electronics floor and down to the clothing floor. By the time the movie started, we had each acquired some 500baht jeans.
By 8pm, we had commandeered another taxi to take us to the PatPong night market. The night market consisted of rows upon rows of everything cheap and fake. Fake Tiffany's jewelry, fake Rolex watches with a Rolex catalogue available so you can compare how real the fake one looks, fake clothing of all types... oh, and on either side of the street were rows of hawkers offering "thai girls" and other things I won't be listing. To be honest, the market experience was more exhilarating than enjoyable. So much going on at the same time, so much noise, crowds of people forcing their way through narrow walkways, holding onto of my own bag, hawkers vying desparately for just a few bahts... all in all, sensory overload. Tracie did get a silver pendant... in a light blue box... with the words Tiffany and Co. etched on it. To give you an idea of how much bartering goes on... we asked how much and the lady arbitrarily punched in 750baht ($25) on a calculator... by the time we left, we paid 250baht ($8) for it.
We had had enough of the market by 9pm. We stumbled across a nice (and clean) looking noodle shop for dinner, and ended up back at the hotel afterwards.
Ironically of course, the first time that both Tracie and I got some stomach problems... was after we ate that the "clean looking" noodle shop. So much for that theory.
