With a determination to stay in another part of the city and finalise our Indian Visas we make the most of the day since pulling into the train station at 7:00am. All things went like clockwork. After dropping our passports off at the embassy in the Sukumvhit area, we checked out the dodgy hotels nearby. Quintessential was Crown Hotel, with what appeared to be the owner (mob looking spit talking character) and receptionist (tattoo laden, short skirt, high heels) gambling with 3 police officers while the clientele of old farangs and arm draping thai girls lounge by the pool. We could have stayed there for twice the price we had been paying near Khao San!
After a bit more searching and we come to the realisation that no hotels know if they have any vacancies till after 12:00. We decide to leave Sukumvhit to its neon lights, fat cats and alley cats and check out the more mall-orientated district of Siam Square.
Thankfully, we discover a great little street called Kasem Soi 1, which has a good number of budget places, away from mall mania and with easy access to the Skytrain. There we find a great little place called White Lodge. 500 Baht for a nice light spacious room. After a day of intense running around we plan out our last days in Bangkok.
With 3 days to go we weave our way through the people, stalls, alleys, plastics, toys, bulk buys, baskets of numerous dried foods and other miscellaneous merchandise of Chinatown. Made Khao San Road look like a side street in Invercargill. Once we broke through the madness we found ourselves at the pier and took one of the tourist ferries to Khao San Rd district. Tick 2 more things off the list of 'things tourists should do in Bangkok'.
Seems we can't keep away from KS! While there we organise a tour for the next day (our first official touristy tour). The desire to do some last minute shopping turns into another excursion to Chatuchak markets. Gosh what were we thinking? We collapse at the end of the day, exhausted from our efforts to get those last minute bargains.
2 days to go and we do a crash course of tourist spots in the area surrounding Bangkok, starting with the floating market - a few hours drive south-west of Bangkok. Depicted in the brochures as a set of picturesque canals in a quiet country town, the markets are in fact as congested as the busiest streets in Bangkok - made worse (according to J) by the fact that all the row boat taxis are driven by elderly women with deep seated issues.
Louisa thinks the crazy boy racers with their motorised long-tail taxis might have had something to do with the craziness too. Despite the madness, it was a great experience, very slow and most often it was a standstill but the atmosphere on the river was not to be missed and the fall of the sunlight on the tapestry of colours made up of fruits and trinkets was a visual symphony for our over stimulated senses. Cough cough.
Next we went to the bridge over River Kwai and the Heath Museum. Bit of a hospital pass as the museum is in much need of attention but has some remarkable information on the bridge's chequered past. Most intriguing was a display down one of the side passages illustrating the ascent of man from the Neanderthal. Apparently men haven't changed much. We'll let the picture below tell the rest of the story!. L braves a little walk over the bridge with numerous other tourists and stands in the sidecage as a train passes.
Finally we make it to the Tiger Temple. A Buddhist monastery which looks after orphaned tigers (among other animals such as deer and wild boars). In the early 2000's, local villagers brought injured cubs to the monastery for care and now there appears to be at least 10 tigers including two cubs. The highlight is getting your photo taken patting a few of their tigers, under watch of a few monks and a large crew of volunteers. There has been a bit of controversy surrounding the intention of the monks, particularly with regard to the large entry fee (300 Baht). But having seen the great environment they're providing (a large and picturesque canyon with waterfall) and their proposal to build an island for the tigers, to keep them separated from the other animals, all seems to be in order.
We celebrated our last evening in Thailand by having a nice thai dinner before heading to one of the remaining "cultural" events - no, not the ping pong show! - but the Calypso Cabaret. What do you get if you assemble 50 guys on stage, dress half of them in drag and run an hour and a half of 1930's music through the PA? Something in between a Broadway musical and a freak show. Louisa spent most of the show trying to work out how they could wear such revealing clothes and not reveal their "little secrets". J spent the entire show on the edge of his seat - ready for a quick getaway in case he caught one of their eyes and they invited him on stage to join the festivities. Overall very entertaining. No effort spared - a very well put together production. The drag queens didn't stop at a tuck-under either - most had remarkably perky breasts and no hint of a sausage was revealed, even when those wearing a leotard bent over and wiggled their arses. Clearly "post-op". What you lose on the swings you gain on the round-abouts. OK, enough.
We finally said our goodbyes to Thailand after 6 weeks; its thai massages, the farangs, the ostentatious Buddhas and wats, the fried bananas, Chinese doughnuts, the stumpy dogs with their permanently curled tails, the ubiquitous royal family portraits, the bright coloured cabs, the old weathered expats, the glorious beaches and drinks in buckets, the craziness, the laidbackness, the diversity, the tradition.
With many countries to choose from we debated about where to head next, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam seemed like obvious choices, China was calling and then there was India. It was time to re-evaluate what we wanted out of travelling, to visit a country or experience a country. Having spent more time in Thailand than we intended...like a month... it was clear we wanted the latter...so it was time to jump headfirst into India.
Thanks to the guy for the big tip on Air India Express, a budget airline with flights from Bangkok to Kolkata (Calcutta). He saved us money and the flight determined our stating destination in India.
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