Bangkok...home of Tuk Tuks and Koah San Rd.
Trip Start
Jun 06, 2008
1
11
23
Trip End
Aug 06, 2008
Bangkok,
Thailand
Thursday, July 10, 2008
We get on boat at 2:30PM from Koh Tao (so sad to leave that gorgeous island) to arrive at 4 at Chumpon, the port on the mainland where we boarded on a bus to go to the bus station (with the driver nodding no matter what, even if the the question you were asking couldn't be answered with a nod. So as you can imagine, he was very helpful; anything you said you were right, or at least he made you believe you were. Anyway, finally we make it on this night bus and after useless stops (which they do so tourists by food at their friend's stalls etc.) we made it to Bangkok at 5AM. Once there, you are dropped in a random spot (which we later found out was around the corner from the main backpacker street (Khao San Road)
Floating Markets
. Believe it or not this is another scam. Basically they drop you in a place where you are lost and forced to get a tuk tuk who will tell you that you are far from your destination so you hop on, get a high price, and get driven around in circles for a bit. One of the drivers even told me I was 5 KM from my destination. I was about 800 m from it in reality. Anyway, us and some other people took our bags and started walking with a map from the ho so lovely Lonely Planet SE Asia. Finally we make it to Khao San Road where places were still open (open 24/7) and people still drinking or drunk in the streets. We saw potential! ps. by now it was 6AM. Following this we found the hostel/Guesthouse MOM Guesthouse which we heard was one of the few good cheap places in the area, found out a room was opening in 1 hour so we went to one of those 24 hours places and got tea.Afterwards we went to our room, dropped our stuff, took a half hour nap and off to see the sights at 8:30 in the morning. When you only have 2 days, sleep takes the backseat.
At this point we start walking towards the direction I believe is the right one but 10 minutes later we find out it is not from a local friendly man. he also hooks us up with a tuk tuk all day to see the sights for 30 cents each. Not bad after all. We later found out this was also a scam because while they do bring out were you want, they also bring you to the various clothes stores, jewelry stores where prices are hiked up an they get their commission
Giant Buddah
. Anyway, still worth 30 cents each, not like we are stupid enough to by form those stores anyway. So we saw various cool temples in the morning including one with a gigantic Buddha which you can see in the pictures, one with a lucky Buddha and another one. After this we were dropped at several jewelry/clothes shops and then we started out sightseeing tour again but, because we are so lucky with mother nature, ti started pouring with a purpose and we asked to get dropped off at our Guesthouse as we thought it was going to last for a while. We make it to our place and of course it stops. At this point there are some more places to see but sleep deprivation was hitting hard to we napped2 hours. Once awake we went out to eat, got a cab driver to drive us to the Thai Boxing stadium only to find out the ticket was way to expensive (30-45 dollars) to we got driven back and the cab driver kept offering to drive us to a ping pong show which is a show where women do amazing/weird things with their "private areas". They smoke cigarettes, shoot ping pong balls, shoot cans, write, etc. Needless to say we did not went to it but it certainly would have been an eye-opening experience.Once back on Khoa San Road we met up with the Canadians from the Thai islands (Tracy and Adrianna) and also Gary Frielich from Stamford. So nice to see someone from home when you have been away from homefor so long! What's funny is that as soon as we met up we bought a hammock each for a dollar or so. No clue why but it was well worth it! AHAHAH
Once we were all gathered, we went to Gulliver's Tavern where we danced the night away until the early hours in the morning. Next...SLEEP! (not for too long tho, don't get your hopes up).
The next day, or actually the same day just a few hours and some sleep later, we got up at 6:30 to be on a 7AM bus for a day-trip
Lucky Temple
. The minibus took us to the floating markets first which is a series of canals man-made by the chinese 70 years ago or so ad now it's full of women on their boats selling you fruit and other stuff. Sadly we didn't really experience the real deal because most of it is a tourist attraction where they shove mini Buddhas, paintings and other gimmicks in your face. Anyway, the experience was cool for sure. Next we went to tiger temple which also turned out to be a let-down. At this place we were rushed, it was packed with tourists, and the tigers were so drugged up that it was horrible to witness. I guess it makes sense otherwise the tigers would attack the tourist as they go to pet them and walk around them but you really don't realize how badly these animals are messed with through drugs until you see it with you own eyes. Non-the-less being that close to a creature like that is amazing. Such a rush that cannot be summarized in words.Finally, the last stop was a bridge built by POWs during a war where a great amount of POWs including many Americans died while building it. The story behind it and the amount of lives lost was incredible. The problem was that were were exhausted by this point and all we could think about was getting back to our room.
Following the day-trip we arrived home at 7 and instead of napping we got what must have been our 5th wind or so and decided to walk around downtown so see some temples and the royal palace lit up which in the postcards looks amazing (and so it was)
Tiger Temple
. After this we walked back home and ended up drinking 2 buckets with cheap alcohol in it and managed to stay up until 2AM. On a side note, as I write this, I realize how little we slept in Bangkok and it's kind of incredible but at the same time dramatic. Our bodies must hate us!The following day, 3rd and last day, we made it to MBK (a huge shopping mall in Bangkok where everything but mostly electronics is sold at cheap cheap prices). Here we shopped until about 4 interrupted only by a power outage for 15 miutes. Sadly I bought nothing but Shady and Dom bought shirts, fake Ipods, speakers, etc etc.
After this MBK visit we walked to Lao airlines where reserved seats on the flight from Luang Prabang to Siem Reap and on the way we walked randomly into Gary who scared me shitless by jumping on me.
Finally our short stay in Bangkok ended (at least for Dom and I since Shady stayed longer and decided to skip Laos) with a nightbus to Vang Vieng. On it we watched the bootleg Superbad DVD we bought in Phuket and then passed out which was not easy since the bus driver would stop completely randomly every hour or so but I guess buses here in Asia can do whatever they want.
