Bangkok part II
Trip Start
Apr 09, 2008
1
63
115
Trip End
Apr 19, 2009
Bangkok,
Thailand
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
I found my french/ japanese friends and agreed to meet them later. I found the airlines office and after some confusion managed to get all my flight dates sorted up to Bahrain so thats a relief. Next I went to pat pong an area of bankok that is famous for its sex shows and various seedy things of that nature. Now it is full of the same tourists that you see everywhere in Thailand and is a lot more tame. Not to say that sort of thing doesnt still happen, of course it does. Just walking around from 4 in the afternoon looking at what there was to see I was offered about eleventy seven massages and tenty two ping-pong shows. But on the other hand I found a healthy tourist market underway selling dodgy watches and hilarious t-shirts. (By the way have you seen those t-shirts that change colour in time to music? How cool are they?) I also found some good quality street food including curry (or soup) in a bag. I think take-away in a bag is a great idea although it does take three hands to eat.
Later I met up with my friends we stayed in Pat Pong just a little longer before we went to see a music show. It was actually awful, thai music is like that. Like one of those boy bands you don't quite remember the name of that released one song back in 1998. And I mean all thai music, it all sounds the same. Well this particular group did bad take that dancing back up by bad singing, although the people playing instruments were not bad. After some drinks it was decided we should get out.
Next moring I had little or no idea what to do so I spent the day reading in the park. Watching the sprinklers and eating. Lots of eating always good. I next went to see the area of the city populated by rich ex-pats, it is full of highrise hotels, apartment building and offices. It has the same bustle as the rest of the city, just as many people but a little more sedate. I went on the internet after that and although I didnt realise it until the next morning I acidentally left my memory card with all my holiday pictures on it in the computer. There was nothing I could do but hope it would still be there when I had a chance to go back.
My last day in Bangkok I went out to see some khlongs. A khlong is a canal more or less and Bangkok used to be full of them. It is still possible to travese the city on taxi boat, changing boats at the low bridges but I am sure it is just as easy to spend a week in the city and not even notice the canals. My first boat took me almost as far as the river, I then took a second taxi over the river and spent the rest of the day wandering around the alleys around the river side. Wooden houses on stilts line narrow alleys that were often flooded. The smell of food cooking mixes with the less apetising smell of rotting rubbish and dirty river water. This is the real bangkok, literally. I always new that bangkok was the name for the village not the city but I found out today that the location of that village was just over the river, where I walked. I finished the day in a big american style mall eating ice cream and playing on video games. I headed back to my hotel just with time to get back into the internet cafe and claim my missing picture card, briming over with relief I borded the bus to Phuket.
