The Grand Palace and fake designer gear
Trip Start
Jun 08, 2007
1
22
23
Trip End
Jul 05, 2007
Bangkok,
Thailand
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Our driver Monkom turned up as planned at 11.00am this morning to take us 160km North back to the Capital in the humid 36 degree heat. After leaving our bags at the airport for the day, we continued with the services of the cheeky chirpy Thai chap for a drive into the city. It's a sprawling mass of skyscrapers, unfinished buildings and desperate shanty towns in truth. Not that much to shout about.
We were in search of fake designer gear, convinced that the stuff we'd checked out in Pattaya was of lesser quality and the real good stuff would be in the big city
Me, Carl and Chris at Grand Palace, Bangkok
. Incidentally, Mark had purchased a Breitling copy watch earlier in the week for an extortionate 20 quid (Chris got one later that morning for less than half the price which sat uncomfortably with the South African!). To make matters worse, it transpires that the visibilty on Mark's watch will not be good in humid, wet or steamy environments. On the way to the airport in the sweaty heat of Monkom's minibus, Mark happened to look at his watch which by this time was full of condensation! Oh dear. B'elzebub has had your pants down again old mate!
After struggling to explain to Monkom what we seeked, he promptly called on the services of his sister who out of the blue pulled up alongside us in her taxi minutes later! She spoke great English and we hopped into her cab instead. En-route to visit the Arthur Daley's of Bangkok, we made a stop at the Grand Palace, the most popular tourist attraction in the whole country and home to the green buddha (a little green statue that apparently has caused wars between Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam for years). The Palace is quite spectacular and offered lots of photo opportunities. Check out the "tight" over trousers we all had to wear in order to get in as a mark of respect!
Rocky Pantaloon at the Grand Palace!
So, off to the market. Apparently, we were informed that Sukhamvit Road used to be the place until the police authorities realised a chance to make a bit of cash and shut them all down, relocating them to a building in the West of town for a "fee".
An anti-climax to say the least. The watches albeit good copies were far more expensive than we anticipated at 40 quid each. I picked up some bargains on the "ladies hardware and accessories" for my beloved but all in all, very disappointing.
So that was Thailand. In fact, that's the end of an amazing trip really. We've had extremes of temperature, snow, rain, sun, bustling cities, quiet beaches, ski slopes, jungle, amazing scenery, temples a plenty but most of all a fantastic time. On occasion it was frustrating - particularly with the distances involved but on the whole it was the cliched "holiday of a lifetime". I couldnt have picked a better bunch of lads to do it with although I wished others could have made the trip to.....you know who you are!
Next stop London. This time tomorrow I'll be home....this time on Friday I'll be at work...bugger!
C
