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  Bangkok, Thailand
Monday, October 31, 2005

It's 4.30am when we arrive in Bangkok. We are told that this is actually a good time to travel as the traffic is not too congested. A taxi driver who seems to be half asleep, as we are, drives us to our hostel which is in the backpacker haven of Banglamphufor.

At first glance, Baan Sabaii guest house provides an air of elegence, however behind the facade of the reception, we find institutionalised looking coridoors and a basic room with a small window. It is dark and the air conditioning rattles in the stark room like an old diesel lawnmower. We attempt to look for somewhere else in the dimly lit streets which still contain the odd drunk, but give up fairly quickly and rest in our room, promisiong ourselves to look elsewhere during the day.

Later in the morning we sweat profusely as we take the short walk to the Golden Palace

01 Grand Palace

. Just outside we see a small continental looking cafe where we decide to stop and eat breakfast. John orders his usual fried egg on toast from a neatly presented waitress and I cannot resist ordering the Pad thai noodles.

At first glance everything seems to look normal in the cafe. However when I look closely at our waitress who is now sitting reading a magazine called LIPS, I realise that although she is wearing high-heeled shoes, makeup, and feminine clothing, her build and features are most definitely masculine. We later learn that there are more transvestites per capita in Bankok than anywhere else in the world. The most interesting one I saw was one sitting in the makeup section of a department store trying out eye make up products from Chanel.

The entrance to the Golden Palace is full of disorganised groups and vendors. Once inside I am stunned by a large collection of temples which are gleaming in the sunlight. Built in 1785 as the private royal temple, this is the holiest site in Thailand and houses the most important image, the Emerald Buddha.

We walk around a maze of different buildings which are used for various different royal events

02 Images of the Grand Palace

. Every inch of the exterior walls are decorated with gold, mirror or coloured stones. Larger than life green monsters guard the entrance doorways and elegeant half human, half animal figures are dotted around the place. A wall surrounding the temples is covered with detailed pictures depicting different war scenes.

We leave our shoes outside of the temple of the emerald jade Buddha and enter the cool of the marble floored room. There is a hush inside and under a golden canopy sits a 1 meter high jade Buddha. We sit among locals and tourists being careful to not offend the Buddha by inadvertantly pointing the soles of our feet at him. This month the Buddha is wearing his golden wet season coat, and in few days there will be another ceromony to dress him in his winter coat.

Back out of the humid 35C heat we visit the small museum which uninterestingly shows how different parts of the building which have been restored. We stop outside the royal residence for a short while to have a refreshing fresh coconut drink (and ice cream for John) and then retreat back indoors to an equally dull coin and jewellery museum.

In the afternoon we decide to go to the train station to buy our advance tickets to Laos

03 Trees in the Grand Palace

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Many people we have met travelling have recommended Laos to us, so although it is not on our original itinary, we decide to change our plans and head up through this relatively unspoilt country. A 15 day visa can be applied at the border in Vientiane and we hope to exit at the north of Thailand to continue our travels through Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai.

Driving in Bangkok reminds me a little of Delhi as we race around the streets on a noisy tuk tuk. The driver seems to run on amphetamins as he darts dangerously from lane to lane and races along any short stretches of road. We pass shops selling anything from life size buddhas to plastic buckets and arrive a little exhuasted at our destination.

The staff at the train station are all incredibly helpful and compared to China it is so easy to buy our overnight tickets to Laos. We book the last overnight sleeper tickets for a 2nd class carriage and feel relieved that we have made an advance booking of more than the recommended one day.

We head for the river to get a taxi boat, and then later wander around the small streets

04 Mechanics shops

. This must be the 'metal district'. The engineer in John wants to delve deep into the different shops which are overspilling with either reclaimed engines, springs, metal sheets or bolts, each shop specialising in just one engineering component. The food scientist in me is much more passionate about the fruits markets and I leave carrying a pomelo, tangerines, mangos and custard apples.

Food in Bangkok excellent. It is cheap, fresh and if you like spicy food, delicious. In the evening we go to a nearby restaurant called Hemlock's. Our guide book recommends making a booking in advance at the weekends, but we go anyway and find a table in this European looking chic restaurant easily. We eat a fresh mullet with lemongrass, squid with basil, beansprouts with fishcake and rice. John has a cocunut shake and I drink a sweet lime juice. The meal is 5* and it costs just over 5 pounds for both of us.

Sleep is a high priority after a short night's rest on the overnight bus from Krabi, but it just doesn't seem to happen in Baan Sabai. The air conditioning unit billows freezing cold air onto the bed and starts rattling so much that I think that it is going to fall off the wall. I stick my ear plugs in not realising that John has turned the unit off and opened the window, and wake up with too many mosquito bites to count

05 Dinner at Hemlocks Restaurant

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The next day we book into New Siam hotel which is just around the corner. It costs a little extra but the room is clean and comfortable.

Alan and Lisa, our hosts for our stay in HK recommended the SIROCCO BAR, so we decide to pop in for lunch. On the 64th floor of the State Tower this pre-prandial bar looks really swish. A waitress spots us entering though and she turns us away because John is wearing his 3/4 length trousers, a Lamma Island Hong Kong T-shirt, and his fake Timberland sandals. He also has 3-day old stubble and we are told we do not meet the minimum standards for dress code. We enjoy a brief view of the brown river snaking its way around the low rise city-scape before returning downstairs and enjoy some 25B (30p) chicken and veggie noodles at an outdoor street stall.

The sky rail is clean and curves its way through the city like a roller coaster in slow motion. We stop at Jim Thompsom's house, a man that we hadn't heard of until we came to Asia. We learn that this American studied as an architect, later worked for the CIA, and is famous for bringing Thai silk to the West. He disappeared in the 1960s whilst walking in the Cameroon highlands in Malaysia. His house illustrates fine Thai architecture and furnishings and contains some of his colourful Thai art collection.

The six houses were originally shipped to Bangkok from all around the kingdom and demonstrate the elegant Thai method of construction which includes the copious use of a wide range of timber varieties, but without any nails

06 Jim Thompsons House

. We meander in the garden which has a walkway twisting between tropical plants and large ceramic bowls containing lillies and lonely carp fish.

The main home is built on high wooden stilts and it exudes tranquility and harmony. We leave behind our shoes and enter through the main reception. The warm teak walls and staircase are complimented by cool black and white marble tiles which were apparently imported from Italy. We walk through the opulent sitting room, dining room, bedroom and study. Each room is individually decorated with antique furniture, chinese teaware or peaceful looking buddhas. Unlike our home, everything is in the best possible taste.

Our final destination for the day is to visit the Chatuchak market. With over 8000 stalls it is possibly one of the largest outdoor markets in the world. Just as we are about to arrive on the final stop of the skyrail, John, not known for his desire for any shopping activities suddenly develops a migraine and insists that he is too tired and needs to rest immediately. This of course is impossible as on a Sunday afternoon there are too many eager shoppers willing to buy anything under the sun. In the melee, we see shoes, clothes, fish, lamps, furniture and hundreds of sweaty people. Satisfied with just one top, we return back home enjoying another hair raising experience on a tuk tuk.

In the cool of the evening we emerge to explore the local area. In the immediate area surrounding our hostel, there are plenty of touristy restaurants, internet cafes, and cheap call centres which all cater for the thousands of westerners that we see. Just around the corner, we find Thanon Khao San

07 Tuk Tuk experience

. Here we are surprised to find so many locals that it is almost impossible to walk. The temperature soars as we squeeze past young teenagers who listen to different live bands along the street.

Everyone seems to be having a great time but we feel a little saddened to see that this area in Bangkok has totally lost any of its original charm. The food and staff are all mediocre and we find that it is really difficult to meet or talk to any other travellers as they explore in their own insular world.

We leave Bangkok on an overnight train to the Thai-Laos border. It's quite comfy inside our 2nd class carriage which we share with about 30 other passengers. An athletic looking man efficiently converts our seats into beds, covers them with clean white sheets and sticks up a private curtain. It's silent on the train and by 9pm we both feel so incredibly sleepy. The train lunges north east at a slow pace, stopping at lots of stations and taking a 13 hours to cover the 600km journey. It draws to a final halt and I wake at Nong Khai to find our carriage empty bar the 4 other westerners. In a few hours we should be in Laos.

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