Bangkok Hotels
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Bangkok & Kanchanaburi
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Now i've finally settled in my rather plush accommodation for the next few months, I figured i'd write about my travels in Thailand! (I apologise in advance if i ramble on a bit)
Day 1
After a rather long and boring 10 hour flight with Qantas, spending an hour to get through immigration and being ripped off for a taxi into the city, i finally arrived in Bangkok. I met up with Chris at the Trang Hotel, which as i expected looked slightly different to the website but who can complain at £12 each for a night!! After a slight 15 minute nap, we wasted no time in heading down to the infamous Khao San Road and wow, was it crazy or what. There were street sellers left, right and centre all desperately trying to flog their stuff to you, as well as tuk tuk drivers trying to entice you to 'see beautiful ladies' at one of the much spoken about 'ping pong' shows. But more importantly, we had to book our first tour for the next three days, which turned out to be a bargain at 20 quid each. Following this we found a nice place to eat and got a few beers in, which came to about £2 in total. Inevitably following this alcohol consumption we succumb to the temptation of a 'ping pong' show which seemed a bargain at 20 baht or 30p to get there, before we found out that we had to pay nearly £15 to get in!!! However I think chris enjoyed the show a bit more than me ;-) After loaning chris 100 baht to tip for his 'complimentary' service, we headed back to our hotel as we had to be up for 7.30 to catch the bus for our 3 day tour.
Day's 2-4
Having managed to wake up early and me with a smashing headache, we caught our bus in order to start our 3 day tour around Kanchanaburi, approximately 2 hours drive from Bangkok. This minibus took us to the Riwer Kwai war museum, which was quite interesting but I think there was just too much there to see and digest. We were however able to take many pictures of the famous bridge, as well as being able to walk across it, which to be honest scared me shitless, health and safety would have a field day there!!
After heading for a tradition thai lunch on a River Raft, which eventually turned out to be our accommodation for the next 2 nights, we were taken to a little waterfall which was in a little village about 10 minutes drive away.
After spending what seemed like forever at this waterfall, we headed back to our river raft accomodation and crashed out, having a couple of hours sleep before dinner, dancing and chats with the swedish girls also on the tour.
On our 2nd day in Kanchanburi we were woken early by the raft's owner, in order that we could be taken to bath some elephants before breakfast. This was a pretty amazing and slightly painful experience. The elephants really are 'big boned' and hence they don't make very good chairs. Also they seem more intent on drowning you in the sewage ridden waters of the River Kwai than they do at having a bath.
The only advice i can give if you do end up in there, is to spit and definitely not swallow!! After our quick elephant bath we promptly headed back to the raft for breakfast and a quick shower before heading out to the magnificent Erawan Waterfalls. This is a national park with a 7 tiered waterfall, which is around 1.25 km from top to bottom and i'm plesed to say that fat boi me managed to do the round trip! When reaching the 7th tier (which looks just like all the other 6 tiers!!) you are able to swim in the pools with the many fish, which like to nibble/suck your body.
This was much like the women at the 'ping pong' show, so it's obviously some sort of thai custom. After the 3 hour round trip we were treated to another meal of the extremely traditional thai delicasy of fried rice, this seemed to be all that we were eating!! In the afternoon we were taken to the Tiger Temple, which basically a huge plot of land that is used by monks to rear animals. The centrepiece however is Tiger Canyon, where you are guided round a large selection of tigers, which are extremely tame, so much so that you can stroke and have your picture taken with them.
Just as an aside, this was also the place where i saw the guy from neighbours, who got stingray's heart and then got off with Sky. Who'd have thought they'd let him near tigers with a dodgy heart!! In the evening we had another traditional meal, yep u guessed it rice with some saucy thing. Also with more people arriving to stay the night, the raft turned into club 18-30 (with the exception of a 60 year old couple from essex). We kept out of the shannanigans for while, talking and playin cards with tree irish fellas, funnily called Dwayne, Diurmuid and Paul. This eventually led to 5 rounds of the dirt cheap 7% beer and our induction into the dancing and drinking of what i will now call club 18-60!!
After the previous night antics we were thankfully able to have a lie in, not that it happened however and everyone just sat around trying to remember what had happened the night before. After breakfast we were taken to the Somnuk Elephant Camp, where we were taken on an elephant trek around the grounds of the camp, containing crops of some sort.
Our elephant riding guide, also made us crowns from leaves as well as picking some sort of weird fruit from a tree for us. I don't reccomend you eat this fruit, me and chris found this one out the hard way, the effects which shall be seen shortly. After finishing our trek we were shown onto a bamboo raft, which took us down the river to this deserted village place in what seemed like the middle of nowhere.
We were then taken back to the river raft in order to collect our belongings and grab some lunch before heading off to the Hellfire Pass, a track which was manually dug by Japanese Prisoners of War during the 2nd world war.
With the obvious history aside it was a pretty boring place and the 1 and 1/2 hours we were given to look round was nowhere near long enough to explore the pass properly! Following this we were taken back to the village near the raft in order to catch our 2 hour minibus back into Bangkok. After saying goodbye to everyone and promising to meet the irish fellas at the Australian grand prix in a few months, we wasted no time in booking a bus to Krabi, in the south of Thailand. It was quite a rush however with the bus leaving jus 1/2 hour later and as a result I had no chance to collect my passport and other stuff from my belonging, which had been left in storage at the Trang Hotel. This was the cause of much anxiety as you will find out in my next blog, which summarises our next 5 day adventure!!
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