Temples, markets, pingpongs and elephants
Trip Start
Jun 03, 2008
1
21
23
Trip End
Sep 22, 2008
Bangkok,
Thailand
Saturday, August 30, 2008
I stayed in the nice area of Sukhumvit, the location was ideal as transport to the sights were easy and it was in the safest and untouristy parts of Bangkok. It is served by the BTS Skytrain, a monorail type thing that links Sukhumvit with the centre of the city. The weather's been great, only been caught in the rain once! I tried all different types of transport - the monorail, the tube, walking, river boat, canal boat and tuktuk. The canal boat was the most interesting as tourists generally don't use it and I realised why - you get splashed by nasty dirty canal water during the ride!
I spent a lot of time exploring the different areas of Bangkok. It's a great place for shopping. Quite a contrast - you'd find large modern shopping malls with designer labels and dirt cheap street markets only just a few blocks from each other. I found a huge computer mall which was paradise for any technology fanatics. It was really interesting exploring the different markets - some were obviously geared towards tourists but I got lost a few times and came across some where it was pure locals. The one problem I did have was that everyone mistook me for a Thai, speaking to me in Thai and being surprised when I tell them I'm from England.
bangkok
You know you're in a proper local market when nobody speaks English, I managed to ask for a meal by pointing at random things and nodding.. good thing I'm not fussy. The night market wasn't all that - just like the day market but during the night. The weekend market was amazing - thousands and thousands of people and stalls, over such a big area and selling absolutely anything and everything - clothes, plants, food, live animals, art, furniture - you name it, you'll find it. Outside one of the malls, I came across some kind of big 'Indie' event, full of Richard-like skinny jeans people, mostly teens in college uniform and they set up a long line of mini shops on the floor, selling stuff they created, the designs were pretty good and original. I also visited the infamous Khao San Road and it is as it's known - a high concentration of tourists and overpriced goods.. though I was impressed at the quality of the fake UK drivers licenses that I was offered.The food was good, and very cheap. Meals wouldn't be more than a pound and would be very tasty. I only ate in a restaurant once, which was alright, but I much prefer the street food. I attempted to try as many different things as I could, my favorites include pad thai, mango and sticky rice, tom yum soup and red curry. The road to my hostel was full of food stalls, and one of them supposedly is the pad thai cooking champion, with the framed awards and newspaper clippings up on his stall.. and I must say, he did cook a mighty pad thai. I got the chance to try some odd things too, including fried insects/frogs and crocodile meat, both of which were different to anything I've encountered before.
1-bangkok
Just walking around the city is exhausting, and luckily in Bangkok you're never too far away from a food stall - the Thai's love to eat. I snacked on great stuff like fresh fruit (watermelon/jackfruit/pinapple/papaya), grilled treats like squid, fish balls or BBQ meat - basically you can get everything and anything on a stick. Thai's also like their food real spicy. My stomach stayed strong and I had no problems despite eating all the random stuff I did!One of the more interesting off-the-beaten-track places I visited was the Siriraz Hospital, located in the old city, near all the temples. It was a fully functional hospital, but also hosted several medical-related museums. The main visitors seemed to be Thai high school students as it's not highly advertised as a tourist attraction. A couple of the museums featured preserved dead bodies/body parts so if you've ever been to the Gunther von Hagens exhibition, Body Worlds, you might share the interest with me. The difference with these museums was the specimens looked less like plastic figures, but much more realistic and grusome. The Anatomical museum featured a nice collection of dissected body parts, very visually good for educational purposes, and a collection of embryos, from a one-week zygote (with microscope to view it) to a 9 month old baby. I didn't take any photographs out of respect for the dead people, but others have a look at another photographer's shots if you're brave enough to have a look here. The forensic museum had other cool exhibits, including body parts that have resulted from violent crimes or from traffic accidents. I spent most of the day at the hospital looking at the museums, it was well worth it... I learnt a lot and found an unusual interest for it all. Other cool exhibits include a tribute to HRH the king of Thailand (whom Thai's worship like crazy - you even see graffiti that says long live the king everywhere) who seems to have done a lot of good work for his country, one about parasites and the different worms/bacteria you get and its journey from dodgy food to entering your system and coming out in ringworms/diahorrea, and one dedicated to the Tsunami, as Thailand was badly hit by it.
The temples were beautiful structures and I got to visit the main ones. Often I saw reconstruction of the art work all over the walls, At Wat Pho I got my fortune told, which was interesting but I'm skeptical with all of that so I tried not to give anything away but he could read me like a book which was freaky.
To be continued..
