Cheap internet... woohoo!
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2008
1
5
117
Trip End
??? ??, 2009
Bangkok,
Thailand
Saturday, September 13, 2008
ok so...
thurs 4 sep
after that ten hour flight, or however long it was, we arrive in thailand, completely tuckered out and thankfully initial feelings of claustophobia - despite having the freedom to travel around the world - have waivered. we get in a taxi and make the surprisingly cheap ride to our guesthouse, book in for a few nights, and take a breather. once unpacked, we go for a walk around banglamphu, the part of the city where we're staying, and then onto one of the more touristy parts, other than the khoa san road, to have a look. what first strikes you is how people live in banglamphu, which is pretty poor. if you imagine a garage under a low-rise set of flats, and then imagine that garage to be open all day long and operating as a small food shop or cafe or laundry, and then after the shutters coming down at about 6pm, the owners of the shop then sitting in that front space having their own tea and watching tv. they literally have that space to live and work, and a back room where their bed and bathroom is it's unbelievable. there's an odd smell around too, that you can't explain, other than maybe weird food and sewage. i know i'm not painting the most desirable place, but it is really nice and feels more like you're living in amongst everyone, rather than taking over the place with the rest of the crazy tourists and backpackers, which brings me to rambuttri village and khoa san road. the first is populated by some nice, some tacky restaraunts and bars, and the road is littered with street sellers, selling bowls of rice and noodles; clothes; jewellery; second hand books. here you will also be hassled by these jehovah witness type sorts, while you're sat at your table eating, trying to sell you a guaro or scarf; or by a tuk tuk driver, of which there are absolutely loads. sean's told me we have to take a ride with one of them because it's an experience i can't leave without doing, but i'm dubious about handing over my money to someone so persistent. anyway, the other, khoa san road, which i am assured is absolutely for the tourists and does not represent thailand at all, is a small neon heaven. apart from the main drag of absolute tack that branches off of niagara falls, i have never been in such a place. everywhere there are absolutely massive neon signs advertising mcdonalds or burger king or yet another bar, then there are even more street sellers, selling even more souveniers than in rambuttri and even more persistent tuk tuk drivers. i just saw that another blogger had written that two days in bangkok is enough, but i absolutely love this road, and although we must leave to go up north in a couple of days i will miss tacky khoa san road.
fri 5 sep
ok so after getting really quite into the atmosphere of khoa san road - and i will bring my memory card in a day or so to add photos here hopefully - the night before, we'd had quite a few cheap chang beers so ended up getting up way past the civilised early rising thai people. i think it might have been lunchtime. anyway so not yet having been acquainted with the wonderfully english breakfast that our guesthouse does, we walked quite a way to a cafe we thought the lonely planet guide had said did a fantastic breakfast and showed films. however, since going to print, the cafe had changed hands and was now an italian restaraunt. anyway so having walked all this way, and not yet being acclimatised to the weather and feeling pretty nasty after those beers, and the heat, we settled down to what we now realise was probably the size and cost of a main meal. ah well, you live and learn. so we ate this massive portion of eggs and spicy tomato mix on toast and mossied home, just in time for the mother of all rain storms - heavy, loud rain, that forced everyone in to drink more cheap beer or play cards. while playing cards, we were also acquainted to two female buddhists monks, in training perhaps?! and all i can say is that actually their bright orange robes were actually quite fetching, but that you really have to have a pretty face to get your head shaved and not look like a raving non-beautiful lesbian, starting with a D. we all know what i mean. god, how many people can one offend in one sitting. i've been told to watch what i say, but it wouldn't take me forever if i had to watch my mouth. so after the rain passed, we went out to dinner in rambuttri where a rather gay, happy looking waiter served us, and danced around the table to western music; and then i was suckered in buying my first souvenier t-shirts for 200 baht total, which is only 4 (and there's no pound sign), which isn't the end of the world. and you peeps at home will love them - one brown tee with a grey silhouette of a tree, and the other a green tee displaying a black transfer of maybe a naked kate moss, laying down and smoking on a bed. this is my particular favourite, although it did turn a few heads when i showed it to sean, outside a bar! haha!
sat 6 sep
right so wake up, english breakfast at riverline, where we're staying, and out.
walk to the river, 500 baht boat trip down the klong - like a canal - to see the shanty houses that line the water, and two things to say first is that we think all tourists probably get screwed with the price of the boat trips because that's like 10 pound, which could get you a decent breakfast, lunch, and dinner - although it has to be experienced - and secondly it is f*cking difficult trying to lower yourself off a pier like platform into the depths of a swaying boat, with no help and while the river is lapping up between the two! i am such a girl! squealing and making a right show of myself infront of the peaceful thais! anyway the boat trip was magnificient too, and again it just showed how poor some thais can be. i mean these houses were basically very large sheds, with wooden balconies, clothes hanging everywhere, and their children jumping off out of them into the murky waters below. what you do notice however, is that however very poor they are, every house did have a TV, so at least they've got their priorities straight then?! after the boat trip, which saw us fork out another 20 baht just to land back at a different pier, we visited the grand palace. on the way, we avoided a scam the guide had told us about not believing anything that anyone says about it being closed, when a lovely lady came up to us, was very interested to hear we were english, and then said it was closed and we should come another day. i said to sean what it shame and he said we'd keep walking, until a minute later when he called me a sucker and that she was only trying to get us to go with her so she could get our money! anyway, to the palace, which cost another 300 baht, and where i took far too many photos, found it difficult to keep my mouth shut when we visited the temple of the emerald buddha, and especially after i got it into my head that maybe the builder of the statue holding the buddha, might have had penis envy. but i think i've already told you about this in my last blog so i won't say another word. after visiting the palace, i found cheesy chips on the menu - lovely and western! - and home to escape another rain storm. in the evening we went to a restaraunt called hemlock, which apparently did very traditional thai food, but which felt a little like we were eating the equivalent of the emperor's new clothes. i didn't like it and it looked like something me and my brother would have picked up in the garden while playing jungle safari as kids! after that i was disgusted by expensive tourist hotel internet... and then to bed.
sun 7 sep
breakfast at the guesthouse again. you can't beat an english.
a walk around khoa san in the day. still hustle and bustle. and i had my first thai macdonalds. beautiful. cheeseburger, large fries, and a large coke for 98 baht or 2 pound. bargain.
taxi to silom district, which is far larger scale than where we're staying and more like a city, and a walk around lumphini park, which is massive and right in the centre of i think the financial district, which right there felt like peace on earth. and although it was absolutely baking in between the buildings, hundreds of thais still managed the energy to run through the park and do exercise and play sport, or play bridge, which we saw a load of old guys do, which was lovely.
back in amongst the traffic, we walked to patpong to watch them set up the night market. i'd wanted to go to this before, but after a few days in bangkok, the puritan side of me decided that as much as i respect a gorgeous girl using all that she has to her advantage and screwing those stupid men out of every last baht they have, i don't really wanna see too much sex tourism right in my face if that's alright, so we just took a stroll during the afternoon and watched the market stalls being set up; watched rows of chatty thai girls relax out on sun loungers outside the strip bars before work; and took those of photos of 'SuperPussy' and 'Kiss' etc.
back at the guesthouse, we did our first bundle of horribly sweaty laundry and waited for the next rain storm, while i recorded the lightning shower from the roof of the guesthouse, much to the horror of sean who said maybe going inside would be safer. mum, he's doing his job!
later, we had tea from the happiest street seller ever, who was keeping his eye on the only star in the sky as that meant there wouldn't be rain for some time, and then onto a jazz bar and reggae bar, where some god awful singer was not worth the money we spent on beer there!
right i'm gonna leave it there because i have been in this internet room for far too long now, and i fear sean will want to cut off my hands, or my eyes will go square! so i will write the next few days, about ko samet island, later!
