Bureaucracy, Buddhas and Goodbyes in Bangkok

  Bangkok, Thailand
Tuesday, February 10, 2009

The river in Bangkok

So from Kanchanburi we hopped onto a minibus and held onto our hats all the way to Bangkok... these drivers are not shy, I tell you!  We were dropped close to the famous Khao San Road and from there made our way to the guest house that our new friend Eran had recommended for us... My House... Clean little rooms and a movie area where they show films three times a day, for 250 Baht... not bad at all!

Tom and I had several missions to complete in Bangkok... the first was to meet the FedEx guy that had my credit cards... I lost them in Cambodia in November and it has taken this long to try and get them back due to customs and stupid banks and stuff!!  The second was the get ourselves Indian visas, which takes a week...

What Pho, Bangkok

The first day the FedEx man said he'd come, I waited in reception at our hotel all day... he never came... first they said AM, then they said PM, then they said 'tomorrow'... So the next day I took no chances and called them in the morning... oh really? You're waiting for a package?  We'll send it... Finally, at around lunch time, my package came, complete with a little card from my Mum :) Mission  completed, but two days of time in Bangkok totally wasted... rubbish!

The second mission was much less time consuming... we made our way to the Indian Consulate, filled in the forms, paid the fee and left our passports there... sorted...  So from there on in, business aside, we were able to try to enjoy a bit of Bangkok!

Our friend Eran had already been to Bangkok and took us to the Thai equivalent of fondue... You pay 200 Baht (About £4) and load your plate up from a buffet of meat, fish, tofu and noodles, and then cook all your stuff on a grill that has boiling water in the middle, that's set up on your table... It was soooo tasty and highly recommended!!

One day we took a trip to see snakes being milked for the anti-venom centre... but we were there at the wrong time and so ended up just wondering around MBK - a massive shopping centre - and riding the Sky Train - Bangkok's rail system that runs above the rest of the city.

Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho, Bangkok

We also visited Wat Pho, the oldest and largest temple in Bangkok, and home to a reclining Buddha - the largest Buddha in Thailand.  The Buddha itself is amazing and takes a good 5 minutes to walk around, housed in a large building with beautiful, ornate painting on the walls.  Apart from that building there are several others, all with beautiful Thai architecture.  One of the buildings was having a new roof fitted, and Tom went and wrote on one of the slates for the roof - the idea is to write a prayer or wish on there for good luck...

Tom and Mike at the Grand Palace

From there we ventured on to the Grand Palace, which has a very strict dress code... I have been covering up in Thailand anyway, so I was fine... Long trousers and shoulders covered, no worries... unfortunately Tom and Mike were both wearing shorts and were required to borrow a pair of trousers from the reception area... Mwu-hahaaa!  They are so cool ;)

Pac Man Icecream!

We didn't actually go into the palace in the end... we went down to the entrance and found the 'Thai residents' line (free) and the 'Foreigners' line (300Baht)... We weren't even that bothered about going in, so we decided against it... returned the trousers and went on our way!

Then, on one of our last evenings together, Tom, Mike and I decided to venture out and see a ping-pong show... I mean, how can you come to Thailand and not have a look...?  If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm not going to explain here... ask your mother!  We found a place that had no charge for the show, and 100 Baht drinks... we knew that wouldn't be the case and were prepared to get scammed.... We checked the drink price as we ordered... we watched about 4 shows... if you can call them that... There were 2 pretty unattractive women taking it in turns to get centre stage and perform, and they were surrounded by 2 lady-boys and 2 skinny women, all dancing... actually slightly moving... they couldn't have looked more bored!!

The scariest part of the evening came when one of the performing ladies sat down on the bar and shot a banana from her nether regions across the room, aiming for an unsuspecting tourist, and then let out the most childish-come-demonic cackle I have EVER heard!!  Shortly after that one of the lady bouncers came over with a torch shining on her sign that read, '1 drink = 350 Baht  1 show = 1000 Baht extra shows = 1000 Baht'.  We knew that was coming... we remained calm and told them we asked the price of drink and blah blah blah... we knew that all they really wanted was for us to leave... it only got slightly heated when the bouncer poked me, and I asked her very nicely not to touch me... We gave them 100 Baht each and were kindly asked to leave... it's all part of the Thailand experience!!

Me on Khao San Road

A lot of time in Bangkok was spent walking up and down the famous Khao San Road, which is lined on both sides with stalls and shops selling clothes, hats, sunglasses and Pad Thai, as well as a few bars.  You can get some serious bargains here, but being the budget travellers that we are, we just settled for a t-shirt each... We had one night out drinking buckets (you may remember my description of those from Vang Vieng - the kind of bucket you used to take to the beach as a child, filled with rum/whiskey/vodka and coke or red bull or whatever...) and then spent the next day feeling sorry for ourselves :)

Me and Jamie

On our last day, Tom and I became an unstoppable team... we had several jobs to complete... we wanted to buy a camcorder with my newly acquired credit card (the old one was damaged beyond repair) and collect the India visas and get ourselves to a bus south... in order to achieve all this, we had to split up... so Tom went in search of the best camcorder deals he could find, and I went as fast as I could to the Indian Consulate... it doesn't sound dramatic, but at the time we felt like we were completing some sort of travel challenge and it was very exciting!  We managed to complete all our tasks... apart from leaving Bangkok... we had to stay one extra night and go the next day, but we did at least buy the bus tickets...

Michael Brown... what a legend ;)

Unfortunately, at that point we also had to say goodbye to Mike... he has been a massive part of our travels in South East Asia, and he really will be missed... He has been a constant source of entertainment (and ridicule ;D) and I for one can't wait to see him again... but for now... the Thailand adventure continues!