Madness resumes.
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2007
1
75
99
Trip End
May 07, 2008
Where I stayed
Rikka Inn, Th Khoasan Road
Bangkok, Thailand
Monday, February 25, 2008
After a lovely Quantas flight with menu cards, fruit, solero icepops and countless films to watch we arrived in Thailand! I've always wanted to come here but was still, as always a little nervous excited about a new country, culture, and adventures to come.
When you step outside the airport the humidity hits you first. We arrived on the red eye and bleary eyed we figured out a ligit taxi to get to the centre. We hit the main drag of backpacker central, Tha Khoasan Road! Some might remember it as the famous street at the start of the film The Beach. The hostel Leo stayed in however is in Phuket, room 38! Our hostel/hotel was pretty nice, it had a rooftop swimming pool too. Khoasan Road is just crazy, neon lights, bars, clubs, people everywhere. Motorbikes and tuktuk drivers scoot in between people and smily Thai men ask you if you 'wanna go see ping pong show' while making a popping noise with their mouth! The smells are unbelievable, Bangkok has a natural odour d'piss mixed with street food vendors spicy food and a kinda tropical smell that lets you know your the other side of the world, a kind of humidity, plants and dogs all mixed with sweaty travellers. Drinks then the jetlag of two flights and the time difference sent us home.
Me, with all my bargaining skills paid triple the price for a tuktuk to the giant MBK shopping centre with a tuktuk driver. It was still only 4 euro but when in Rome pay what the locals pay so they say. After ten minutes Conor fell easily back into the role of fighting with the local taxi drivers. He tried to bring us loads of places we didnt want to go to. The tuktuks are great fun tho. Lots of shopping, lots of sushi, more night shopping on Khoasan markets, dinner and drinks was our first taste of our Asian adventure.
We visited temples (Wats) the canal area, more markets, had spicy Pad Thai (spicy chicken noodles with veg) on the street, more cheap litre bottles of beer and soaked up the atmosphere of Khoasan. Adam & Liz checked in the next day and we dragged them round MBK again! The tuktuk was gas, four of us bet into a tiny tuktuk speeding along smoggy Bangkok, whizzing past giant sparkly gold Buddha's and ornate temples. We took the skytrain across town and got the river taxi all the way back to the Khoasan. It was flippin mental. It bounces off the tyres sideways, everyone jumps on and it speeds off all in a matter of seconds, poor Liz nearly got left behind! It was Bangkoks version of Venice and I'd say you'd melt if you fell in the water with all the pollution but the taxi itself was brilliant. More temples, more markets, cheap wine, beer and a dinner where I picked my own fish from the tank and everyone shared deep fried frog for dinner!
The next evening we booked sleeper cabins on the overnight train North to Chiang Mai. More arguments with taxi drivers who wouldn't turn on their meters and eventually we got there and had enough time to chill out before the train to Chiang Mai. Loving Bangkok bit time and we're already excited to be coming back here with Carol and Tony.
