Bangkok
Trip Start
Jun 20, 2010
1
63
74
Trip End
Dec 23, 2010
Bangkok, Thailand
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Day 2, we were off to explore Bangkok. During our world trip so far Kate and Ivor have had two distinct roles: the tour guide (Kate) and the 'make it happen' role (Ivor). Kate decided that she wanted a break from being the tour guide. The pressure was on Ivor to deliver the Bangkok experience – oh the pressure!!! First stop was the train station to buy our tickets to Chiang Mai. From there we walked to the Golden Buddha temple, through China town and finally Wat Pho temple. After getting lost we arrived at Wat Pho and were greeted by a giant reclining Buddha statue. In Thailand there is definitely no shortage of Buddha statues, especially at Wat Pho as there were over 300 life size statues dotted around the temple. Afterwards it was off to the world famous Wat Pho Thai Massage School where Kate had her first massage in Thailand. Battered and bruised we headed back to our hotel.
Day 3 and it was off to Siam Square. Think of all the malls you've ever been to... combine and multiply by twenty and then interconnect them with outdoor market stalls. Then you'll come close to envisioning Siam Square, an absolute mass of consumer goods – but be careful, a lot of the goods are fake but then you pay the fake price!! Surprisingly we were lost again, tour guide Ivor wasn’t doing so well – so Kate took charge of the map and we eventually found the sky train which took us took Pat Pong – Bangkok’s infamous red light \ Go Go Bar area. We had a few beers to build up some dutch courage before going to see a Ping Pong show. Convinced that the show would be packed out, we paid the entrance fee and entered the dark den of iniquity. Unfortunately we were the only punters in there and so were subjected to an almost personal show of what can only be described as fascinating yet quite disturbing. We won’t go into details however some words can stir up your imagination: Bottle Opener, Blowing out candles, Drawing without using Hands, Balloon popping Darts, bouncing ping pong balls and our all time favourite – RAZOR BLADES!!!!
Day 4 – our last day in Bangkok. Ivor the tour guide decided on visiting Talin Chan Floating market. The market is closer to Bangkok than most other markets but less famous. We were slightly disappointed as there were probably only about 10 floating boats. Ivor still had an ace card up his sleeve and decided to book a one and a half hour tour of the surrounding area in a long tail boat with a guide. After THREE hours, sitting on hard wooden seats right under the tour loud speaker, taking in temples, orchid farms and feeding cat fish I bet you are wondering – what couldhave gone wrong??? Ivor had chosen the Thai speaking tour!!! You guessed it – three full hours of deafening Thai guiding.
With damaged ear drums and calloused butts it was off to Khao San road, yet another winner from Ivor. During the day the road maintains a ‘street party’ feel with vendors jamming up the sidewalk with countless clothing/accessory stalls, music pumping from the surrounding bars, constant heckling from stall owners and general filth – God only knows what happens at night. The only thing that saved this day for Ivor was donating some money to Kate’s ‘Thai Massage Fund’ – thankfully it is not London prices here - £3 gets you an hour’s massage – BARGAIN.
Our Bangkok experience has yielded 2 interesting facts:
1. Bangkok = sensory overload. Constant noise, overstuffed sidewalks, gaudy temples, relentless Tuk-Tuk drivers, the sweet aromas of food and the stench of waste... it’s all at once amazing and horrifying.
2. Kate is definitely a better tour guide (unless you like getting lost and are keen to start to learn Thai)
Next stop is Chiang Mai and our first Thai Train experience..... Kate is back in charge!!!!!!!
