Wednesday 23 February 2011

Bangkok

For our visit to Thailand we broke it into two sections, Bangkok and the East followed by the South & the Islands. After the first section we headed to Cambodia & Laos before flying back into Phuket for the Southern section of the trip where amongst other things we met up with Raquel (a Spanish friend from home).
One of 3 million we saw..

The flight from India was okay, went very quickly and it was comfortable. Of course there was a lot of Indian’s on the flight and you would swear that they thought they were on the metro in New Delhi. We had 3 Indian guys (late 20’s) sitting in front of us and for the entire flight they played musical chairs. When we approached Bangkok for landing, the air hostess had done their final “we are in our final approach to Bangkok airport, please make your final check to make sure your seat is in the upright position…etc” when one of the guys decided he wanted to walk down the aisle to stretch his legs. I have never seen an air hostess move so quickly or someone so tiny pick up a grown man and slam him into his seat. All I can say is that from the 2 Air Asia flights we have taken this seems to be a standard training practice for them.

We arrived in Bangkok on time (5am local time) after 5 minutes sleep on the flight and we prepared ourselves for the visa lines and customs. We were through all of this in less time than I had to sleep on the plane. It was just so easy, I am sure if we arrived later in the day the lines would be longer, but they have the system down to a fine art. You fill out the border arrival & departure forms on the plane/bus, you hand them in, they look at you with a squint and off you go.

One thing I will point out at this stage, not once have we been asked for our yellow card (your vaccination listings) or a declaration of funds. Of course you need to have your vaccinations (well at the very least your yellow fever one the rest, well if you want to save money…). Of course one of the largest expenses for vaccinations is your Malaria tablets (we had Malarone®) what you are not told is there are 2 ways to take this.

We all know Option 1 – take it prior to entering, while you are there and for a period of time after you leave (details in on the box). Option 2 is not so well know. This option for your health is probably the best one – don’t take the medication. Okay it is not as silly as just this. The thought is that Malaria is not only a possible infection in one area, you can get it anywhere (even in Europe). The idea is prevention is better. You apply the mosquito repellant, the ones we found to work the best is a DEET based one we bought in the adventure store on Chatham Street in Dublin (DEET is the worst thing you can put on your skin, a bit like acid, but it works), a sun screen from boots with the repellant built in and an a spray can we bought in Asia. What didn’t work was a long lasting own brand one from Boots, it attracted more mosquitos than it repelled. You then keep the tablets to use if you get Malaria. Remember, mosquitos do not care about borders or where a malaria zone is and worse still none of the malaria tablets will prevent you from getting dengue fever, but they do use the same tablets to fight both sicknesses. The reason I will suggest option 2 is that you cannot find Malarone® anywhere in Asia. So if you don’t have enough when you are leaving home.. well you know the rest. We did a mix of both and so far we are okay.

But I went off on a tangent, I blame Stephen Fry. I have been reading his novel/autobiography and he kept doing this (I will try not to do this too much).

Whilst waiting for our backpacks, I got talking to an English guy who had been in Bangkok a few times before, and of course asked millions of questions. He gave us a few recommendations and we all got a taxi together into the Kohsan Road (KSR for short) area.. aka backpacker central. We ended up bumping into him a few times more, just to prove that the world is a small place. The taxi’s look like something out of ‘The fast & the furious’ all bright & glossy paint jobs, under lit and fitted with a nitro booster. As we arrived so early the motorway was clear, it was like you had arrived into heaven coming from the chaos of Delhi. It was as if they had just taken the wrapper off the city. We arrived into KSR and the taxi dropped us at the top, we got something to eat and then went in search of a place to stay. We found the cheapest accommodation in the area on our third try and they had availability as someone was just checking out. The location was ideal, just far enough away from the fun, but not too far so you could enjoy it. The guesthouse was called ‘My Guesthouse’, functional but nothing pretty to look at. When people told us about KSR they all said how crazy it is and its party non-stop. Have none of these people been to Ireland? It was a little boisterous and you can get booze 24 hours a day, but it was mild to what we had expected. The road itself is overpriced, so just go a few streets over and you’re getting drink for a fraction of the price.

Once checked in we went off to explore the city. We were trying to figure out our location on a map, when this lovely guy approached us and asked if he could help (we were looking for the white palace). He then proceeded to tell us that the palace was closed for the morning as it was the celebration of the king’s birthday and it would reopen in the afternoon. This was the start of their scam. It continues, there is the largest standing golden Buddha just a short distance from here, it should cost you no more than 30 Bhatt after this you should go to the TAT (government booking agency) as there is a 10% discount that ends today because it’s the Kings birthday celebration. Then he calls a Tuk Tuk over that unknown to you has been sitting waiting for you. The guy haggles for you and off you go. The scam is bizarre because you actually get to see something nice (for free) and you just don’t bother booking anything with TAT as its way to expensive. If someone comes up to you in Bangkok, no matter how well dressed they are, businessman, student or monk, just ignore them and keep going. They will follow you and keep talking to you, so just turn on the speaking in tongues and they will give up.

That aside we headed back to the white palace, my god the compound is huge, very shiny with lots of gold and colored glass. The only grievance I have with the site is that it does not show its age at all. Until you go to the museum (a lot of visitors don’t) and you see the work they have put into it over the last number of decades. Almost the entire compound has been replaced.

The next day we went to Wat Pho, it is famous for housing the largest reclining Buddha (It’s so big I lost Mariano going around it..). The compound here is equally as nice (& as large) as the white palace, but there is still restoration working going on so you get to see some original sections. On the way to the Wat (temple) we were accosted by a group of women giving you popcorn to throw to the pigeons. Those of you that know Mariano will understand how funny this is. It is supposed to give you good luck and of course give the women some money! We declined, so the proceeded to pour some into our hands, hide packets in the straps of our backpacks, down our shirts and so on. In the end to get rid of them I through the popcorn they had placed in my hands up in the air, the pigeons went crazy and off we ran down the street.

Later that morning we took to the river ferries and visited a few of the temples along by the river banks and went for a walk in Chinatown where we stopped to have lunch. Chinatown here, as you can imagine is very busy with lots of stalls and gold chain shops (no idea why, but in Asia the Chinatowns have huge shops selling gold chains). After lunch we went to the Golden Mount, to get to the top of this very large hill you have to climb the steps that wrap around the outside of the hill. The views from the top are amazing, whilst we were there a thunder & lighting storm hit parts of the city giving us a birds eye view as it hit some of the sky scrapers.

That night we headed to the new section of the city where all the sky scrapers, metro & sky train are. We still do not understand why one of these does not connect with the main tourist area! Our main reason for going here is to visit one of the sky bars. We went to The Long Table in Column Tower, part of Column Hotel.. of course. The views were amazing, as was the price of 2 beers. Just remember in Thailand you have 1 friend that you can always count on… 7/11, thankfully they are everywhere and never be ashamed to buy your drink from there as it is ½ the price of a bar and in Thailand you can drink anywhere (except the temples).

The next day we took it a bit easy, we went for a walk (6 hours later we sat down) and visited a temple. After this went booked accommodation in Koh Chang (Elephant Island) and had dinner in our usual restaurant (the stall at the side of the street) and had a few beers from our friend at 7/11. The next morning it was up at 5.30am to head to the bus station.

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