Bangkok 28.02.08

Living It Up

We arrived in Bangkok after midnight at the Asia Hotel, in a huge lobby filled with flowers and chandeliers. For the first time, we had our luggage carried for us by a bellboy. It was only our third day, but it was already a relief not to carry those enormous things.

We were looked after very well here, with a huge buffet breakfast and pools on two floors of the hotel. We rushed off early though, to move our luggage to the hostel where we would spend the next night. We should have realised straight away, when three taxi drivers wouldn't take us because they didn't know where our hostel was, that it was going to be a very long day.

Back to Reality

We finally arrived at the hostel, after a phone call by the driver to the hostel for directions. Once again we carried our bags up 4 flights of stairs. The room was tiny and the aircon barely functioned, and the fresh paint from the room opposite ours nearly suffocated us. However we were not fased, and were keen to check out the city and see the Grand Palace.

Interesting sign at YHA hostel:

Bangkonned
Loren's first Tuk Tuk ride was exciting, but being fresh to the country we were conned into paying way too much for it. When we arrived at the Grand Palace, we were told by a friendly guy that the Palace was closed until 3.30pm because there was a Buddhist ceremony going on, so we should go visit the other temples around. He offered to get us a very cheap tuk tuk rate, so off we went to a few temples. But of course, it was not only the temples, it was also the jewel factory and the suit and dress factory, where we had to pretend to be interested in spending thousands on clothes and jewelry. We soon figured out that the drivers get vouchers for fuel etc if they take us to these places.

We saw a few reclining Buddhas throughout the day, some made of gold, and others....

We arrived back at the Grand Palace at 3.30pm, to find that it was closed, and we had been tricked. Still not having learnt our lesson, we were convinced to go on a long tail boat cruise, where the driver would drop us off at each of the major monuments and wait for us. So once again we were led by the collar of our shirts to the pier where we took a cruise around the river 'streets'.

Of course, we did not actually stop at any monuments, and the 'river market' was one khlong boat, not hundreds. But we enjoyed the ride, and the opportunity to see a different side of Bangkok along the river banks. We did stop to feed and pat the fish by the side of the river. They were everywhere, and so slimy to touch!

We found our hostel again, after a bit of a search, and went off to have a seafood dinner at the Suan Lum Night Bazaar. Loren struggled to resist the mountains of clothes, shoes, bags and jewelry at the market, and we came home with a few more things than we expected!

Patpong Night Market
We took a tuk tuk to the Patpong Night Market, where we saw a little bit of Thai 'ping pong'. We knew that it wasn't far from the hostel, so we decided to walk back instead of taking another wretched tuk-tuk. Of course, we got lost, and decided to take one in the end, where we got lost again because no one in Bangkok seems to understand the concept of road numbers. We left that driver behind and chose to walk again, and found ourselves right where we started. Finally we found a driver who could take us to a tower that we knew was near the hostel, and we found our way back, exhausted and relieved.

Impressions of Bangkok

Surprisingly, after our nightmare of a day, our impression of Bangkok is not entirely negative. We have decided never to trust anyone ever again, but apart from that, it was peachy. However, I suppose that these people are just the ones that follow tourists around to leach money out of them. I'm sure that the ones that keep to themselves, are perfectly nice people. We just had an overdose of the bad ones. Bangkok definitely needs more people like Andrew, our friend from the plane.

The air in Bangkok is even more polluted than in Hong Kong, but the streets are relatively clean. Everything is covered in concrete in the city, but by the river it's quite beautiful. The rivers are literally like streets, and some people have their own little river driveways. The houses on the river are built on spindly wood poles, and most decks are covered with pot plants of flowers.

For Loren, Bangkok was an animal's paradise. Dogs and cats roam freely on the streets, and there are even more on the banks of the rivers. The dogs look so happy, just running around playing with each other all day, or sunning themselves by the river. Maybe its cruel to have them locked up in our backyards.
When we return to Bangkok on our way back to Hong Kong, we will be much wiser, and are looking forward to finally seeing the elusive Grand Palace.