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Published: February 7th 2007
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Mini Monks
At Thailand's Grand Palace Sorry we are a little behind with our blog. As you will read, we have been very busy and away from internet access. We hope to catch up relatively soon!
On Tuesday 23 January we took it easy during the day, but later ventured to the Lumphini Night Bazzar. After taking the trusty Sky Train to Sala Daeng, we took the MRT train to Lumphini Park. Arriving in the late afternoon, many stalls were still being set up. However, watching the market unravel was interesting in itself, with the vendors meticulously arranging and dusting their goods, a process they must repeat daily. As the market grew, our funds dwindled, with Alicia in particular taking the opportunity to barter for three bracelets, a set of earrings and a pair of sunnies. I bought a leather wristband, and we each got a ‘Magic Wallet’, which while not so magic, were pretty cool. We found this market much more interesting than the Sunday Market, with many beautiful and unique hand crafted wares, and a lot less generic and counterfeit goods. The night ended with a romantic dinner for two under the light of two gigantic billboards!
The following day we set off
Going Down
Our first trip on the underground for Rattanakosin, Bangkok’s ‘old’ district. Taking the Sky Train to the Chao Phraya River at the end of the line, we were approached by a man offering to take us on his private boat. We naturally declined, with Alicia explaining that we were looking for the water taxi. Strangely, he pointed us straight in the right direction. I say strangely because the golden rule for tourists in Bangkok is not to trust anything said by someone offering transport. This was a rare, but welcomed exception to this rule.
Taking the water taxi was quite an amazing experience. Seeing massive 5 star hotels, incredibly modern office buildings, and pristine temples alongside sinking wooden houses and derelict concrete apartments was not something we were used to. Arriving at the closest pier to the Grand Palace (our destination for the day), we were again approached by a man, this time offering us a bargain tuk-tuk ride. We made the mistake of showing a slight bit of courtesy and responding to his questions, so we were held up for several minutes as he relentlessly tried to lure us onto his tuk-tuk. Although we eventually managed to decline his offer, he did inform us
that we couldn’t visit the Grand Palace, because we weren’t appropriately dressed. Dissapointed, we decided we would walk around until we found something that looked interesting. After some haphazard wandering through crowded streets, we stumbled across a relatively small shrine where a young Thai student from the nearby Thammasat University was preying. Noticing our obviously aimless state, and constant referral to our pocket map, he kindly offered to help us, by marking out some less well known nearby attractions on our map, hailing a government tuk-tuk and negotiating a reasonable price for us.
After the excitement of weaving in and out of traffic on the main roads, we were slightly concerned when our tuk-tuk driver turned down some pretty dodgy looking backstreets, but were relieved when we arrived at a beautiful temple. According to the student, this was Bangkok’s oldest temple, but we are yet to find someone who can verify this. As our first temple visit, this was a great place to come, as there were no other tourists to be seen. The temples were very quiet peaceful, but also very welcoming with all the bright colours and open windows. This is a real contrast from the churches
we are used to back home, which often seem cold, musty and uninviting. This may explain why the temples are so popular with Thai people, who frequently walk in off the street to prey to Buddha.
Our tuk-tuk driver then decided to take us to a tailor, instead of the other places marked on our map. We went in, and were whisked upstairs. We were the only two customers in the store, and were taken into a private consultancy room. I was offered a custom made Armani suit and life membership to their exclusive offers for AU$450. But apparently, that day was the last day they were offering this deal to foreigners. As tempted as we pretended to be, we quickly declined and ran out of the store! We were then taken to a gem shop where a similar situation occurred. Fed up, we demanded to be taken back to the pier and thankfully we were delivered there without any more unexpected stops.
Thursday 25 January we left our now familiar hostel and transfered to the New World Lodge, our starting point for our 'Intrepid' trip. With our new hotel in Rattanakosin where we had visited the previous
Magic Wallets
Too many to choose from day, we had planned to take the Sky Train and water taxi again. With the weather hot and our heavy backpacks, we were not looking forward to this trip at all. We had almost neglected to consider taking a taxi, but as we checked out, we asked the host approximately how much a taxi trip would cost, just out of interest. To our delight, he said 150 Baht ($AU 5.50), and naturally we decided to take a taxi instead.
About 45 minutes later our taxi arrived at the New World Lodge, with the meter at just 130 Baht (less than AU$ 5.00). Not only was this cheaper and quicker than taking the Sky Train and water taxi, it was far less stressful and meant we got dropped off right outside our hotel. From here on the Sky Train was replaced by metered taxis as our transportation of choice! Our room came with a view of a construction site, which ordinarily wouldn't be of great interest. But this site seemed to lack any concept of safety, with several workers wearing rubber thongs, and two young children playing amongst the workers. Throughout Bangkok we had seen green 'Safety First' signs at
"You Try? You Try?"
"Don't mind if I do" every single construction site and had wondered why there was such an emphasis on safety. I guess this explains why...
After settling into our hotel and exploring the surrounding area we met our tour leader and group for a quick briefing, before we all went out for dinner. Our group consisted of 10 other people. 3 other Australian girls, 6 British girls and a British guy. We were lucky to have a really nice group, as well as a very kind leader Bett, a native Thai man about 35 years old. After dinner the group wandered down Khao San Road, Bangkok's main backpacker district. We stopped in a small bar for a few drinks before heading back to the hotel for a relatively early night.
The following day we checked out of the hotel and headed to the Grand Palace...by metered taxi of course! This time we had come prepared, with pants and enclosed shoes, but were not expecting the hefty admission of 250 Baht each. Reluctantly we paid up, and headed in. Suffice to say, the temples and the palace were incredibly impressive. Luckily the normally grey and smoggy Bangkok sky was blue on this day, so
Zidane
If Josh had his ears pierced, this is what he would wear! most of the photos turned out quite well. However impressive though, with all the tourists these temples lacked the peacefulness, which had made the temple we visited the previous day so appealing.
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cc and the werdyffs
non-member comment
bangkok
What does the sign say?