Bangkok, Oriental Setting

Our time in Bangkok was split between a couple of days at the beginning of our trip and one final day after we got back from Phuket and Phi Phi. Therefore this update will cover our whole stay in Bangkok.

Well as the song goes, one night in Bangkok makes the hard man humble, so naturally I was a little nervous about staying there for not one but three nights. Being far from a hard man and faced with this potential humbling, I elected for the safe option of cashing in on my employee discount at the InterContinental Bangkok. Yes I know it is hardly the option of the hardy intrepid traveller, but given the choice of staying in 5 star luxury for less than the price of a backpacker hostel, I didn’t have to think twice.

Having just spent 18 hours folding my legs into an economy class seat I wasn’t feeling the sharpest. First step was to get out of the airport to the hotel and I managed to haggle the quoted 1200 baht taxi fare down to a mere 500. Or at least I thought I did well - later I found out that with the meter on the same trip costs a mere 250 baht, so my negotiating blowtorch had the heat of a couple of flickering candles. Cush arrived on a flight later that night so having wised up to a fair fare, I headed back to the airport to pick her up. With me in the UK and her in NZ we hadn’t seen each other in months so it was awesome to see her.

The next day dawned and we headed out to see the sights. As soon as we stepped outside the hotel we were hit by the heat and humidity of tropical Bangkok. I have experienced the searing dry desert heat of Egypt, but in Bangkok the air feels hot and sticky - and that’s without factoring in the air pollution! We decided to check out the Grand Palace, so we took the nearby Sky Train down to the river jumped on a river ferry to cruise up to the old centre of Bangkok. The river trip itself was one of contrasts, with the riverside real estate ranging from temples sheathed in gold leaf to shanty town shacks perched precariously over the water.

The Grand Palace complex is one of Thailand’s most sacred sites so the dress code is very strict. My long shorts weren’t quite long enough so I was given some baggy overpants that wouldn’t have looked out of place in an MC Hammer music video. Cush had had the foresight to wear jeans, although with temperatures in the mid-30s she was feeling the heat! Being an important Buddhist holy site and the former home of the Thai King and his government, the Grand Palace is extravagantly decorated with gold leaf, coloured mosaics and detailed statues. Also within the Grand Palace complex is a temple containing the Emerald Buddha, a small jade statue which is one of the holiest objects in Buddhism.

By now Bangkok was soaring into the late 30s so after a pad thai lunch we decided to head back to the hotel for a swim. Any trip to Bangkok isn’t really complete without a ride on a Tuk-tuk so we hailed one and clung on for dear life as he weaved in and out of the traffic as fast as the little diesel two stroke engine could propel us! (If you check out the photos and the video you get the idea).

The next day we continued to have a look around Bangkok in the morning. We had arrived at the height of the Chinese New Year celebrations so Bangkok was teeming with Chinese tourists and New Year celebrations, with parades of dragons and so on. The day before we had noticed that an enormous amount of people (perhaps one in three) was going about their day wearing a yellow polo shirt. We asked about it and it seems that yellow is the colour of the royal household in Thailand and by wearing yellow you are honouring the king. King Bhumibol has ruled Thailand for 61 years and is revered as a god-like figure. In fact prison sentences are imposed for people who are seen to disrespect of even joke about the royal family - YouTube is strictly banned in Thailand as a video parody of the King appeared on it earlier this year! He turns 80 this December and you can be assured that the mother of all parties will be held - so bear that in mind if you are thinking about an end of year trip to Thailand!

Later that day we flew to Phuket for the next stage of our trip - you can read about Phuket and Phi Phi Island in my other Thailand blogs. Eight days later we returned to Bangkok and spent another day and a half having a look around the city. Wanting to catch a few more bargains we headed to the infamous Patpong night market which can be summed up in one word: chaos. You can barely move without being approached by people trying to sell you stuff, whether it be fake clothing labels or fake women (the infamous ladyboys of Bangkok!). The next day we were feeling a bit over the hectic in your face nature of the markets, so the hotel concierge recommended we take a trip to the MBK Centre, an ENORMOUS shopping mall 8 stories high and with over 2,500 shops! MBK was immense and a more western styled shopping centre but still was ultra cheap, with every price up for some serious negotiation. We spent the remainder of our baht on some bargains before heading back to the hotel to grab our gear and head to the airport. And so our trip to Thailand finished, our skin tanned (Cush) or burnt (me) and bags bulging with bogus clothing labels and DVDs.

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Videos from "Bangkok, Oriental Setting":

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