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Published: September 26th 2005
I'll cut straight to the point - Bangkok is too full of travellers and tourists. But before you think it, we also know that we are part of these travellers and problem. Everything is set up for the westerner abroad - food, entertainment, 'tat'; women! It doesn't have the mystique that many of the remote Asian towns we've visited have had. The experience of Khao San road is OK, but the road is smaller than we imagined - and never having seen 'The Beach' we had no great ideas of its importance.
The city is cleaner than we thought, and has more grandeur, in parts, than we expected. The royal palace and temple (Wat Phra Kaew - temple of the emerald Buddha) is a really grand affair. In the grounds there are buildings hugely decorated, with statues of guards and elephants and more. There's a scale model of Ankhor Wat, paintings, and the famed 'emerald Buddha'. This latter is a bit smaller than I imagined (when we entered the temple I had to ask Gill where it was!) but as it's made of jasper how big could it be.
The unexpected decision mentioned may make the parents cringe (or
frown or dis-own - we haven't spoken to them yet), so - sorry all. And it's all Gills’ fault.
Gill got this crazy idea, quite a while back, that she wanted a tattoo! NOW - she found a design that she really liked and that reminded her of Tioman island and the diving - a turtle (or Tao). After a couple of days we found a tattooist that looked good and she took the plunge.
We think all will agree though that it's a really nice design and the quality is excellent. She said at the time that it was really REALLY painful, but I have had to apologise since I thought she was being dramatic. I have also, for a long time, fancied the idea of a tattoo but only if it was a personal, or unique design I really wanted. Gill's decision pushed the issue so I spent a day looking for this illusive design. I also bit the bullet - but it turned out a little bigger than I imagined (although so did Gills) - and you'll have to be the judge of whether it's a good design or not.
(Comment from Gill: I
Escher
Hope you like it mumwould just like to add that Mark also found it very painful and had to conceed that I wasn't being dramatic (although his facial expressions weren't quite as amusing to the tatooist as mine)).
I'm writing this on the train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai - in the north - which is where we will spend a few days before moving across the border into Laos (pronounced Lao because the bloody French mispelled it when they invaded). In keeping with our past form, and because trains can't get punctures, we're nearly 6 hours behind schedule because the train broke down in the night and had to have a new engine sent and attatched!
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kenn
non-member comment
Re: Tattoo's.
Atta boy (and please pass along an Atta Girl to friend) on the tattoo's. Escher. Good call. I will be in Vietnam in three weeks and Bangkok three weeks later and i would like to get a tattoo while there. I am hoping to find a traditional tattoist, but will consider a shop as well. How much were your peices and was it fairly clean there?