Bangkok

15/08/08 Friday Day 1 Toodles
Toodles to cork airport and Ireland. Thanks to Denis for dropping us to cork airport. We’re now in heathrow waiting to board out flight to Bangkok, Few things happened today.
Crazy hen party going to Liverpool were all late. They were all wearing sailors hats. Tools the lot of them! Two got thrown off the plane too.. They’re probably still drinking in cork airport. Eimear reckons they were tough ladies or else very drunk when they boarded!
Failte Ireland lady in cork airport thought we were foreign. All she had to do was look at my pasty legs and she’d know!
Irish dude sitting beside us in the plane to heathrow wearing shorts and sandals we kept seeing around heathrow airport. Not sure if he’s stalking us! Haven’t seen him in a while though. Maybe he got arrested and deported back for stalking people!
Eimear got a soggy veggy pizza (2 slices - thick bread too) and only ate the veg on it. Pimms was good though! Lots of fruit soaked in alcohol.
Heathrow T4 isn’t as impressive as I thought it would be. There’s loads of shops but they all repeat themselves about 3 times. And there’s very few restaurants here. Maybe they don’t want to offend the people who like the cows and such animals. Not sign of a BK or McDonalds!
There was a crazy expensive seafood bar there too. A bit of salmon and some rabbit food was about 23 pounds. Only the wealthy eat there. Champagne all round! We’re on a budget somewhat!
Bit knackered now. Had a pint of Heathrow’s finest in the pizza/italian restaurant.
Only an 11 hour flight ahead of us before we land on solid ground again. Can’t wait for the airline food. Perhaps the deoralite might be used!

16/08/08 Saturday Day 2 Children should not be allowed on planes
It’s now 8pm and we’re in our hotel in Bangkok. Here’s what happened today.
The flight took 11 hours exactly from take off to touch down so not too bad. There’s around 300 seats in the 747 jet and we had to be sitting of course two rows behind a screaming child and we hadn’t even taken off yet! Luckily it shut up not long after take off. Got the dinner pretty much straight away. Choice of lamb or chicken and a banana and toffee pudding kind of dish. Nice enough actually for airline food. The glass of vino knocked me out alright.
Loads of movies to watch on your own personal screen. Watched 21, run fat boy run and I only got to see about half of extras xmas special.
We were sitting in the middle of the plane which was handy cause one of us was on the aisle whereas if we had a window seat we could be sitting next to a crazy person who mightn’t move for the flight!
Eimear was sitting beside a Australian lady. I reckon she didn’t like the take off or landing part cause the moment we started to taxi she decided to pipe up a conversation with Eimear. Nice lady though. Mother from blackrock.
Slept for a small bit. Slept for about 2 hours after the dinner, that was about 12.30am irish time, then work up around 4am irish time, watched half of run fat boy run and then fell asleep again until about 7 irish. By the time the breakfast was ready.
Anywho we landed around 4.25pm Bangkok time. Not too bad. Savage warm coming off the airplane. Funky airport too. No problem going through immigration. Got passport stamped and we can stay in Thailand until 11th September without getting deported! No problem getting out bags either. At least they arrived intact. No problem getting a taxi either. They had a little desk outside the airport and asked where you were going.
Taxi driver was a bit crazy. Had a little bit of English. I couldn’t understand a word but Eimear was able to make out something he was trying to say. When we told him we were from Ireland he mentioned roy keane and also did a little bit of a boxing impression, presumably to suggest that the boy roy was a tough dude! It also poured out of the heavens on the way to the hotel. Only cost 400 bahts and we tipped him another 100. bit generous on our half but at least he tried to speak English! Also on the trip through the city, some of the shops we’ve seen are the following: boots, subway, mcdonalds, buger king. He mentioned KFC loads of times and told us it was bad food and to go with salads!
When we got to the hotel we were greeted by the bell boy/man who bowed to both of us and carried both our bags in to the lobby. The lady behind the counter also bowed to us. These people are so polite.
So now we’re watching a bit of tv. More updates tomorrow.

17/08/08 Sunday Day 3 Talk to Joe, Divide & Conquer, Beauties and the Beasts
What a day! Decided to have breakfast in the hotel to get a good start. Not too bad. Juice, breads and tea or coffee. Probably crazy expensive than some place on the street. Decided then just to walk around the streets to get a bit of a better baring on the place. We weren’t out 5 minutes when we met Joe. So we said no thanks and kept walking. Of course the white legs kinda gave us away on being tourists. We tried to tell Joe to F off in a nice way but to no avail. So he decided to take us on a small tour for only 20 bahts. Not bad. First place he dropped us was a tourist shop. So we bought ourselves a tour to the floating market which we were going to do anyway. We also got a crocodile show, elephant show and a trip to the rose gardens. That’ll be all of Tuesday gone.
So when we left that place, Joe was still outside much to our delight of course. The next place he took us was a suit shop where they make the suits especially for you. Immediately the took us upstairs and automatically presumed we were going to buy stuff. So I got myself 2 suits and 6 shirts and Eimear got herself a lovely guna! Not too bad a price we think, (a secret for now) and it’s getting shipped home with DHL. So much for staying on a budget. It was funny though when they came out with 2 bottles of coke for both of us. They had a divide and conquer tactic. They kept Eimear sitting down while they took me to another part of the room to show me the suit material, which were dang nice actually!
So there was Joe waiting outside for us again. Oh by the way, these tuk tuk drivers are mental on the road. Actually all the drivers are mental. Talk about weaving around the place! Thankfully Joe had 2 small cups of cold water (sealed) for us. So the next place was a gem shop. We breezed through that place. I think the lady didn’t want to be there. She had a bit of a face on here when we left with nothing.
After than he took us to another jewellery shop so that he could get his petrol vouchers! Eimear bought a little token there, the cheapest they had. The lovely May attended us!
After that he eventually took us to a market which kinda the place we wanted to go in the first place, although we think it wasn’t the same market we had in mind. So we gave Joe his 20 bahts and finally got rid of him. I think one he got his petrol vouchers he was happy!
The market was very warm and stuffy but they had everything. I’ve never seen so many clothes shops. Guess bags were about €5.
When we left all that madness we went to Siam Centre by taxi, another massive shopping centre. Very fancy indeed. Slight bit edging towards Harrods in London.
We then went to Lumpini park by getting the Skytrain back to the hotel and then got the subway. Both nice and easy to get around although the subway seems to be relatively new and not used very much. And there’s loads of dodgy geezers going around with young Thai ladies. Loads of them around the place. We’re going to chance the Italian restaurant now so toodles until tomorrow.

18/08/08 Monday Day 4 Dodgy train station and temples
First thing we did was to book our overnight train tickets to Chiang Mai for Saturday. So we got the subway to the train station and when we went to the exit to the railway station we were greeted by a tourist information lady who would nicely show us where we can buy the tickets. Everything sounded good until we got outside and walked straight past the railway station and down some dodgy lane into another tourist information centre. So we told her what she wanted and she rang the station and then came back to us that Saturday night was full but there was spaces available on Sunday night at 7.30pm instead of the 6.00pm we wanted. We thought that they were trying to pull a fast one and stick us into the second class at 7.30pm instead of the first class at 6.00pm. So we left that place and went to the train station to buy the tickets. There we were met by more people to give us help. It turned out that the tickets we bought were the same as the tourist information centre!
The train station is well dodgy and in a dodgy area. We went there to get some breakfast too because we read that there was loads of places to eat. All the places were shite and with no English except for the Black Canyon coffee shop so we had something there.
We decided to get a taxi to the Grand Palace from the train station as it was the easiest thing to do. Otherwise we’d be getting annoyed with the tuk tuk drivers. We showed out lady taxi driver a map of where we wanted to go but she couldn’t understand it so she rang a friend of hers who had English so we got through it that way!
Grand Palace was very nice. Beware of the dodgy dude outside telling people that it’s closed. You see it’s all good because they tell us straight away they’re not selling anything but not so close by is their buddy tuk tuk driver! Anywho we told him nicely to go away. We tried to bluff that we were her last year but I think he sussed out that quickly enough. He wasn’t long leaving us when we said we’d go later to wherever he wanted us to go! Weather was really hot today and the thing with the Grand Palace is that you must wear long pants and cover your shoulders. The sweat was running down us. The palace is just full of temples and it also had an emerald Buddha actually made of Jade! There’s wasn’t much else there really.
The next place we went to was the Marble Temple. Our lovely dodgy dudes outside the palace marked the temple on our map. Luckily he believed us when we said we’d get a bus there. Once we got out of sight we got a taxi there instead. We actually had to get two taxis because the guy in the first on couldn’t understand our map either so he said sorry nicely. The second taxi we got had leather seats and with the heat out tops were stuck to them. Not a pretty sight from behind!
Marble temple is rubbish really. All it is is just small houses made of marble. Across the road from it though is the zoo and the university and also the Anatasamakom Throne Hall which looked a lot like Capital Building in Washington DC. There seemed to be some kind of graduation on in the university.
We then went to the zoo. It was poor enough. All the animals were either missing, gone AWOL, or just tired from the heath. Reptile centre there was rubbish. Bears, Hippos, Tigers, Giraffes, all rubbish.
We then went to the Siam Centre by taxi to get a quick bit and some supplies for the morning because we were going on a tour at 6.30am. Got some lovely fish and chips in the food court there. Emer got the broccoli soup. Food here is quiet cheap and they have all the same stuff that we have here except for the bread which is a bit manky now in fairness. I’m not gone on the butter either as it tastes like the American butter…….white butter! Went back to the hotel then by SkyTrain.
Bought internet access at the hotel for 24 hours so that we could skype all the families at home. Also booked out accommodation in Kanchanburi and Chiang Mai.
Decided to follow the lonely planet book for something to eat. We decide to go to Larry’s Dive Centre, Bar & Grill. It took us ages to find the place. We must have walked for about 45 minutes. We kept getting the streets mixed up. It turned out the Larrys gaff was down another slighty dodgy street. Seemed to be a bit of a boogie boogie place although we did come across a dodgy geezer saying to a nice thai lady that members don’t have to pay. We didn’t hear any more of the conversation unfortunately. Got me the BBQ ribs at Larrys. It was like something out of the flintstones! The heavens opened again while we were there so we got another taxi back to the hotel and did some more skyping! Tomorrow is the day of tours.

19/08/08 Tuesday Day 5 Ring of Kerry & The Kumars
Bus collected us around 6.46am. I say bus but I really mean a converted hiace van with seats in the back and air conditioning. Very nice though. Young Mai was our tour guide. We picked up a few more people thank god. We picked up this Canadian couple. Man were they boring. We also picked up 3 Korean lads. Both of these came from Kkao San Road.
The tour we got included the floating market, the elephant show, the crocodile show and a show in the rose garden. When they didn’t tell us was that we would also be visiting a coconut factory kind of place, a handy craft factory place and of course a gem factory at the end. The Canadian couple were only going to the floating market and the starting complaining that they only wanted to go to the floating market and not all the others. Cranky pair they were!
The coconut place was rubbish really. It was like we were on the ring of Kerry with every bus stopping off at every tourist place to get you to spend money!
We thought the floating market was a place where we would see all the locals doing their bit of shopping on their boats. Instead they just sold loads of souvenirs to us stupid tourists! If you showed any interest of asked the price of anything it was impossible to get out of buying the item. It’s all about haggling and trying to get the best price possible. The Canadian crowd bought a few things alright. Your man was going to buy a watch but the price he offered was so ridiculous that the lady started laughing and our boat driver also starting laughing. We moved on to the next stall very quickly! There’s nothing but souvenirs there and old ladies on their boats selling small bits and pieces of fruit. We also got a long boat and went around the river outside of the floating markets. They then dropped us off at a show containing snakes. Very creepy indeed. Got to tough a cobra alright which is supposed to bring good luck of some kind or other! They also had a mongoose in a glass box that is able to kill the cobra snakes. It did a good job because they had to take the snake out of the box as the mongoose was kicking it’s ass!
After that we hopped back on to our bus and went to the handycraft place. Another money making racket! This is where it all went pear shaped. First we had to change bus as our originally bus was only for the floating market tour and not the rest. So we met out new tour guy. Really nice fella. So he told us the meet him in a certain place at a certain time. So we were there in time and met him so he told us he was waiting for a family of 5 to show up. Yes, it’s the Kumars. We eventually got on the bus and were still waiting for this shower. It was just 5 more minutes for everything from them. Our guide was gas. He’s couldn’t apologise enough and kept throwing eyes. Because of them we only had about 20 minutes to have lunch. Buffet style, real nice. Of couse daddy Kumar complained saying that we needs mores time with his family to eat dinner. So our tour guide told them it was because of them. Anywho what he said to us is that he would put us on another bus so that we wouldn’t have to wait for them which was really nice.
So then we went to the elephant show which was next to the buffet lunch. Ah it was only ok. There’s only so much you can do with elephants really!
The crocodile show was even worse. The basically dragged them from the water on to a slightly raised platform. Half of them decided to go back in when the coast was clear! They did things like stick their hands and heads into their mouths.
This is where we got another new bus. Next stop, the rose garden only 5 minutes away. The show in the rose garden was only ok too. Sample of Thai boxing and a bamboo dance. We only had 15 minutes to do anything once the shows ended so there was no time to go around and actually see the garden.
Hopped back on to our bus/hiace converted van and headed for Bangkok, well the gem factory in Bangkok. Breezed through that really. When you lady walking around with us saw the lack of interest in our faces, she wasn’t long moving us through to the end. There was thing English family with a pup of a young lad with them. Enough same about him of I’ll be brought up by child services! Annoying as hell!

20/08/08 Wednesday Day 6 The boat trip
Ate breakfast in Crepes & Co. Very quaint French restaurant. Fairly saucy even though we picked it from out south east Asia shoestring book! Went then to the Queens Convention Centre which was rubbish. It was like going to the INEC in Killarney when it’s closed!
After that went down to get a boat. This is a good idea because you can hop on and hop off at any of the piers on the river for the day. On this we saw River City which was just a shopping centre with antiques, Chinatown, Khao San Road. This is apparently backpackers heaven. It’s like a giant puck fair in Kllorglin. It’s mental. It’s just all bars, stalls, food stalls and very noisy.
Had dinner for my birthday in what I found out later is one of the most fanciest restaurants in Bangkok. It’s on the top floor of the dome tower building. It’s even written on the menu that it’s one of the top 80 restaurants in the world. Just to give you an idea, a pint of beer is around 7 euro and the steak was priced at around 90 euro. I had the soup!
The bar then downstairs was full of fake wannabes. You can go outside too but instead of chairs there were bed like couches, again full of fake wannabes. We had one drink there and then legged it. We’re on a budget after all!
We then went looking for a club that was apparently close to out hotel. We accidentally came across Soi Cowboy. The name itself suggests no explanation necessary! Again full of dodgy bars and dodgy geezers. There were 3 potential clubs on our list.; Glow, Narcissus and Q Bar. Took us ages to find Glow but when we went in the place was empty. It was free in so we didn’t feel too bad. Again had 1drink there and legged it. Narcissus was across the road but this was closed due to renovations so we went to Q Bar itself which was hopping……..full of dodgy geezers trying to chat up the local Thai ladies. Good place though.

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