Bangkok Birthday


Advertisement
Thailand's flag
Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Bangkok
January 3rd 2009
Published: January 18th 2009
Edit Blog Post

Bangkok is a city which conjures up images of chaos and confusion with bodies moving in every direction at once, and stinging neon lights beckoning you to drink liquor with bikini-clad lady boys. A place where you can get anything you want and where the strange, wonderful and somtimes disturbing are the norm. We weren't dissapointed.

We arrived at 3 o'clock in the morning and headed straight to the main tourist drag called Khao San Road which was still in full flow. The street was full of people swigging cheap Chang beer with scantily clad Thai girls, music was blaring from every bar, the street was lined with market stalls selling clothes and food carts serving up freshly prepared Pad Thai. It was a shock to the senses, the bright lights, the smells and the sounds were definitely what we had imagined and after some trouble finding a room as most places were full we headed out for a late night beer.

After a few hours sleep we got up and decided to go and do some jobs, these included going to the Post Office to collect a parcel and going to the Indian Embassy to sort out our visas. We went along the river by boat which is a common form of public transport in the city as the roads are manic and congested. When we finally arrived at the Post Office we were surprised to find it was shut. Puzzled, we asked someone why and were told that it didn't open on Saturdays. We were pretty damn sure it was Friday but obviously we were wrong, this is becoming a common problem for us these days. We decided instead to get the skytrain to the commercial centre of the city and have a look around the malls and go to the cinema. The centre and the malls were modern and far less dirty than we had imagined. At the cinema it is customary for them to play the national anthem and have a montage of the King on the big screen for which everyone, including tourists, are expected to stand. That evening we headed back to Khao San Road, had some dinner and went to bed. We were pretty exhausted, still recovering after New years Eve.

We decided go for a walk the next day to visit some of the main sights in Bangkok. The first stop was the Grand Palace but it was expensive so we didn't go in, it looked very grand though. We then headed to Wat Pho which is a large temple and is home to one of the largest Reclining Buddha statues in the world. It is forty-six metres long and fifteen metres high, decorated with gold plating on his body and mother of pearl on his eyes and the soles of his feet, it is an impressive sight. We had to take our shoes off and cover our legs and shoulders to go in. We explored the rest of the grounds and the smaller beautifully tiled temples that were dotted around. Whilst exploring we were approached by a student who wanted to practice his English on us. He read out a passage from a sheet about the history of the temple and then asked us to fill out an evaluation form, we didn't understand a word of it but we gave him good marks anyway. We then had some lunch at a food market next to the river which was cooking all sorts of wierd stuff, we played it safe with some noodles before heading home. The streets on the way back were crammed with stalls selling the most useless tat, one man was even selling second hand false teeth no doubt plucked from the mouths of the recently deceased. Most were not even full sets.

Once back on Khao San Road we spent some quality time browsing the stalls. You can't walk more than five meters without being hassled by someone either offering massages or talior made suits. One man had the cheek to tell me that i looked old and that i should dye my hair and buy one of his suits to rejuvenate myself. Not the best sales tactics. However our favourite pests were the ladies who were pesistantly trying to sell wooden frogs, the 'amazing' selling point being that you rub a stick across their corregated backs to create a noise similar to that a frog might make. They would present them as if they were a revolutionary new device which was going to change the world, rubbing the stick along their backs to create the noise and then looking at you in wonderment as to how such a noise could possibly be made. It's safe to say that we weren't terribly impressed and didn't purchase one.

The vendors on Khao San Road are very different to those we have encountered elsewhere. They are ruthless and constantly try to rip you off. Even though they and you know that they are ripping you off they are stubborn and don't budge much on their prices. In other places if you know you're not getting a fair price you can just walk away knowing that when you are two meters down the road they will call after you agreeing to whatever price you want. That doesn't happen here. It is because there are so many tourists who will just pay the inflated price so the vendors don't need to barter, they know that some other mug will be along soon enough and pay full whack. This really annoyed us, especially when they were trying to charge us more than we would pay back home. Saying this there are still some bargains to be had.

The next day was my 24th birthday. I opened my cards and my presents from Lil and we then met up again with our friend from home, Matthew. We went to a huge six story shopping mall which sold loads of fake goods, i-Pods, phones and clothes amongst other things. We got a taxi there and the drivers are as bad as the market traders for ripping people off. They often drive around in circles so the meter clocks up, costing way more than it should. Ten minute journeys often end up being half an hour. Our driver tried it on with us but we caught him out and a minute later we were at the mall. After looking at some shops we had the best lunch, it was an all you can eat sushi buffet. We payed about five pounds each and we could stay in the restuarant for an hour and fifteen minutes and eat whatever we liked. The dishes came round on a conveyor belt and we ate so much we nearly went blind. There were fresh prawns, fresh clams, meats, cuts of fish, sushi rolls, veg, noodles and loads of stuff we didn't recognise. We were given a boiling vat of soup to cook the meats and prawns in, although Matt didnt realise this to start with and ate some raw prawns. It was a real feast.

After, we decided to get a Tuk Tuk back to Khao San. The Tuks Tuks in Bangkok work in a very unusual way. I will explain. If you just want them to take you directly to your destination they are expensive but it is possible to get anywhere in the city for next to nothing if you agree to their terms. Basically they will take you to your destination but stop along the way at various shops, normally tailors and tourist information centres. You have to pretend to be interested in buying a suit or booking a tour and the shops then give the tuk tuk drivers a commission in the form of vouchers which they redeem for petrol. We didn't ever buy anything but we got pretty good at acting and if you are not in a rush then it is the cheapest way to get around, its actually pretty funny too.

That night we went to the famous Patpong Road, home to Bangkoks legendary red light district. The street has an open air 'knock offs' market down the middle of it and along the sides are the sex clubs and go-go bars. To give an example of how un-classy this place is one of the bars was called 'Super Pussy'. There is no way to describe the goings on politley but i will try my best. The whole area is a real circus with huge neon signs advertising sex shows, market traders trying desperately to convince you that your life will be better with a fake Rolex on your wrist and Thai men trying to lure you into their bars by showing you a menu of what's on offer - fanny ping pong, fanny trumpet, fanny blow-dart and fanny razor blade - amongst other things. We spent some time walking up and down peering through the doorways at the bikini-clad girls (many of whom are boys) dancing on the stages. As i just mentioned many are actually boys, or once were, and they are dangerously convincing and often more attractive then the real girls. I'm sure many western men have been caught out and had a nasty surprise.

After we'd had enough of taking in the atmosphere on the street we decided to venture into one of the clubs. We were taken up some stairs and shown to a table. The room was dimly lit with tables layed out around a central stage on which girls were dancing topless. We ordered some beers and pretty soon the show started. We were treated to some truly bizarre and disturbing sights. I apologise if this is a little crass but it all happened. They were using their vaginas to - fire ping pong balls across the room, blow out candles, fire darts to pop balloons and open metal capped bottles - there was more but i'm sure you get the idea. I'm pretty certain that most people watch this for more of a freak show experience than a way of satisfying sexual fantasies, at least i hope so. There are some very strange people in the world though and many of them seem to hang around Patpong. We saw fat European men with little Thai girls and it appears if you have the money you can have anything you want here. It is possible to see live sex shows both hetro and gay and of course prostitution is rife.

After all this excitement we headed back to the relitive normality of Khao San and had some drinks and went to bed with visions of ping pong balls flying through our heads.

On our final day we eventually got round to doing the jobs we intended to do on the first day. We decided to play the tuk tuk game again to get to the Post Office as it was the cheapest option. So we pretended to be interested in suits for ten minutes and then got a ridiculously cheap ride there and back. That night we went for some food and reminised about the previous few days in Bangkok.

It is definitely a crazy place and not for the faint hearted although it is possible to escape the mayhem. It's a place where you can spend the day walking around peaceful temples and by night swig beer and watch lady boys strut their stuff. Something bizarre is waiting around every corner and it's best to just throw yourself into it and go with it, normallity doesn't rule here and it's great.


Advertisement



Tot: 0.19s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 13; qc: 31; dbt: 0.0314s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb