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Published: February 2nd 2009
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After arriving into Bangkok in the afternoon heat and humidity to the mayhem that is the Kho san road it was a melting pot of noise, heat, smells, accents, languages, colours and while it was amazing it was reminiscant of a main strip on a spanish holiday resort. The whole time I was there I found it difficult to shake the holiday vibe and its partly why it was a relief to go on an amazing two day trek outside bangkok.
Luckily I was sitting beside a nice english girl and aussie girl on the plane and got a cab from the airport to the Kho san road with the aussie which was fantastic as she had been to bangkok a number of times and helped me find my guesthouse. I met them later for dinner and drinks but unfortunatly they were going to hit the beaches in the islands the next day.
On the thursday I was sitting having breakfast, minding my own business when a Canadian girl (Jenna) sat at my table, she was also travelling alone and we ended up going on a little tuk-tuk adventure where we went to see some of the religious monuments
in the city and ended up at the grand palace! I ended up moving into the same guest house as Jenna as it was about 3 euro a night for a single room in a quiet secure guest house on the kho san! virtually unheard of! we went out that night and met some fun random people from Ireland, England, Canada and Holland which was lots of fun!
friday morning we went down and booked various adventures with the travel agent and while I booked a two day trek outside bangkok, Jenna was going to head to the islands! that day we went to the big shopping centres which are amazing as they are so americanised in comparision with the surroundings! after this we went to Condoms and Cabbages restaurant! this was fantastic and definitely one of the highlights of Bangkok! it is a restaurant aimed at highlighting sexual health and all the decor is made from condoms and contraceptive pills! its slightly more expensive than other restaurants but profits go towards training disadvantaged women to help them get jobs and building schools as well as many other projects! after the restaurant we ventured home on public transport using
the sky train which was pretty cool and public bus, which makes dublin bus look like chauffeur driven jag's, and we went out for a last hoolie that night and met some more random people!
the next morning i was up at 6 to head of on my two day adventure! I was sitting in the bus with 4 dutch people, all sitting there talking to each other and terrified that I would spend the next 48 hours in complete silence and wondering what I had gotten myself into.... we set off on the 2 hour drive to the prisioner of war graveyard which was intense but really interesting and sad and after this we ventured on to the Jeath Museme and the bridge over the river Kwai, which again was an intense and moving experience. we then went for lunch in a floating restaurant/cabin type thing on the river kwai and ther i met a irish girl, english guy and aussie guy which was fantastic as I had someone to talk to :-)
after lunch we went to the waterfall, which was amazing, myself, caroline (irish girl), simon (english guy) went swimming in it which was the
most amazing experience, the water was beautiful! loads of children were in it and there was even an monk on a mobile phone which was a bit surreal but it was fantastic! we got to spend a good 2 hours there in the beautiful humid sunshine cooling down in the water! after this we went on a pointless 90 min train journey around the river kwai which was pointless and frustrating and uncomfortable in the sunshine, but all in all it had been a good day! when we got off the train we had the fantastic adventure of being squished sardine like into the back of a open truck, luckily i was at the end so i had a prime view of the road speeding under the truck and was holding onto the rails for dear life!!! we got back to the floating cabin and me and caroline were rooming together which was good and we met two other english girls who were lots of fun!
the next day we were up early to have the dodgiest breakfast ever! two cold hard fried eggs and bread before heading off to the elepants! Caroline, Simon and me were on one
elephant for a short trek which we thought would be fun until ours decided it wanted to be a renegade and go off the beaten track and tear down trunks from some trees which was terrifying and we were all holding on to each other, eventually the guy got him under control and he came back down the hill to join the others! when we got back tho we could see the chains on the ground from where they keep the animals trapped and immediately I felt so guilty! It really did feel horrific that my money supported the caputuring of these animals and see the chains brought it home about how unfairly these animals are treated.
after the elephants we went to another war museme to see part of where prisioners of war laid down traintracks which was again an intense, humbling and sad experiece. we then returned to the cabin for lunch and went bamboo rafting down the river kwai which was fun and relaxing before going to see the Tiger Temples, this is supposed to be the highligh of the trip but like the elephants it made me sad to see these wild animals trained and
restrained and unable to do as nature has intended. after visiting the tigers we went into a temple and there were monks there who would not speak to any women or communicate with them in any way, but they wanted us to like incense but to give it to us they had to give it to simon to distribute!!! It was a really odd experience especially as in the back of the temple beside all the ornate gold an holy decor was a 32 inch flat screen tv?? after the temples we began what should have been a 2 hour journey home, however because of traffic in bangkok took almost 4 hours!
The following day at breakfast I met a girl from Manchester and got on really well, we went to lunch with caroline from the trek and the 3 of us had a girlie afternoon browsing the stalls and going for a massage, which turned out to be hilarious when my masseuse answered the phone during the massage! twice!!!!
we met again for dinner and that was my first experience of the infamous sansong wiskey buckets! which are lots of fun and very very potent! we went
to see an asian rock band in an Irish bar on the kho san which was hilarious and then went downstairs and got chatting to 3 lads from the isreali army.
we all met for a late breakfast/early lunch the next day and I moved into caz's apartment before going out and meeting a girl and guy from bristol and having the sansong buckets again1 it was just a quiet relaxing day before heading off to cambodia for the real start of my adventure!
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