Same Same, But Different

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I actually only spent about 4 full days in Bangkok, so can hardly say that I got to know it very well, but from what I did see I can say that it does live up to its reputation of being a busy and polluted city. People who spend more than a few minutes on the street actually wear surgical masks. (This was a bit worrying at first considering the recent bird flu outbreaks.)

However that is not to say that it is entirely bereft of interesting things to see and do, there are just a lot of places in Thailand where you could better spend your time. I did however have a very pleasant 4 days doing a number of touristy activities.

One of the best things about Bangkok is that it is great for shopping. Now I'm not a great shopper but I spent a whole day walking around the large shopping centers here and didn't even start to hint at getting shoppers fatigue. The centers are much larger than anything we have back home and they are all clumped within walking distance of each other. Each one has its own cinema complex and many have added features like bowling alleys and karaoke rooms. We watched "Keeping Mum", a dark comedy staring Rowan Atkinson (quite good actually) and went 10 pin bowling. With a coffee riding on the outcome I lost my cool on my last bowl and Michael beat me 135-134...

I also got a suit tailor made while we were in Bangkok. It was quite an experience getting all measured up and coming back several times for fittings. I ended up paying AU $100 for a complete suit and an extra $12 for a shirt. Hopefully it'll get a bit of use at some uni balls during my stay in Austria. I also picked up some fake press cards for JC and me. I'll keep you updated on any successful endeavours we have with them.

On one of our last days in Bangkok we decided to visit the ruins of the old capital of Thailand at Ayuthaya. The LP guidebook that we had for Thailand said that they were "not to be missed" so we thought it would be a nice change from the smog of the city for a day. We slept in and after finally making our way to the train station discovered that we had missed the train we had been planning for. The next train would cost more than 10 times more for some bizarre reason (the ticket sales person just blinked when asked why the ticket price varried so outrageously) so we decided to catch a taxi accross town to catch a bus.

This worked out quite well and we arrived with about 2 hours to check out the ancient city before we had to make our way back to Bangkok. We caught a tuk-tuk to one of the outlying ruins and then slowly worked our way in to the center, walking most of the way. There were some really amazing ruins but also a good amount of pretty ordinary ones. Most of the ruins had separate entry fees so that started to gnaw into our meagre budget for the day. It was an interesting day out and a good diversion from the shopping in Bangkok. However in retrospect I think LP was a little ambitious saying the ruins were "not to be missed" as I will quite happily miss them on my next trip to Thailand.

All in all my trip to Thailand has been a great experience. It was great to spend some quality time with Michael before we both go our separate ways for a year. It was also a very relaxing time and gave me a good break before leaving for Europe, and the main adventure.

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