Bangkok - Buckets, Friends and Tigers!

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Sawadee Ka (hello) from Bangkok, …home to the Land of Smiles.

After a hectic few days in Singapore we landed in Bangkok and realised that we had visited 3 countries (Bali, Singapore & Thailand) in the space of 3 days! Whoever said the life of a backpacker was relaxing, must have been lying!
Kim nearly cried with relief and happiness when she spotted a Boots in the arrival terminal of the airport and obviously had to stock up on all the necessaries, leaving James wondering how many toiletries does one girl need!!

A short bus ride from the airport we arrived at Khao San Road aka Backpacker central. This street is notorious for promoting cheap drinks, massage parlours, bargain clothes and a great party atmosphere. If you come here looking for traditional Thai culture you might as well get back on the plane and go home as the population of backpackers and holiday makers out number the locals by 10 to 1. Kim was very excited because her friends, Amy and Sarah were arriving in a few days and James was excited because he had been here before on his last trip…lucky guy.

We had decided to stay in Rambuttri Village just opposite KSR. Our rooms had air con for the first time since we had been in Asia…bliss! It was obvious that James had decided to splash out as Kim’s friends were coming and have one of Asia’s luxuries for a short while. The girls were not arriving for a few days so we had the chance to familiarise ourselves with Bangkok and the possible sights we were planning on visiting in the next week.

Just as well because the next night we decided to let our hair down and check out the famous ‘buckets’ which we had heard people raving about. Imagine a standard beach bucket filled with your favourite cocktail or spirit/mixer with several straws plonked in and that is your drink for the next couple of hours, it’s not too classy, but certainly does the job! Having one of these buckets is enough to make your eyes a little glazed and your head spin. As we were so naïve to this we left it until late in the evening to purchase our buy one get one free buckets after several other drinks. No surprise when Kim started speaking drunken Thai and actually got up and danced with a group of Thai girls and than sat down as her head completely spaced out followed by a slur of “James take me home”. Oh the next two hours were fun. Kim had insisted that she wanted to lie on the cold tile floor of our bathroom and refused to move for complaining of seeing double, so James decided to turn the cold water on her and she slowly crawled her wet bum to bed. The next day was a bit of blur for both of us as all day was spent in bed hungover with only the photos of the night before to remind us…Go Buckets!

We weren’t due to pick up the girls from the airport until late in the evening so that day we headed out of the madness of KSR to find Chatachak market. We insisted on not falling for the con artistes of the Tuk Tuk Drivers and thought we would find a local bus to take us. 2 hours later and numerous conversations with police officers and shop keepers we still had no success and in the end took a taxi to the market on the metre. Chatachak market is the largest market in Bangkok, not that Kim got to see very much of it. Her stomach was still feeling the after effects of the buckets so much of the day was spent hovering around the loo. This market was so hot to walk around but you can purchase anything and everything here. One shop that impressed us was the pet shop…not cute bunnies or guinea pigs…but snakes, spiders and lizards not to mention the bags of live creepy crawlies such as crickets and maggots which were on the floor.

We got to the airport nice and early and prepared some Welcome greeting signs for the girls arriving. By 8pm we were starting to get a little worried that we hadn’t met them yet and Kim had cluelessly not written down their flight number to cross check. As we hadn’t seem them in a year we didn’t know what colour hair we were looking for, double checking lookalikes to see that it wasn’t them. James was expecting the girls to come falling through customs in high-heels with their brand new rucksacks and when they eventually came into sight they looked pristine clean, bearing the comforts of home and untouched by the effects of travelling it reminded us of what we looked like…..oh what we had in store for them! Prior to the girls arriving we had asked them to bring out a few bits from the UK and we were eternally grateful for the home comforts such as Tampax for Kim and Fruit and Nut Cadburys chocolate for James. Cheers girls, I’m gutted I eat it all so quickly :O(

The next day with the girls slightly more awake we headed on a short walk to a temple called Wat Po home to the largest reclining Buddha in Asia. This Buddha is gold plated and has The Mother of Pearl at the base of its feet. For a small donation of currency you could have a small bowl of pennies which you could put in pots of luck. This temple has lots of sitting Buddha dotted around the premises all gold plated. Unfortunately we fell into the trap of being promised that we could see the monks in their resting place and as were lead up a path to a black out building thoughts of dodginess were crossing our minds. We were told that for a small donation we could go in and receive good luck from the monks. A quick pace later we were out of the temple and felt we had a lucky escape! Few!

One evening we decided to visit China Town for dinner, which wasn’t the best ideal to break the girls into the Asian cuisine. It seemed the only food available was that being sold by the street vendors and as we walked past smelly fish, raw meat peppered with fly’s and roasted whole ducks it was becoming clear on the girls faces that they didn’t fancy Asain food that evening.
Eventually we found a nice restaurant where we did manage to sample some very nice duck (without a head, feathers or tail) and special fried rice. Talk about playing it safe!! The waiters must have laughed at us westerners when we asked for pancakes, cucumber and plum sauce…as if you can have it without these essential ingredients.

That night Amy and Sarah got to sample the local harassment which makes up part of Asia travelling. There were the numerous Tuk Tuk drivers which were asking us if we wanted to see a Ping Pong Show, the young girls who sold roses and were extremely rude if you did not buy one and the many older women who sold souvenirs such as the creaking frogs or tribal hats. Again we had another bucket each however Kim struggled but the girls got to see how strong they were as Amy’s eyes were glazed after one…what we didn’t know is how much we would have regretted those buckets the morning after.

The next day we booked a trip to see several attractions around Kanchanaburi, West of Bangkok. First stop was the floating market, which we were pretty disappointed with as it was clear the market was completely geared towards the tourist selling the usual souvenirs (crap) you would find on Khao San Road instead of exotic fruits and colourful spices we had expected.
The smells of the food, the rocking of the boat and the sight of the dirty river were not really agreeing with our hangover from the previous evening, making our stomach curdle. Today was also the first time Amy and Sarah got to experience the traditional ‘hole in the floor’ toilet, which we found funny watching their faces as they came out!

The Bridge over the River Kwai was our second stop and is famous from the WWII film “The Bridge over the River Kwai”. James went off to read all the interesting history while the girls were more interested in a tiger cub that was being paraded around. The sight of its trainer continuously pushing its head down to keep it still was a little uncomfortable to watch at it is apparent out here that there is little education when it comes to cruelty to animals. No surprise when the cub turned to bite a woman’s breast and wouldn’t let go…ouch!

Although the day had been very long, most of it spent in the mini bus the highlight of the day had to be Tiger Temple. Tiger Temple is a canyon where you can go and have your pictures taken with several tigers which are looked after by the Thai monks. This attraction also is home to other free roaming animals such as buffalo, boars, horses and cows but it is definitely the tigers that draw the crowds. Before we reached the canyon we had our pictures taken with some cubs that were very playful. James was told in the exact words “if he comes towards you I would move as he is probably going to bite you” Kim stepped back. There has been lots of debate between animal lovers who have visited this place as to whether the animals are sedated or not. In our opinion the answer is yes and no. As we approached the canyon there were about twenty tigers laying down some sleeping and some wide awake. You are told not to wear any bright colours such as red, yellow or orange as it could excite/anger the tigers so you might understand our confusion when we see the guides wearing bright yellow shirts and the monks in their traditional orange robes.
You have one person who leads you by the hand to the tigers whilst the other person takes the pictures of you with your camera at no extra charge. It’s a little daunting but you get some fantastic photos with the tigers but remember you have to pat them hard to show authority and that you are sat next to them…scary. For twenty pound you can get up real close and personal and have your pictures taken with the tigers head on your lap with your hand under its mouth…these tigers are obviously sedated but again it makes a great photo. Amy chose to splash out and get the ‘special’ photo taken, and looking back we wish we had the extra cash to do it. As far as we are aware these animals are shown love and respect and there was no evidence of animal cruelty present while we were there anyway.

After several busy days in Bangkok we were due to get a sleeper train to the North of Thailand, Chang Mai. Our train wasn’t until 7pm so we thought an afternoon at the pool sounded like a good idea. As Kim and Amy sunbathed, Sarah and James thought it was a good idea to confirm the time of the sleeper train as transportation in Asia is always unpredictable to say the lease. Lucky they did because we were told that the trains had been cancelled due to transportation strikes which meant that we could wait until the strike was off or prepare to leave in the next hour to catch a flight to Chang Mai which would only take one hour. Although this was the more expensive option it seemed the most luxurious so one hour later we were in a taxi heading for the airport. The only thing was check in was due to close at 4:30 and we had half an hour to do a one hours trip nearing rush hour. As Sarah and James told the driver to go faster, Kim was sitting tight in the back with her eyes closed as she knew the driving in Bangkok was as joyful as having your toenails pulled out. Luckily we made it all in one piece.

So even though the girls have only touched down in Thailand, we whisked them off on a small plane to Chaing Mai where we plan to ride elephants, raft down rivers and trek through thick forests.

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Photos

Inside Wat Po
This is the largest reclning budda in Asia

Boots!!!
Kim must have stocked up for the year considering how long she was in there!

Comments

[Sophie and Dale]

Buckets are not fun!
Ha ha love the blog guys! Buckets are sooo bad and I will never hear anyone tell me otherwise! Kim I had a similar experience to you in Phi Phi... I ended up lying face down on the sand completely comatosed nearly getting washed our to sea. Dale had to literally drag me back to the room where I was promptly sick all over it and all our stuff.. in the morning I remembered nothing at all!!! Looks like you had a great time though.. take care Sophie xx