Bangkok not so dangerous

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Hello people,

I guess it's time to give you guys a little update on our little trip. Yes, OUR, I found Max! He's alive and well and now we can tackle this continent together! Woot.

But I did have two and half random days in Bangkok till he came here. I can catch you up quickly.

I flew in here faster than expected, my 13+ hr flight into Hong Kong turned into a 12 hour leisure trip, I slept for most of it, which was awesome and boring to talk about. Then my supposed 3 hr flight into Bangkok turned into a 2 hr flight, nice, and then I was here. A country I have never been to and a continent I have hardly explored.

I took an airport bus into the city in hopes of finding my hostel, it was a nice hour long introduction to the beauty and confusion which is Bangkok. Firstly it's flat, so you have no real hopes of finding a mountain or something to base your location on, secondly, it's a potluck of charm, confusion, and tuktuks. I mean this city has it all! Flying in I saw the rows upon rows upon rows upon rows (etc) of small farms using every single piece of land available to grow crops on. This topgraphy was eventually spotted with perfect little suburbs (like 6 streets and 8 houses deep) each neighbour carbo copies of each other. Reminded me of any suburban US city. Anyways, once I hopped of the airport bus a nice 20 min monsoon swept through soaking everyone and everything that didn't get out of it's way.

Already lost and now having the oppertunity to try to find my hostel in the rain I opted to use one of Bangkoks finest modes of transportation: The tuk tuk. It's a love hate relationship with tuktuks and in this short period I have experienced both. They try to sell you anything under the moon but if you're stubborn enough, they'll get you to where you want.

After finding my hostel and unloading my pack I went exploring and I figure another tuktuk was in store. This time I was met by Paul, the tuktuk driver. We started talking, or was he trying to sell me his services, I think it was the latter but it worked out since for 20 baht (divide that by 30 to get Canadian price) he would drive me around to some sites. I said sure, He showed me the giant bhudda, a 45 meter tall bhudda, the royal palace, democracy square, and a bunch of other places, I don't quiet remember them all. Did I say 20 baht? Well, as tuktuk drivers are known for, we made a couple of extra stops, 2 suit shops and a travel agent all trying to sell me stuff on their 'last day of a big sale' I denied 2/3, and then bought a super cheap suit. Sigh, learnt that lesson. After pleading for Paul to take me home and not another place I paid him (still the 20 baht) after over 2.5 hrs of driving me around. So, not too bad. I celebrated by letting jetlag catch up at 4 pm and sleeping till 11pm. Went out for a bit to explore the night markets right around my hostel. I'm staying close to Kao San, a popular and cheap place in the Thonburi (?) area, it's a crazy world here and hopefully I can snap a few good photo's to do it some justice.

My second day I figured hey, since I already got lost close to my hostel, lets get lost somewhere farther away this time. So that's exactly what I did (who says I don't plan). I tried to find Bangkoks China town via public bussing. This 7 baht bus took me straight, wait, no, not straight, but I did get a nice little tour around Bangkok and eventually got me somewhat close to Chinatown, but anyways, I got there. Chinatown, how do I explain it? It's a couple square kilometers in size and it's a GIANT dollar store broken down into little shops. I have never seen so many shoes shops, sandal stores, bag shops, jewelry stores, food shops, mechanic shops, tire stores, toy stores, belt stores, police gear stores, etc in my life. I mean one side street, barely big enough for 2 people across to walk would have 25-30 shops all selling the same things! It's incredible to think that some of these stores survive at all. I guess that's why if you show any interest at all they will not let you go until you buy something. I had a guy who I asked to point to where I was on the map (since I got lost like 40 times on my walk) even HE, tried to get me a tuktuk and into a tourist shop. Geez. Anyways, I got lost in Chinatown as mentioned, time and time again, it's a confusing city but tons to see. I finally ended up walking around for 3 hrs till I made it back to my hostel. So not too exciting, but after so much walking I decided to take it easy that night and go check out a movie at MBK shopping centre in Siam Square. This shopping mall gives West Edmonton Mall a run for its money. Besides the hundreds of stores (including a BMW dealership on the 4th floor) it had an Imax, opera hall (1500 seats) and a giant aquarium, including glass bottom boats in the basement. It's quiet the spectical, unlike Gamer which I went to see, that movie sucked balls.

Third day my plan was just to relax a bit and wait for Max to arrive, but he got delayed 5 hrs thanks to Nepal Airways or whatever he was flying with, so I had another half day to explore. I decided this time to take a ride with Bangkoks, popular and very scenic, ferry system. Bangkok still relies heavelly on their river systems despite paving over a bunch of them. This ferry system reminded me a bit of HongKongs Star Ferries. Now I know HongKongs ferry system is for travel from the mainland to the island but still. They're both really cheap, small boats, that carry passangers with ease to their destinations. It was a 40 mins ride from Bang Lumpu where I'm staying down to Sathorn Central Pier via the Chao Phraya River. We passed by multiple temples that were built by waters edge, including Bangkoks most famous Wat Po and Grand Palace. The closer you got to Central Pier the more sky scrapers and high rises there are as the Silom area seems to be the business district of Bangkok. The MBK shopping centre and Siam Square are in this area as well. I didn't do too much but walk around the shopping centre cause that's all it seemed to be. Not that exciting, hopefully I can post some pics so this blog gets a little bit more exciting.

Anyways, after that I headed home, took a breather, and went off to the airport to pick up Max. Like I said he's alive and good. Once back in the city we caught up over some beers. We have decided that maybe Thailand isn't the best place to be right now. You see, we want to go diving down by Phuket and such; however, it's still monsoon season making it very bad to almost no diving till mid November. So to make a long story short, we're off to Cambodia tomorrow.

Peace out,
Kif

What I learned in Bangkok:
- Bangkok is cheap, very cheap, so why have I spent so much already?
- Bangkok's free maps suck and so does my sense of direction
- When bargaining down a tuktuk driver I realized we were arguing over 50 cents, literally, so I learned taking the cheaper public transportation is better (25 cents on way), and has less arguing
- No plans are good plans, it allows you to change them

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Photos

Buddha Statue
Buddha Statue

Little temple
Nice little building by the hostel

Bangkok
Another temple

Wat Arun
(I think)

Bangkok
Fishermen on the Chao Phraya River

Comments

[Kristin]

Dina forsta dagar later jatte trevliga och jag insag att jag borde ha sagt att man inte skulle anvanda tuktucks... oh well... Cambodia, va spannande!!! Hoppas allt ar bra! Kram, Krisin