Bangkok

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31.7.10 Bangkok - Back in Thailand

The one stop flight from Chengdu to Bangkok via Guangzhou was relatively painless. Though we were sad to be leaving China prematurely due to the floods preventing us from accessing Yunnan and south Sichuan province. The trip to Thailand was only interrupted by a brief run in with Chinese immigration. I decided to try to keep the original Chinese (Tibetan) paper visa as a souvenir and provided them with a copy declaring the original was destroyed by flood water. This was obviously completely unacceptable and we were removed from the line and marched to a private area for interrogation. Admitting defeat I provided the original and we were then escorted back to the grumpy looking official. South African passports are not the most difficult documents to forge and mine was inspected for several minutes with a magnifying glass, uv light and several other instruments I could not identify. With a slap on the wrist for leaving on the last day of our visa we finally made it through. Once finished in customs we were free to head back to Thailand, the place where we first met.

We landed in the early evening and took a taxi to the infamous Ko San road. Once we’d found our bearings we searched for a comfy guest house just outside Ko San nearer to the river and away from the traveller madness that is the Ko San. Called the Sawasdee guest house it’s the same place we stayed over 8 years ago. Now fitted with A/C and tiled bathrooms it’s a very different establishment to the dodge we remember.

Stoked to be back in Thailand we quickly headed for a street side Pad Thai, cold Chang and wandered through the crazy streets as in the days of old. We remembered where we set caged birds free, partied till the sun came up and watched monks collect their morning alms. The Ko San has been cleaned up and the streets surrounding it paved and it now hosts a modern traveler feel having lost a lot of the seediness we remember. We spent the next few days sorting out transport to the islands, and eating as much street food as we could. God bless the street vendors and the green, yellow, red, masaman and penang curries they produce. With a slightly larger budget than our last visit we also indulged in a Thai classic...the Thai massage. Firm, thorough, and not for the body shy we enjoyed an hour long treatment and felt completely rejuvenated.
Tickets in hand and a little lighter after sending a parcel to Perg in New Zealand (containing gloves, beanies, thermals and everything not beach orientated) we began the longest journey ever undertaken to south Thailand. ......

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