Day 3 Bangkok - The Market and the Tuk tuk

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Day 3 - Bangkok -

So I have now been in Bangkok for 48 hours and am finally starting to get the hang of the city. The parts that I have seen have proven to me that Bangkok is truly a crazy city. When I first arrived what stood out must was the smell. If I was going to try and describe it, the entire streets smell like a combination of sewage, fried fish, and a weird smelly cooked beef. It's such an odd smell, they say you get use to it, but I am really not sure if that's possible. So yesterday i did a little exploring, when I first arrived to Bangkok I was dropped off on Kohn San road, at 2 in the morning, and it really wasn't impressive all that was their were Thai prostitutes yelling at me "Yo Canada do I have something special for you". But when I went back there yesterday afternoon it was like a whole city had been built. Both sides of the streets were completely covered with little shops, and the famous street meat carts were walking up and down the street. I'm not going to buy any souvenir yet as I fly out of Bangkok in August and will buy some stuff then. BUt honestly you can buy anything on that street from a "certified" university degree for 100 Baht or 2 Cdn, to brand named clothes, to tailored suits to handmade wood elephants. At both ends of the street there are a bunch of tuk-tuks which are three wheel open taxis. They yell and scream at you as you go buy, and apparently they take you places for cheap but then add an extra stop at certain retail location which in turn the tuk-tuk get free gas from the store manager. I tried to stay clear but had ended up in one by the end of the day, as I will mention in a bit.

So after my walk through Koh San road I decided to headed out to some of the tourist attractions from the Lonely Planet. I walked down to see the monument of Democracy. which really wasn't all that exciting. As I was walking to the next stop this little thai women starts yelling: "Canada oh Canada, Vancouver, Vancouver" So I stopped and talked with her for probably about half an hour. She told me she takes English in school and wanted to try talking to someone who really speaks the language. So she first taught me a few basic thai sayings like hello and thank you, then I took out my lonely planet and she started circling all the places I should go. Then she started telling me that it's a Buddhist holiday and that it's free to enter the temples today. So after chating for 30 mins she ended up tracking down a tuk-tuk explained to the tuk-tuk driver where I should go, then I was off. I was amazed at how fast these little three wheelers go. I am sure you have all heard the driving is crazy, but honestly you have no idea until your right in the thick of it. There were 2 lanes each way for the cars.the motor bikes fly on all sides of the cars, then the Tuk-tuk go pretty much where ever they can fit including on coming traffic. The best part of the entire ride was we were flying up a bridge and everyone was shifting to the right really quick because one of the street meat guys was pushing his cart up the hill. SO we get around him make it to the top of the hill and are waiting at a red light. Next thing I see is this food cart coming flying over the hill through the red light yelling and screaming barely dodging the intersecting traffic. It was quite the site.

The tuk tuk took me to three different Buddhas, the lucky Buddha, the standing Buddha, the sitting Buddha. They were neat to see but really not all that exciting. The next stop was the TAT, which is a government travel agency. The lady I was talking to earlier had recommend i go there because they had a huge sale today because of the Buddhist holiday. SO after talking with the travel agent for 30 mins I ended up booking a mountain trek in chai Mai which is in northern Thailand leaving tomorrow. The whole entire trek bus up there, three days of trekking, 2 days in chai mai and train back was 4500 Baht, which is 130 Cdn. I really have no idea if that's a good deal or not but seems cheap to Canadians, I gave her a down payment and will decide later tonight if I am going to go or not. The only thing that would be stopping me is that I would go straight to the north and miss a bunch of towns on the way through.

Today I am going to go to the Grand Palace, and the Wat Pho which is a large temple. It's been a pretty crazy few days, adjusting to the temperature, time change and the culture shock has been a lot harder then I thought it would be. I am slowly starting to get into the swing of things, and I think each day will get easier and easier. well that's it for now,

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Comments

[Joep Diening]

An interesting Day 3
Lieve Jos, Thanks for writing your thoughts and experiences out on this blog site! It is a great idea and will give you a wonderful diary to return to afer you come back. Have a great trek and we look forward to hearing more from you. HVL, Dad

[Christine Doyle]

Go to Chai Mai
Chai Mai is a great place to go but i wouldn't head north so soon. There is alot to see in the city. If you are looking for people to travel with go to Gulliver's on kohn san road. You also won't get used to the smells and as you leave the city prepare yourself for no toilets and bring TP everywhere!!! The lonely planet is a great guide book and keep talking to locals. Christine

[crys]

so funny
you had me laughing so much. the driving sounds nuts. and i loved how all these historic sights were not all that exciting. so funny. i am just picturing this really ridiculous effort to get to one of the must-see historic sights and it's like a statue of a guy and there's no information telling you what it is.. good luck on your journey north if you decide to go, sounds like it would be pretty facinating. keep writing!