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Published: June 26th 2006
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Local watering hole
Cheap Charlies is a bar right on the side of the street near our hostel Arrival in Bangkok
We arrived in Bangkok realizing (not surprisingly) how different it is than Myanmar. It was just exciting to be able to use an ATM and have a currency traded in world markets. (That being said, I'm glad I didn't have a lot of Thai baht in 1997...)
Driving into Bangkok, we appreciated the large size of the city (6 million people). Not close to Beijing or Shanghai, but still quite big. And we got our first taste of Bangkok traffic which is quite awful. And we saw plenty of smog.
We got settled in our hostel and set out to explore the city and get some food. We took the Sky Train which is quite convenient. We ate at a Thai restaurant that had quite good food (thanks Kate - Mango Tree was the perfect first night place!). After eating we walked by an area that has an open market as well as a very large concentration of strip clubs, prostitutes and lady boys! Needless to say, it was an eye opening experience and sensory overload.
Day 1 of Bangkok Sight Seeing
We woke up at a reasonable time and had some breakfast prior to
heading out. We decided to go to the Grand Palace. While our hostel was in a nice area, it was not super convenient to get to that area. We were going to take the Sky Train and then a boat along the river. However, we spotted a taxi and figured it probably would not cost much more just taking that. We got in and the driver even put on the meter. After driving for a little while he started saying how far of a drive it was and that maybe we would want to take the boat instead. We said no, that we did not want to take the boat. Again, he went into how far it is, how the boat was closer and prettier and that the Grand Palace did not even open until 10:00 (this is a complete lie). It must have been a function of just getting into the city, not knowing Bangkok and feeling a little helpless. But we agreed for him to take us to the boat area on the river. At least we figured we would have gone by that way otherwise. Well, the jerk took us to another boat dock where the commuter
boat doesn't stop. It was some tour boat where they wanted 1500 Baht (while it is about 15 Baht for the commuter boat) for a 1.5 hour boat trip through the canals. Talk about a scam! So, we walked to the other dock and were able to take the regular passenger boat.
We made it to the Grand Palace. After having been in Myanmar, we were not as accustomed to having a lot of tourists around. The Grand Palace was a pretty impressive place. Cool designs, colors and statues. We then walked to another temple nearby Wat Pho. It was at this point that we realized that we have been seeing A LOT of pagodas, temples, and buddhas recently. Similar to being able to see only so many grand gothic churches in Europe until you are like "Okay, there is another church. It's nice. Let's go." Not to be cynical about it, but the excitment level definitely decreases as you see so many over a relatively short period of time.
After sightseeing, it was again getting to be quite hot. We took the boat and Sky Train to the Siam Paragon mall. It is probably the best mall
either of us have ever seen. A lot of different stores, a lot of good eating options, a movie theater and even a bowling alley. So, we spent some time looking around there before heading back to the hostel.
Before going out to eat, we stopped at Cheap Charlie's. A small bar. Evidently, it started as a cigarette stand and he then expanded to sell beer. All the seating is on basic chairs outside. The place was really cool and has a lot of character. We ended up meeting a guy living here in Bangkok who actually went to the University of Michigan. So that was a funny coincidence. After Charlie's, we went to an Indian restaurant and had some quite good Indian food.
After that, we went to a pub near the hostel that had the Germany-Sweden game on TV. Germany looked very good. We met an English guy living here in Bangkok who was quite fun to chat with.
Rest of Bangkok
On our second full day of Bangkok, we headed to the weekend market. Market is an understatement. This place was huge. They sold everything including clothes, souvenirs, home furnishings and pets. We spent
Well, now we've done Angkor Wat...
A mini Angkor at the the Grand Palace (don't really know why) a couple hours walking around there. After the market we went back to the mall to get some food and do Internet there. We are going to Koh Samui and Koh Tao. So, we had to organize flights and accommodation. We ended up spending a lot of time on the Internet and over an hour in a bookstore just checking out books. We actually felt awkward because at one point a lady came up to us offering us tea as we had been there so long!
That night we headed back to the pub to watch the England-Ecuador game. The World Cup continues to play a big role in our vacation. It was great to see England win even though again they did not look that great outside of Beckham's superb goal off a free kick.
Now, we are getting ready to leave Bangkok for Koh Samui. We are going to spend 3 nights on Koh Samui and then go to Koh Tao where we will spend several nights. We plan on doing a lot of relaxing on the beach and are going to get scuba diving open water certified in Koh Tao. So, that should be really
cool. We have now spent just about 5 hours updating the blog entries and the lady at the Internet cafe probably thinks we are crazy. So, we hope you enjoy them!
Off to the beach...
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Brendan
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Les Bleus
Viva Les Bleus!!! Hope you're watching the World Cup as Zizou is having quite the finish to his career. Sounds like the Advanced PADI certification could be worth it. Hope you enjoy any more dives you make.