3 Nights in and still alive, if a little tired....

3 Nights in and still alive, if a little tired....

That is right I have now survived 3 nights of my epic journey around SE Asia.
And only a few hickups along the way so far.

Reached Heathrow airport on a baking hot Sunday afternoon with plenty of time to spare found the check-in counter and did not even have to queue! So things going well.

Then the first hickup:
I am used to travelling in Europe where all the flights are just a few hours long and there is never any sunshine. SO of course it was not until after I checked my luggage in that it occured to me I was a little hot and there was no way my T-shirt was going to last another 16 hours without developing its own delightfull odour. The next hour was spent in duty-free buying deoderant and trying to find spare T-shirts that did not feature a crappy picture of the London underground map and cost less that 25 quid each.

Having sucessfully taken care of the risk of developing my own unique fragrance I then settled down to enjoying the last time I will spend in England for 6 weeks, waiting for my flight to depart in the only appropriate way possible.
How did I do that you may ask. Why I spent the time sipping Magners Cider in a fake Irish pub (O Niell's) watching the world cup of course. The match was so bad even the English team could have won it....

The cam the flight. I was flighing with EVA to Thailand and I have to say I was impressed with the plane and crew. The plane was modern and clean with confortable seats. I was assigned a seat by an exit so had only 6 feet of leg room available to me. It was a struggle to sqeaze in but I survived ;-) It also help that the stewardesses were very attractive and young Chinese ladies. My next Asia trip will definately include China or Taiwan I think.

If you are wondering what Chinese stewardesses are doing on a flight from London to Bangkok, well the plan was continuing to Tai Pai after dropping some on us off and refulling in Bangkok.

For the flight I was sat with 2 other lone travellers. A older lady called Jacky who was the spitting image of my auntie Pat, so much so I did a double tack when she sat down and even accidently called her Pat one time! She was going to visit her daughter who lived in Tai Pai teaching English. Sat on my other side was Chris, a single, self employed builder. Chris was bound for Thailand like me, but seemed somewhat more vague about what he was going to do or where he was going to stay, when he got to Bangkok. All he would say was he was being met by a lady at the airport and she was arranging everything. He said 'a lady' rafer than 'a friend'. I resisted the earge to give a knowing wink and let him take the opportunity to quickly change the subject.....

I managed to get some rest on the plane automating between movies and sleep, while fending of all the very nice food the stewardesses kept offering up. I swear I left that plan weight a good 6 pounds more that I did at the start of the flight!

On arrival at Bangkok sailed through customs without incident and went looking for a taxi to the hotel. The arrival hall was chokker with touts offering cheap taxi rides. I was quoted from 500 to 850 baht to be taken to my hotel 68 Baht to the pound. However here is where a little advance reasearch paid off. I had been 'warmed' about these touts and instead proceeded past them all to the last exit. Outside I went to a little booth with a long queue coming from it. This is the official taxi booth and they simply put me in a taxi and I was charged on the meter. Even with using toll roads it only cost me 380 Baht for the whole journey, less that half some of the socalled cheap quotes. So the rule of thumb for Thialand is never accept a fixed price taxi fare as using the meter will always get a better deal.

I was late afternoon/early evening by the time I got to the hotel and I was zonked so I called it a day and went to bed.

Come the morning I got up, had breakfast and decided I would go for a walk around the neighbourhood. Here is where I discovered the wonders of navigating around in Bangkok.

Each street only seems to have its name in one or 2 places on the entire street, no matter how long the street is or how many other roads intersect it. This means unless you know where you are you are going to find it very hard to find yourself without asking for direction, so, as a man and so incapable or asking directions, I am really going to have problems finding my way around the place without spending endless time wandering around lost.

I went for my wander at just gone 9:30am and the streets were desserted with all the shops shut. With only one or 2 street stalls just starting to set up. This was a Tuesday morning in what is supposed to be one of Bangkok's thriving street markets!!! and I was beggining to wonder what was up. After a while went back to the hotel for a swim in the pool instead.

While swimming I noticed the pool side clock said 9:30am. 9:30??? but Thailand is 7 hours ahead of England not 6 hours. Then I realised that is GMT +7 hours and my whatch had been on summer time when I left England. Just a small hickup I think....

So at 10am I got dressed and made a fresh forray into Khao San road, the heart of Bangkok's backpacker community. I was a little more crowded this time. ... Ok that is an understatment. The pavements were so crowded you often could not move, with only room for one lane of people walking between street stalls and shop fronts in many places and it gets busier as the day goes on! In the evenings they even shup the road to traffic and aditional stalls then set up in the middle of the road. This is a street that goes on from a little after 9 in the morning until gone 2 the following morning! Many of the surrounding streets are the same!

The street market and bars in and around Khao San road are the ideal starting place for any backpacker in Thailand. You can buy anything from food, to designer jeans, to wood carvings, to fake press credentials and European driving licenses! Cheap load and crowded it definately the order of the day, however if you are the time that goes to bed early I would strongly advise getting a hotel a block or 2 away as it gets VERY load at night, with thunping bass blaring out from numerous bars.

Probably worth a note of my hotel at this point. I have been staying at the Viengtai, The only real hotel around Khao San, everywhere else are guest houses and B&Bs. The rooms are huge with room to add an extra bed for a third person if you are sharing. If the room was in Amstardam they would put bunkbeds in and it would sleap 8! However I would suggest you get one of the rooms at the back of the hotel or on higher floor, as the street noise is load and being a very hot country double glazing it not standard fitting, I was on the third floor and it took the noise of the air conditioning to drown ot must of the background noise.

Now for the weather report....
It is hot! I mean you feel like you are a piece of meat on a BBQ! and the humidity is such that it feels like the country is one big sauna, IT IS GREAT!

Technically this is the rainy season in Thailand. It has rained about 3 hours during my entire stay so far and most of that was at night. And with it being the rainy season it is considered the low season so I get a 1/3 of the hotel room rate. You cannot ignore a bargain like that!

A note to make my mum less worried about me

Thailand feels very safe to walk about. Everyone smile and many locals stop to ask where you are from and if you are enjoying Thailand. There are some street hustlers but they try to charm your money out of you rather than rob you. And having read about them in advance I have avoided falling for thier scams.

Here is how things generally play out. You step 10 feet past a tourist location thus signalling that you probably do not know where you are going a friendly thai then comes up to you and starts a conversation. They will then recomend somewhere for you to visit. Regular nice Thai people will also occasionally do this so do not be rude in return. However your new friend will then try to tell you the place where you are tring to get is closed or no good and the place HE is recomending is much better and free to the next few hours only. He will then, without any promting from you flag down a Tuk, Tuk (three wheeled taxi) and try to get you into taking it at a special bargain fixed rate. Here is the deal, this guy is going to get comission from the taxi company for getting your business to them and the place he is trying to get you to, that is free for only a 'LIMITED period' is actually alway free. The price will also probably be more that the going rate too. So just politely decline the offer, if that does not work glance at you watch and suddenly realise you are 'late' to meet some friends round the corner and politely go on your way.

Having already met a number of these hustlers I fine it very interesting that they all say they come from Chiang Mai, Thailands second city. Are these people the Thai equivalent of scousers? I will endever to find out the trouth of the matter during my travels.

Off to Sukhumvit district of Bangkok now. This is the main shopping area to I shall be like a kid in a candy store for the next few days! Trying to resist the earge to actually buy much until the end of my hols so I do not have to carry it all over Asia. Have already decided I will have a second suitcase with me on my return though as I already want to buy soo much!

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