Wat spotting & ping pong in Bangkok

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The next morning we got up and decided to head to the Thai History Museum. The lying planet said that it was very interesting. It isn't. The information cards were so dryly written and often badly translated that drumming up any interest was a real effort. We got travellers guilt about skimming through the exhibits so quickly but then we saw a pair of buddhist monks who started behind us but had overtaken and got a lead over us so we thought that if they found it boring we were allowed to as well! The most interesting part of the musuem was the section about all of the kings. Thailand has a real cult following for the monarchy, far more fervent than in the UK and every single building seems to have at least one picture of the current king, Rama IX, on the wall. Rama IX has been on the throne for over 60 years and is currently the world's longest serving monarch, as well as the longest ever serving King of Thailand. He does actually seem to be a good leader and after reading up about him both Amy and I have developed an understanding of why this king particularly is so popular. There is of course the fact that criticism of the king is banned and punishable by prison but even that aside, he has introduced many social and economic development measures to help the poorer people in Thailand, among who he is regarded as semi-divine. After the musuem we headed back to Khoa San Road for some more gorgeous pad thai and a wander around some of the surrounding streets.

In the evening we jumped in a taxi to Chinatown for dinner. As we got nearer the taxi driver started darting down sidestreets full of stalls selling all manner of bizarre looking food and then he pulled over and motioned that the large looking street ahead of the alley we were in was where we had asked him to drop us. He seemed reluctant to actually turn onto it so we looked past all the stalls to the junction ahead and saw an elephant in front of the car. Yes, an elephant. A baby one, but an elephant nonetheless, walking down the road with its owner. We paid and thanked the driver before jumping out and walking past the elephant to the main road, called Yaowarat. As we turned onto it were greeted by utter madness. The pavement is far too narrow for such a large, multi-laned road and in many places shopfronts and food stalls take up the whole pavement so you are forced to walk in the road, just inches from the suicidal traffic. More food stalls with tables and chairs arranged around them are placed actually in the road and people sitting down to dinner with their friends and families could stretch after a meal and have their hands clipped by passing wingmirrors. Yet nobody bats an eyelid. We started to nervously edge our way along the road while eyeing the food stalls for something familiar to eat and somewhere to eat it without becomming road kill. After a few minutes we found an area to stand and take a breather and both agreed that nowhere so far had made us feel like such farangs, the Thai word for foreigner. Taking another deep breath we carried on up the road until we found somewhere actually on the pavement to eat a bowl of steaming noodles. The food seemed to give us confidence to try something a bit more weird and so we continued back up the road in search of more food and grabbed another couple of dishes, this time being more daring and actually sitting at some of the tables in the road. We often had no idea what we were ordering and, as most of the peolpe on the stalls can't speak any English, we had no way of finding out other than tucking in. The food was of varying quality and, for the most part, identifiable after a couple of mouthfulls, with a few baffling exceptions. At the very last stall we ordered from however, we made a fantastic find. We'd seen mango sticky rice advertised in a few restaurants as desert in the islands but hadn't got round to trying it yet so when we saw what we assumed must be it near the end of Yaowarat we went over for a plate. The rice is so sticky you could pick up one grain and the rest would come with it in one brick-like piece, yet it is very sweet and sugary. Mango is freshly sliced over the rice and then creamy coconut milk is drizzled over the top and the whole glorious mess is fantastic. Definitely one of the best things we have tried so far.

At one point through our wanderings of Chinatown we saw a classic Bangkok moment. A guy in a car came hurtling down the road but then saw a fruit stall that caught his attention. He skidded to a stop next to it, almost knocking it over, wound down his window and started shouting to the girl on the stall. She quickly found whatever fruit he asked for, took his money and then watched him tear off into the night again, all in less than half a minute. Brilliant.

After spending no more than about 200 baht (4 pounds) on dinner, and feeling very stuffed, we got in a cab back to Khoa San Road and bed.

The next day we woke up to a breakfast of mango sticky rice on Khoa San Road and then started wandering towards Wat Phra Kaew. "Wat" is the Thai word for buddhist temple and Phra Kaew is one of the most famous wats in Bangkok. It is in the grounds of the Royal Palace and houses an emerald statue of a sitting buddha. As we got to the end of Khoa San Road a tuk tuk driver told us that the temple was closed to tourists in the afternoon and that he could take us somewhere else instead. Having been warned about scams involving people telling you attractions were closed we walked on towards the temple. After a few minutes we checked our map and were approached by a friendly older man. He asked if we needed directions and when we told him where we were headed he said that it would be best to come back tomorrow morning. We suspiciously listened as he listed a selection of other interesting wats that we could visit that day and scrawled their locations on our map. However, instead of offering to drive us to the wats he waved and walked off, telling us to take a tuk tuk and pay no more than 30 baht (about 60p) to any of the wats. Still rather dubious we carried on towards our original destination to find out for ourselves if it was closed. A few minutes later we checked the map again and were approached by another local, this time a friendly young girl. She asked if she could chat to us to practice her English and then asked us where we were going. When we said Wat Phra Kaew she also told us that it would be best to come back the next morning and suggested the very same wats that the other guy had told us to visit. With three people having said exactly the same thing we started to become less suspicious about Wat Phra Kaew being closed and when she offered to hail us a tuk tuk and agree a local's price to go on a tour round the wats we agreed. Sure enough, she bartered with the driver who agreed to drive us around all three wats for a total of 30 baht. Bargain!

The driver was a very friendly guy who chatted to us while driving us around and waited patiently outside each of the wats while we went inside to have a look. He didn't try to sell us a thing and instead asked us if there was anywhere we wanted to go afterwards. We asked for a tailor recommendation (Thailand is famous for its cheap, high quality tailoring) and when he suggested one that had already been mentioned by a couple of other people we had met, we asked him to take us there. On the way he drove us past the government house where there was a small group of red shirted protesters gathering. This was a couple of weeks ago now so the protest was quite small and very good natured. They even waved and smiled at us as we went past.

Once at the tailors, we chose some fabrics and styles for a few shirts and a pair of trousers for me and agreed to come back the next day for a fitting. Our driver had again waited outside, nearly an hour this time, and then offered to drive us to Wat Pho, the most famous wat in Bangkok. When he dropped us off he had been with us for nearly four hours, hadn't tried to scam us in any way and then only requested 30 baht. We gave him 60, thanked him for his trouble and jumped out.

Wat Pho is the largest and oldest wat in Bangkok and is home to one of the largest buddha images in the world. The statue is 46 metres long and depicts a reclining buddha at the moment of enlightenment. There are also over a thousand smaller images around the base of the main one and we took a while to wander around and take in the magnitude of the wat before heading back to Khoa San Road.

The rest of our time in Bangkok was spend chilling out in and around Khoa San Road. We met up with Mic Brockett who is currently living in Bangkok for a quick beer one night and also headed down to Patpong, the red light district. We went to a couple of bars and saw the famous ping pong shows which are fairly amusing but quite possibly the least arousing things we have ever seen. All good fun though. We also picked up our clothes from the tailors and were very pleased with the results. We were planning on getting all of our clothes made in Hoi An in Vietnam but the place we went to said that they would keep our measurements on file and would be able to send suits to the UK once we get home and have a bit more money to spend on clothes, so it seemed worthwhile getting a couple of items so that they had our sizes for future.

Next on the itinerary is Chiang Mai but we are planning on heading back to Bangkok to do a few more things in and around the city that we missed this time. It is also the most convenient spot for heading up to the Laos border, our next country so look forward to more Bangkok stories soon!

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