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Published: April 10th 2009
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Heading to Bangkok
We arrived at Chennai airport without incident and boarded our 3 hour 11pm flight to Bangkok. It seemed to be the equivalent of one of those Easyjet flights (Canadians- like Westjet!) to a package holiday destination- other than Kat was the only female on board- the flight was full of rowdy young men obviously off to Bangkok for the weekend. They were constantly walking around, swapping seats and shouting at each other- even through the safety demonstration!- until two of the hostesses took them to task.
We touched down at 4 am local time and arrived at our lovely boutique hotel that Taylor, Kat's younger sister's good friend who lives in Thailand, had arranged for us. The hotel was a dream, and after a few hours of fitful sleep, we ventured into the outside world. It was a very pleasant surprise compared to India- nothing to avoid on the pavements, signs we could recognise (there are english translations everywhere ) and lots of very accomodating people and the site of multipe Starbucks was almost too much to take in. On our first night, Taylor knowing the winos that reside in the Stewart family took us to
a fabulous wine bar, it rivaled some of the places we've been in London. We had some amazing and relatively cheap glasses of vino before heading to a little gem of a sushi restaurant- whilst sitting cross legged munching and slurping, I was convinced that sooner or later a shadowy figure would come crashing through the paper walls separating the diners, but no.
One popular method of transport for locals is by riding on the back of motobikes - see the photos - we had a hoot getting to dinner the three of us weaving through back streets hanging on for dear life. Bangkok also has a great Skytrain in the upmarket and business area which is great, efficient and most importantly air conditioned and looks like something out of a sci-fi film.
Ed was desperate to see a muay thai fight. Farang- foreigners- can only buy tickets through travel agents and hotels etc and pay about 2000x what a local does to sit in ring side seats. The warm up fights we say were all between 120 lb kids who still looked like they could do you some damage even at their tender age- the atmosphere picked
Katherine on Patpong road
having a medicinal beer in Patpong after running out of the go go bar up as the evening wore on and the main fight drew close, but our energy was flagging and we were off the sauce in preparation for the detox and headed home. Ed was disappointed not to see Nik Nak or Britt Ekland in the audience with a solex aggitator *
Taxi drivers are cut from the same cloth as those in India- we wanted to take the local shuttle boat up the river to the palace (which our guide book indicated tickets for were 15 BHT per person) and our first taxi driver took us to a pier near a 5 star hotel where a private operation was based and charged 1500 BHT per person. I'm not sure what is more annoying- that he thought we were stupid/ ignorant enough to pay these prices, or that we would not realise this was a private operation! We eventually found safe- and reasonably priced- boats and traipsed round the Royal palace (which is extremely impressive) and various other temples including that of the Reclining Buddha. We were both in full length trousers and shirts (on account of the dress code, though Kat still had to hire a polyester shirt in the
palace and let me tell you those communal shirts are probably only washed once a month) and were drenched in sweat in no time at all. Not nice.
One afternoon we took refuge from the heat in the MBK shopping mall (amazing everything) and decided to watch a film. As we sat there in about 10 degree temperatures (the air con was absolutely baltic) watching the trailors before the film started, to our amazement the national anthem plays and the whole auditorium stands up to watch a short film dedicated to the acheivements and general generosity of their dear King. He is generally held in extremely high regard and the whole thing is taken very seriously by locals. We had previously asked Taylor to explain to us why he was so revered etc and she hushed us and said we'd discuss it in private - some may be in the know of the Australian man who was thrown into Thai prison for writting a less than flattering book on the King - another book we both just finished reading is called "Welcome to Hell" by Colin Martin, an Irish citizen who was thrown into Thai prison on trumped up
murder charges - it is a shocking and graphic read the things he went through.
Another evening we headed to the (in)famous Patpong area which is famous for its night market (full of high quality knock offs of every kind of luxury good imaginable) and for the illicit Go Go bars. We eventually ventured into one, clearly establishing in advance the ground rules I.e paying only reasonable list prices for drinks, no cover charge etc etc, only to be told after 20 mins we needed to pay a huge price for the show we had just watched. When Ed refused, a couple of 'heavies' appeared (ok, they weren't actually that 'heavy'- or tall- but were menacing nonethless) and it looked like things might get a bit sticky. Luckily, they weren't willing to try and physically restrain us, and we were able to shove our way past the group however we were left a bit shaken up. Further down the street, we had a drink in a bar to calm down. Our waiter seemed a trust worthy guy and we, being still curious to see a proper show, asked him for a recommendation to a good bar. He then proudly
The Royal palace
Its 32 degrees and Kat is loving her hired polyester shirt led us somewhere and up into a dark neon bar. We stood there for a second with a funny feeling of deja vu, before we noticed the proprietor approaching and that it was the same bar (accessed via a different entrace!) we had run out of 15 mins before! So we quickly hightailed it out of there.. Eventually, we found refuge with a gang of Australians we bumped into, who were a bid crazy but a lot of fun. They had all gotten tattoos (as agreed beforehand in Australia) relating to some experiences they had during their time in Thailand- one guy had had diahrrohea, so his tattoo said (in thai) 'Squirty Bum', another girl had been dancing on and fallen off a bar the night before and now permanently bore the name of the bar on her calf. Another of the gang had gotten a 'sleeve' tattoo that day which had taken 4hrs. His friends kept him going with regular dosings of valium and whisky throughout. Hilarious.........
We had a wonderful few days in Bangkok - the food, the people, the streets, everything was a breathe of fresh air - our next stop is Chiang Mai where we
have signed ourselves up for a lovely detox retreat where all sorts of interesting (and slightly disgusting fun) awaits us!
(* Lame reference to The Man With The Golden Gun)
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Katie
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FUN!!
You two are going to have so much fun in Thailand! Chiang Mai is also amazng. They have huge nights markets each night on the main road that goes on forever! We stayed in a hotel on the main street and the night market was awesome!!