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Published: October 28th 2009
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Temples
The Standing Budda We're taking this blogging in turn so its my go at penning our action and drama filled few days.
After we settled in Bangkok we spent the next day relaxing by the pool deciding between drinking vodka and red bull or Chang Chang. Dan & Dean decided that the vodka wasnt strong enough and went back onto the 6.5% Chang. Considering the most you'll pay for a bottle of Chang is 1.50 you can see why a few of the nights have been abit hazy.
On our second night we decided to sucuumb to the frustratingly vast amount of tuk-tuk drivers offering to take us to a 'Ping Pong' show in Patpong. Although Patpong has a really good market the area is renown for these 'shows'. For those of you not familiar with the goings on it goes a bit like this- thai ladies of varying ages with ping pong balls being fired into the crowd using nothing else but the gender deciding equipment the Good Lord gave them.
So we arrived at Patpong market and spent 30mins or so meandering through looking at the outrageously over priced fake gear. Once at the bottom of the market we
Temples
The Golden Tower all decided we needed food. After walking a block or so and the group getting restless, we stumbled on what was probably the only gay street in Bangkok, or at least in Patpong. Like a good idea that just dawns on you, one-by-one the penny dropped and we realised what it was. I know a few of you will be saying 'yeah right' but we honestly didnt know, maybe it was our subconcious beckoning us to where we felt comfortable :-)
All the bars had different aged men sat out the front sharing meal's with much younger Thai men. The clincher for me was a group of waiters, in neon pink t-shirts and shorts, calling us and waving to us with limp wrists to come and eat in their bar. Obviously we choose this one. Dan later admits that he didnt realise until he sat down and saw two men having a romantic meal in the corner and the bar lined with pictures of young thai men!! I dread to think if this was another type of menu but i wouldnt be suprised. We obvioulsy spent the remainder of aour meal playing the waiter's up but it was all
in good banter and they allowed us to take a picture afterwards (pictures will follow).
So we made our way back through the market, which is encassed by stripbars, and after much deliberation we decided to go against our instincts and we were talked into going to see our first ping-pong show. We thought it would be an experience, which it was, but if in the future anybody is visiting Bangkok a.) trust your instincts and b.) listen to any advide given in the lonely planet. In the lonley planet it tells you not to visit the strip shows that tell you its free and theres no cover charge because they'll try and rip you off. So what did we do...yes thats right we were led into a bar at the top of a steep flight of stairs (always a bad sign) and shown to our 'ringside seats'.
The girls proceeded with the show, where they carried out things with their things that would make a porn-star uneasy. Needless to say the show gets very tedious and the move from being ping-pong shows to freak shows. As we were finishing our drinks two ladies/madams stood infront of our
Temples
Golden Tower pew and flashed a light on what looked like a drinks menu to Dean and Kate, After closer inspection it was infact a bill of what we now owed them. It went from being 100baht (2 pound) drink and a free show to a 300 baht drink and a 1000 baht show. In total it was 1300 baht each (25 pound). To say we were shocked was an understatement but i knew then we were having our pants pulled down. When we explained we didnt have enough money to pay and the fact we were refusing to pay the situation got vey tense and the madams got very aggressive. After a lot of shouting and gesticulating we decided to stand up, walk out and leave them 300baht each. It was close to getting nasty but we all walked out ok with no problems. It shook us up a bit and left a sour taste in our mouths. In hindsight i think its just a bullying tactic in the hope that groups, especially with women, will just pay up whatever is to avoid confrontation but they didnt realise we are from the Heath and A.G :-) Either way it was a
All Aboard....
The night train from bangkok to Suran Thani lesson learnt.
The following day we had a our cultural hats on and headed out to visit some of Bangkoks famous temples. Dan had got us two tuk-tuks for a very low rate of 5 baht each (10pence) to take us to all the temples. As we are starting to learn very quickly, as in life if something seems too good to be true it invariably is too good to be true. The tuk-tuk driver had told Dan it is 5 baht because if they take us to the Tourist Information Centre (TAT) they will be given fre petrol. So off we went and visited the standing Buddha then the lucky temple. So we stopped off at two TAT offices en-route which we found veryu useful in certain respects but to me it just seemed like another opportunity for somebody else to sell us something and inturn earn the tuk-tuk drivers some commission. This was proved after leaving the 2nd TAT office and the tuk-tuk driver seemed very despondent that we hadnt purchased any tickets for onward travel. This was proved even further, to the point of the tuk-tuk driver admitting he was a rip-off merchant when he left us high and dry at the last temple. Both had gone from the drop off-point!!! He left us to make our own way home which ismt a big deal in Bagkok as we just gave another taxi driver our 100 baht. Dan and I both commented that this was very short-sighted as would of definitely given more than the original 5 baht he quoted us for a tour of bangkok and now the money he had earned ended up in sombody else's pocket. He was too concerned with trying to low-ball us and manipulatee us into buying something rather than quoting us the going rate for his services.
All of the temples are amazing and I can see why Bangkok would be proud of such feats of architecture. Buddhists make pilgrimeges to some of the templesso it was satisfying to visit such places of importance to a whole religion. Think Lourdes on a grander scale.
It was so hot all day and through stupidity we'd all forgot the sun cream. Now anybody that knows me or has been on holiday with me will know that any period of time in the sun will turn me instantly red but a period of time in the sun with no sun cream will turn me super red. So this is what happened yesterday and now ive got red arms with a nice line from my t-shirt. Idiot is what springs to mind but ive got some factor 8 and now ive got to let the rest of my white body catch up.
Last night we just had a meal and some beers and watched a one-man band. Dean and Sam had BBQ red snapper which looked amazing so might go back there tonight. Today has been another chilled out one by the pool but Dean and Dan were good to go on another tuk-tuk ride to buy our train tickets for Ko Phan Gnag. We leave on the sleep train tmoz. that should be an experience that i hope i can dsrcibe in less time than its taking you to read about out first 3 days in Bangkok. I suppose thats what Bangkok ddoes, it turns 3 days to what feels like 3 weeks. Anyway im going to try and upload some photos so you can see what we mean. Peace out
Kieran
xx
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Bronagh x
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LOL
Mom sed its supposed to b a BLOG not a BIBLE !! she finks she is hilarious. Were all missing you so much!