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Published: November 24th 2006
Temple of Dawn (2)
Temple of Dawn (2)Hi all, sorry for this late first post, a tight time schedule made it difficult to get on the web sooner.
We kicked off our trip around the world in Bangkok, Thailand on thursday 16th of november. After an 11h flight from London to Bangkok, our pick up service took us to New Road Guest House, a typical backpacker place.
So far, Bangkok looks like the most chaotic city in the world: traffic is crazy, food stands and little shops are stuffed all over the city and people start talking to you to sell the weirdest things. Luckily everything is ridicilously cheap so you can try all the food they have, dinner on the streets will cost you about 20 baht (1 baht = 1 Belgian frank = 0.02 euro).
Next to eating and finding our way through the little streets and shops, we tried to see some of the endless amount of temples and buddha statutes Bangkok has to offer. Walking your way through this chaos is impossible (definitely with temperatures of easily 35 degrees), so we decided to go by 'tuk tuk'. This could be described as something in between a scooter and an old-school riksja.
Floating market
Floating market The driver told us he would take us from one point to another and wait at every stop, all together for 20 baht. Seemed like a great deal at first, until we realised he didn't only show the requested highlights but also every costume shop in the city.
After escaping this tourist trap, we did most of the exploring by taxi and boat (on the Chao Phraya, the main river of the city). On the third day we also went on a little boat trip on the Khlong, a network of little rivers and canals through the city. This was a great way to really see how people live here. U see a lot of poverty in the wooden houses on the water, but also inventive things like 'floating markets': little boats stuffed with all kinds of food who sell at the door.
Another funny thing about Thailand (and totally different from Belgium!) is that people totally adore their king. You see pictures of the king all over the place and people all wear yellow -the royal colour- because this year the king will be on the throne for his 60th year. By the way, some of you
Temple of Dawn
Temple of Dawn who have been in Bangkok before might be wondering if we didn't go to the royal palace... Well, we were about to see this main attraction of Bangkok on the final day, but heavy rain showers made us postpone this to our second visit to Bangkok in February.
So far our Bangkok experience, we'll try to add some pictures later on. After Bangkok, we left for a 5-day jungle trek (from which we just returned now, post very soon hopefully).
Nick & Steven
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Sophie Dumortier
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Am I jealous!
Sounds great fun! Never been on a jungle trek, hope you did't get bitten or eaten by some weird creatures. For what it's worth, be always carefull when they offer you some cheap deal...like they say, there is no free lunch. Use your bible=guide book,they usually warn you what to avoid and listen to your fellow backpackers. But above all enjoy everything to the fullest even the rough times..its an experience of a lifetime. Take care and escape routine!!