Hitting Asia!

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It’s now 7.30pm on our second night in Bangkok and we’re sitting around waiting to go out to Patpong night markets aka ‘Sleazeville’ (Bianca wants to pick up a 'ladyboy'...whatever rings your bell?).

Yesterday we touched down in Bangkok at 5.55am feeling rather crusty eyed. As we cleared customs we looked around for the driver to our hotel that Bianca had allegedly organised, and after waiting about 20 minutes rang our hotel to find out that they had no idea!. Following that we had a trip by taxi to our hotel which was Bianca’s first experience of Asian driving in Asia and she says that she’s surprised at both how well it works, and that there’s actually people living in Asia who are not maimed! Following our arrival at the hotel we set out on a random walk around the streets, we didn’t get far before we met a ‘government official’ on his walk to work who recommended that we book our tour to 'cuddle tigers' (Bianca) ASAP, so he hailed us a tuk-tuk and we shot off to find a tour company and arranged for a one day tour of Kanchanaburi (the Thai-Burma railway), waterfalls and the tiger temple. The rest of the day was spent looking around MBK which is basically a giant giant shopping centre. On the way back to our hotel Bianca managed to find herself some nice shorts for 100BHT (4AUD)

Today we set off reasonably early to the Wat's. We caught the skytrain (monorail) to the river and then rode a boat upriver to the three Wat's and the Grand Palace. First stop was Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn. It is built in the style of Angkor Wat (in Cambodia) and was very intricate and rather impressive! Not a bad first temple for Bianca. Next we went to Wat Pho, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. The Buddha is forty-six meters long, fifteen meters high and is covered with gold plating on his body and mother of pearl on his eyes and the soles of his feet. While at Wat Pho we also treated ourselves to a traditional Thai massage at the institute. The massage involved lots of cracking of joints much to Bianca’s disgust, but wasn’t entirely awful. We then walked to the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (in the palace grounds), which is regarded as the most sacred Wat in Thailand. The Emerald Buddha is actually made of green jade and is clothed in gold. It apparently originated in India but was fought over by the Burmese, Cambodians and Laotian and has spent time in each of those countries. The Grand Palace is the much loved Thai king’s official residence. Much of it is covered in gold and sparkly mosaics and jewels. Around the Grand Palace there were heaps of armed guards...who were only too happy to let Bianca have a photo with them!!

After the temples we headed into Chinatown and did a Lonely Planet Walking Tour....basically it was really busy and had a totally different feel to the rest of Bangkok...more what I (Bianca) expected of Asia. Bianca also managed to find a Chanel watch...200Baht (approximately 8AUD,the original price he offered was 550Baht)

We then caught a tuk-tuk back to MBK and had dinner in the food court, then headed out to Pat Pong night market by skytrain. We arrived at PP at about 8pm...and had a little trouble finding the two Pat Pong streets...after getting directions from local males pointing down the street saying "Pat Pong ping-pong show" we found the market. If we had arrived half an hour later there would have been no way we could have missed it. It was VERY busy...full of innocent tourists (including families), sleazy old western men and local guys who harassed us about every 30seconds saying "Ping Pong show, sex" etc. Much to my delight the whole market was full of 'Tiffany' jewellery, designer t-shirts, watches, belts etc....everything!! I got a Tiffany bracelet for 400BHT...down from 1800BHT complete with box and carry bag!! Pat Pong was really strange, there were heaps of innocent tourists shopping, but along both sides of each of the two streets were heaps of strip clubs with lots of young (and old..) girls in bikini's dancing around poles on tables....weird and kind of sad.

We left the market at about 10:30 and went to bed so we wouldn’t be too exhausted for our tour the following day.

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