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Published: March 4th 2007
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Thailand marked the beginning of the last leg my world trip, SE Asia. After flights from Cairns > Brisbane > Singapore (overnight stop, terrential rain for duration but saw Raffles Hotel), finally made it to Bangkok.
Arrived at Bangkok's recently opened Suvarnabhumi international airport and caught the local bus to Khaosan Road (Banglamphu District). Khaosan Road is a bustling street full of guesthouses, bars and market stalls.... Perhaps too bustling we chose accommodation on a nearby street, Soi Rambutti, which was slightly quieter but still had a good number of restaurant bars, plus the Chang Beer was cheaper!
It was Friday night so we decided to have a large one.... not realizing (at first) the 640ml bottles of Chang we were happily consuming were 6.4%, and paying a mere 45 baht in some bars (about 66 pence at time of writing).... we were wasted by the end of the night. The following day was a write off. Waking up late with hangovers from hell we salvaged something from the day by ordering visas for Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.
On Sunday visited The Grand Palace although the King apparently lives elsewhere these days and only uses TGP for ceremonies and receiving
Demons
Wat Phra Kaew foreign dignitaries. On the same sight we visited Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha), which was awesome with buildings ornately decorated with gold leaf, demonic statues, Buddhas and murals everywhere. Excuse a bad analogy but at times it seemed like something out of a Disney cartoon. WAT by the way is the Thai word for temple and that afternoon we visited Wat Pho, home of the largest reclining Buddha (46m long and 15m high), this symbolizes Buddhas death.
The next day went to the Chao Phraya river and caught a boat downstream to Chinatown. Chinatown was hugely disappointing.... it was a very built up area with many derelict buildings, and despite an abundance of shops and stalls (mainly catering for local needs) was nothing like Chinatowns I have visited elsewhere in the world. On the plus side the return boat journey meant seeing Wat Arun and the Chao Phraya river at sunset.
Tuesday visited the nearby Democracy Monument, basically a roundabout and then ascended the Golden Mount for excellent 360 degree views of the city. Late afternoon caught a river boat downtown and then the skytrain to MBK, Bangkok's ultimate shopping mall where I had dinner,
Taking the weight off, Wat Phra Kaew
Some rules were made to be broken and I was far from alone in doing so... but resisted temptation to buy anything. Afterwards we went to Pat Pong the seedy part of Bangkok, with basically 2 streets full of pick up bars for dirty old/some not sold old western men, pole dancing clubs and various establishments advertising massage or sex shows. Not being a sex tourist I focused on the night market that co-exists in Pat Pong, which sells all kinds of designer clothing, most definitely fake.
By the following day I'd grown weary of Bangkok. For all the sight seeing, the blatent prostitution was somewhat sickening with Westerners old enough to be drawing pensions effectively paying young Thai women for companionship and probably a lot more besides. It was time to collect our visas and move on.
Thursday was an early start to catch the train North to Lop Buri. The town was a strange place with ruins spanning 12 centuries and a colony of mischevous monkeys. Visited the old palace and monkey shrine (San Phra Kan), but thereafter there was little to do. Had dinner at a nice restaurant called The Whitehouse and ended up in a very strange bar.... it was cavernous and poorly lit with a live band covering various
Gate Keeper
Wat Phra Kaew rock music with varying degrees of success. We were the only customers and it was made almost impossible to get the bill and leave..... we nicknamed this place the vampire den!, on account of similarities with the bar in the film From Dusk Till Dawn.
From Lop Buri continued North by train to Phitsanulok, although this time in 3rd class, meaning a cramped uncomfortable bench seat for 4.5 hours. Phitsanulok was our transfer point to catch a garish VIP bus complete with lady boy ticket collector to Sukothai.
Thailand's or back then Siam's first capital was Sukothai. We hired bicycles to visit the ruins in Sukothai Historical Park. The ruins were impressive and after touring the park we cycled beyond the city walls to Wat Saphaan Hin, a remote hillside Buddhist shrine.
After Sukothai it was North to Chiangmai where we visited Wat Phrasingh and Wat Lok Molee. You should be getting the picture by now , there are a lot of Wats in Thailand.
Old Chiangmai is surrounded by a moat and the remnants of the old city walls. In the evening Chiangmai has a large night bazaar selling a mixture of fake designer goods, traditional Thai
Shiny Pants
No shorts allowed in Wat Phra Kaew, so you borrow these baggy trousers. clothing and souvenirs. Thankfully there were also bars and open air food courts to provide relief from the crowded market streets. From Chiangmai took a shared taxi up Doi Suthep mountain overlooking the city, and visited Wat Phrathat, a lavish temple full of tourists and Buddhists. It was an impressive location though sadly the haze over Chiangmai meant you could barely see the city. By evening the nearby streets around our guesthouse were strangely quiet, and despite seeing travellers during the day it was difficult to find nightlife. On the last night in Chiangmai we stumbled across a bar called Heaven Beach, with a really good live music and full of travellers, finally a place where I could happily chill out.
From Chiangmai we continued North to Chiangrai. There wasn't much to do in Chiangrai and sadly as in Chiangmai prostitution was rife. Watching old men touching up young Thais probably young enough to be their granddaughter is not conducive to good ambiance. Chiangrai's saving grace was its night bazaar, smaller than in Chiangmai it was a more relaxed experience with less hassle from the market vendors.
The time had come to leave Thailand so we traveled to
the border town of Chiang Khong, had lunch at a beautiful guesthouse overlooking the river border and caught the ferry boat to Laos.
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Craig
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Great pics
Hey Matt, Great to see an update matey, keep it up! Craig.