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Published: February 24th 2007
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The day after the half moon party we began a painful 18 hour journey by boat and overnight train to Bangkok. As you can see from the pictures, the train felt like a step back in time. We were naively expecting red plush seats and got sticky blue vinyl. Even though we each had sleeper bunks, little sleep was to be had. In the morning we all agreed it had been a scary night, repeatedly waking to the feeling that the train was going off the tracks. The train system runs on a single track so we were constantly stopping to wait for a train to pass. We were really hoping they had some good communication between trains!
Waking up in Bangkok was a little bit like waking up on the wrong side of the bed. Even though we were a little disoriented and out of it, everything still had to start with a bang. We arrived at 5:30am and were greeted by a woman with band aids all over her face. She took a liking to April and I and followed us all around telling us she was sick and crazy. She even signed that she was crazy by
moving her finger in circles next to her temple. She didn't really ask us for anything so we figured she just wanted to have a little chat out of loneliness.
Possibly the worst thing about Bangkok are the taxi's. The driver's speak zero English and none of them know how to get around the city. We wasted so much time in cabs, driving in circles and watching the meter get higher and higher. One of Celia's friend's (a former Saultite named Laurie) graciously offered to let all three of us bombard her apartment. Thanks to her and her Thai boyfriend Danai, our stay although not hassle free, was definitely made easier because of them.
We also met up with Jer (who had just arrived in Bangkok from Australia) and two of his friends from home, Josh and Sylvia. The first night we went to Kosan Road, known as the backpacker's street for hostels and shopping. We did a little bit of eating, a bit of bargaining and still feeling lagged from the train, opted for an early night at home. The following day we met up once again and visited various tourist spots. The first stop was The
Grand Palace, a series of buildings that served as the official residence of Thailand's King until the middle of the 20th century. Thailand absolutely worships their King. There are shrine's to his picture staring down at you on virtually every corner. Since the King was born on a Monday, every Monday the locals appear in a sea of yellow polo shirts embroidered with his emblem to broadcast their loyalty. The monarchy is taken very seriously in this country! This is also obvious by the extravagant palace buildings. As you can see from the pictures, the architecture was absolutely spectacular. You may also notice our funny choice of clothing, we had to borrow some clothes upon entry to comply with the strict dress code.
Our next stop was Wat Po, the oldest temple in Bangkok that houses a massive 45m reclining Buddha. After snapping a few photos (there's really not much to see), Jer and I decided to follow the crowd and try our hand at some good luck. There was a long row of buckets (around 100 of them) and a donation got us a cup of coins. We pointlessly lined up, walked along the buckets, and contributed to
A store
I literally did not recognize one item being sold and it smelled horrible! the musical brigade by dropping a single coin in each one. People kept asking us why everyone was doing this and to be honest we weren't really sure, it was purely a "follow the crowd" decision.
The next and final stop was Wat Arun or "the temple of dawn", the entire thing is decorated with broken pieces of china and porcelain. We had a sketchy boat trip across the river to this temple and made our first stop at a couple of wooden figures with cut out's for our faces. Jer offered to take our picture and we figured "why not?" Well...let me tell you why not! Immediately after the shutter clicked, a small Thai women appeared our of thin air and demanded 40 baht each for the picture. We were obviously taken aback by her insistence and she quickly pointed out a price painted in camouflage colours on the bottom corner of each figure. How foolish of us! After refusing to pay the only way we could get her to calm down was to delete the picture. We did so as she stood like a crow glaring over our shoulders and then walked away in hysterics.
Bankok
can be such an overwhelming city, we all felt extremely lucky to have a home to stay in rather than a hostel. Laurie was such an amazing host, making sure we were always comfortable and well fed. Danai was a saint as he took us to all the good shopping spots. The shopping in Bangkok was so overwhelming. Yes, the prices are cheap but when you factor bargaining into the picture, and not really knowing what things are worth, it can get very stressful. Also, even though it's cheap my backpack just can't get any heavier!
A few things about Thailand:
- we have now gotten used to being dropped off in the middle of nowhere and finding our way out
- we have also gotten used to straddling the toilet while showering, since the shower is always just a shower head on the wall (often above the toilet)
- we still speak really loudly and make ridiculous hand signals in hopeless attempts to get people to understand us
- no matter how poor the locals appear, they all have cell phones
- there is a 7-eleven on every corner, sometimes two
- safety is given absolutely no thought;
once while driving on the highway I saw loggers sitting on top of the logs piled on a massive logging truck
- half the time we still don't know what we're ordering...or eating for that matter
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Amy
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Wish you were in the Soo with me
Hey Heath! Went skiing at Hiawatha today....dragged Jeff out for his first x-c experience...he was dying just a bit so I was making wine cellar jokes about him. Missed you today and wish you were there to ski the Red Pine with me and watch me kill myself. Sorry I missed you this morning...haven't talked in ages! Heading back to Waterloo tomorrow unfortunately...still love the Soo but it's better when everyone is home!