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Published: April 23rd 2007
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River
A longtail boat on the Chao Phraya river. I awake early to the sound of a baby crying. Since I left my watch at home, I still have no way of telling the time, except for turning on my camera and looking at the date stamp. It's 7.30, which means I must have slept for about 5 hours - I found it very hard to sleep because of the heat.
I rise at about 10, after attempting to plan my day. I am glad that I don't see the guy from last night, I presume he must have gone home after I turned him away. The shower has broken, so I use a tap about 2ft off the ground. Although the water isn't heated, it stands in the pipes and warms up enough to be comfortable.
I go downstairs to have my light breakfast of toast and a cup of tea, and as I am sitting there a street vendor starts cooking in the alley next to the guesthouse. The spices in the air cause me to start coughing and my eyes start to water. Bangkok always smells of something. I move onto the next table and then head off. Stray animals are all over the
city, and a few hover around outside our guesthouse. There is an estimated 120,000 stray dogs in the city - just another thing to keep you alert.
I walk down the Khao San Road, which now is open to cars and taxis and looks very different to the night before. I get down to the river front after I short walk, but decide to look around before getting the river taxi down to the Grand Palace. I find a nice park, only inhabited by the locals. This means I'm a prime target for a scam, and sure enough someone starts telling me about a temple 'just down the road' that he is more than willing to show me for free. The Tuk Tuk drivers are almost as bad, shouting 'Where you go?' while I'm walking along the pavement.
I decide to get onto the river boat down river, and manage to get there one way for 18 TBH instead of the 100 THB being quoted to foreigners in the queue (Simply jump on the board and buy the ticket on there instead).
I get off at the stop for Wat Pho, and end up walking for a
while to get to the main entrance for the grand palace. This is scam central, tuk tuks and dodgy street vendors everywhere. However, I still stop to buy a dodgy watch as I'm finding impossible to keep track of the time using my camera. Soon after, I come across a 7/11 shop, where I manage to get a simcard for my phone.
I sit down in front of the palace and before very long someone approaches me. She gives me free pigeon corn and thrusts on my lap even though I protest. I throw a bit on the ground to show willing and quickly move off. Soon after I see some policemen feeding the pigeons with free bird seed she gave them. Perhaps I'm just being too cautious?
I have a fantastic tour of the Grand Palace from a guide inside the grounds - the Buckingham Palace of Bangkok. Visitors must wear long sleeved shirts and trousers inside the grounds, which makes the heat of the day almost unbearable. My guide has an umbrella for shade, as do many other people. Shame I didn't pack one!
After the tour I decide to go somewhere air conditioned, and
decide I want to go to Chinatown and visit the Mah Boon Krong (MBK) shopping centre. I decide to get a Tuk Tuk there - just for the experience.
It takes ages to find one that is willing to take me for less than 200 THB - I finally find one for 150 THB. This is still very overpriced, but I decide it's better than spending a while longer in the heat outside.
However, once inside the Tuk Tuk my driver starts telling me that he needs to run an errand and fill up with petrol. It also feels like we're heading out of town - I see a sign for a toll road that I came on when in the airport taxi. I decide to bail, thrusting some change in the Tuk Tuk drivers hand as I get out on a busy road so that he doesn't decide to persue me.
Great. I'm now clueless as to where I am and fighting to get across the manic traffic. I spot a nice hotel very close, and a couple of taxis outside. Unfortunately they're pre-booked, so I walk to the nearest interchange to get my bearings with
road names. However, I can't find any of the roads on my map. I ask a passer by if he can point out where I am on the map, but he can't find it either. I decide to use the overhead walkway to go above the road to see if I can spot any landmarks, but I see a very English guy approaching.
Turns out he's from Manchester, we spend a while chatting and he offers to walk with me and find a cab. Instead, we end up going to another 7/11 where I get credit for my phone and he shows me how to top it up. He walks me back into a shopping district for Thai people, where there is a 5 story building filled with pirated DVDs and CDs, amongst many other things. We're instantly met by calls of 'You want sexy movie?' from people flogging porn to foreigners.
We decide to get a taxi into Chainatown together, and arrive at the MBK centre. He somehow convinces the taxi drive to put it on the meter, and we only get charged 50 THB. While browsing round in MBK I realise how overpriced the Khao San
Gridlock
Gridlock, and it's not even close to rushour Road is, so I buy some real looking Billabong board shorts for 400 THB (The obviously fake ones are 500 THB on the Khao San Road).
Everyone is friendly here in Thailand, it's just very hard to judge which ones are conning you and which ones are being genuinally friendly.
We catch the skytrain out to meet his Thai girlfriend where she works - a second hand bookstore. (Still in a very busy area, so I'm at low risk!) After getting some cake and drinks we head back on the skytrain and decided to meet up in town later. I decide to go for a walk again and end up in the MBK centre. After having some food I find it impossible to get a taxi back, dodgy tuk tuks want 200 THB. I eventually find the official taxi rank, and get one back for 100 THB.
This is still about double what a local would be charged! Taxi drivers refuse to put it on the meter for foreigners because, as my driver explained, 'You from London, you very rich. I from Bangkok so poor compared to you.'
I arrive back on the Khao San Road and decide to go find my overpriced internet cafe and write this. If I ever stay in Bangkok again I'll book an air conditioned room away from backpacker central, as everything else apart from accommodation is twice the price. I soon get a text cancelling going out this evening - he says he isn't feeling too well. Probably not a bad thing, going out at night means you have to be even more on your toes than during the day.
Today has been a real eye opener, and I'm really starting to like Bangkok despite all the annoyances here.
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Genevieve
non-member comment
Sounds like fun!..
Hey big brother! All looks really cool, and you already seem to be collecting quite a number of stories to tell! Just keep watching out for those 'really friendly' people! :P