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Published: April 5th 2008
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Already nervous of arriving in Bangkok at 11.30pm, the 4 hour delay meant arriving in the middle of the night. In BKK's international airport with Liverpool football club's "You'll Never Walk Alone" playing I could have been anywhere. Despite the map I had printed out with directions in Thai the taxi driver had no idea where to go as he looked at the map every way up possible again and again. Eventually he stopped, shouted something, pointed at an alleyway, deposited my bags and drove off. At 4am locals were sitting outside on stools. I wasn't sure if they were setting up for business or just finishing. The heat was incredible. What on earth was it going to be like at 4pm? Slightly nervous I asked at a nearby bar where Shanti Lodge was only to find, to my relief, that it was my guesthouse.
Not feeling quite brave enough to jump on to public transport straight away I decided to get my bearings first and to get to know my immediate neighbourhood after a bowl of wonderful exotic fruits for breakfast. I walked through the backstreets of my "leafy" neighbourhood to the rather smelly river. Although there were some
trees, most of the leaves were in numerous giant plant pots out on the street. I saw my first monk in his gorgeously coloured saffron robe with a huge golfing umbrella in matching colour protecting him from the sun. He seemed to be having an argument and certainly wasn't showing any Buddha calm. I headed into the covered market and there was an immediate smell of Thai curry. Spices and chillies were everywhere along with weird and wonderfully shaped fruits and vegetables. Bits of animals were hung up which I couldn't begin to imagine which part they came from, nor did I ever wish to know. Live frogs and snakes jumped and wriggled in baskets and live fish in trays were unhappily wriggling around. A few of the energetic ones had jumped too far and were left for dead on the floor. Motorbikes zoomed in and out of the narrow gaps not always bothering to get off their bikes to buy the produce. Shopkeepers slept, played cards or watched films on tiny TVs more than they sold their wares.
After a quick nap I ventured further afield. I met a man on a bridge over a river who was
watching iguanas below. They are excellent in soups he told me. He told me about an annual festival that was on nearby at the square with the tallest standing Buddha in the world, standing tall at 32m high. After chatting a little longer I headed down the alleyway he had pointed out. Soon I could smell incense and had arrived at the square decorated in brightly coloured ribbons. A monk talked constantly into a microphone whilst the shoeless faithful knelt at the giant golden Buddha's rather huge feet with surprisingly bright red toe nails offering gifts of incense and flowers. Others chose to pay for a slate on which to write their prayer or stick money on a stick with a gold or silver shaped leaf at the end into a revolving lotus shaped piece of foam. Other monks were counting the donated money or were chatting on their mobiles. A sign said that releasing the little birds in the cages would bring you good luck forever. Poor birds, I paid and let them fly away. Immediately I felt guilty because, of course, it would just encourage the lady to do it more. Another sign explained this particular Buddha will
bless everyone with success, especially if they bring the head of a fish, preferably mackerel, a boiled egg and a lei of flowers. Thankfully only flowers were present today.
I walked on to Khoa San Road, famous as the backpacker haunt of Bangkok. It was so hectic. Chocker block with stalls selling jewellery, clothes for skinny girls and cds plus numerous bars playing tunes from back home. I was glad to escape to another road and find a funky little cafe with more chilled out tunes. A fresh pineapple juice revived me so I could get back to my guesthouse and enjoy Sam Tum, a spicy papaya salad with rice.
Realising Bangkok wasn't a hell hole and feeling somewhat braver I decided to take a river taxi along the Mae Nam Chao Phraya River. Whilst I waited for the cheaper and slower orange flagged boat I watched guys jumping in the river and thousands of giant fish jumping madly around as if deranged. Full with school kids, monks and folk going about their daily business the boat splashed its way down the river. First stop, the Royal Palace. The buildings were not surprisingly dramatically ornate with emerald greens,
ruby reds and gold shining in the sunshine. Numerous statues of elephants, dogs, snakes, men with cockerel wings and feet and Chinese dolls guarded the temples decorated in beautiful mosaics. Wind chimes around the edge of the roof made me feel very relaxed. At that point I felt I had something between my teeth. A little discreet prodding discovered I no longer had a filling in my tooth but in my hand. Great! At that point I spotted a guy from my hostel talking about fillings. I cheekily interrupted and the chap he was talking to gave me the card of a dentist he visited yesterday and highly recommended. Phew! With my tongue now annoyingly constantly in the hole I headed off to another temple not quite as concerned as I was 5 minutes before. Wat Pho, the oldest temple in Thailand, might seem at first a little neglected. The white wash wasn't so white and some tiles were uneven and broken but the star of the show was definitely the reclining Buddha, the largest in Thailand. Made of plaster and finished with gold leaf he was an impressive 46 metres long and 11 metres high. The afternoon was spent
at the dentist, once I found him. One street vendor practically had the whole neighboured trying to determine where it was, another chap in a shop actually phoned the dentist to find out. The one and a half hours in the chair passed slowly but I left with two shiny, white fillings and only 40 pounds poorer.
The following morning I enjoyed the breeze again on the water taxi. I walked for miles and miles through China Town to eventually reach the railway station only to discover that they don't sell tickets in advance, not even for the following day! At least I determined that the train to the border with Cambodia did run on Sundays. Then I walked to the floating markets which the iguana man had told me about only to find, again after walking and walking, the markets were actually on bridges over the river. I had expected something very different. A phad thai cheered me up and a spot of shopping had me kitted out in the obligatory traveller's fisherman pants ready for my journey to Cambodia. The Lonely Planet makes it sound simple. Don't bother with the rip off tourist buses, just take the
train to near the border, take a tuk tuk to the actual border but don't pay too much, pay for your visa but don't get ripped off and then organise a share taxi the other side but don't get ripped off. Sounds simple, doesn't it...
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Simon May
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Glad you are still smiling
This is fun :), watching someone else travel the world and have all the problems while seeing all the beautiful pictures. Glad you are still smiling and enjoying it, see you when you get home. Simon