Bangkok - Tigers and hangovers

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Bangkok March 08

I didn't think that I would like Bangkok from everything that I had heard about it....noisy, polluted, too touristy....... but I did. We didn't stay right in the middle of the madness on the famous Ko San Road but close by, I liked how lively it was and that people were ordering meals at 4:00am in restaurants as if it were 7 in the evening ! The Cocktail bars on the road also seemed to do a roaring trade until the sun came up.

We had a good wander around the street we were staying on and also the Ko San Road, selling the usual tourist tat and copies of everything ! The next day we intended to visit the Royal palace but it was closed due to a royal member dying. Quite bad really but after the effort to get there that day we never managed to go back, the swimming pool at the hotel was always too tempting ! Although we did get to the really impressive reclining golden buddha and also to watch some real thai boxing. It was quality to see but just as entertaining watching the thai's betting, they seemed to be using some really funny over elaborate hand gestures and signals, we were worried about scratching our head and accidentally lumping on the red corner to win in the fourth !

Whilst there we mainly ate from the street stalls which were very cheap but made fantastic food, especially a lady who for the equivalent of 50p made a fresh fruit,yoghurt and muesli bowl - it was superb and we had it every morning.

We met up with our friends Sarah and Kev and we all booked a trip for the following day to the bridge over the river kwai and also the Tiger Temple. That evening we decided to sample one of the street cocktail bars. After a few bucket cocktails Sarah and Kev went back to the hotel knowing that we had a early start in the morning. However Cabbie and I obviously weren't that smart and proceeded to get drunk, oh dear! We were woken up at 6:00am by Sarah banging on our door. The bus was waiting for us and we hadn't even packed. The bus wouldn't wait any longer and went without us, doh ! We were gutted to have made the effort and just miss it so we decided to catch a taxi to link up with the group as the first stop was a floating market for an hour or so, we could then see a bit of that and then join the group for the Bridge and Tigers. The tour guide shook her head at us saying "too much beer ?" she told us that we were not the worst and that three other people had not turned up probably also because of 'too much beer'. Everyone found it rather amusing that our taxi had cost the same amount as the whole trip! We had the king of hangovers, the thai whiskey and rum used in the bucket cocktails isn't of the finest quality and I think that Cabbie was still drunk at the floating market as he thought it would be a good idea to buy the biggest photo album I have ever seen (random). Annoyingly we ended up carrying the thing around for about three weeks until we finally got to a post office to send it home.

Two litres of water later and things hadn't really improved much ! We arrived at the Bridge and went to the museum and also wandered across to the other side, this museum was actually interesting with some really good photos and explanations.

Our final stop was at the tiger temple, I really didn't want to go as I thought they were drugged but after going I did change my mind. The tigers were more lively than I expected. A monk was playfully teasing one of them and the tiger was waving it's huge paw around, crazy monk ! We had our photo took with them and it was amazing to see them so close up but a bit scary, especially when they moved. We also saw some tiger cubs and they were absolutely adorable!

After such a long day with a hangover we just wanted to go to bed but when we arrived back into Bangkok we left pretty much straight away on a night bus to get to Ko Tao arrrgh.

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Photos

Not at all scared!
He has just moved his back leg on to mine ! yep , i am cacking myself

Drunken purchases
It always seems like a good idea at the time.