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One of my mates, Pete, had told me about Thai New Year and what an experience it is. So I was determined to go and see for myself. At the 11th hour a friend said she would come along too.
Day 1 - Fri, 11th April
We arrived in the early evening and caught the Airport express bus into the city. Cost 150 baht each. Considering we had to wait about 40 minutes for the next one and it didn't go right to our hotel (got ripped off another 150 baht to taxi the rest of the way), it's probably better to just get a taxi if there are 2 of you. I'd say it should cost about 400 - 500 baht from the airport to Siam Square area, if the taxi uses it's meter. Which is pretty unlikely, especially at the airport. Every taxi you go in, you have to tell them to use the meter. If they refuse and quote you a price, then just try the next one. This really shits me having to do this.
We stayed at the Asia Hotel which is an average hotel in a good location. It was so average that
I can't even remember what the room looked like...which isn't a bad thing. One good thing is that on the second floor you can walk straight into Ratchathewee Skytrain Station. I found this useful as I could avoid walking out of the hotel on the ground floor and being barraged by cries of "taxi sir, where you go?" If you show any acknowledgement of their existance then they will follow you, inevitably pulling out some glossy brochure of a girly sex show. Anyway the hotel is also walking distance to shopping centres like MBK and Siam Square. I prefer shopping centres like MBK where there's a local flavour rather than the sterile name brand shopping centres where you can find in any city. In MBK you can find a cluster of clothes shops, dodgy cd sellers, an entire floor of mobile phone sellers, a very good and cheap food court, and where you can even get a foot massage and a facial.
From the hotel we went for a walk and didn't find much open. We walked past the Hardrock Cafe and noticed what looked to be working girls sitting outside it. Maybe they should make a small alteration
to the name of the cafe. Anyway we found a local Thai restaurant playing live music which wasn't bad.
Day 2 - Sat, 12th April
Officially Songkram is between 13-15th April, however when we went into Khao San Road it seemed the festivities had started one day early. Khao San Road is the touristy backpacker area of Bangkok, and from what I read, the centre of the Songkran activities. The road was lined with vendors selling mainly water bottles and water pistols. Some vendors who usually sell other things like clothes often resort to selling water or leaving the area entirely for the New Year for fear of ruining their stock. The road also has a few stages setup for performances and bars line the road also. So there's music blearing and people just running around having water fights. From what I read about Songkran most people say prepared to get wet. Well, this doesn't quite cover it. They should say prepare to get absolutely soaking wet from head to toe. If it was just people with water guns then you wouldn't get that wet, but there's people with bowls of ice cold water who will just tip the
lot over your head. But it's all good fun, everyone and anyone is fair game. I remember this cute little girl, wouldn't have been much more than knee high. Saw me then went to raise a bowl of water to throw at me with a cheeky grin on her face...so cute. Luckily though I drew my gun first and shot her point blank right in the face nearly knocking her off her feet. That'll teach her to mess with me.
I was almost going to buy one of the Olympus shockproof/waterproof cameras before I came, but instead opted for a plastic bag to put my digital camera in. On reflection it would have been good to have the waterproof camera cause you have to be a bit careful with a normal camera as to when to pull it out to take a photo. Also you never quite know when you're going to get hit. There are people selling resealable plastic bags there as well. I'd advise to take as little as possible out, and what you do take, make sure it's waterproof or in a plastic bag. Satsuki's leather handbag got ruined as it got so wet and my
Traditional Songkran
The old fashioned way of sprinkling water over someone from a silver bowl.wallet has seen better days.
We went into one of the bars along the side of the road, and it was still game on inside, despite the signs warning of fines for throwing water in the pub. Everything in the pub was covered in glad wrap so I don't think the owners thought the signs were going to be much of a deterrent. It was a good atmosphere in the pub with everyone in party mood and out to have fun. Let's face it, when you're sitting in a pub drinking beer and a puddle of water is forming at your feet, it's hard to take yourself seriously. Many beers later we decided to head back to the hotel to dry off. We then decided to head to Patpong to check out the infamous girly bar area.
We got to Patpong all nice, refreshed and dry, only to find a swarm of people armed with water pistols. We had to run and dodge to get to the end of the road, only to find that we had gone into the gay street. We had a beer and then had to run back out. Needless to say that we
were once again drenched. Anyway we had guys come up to us to try to entice us to go and see the famous ping pong shows for a price...not sure how much though. Anyway we declined and just went into one of the pubs. Basically there are a number of girls dancing on stage in bikinis, each with a number. Like any good takeaway place, you just tell the waitress the number you want and you go home with your selected dish of the day. I'm not sure how much it costs, I forgot to ask Satsuki how much she paid for the 2 girls. I myself went home alone and took a cold shower.
Day 3 - Sun, 13th April
We decided to take it easy today and just have a look around Bangkok. Caught the skytrain to Saphan Taksin and walked to Central Pier. Took a ferry up the river, which was very cheap about 10 Baht if I recall correctly. Got off at Tha Tien and walked over to Wat Po. This has the famous reclining Buddha inside. We didn't hang around as I had already seen it last time I was here and Satsuki wasn't
Sprinking water on Buddha
As a sign of reverence and good luck. very impressed with statues of Buddha. Apparently they're a dime a dozen in Japan. We decided to go to the Wat Pho massage school which was nearby. The massage technique used across Bangkok originates and is modelled from this school. We did try other places as well and the technique was pretty much the same. 250 Baht for a full bodied massage, and other places you could get for 200 Baht....damn cheap.
We took a taxi back to the hotel rather than a tuk tuk and lucky we did too. We saw people in tuk tuks getting water thrown on them from people on the street or in other cars...quite amusing.
For dinner we went to the Suan-Lum night bazaar. Quite a sizeable outside eating area, complete with beer sellers on the right, food stalls on the left, and a big stage in the centre. You have to buy coupons instead of using money which is a bit annoying. MBK food court is the same. I suppose it's a bit more hygenic but I'm sure they do it to encourage people to spend more and hopefully they forget to cash their coupons back in.
Day 4 -
Mon, 14th April
Hmmm...what did we do today? From the photos not much it seems. I think we just cruised the shopping centres during the day and I think we got another massage. At night we went to the Banyan Tree Hotel. On the roof they have an open roofed bar called Vertigo grill and Moon Bar. Went up and had a couple of beers and enjoyed the view. There are a few of these bars around such as the Sky Bar at Sirocco on the 63rd floor of the State Tower Hotel. I think the guys in the Bangkok office said this one is more famous.
We then headed off to a nightclub called Bed Supperclub as my brother said it was voted 2nd best nightclub in the world. We went in and there were two sections. One section is for dining and you cannot enter until 10pm unless you are eating. The other section was what I thought just a small bar that you waited at until you could go into the main nightclub area. However about 10pm the bar started getting full and people started filling up the upstairs section that was previously closed off. Turns
out that only the people that had dinner were allowed to go into the upstairs area of the bar. So rather than people from the small bar going into the main dining area, people went from the dining area into the small bar which turned out to be the actual nightclub. We walked over to the other section and it was just a few people lounging on beds on the sides with a few tables and people standing around in the middle. There was a projector streaming images on a screen which wasn't even properly centred correctly. I was thinking, how does this get voted 2nd best nightclub in the world, there must be more surely. When I think nightclub I think Ministry of Sound, Zouk, huge places with multiple areas and tons of people. Bed was like some guy throwing a 21st birthday party at his house.
Day 5 - Tues, 15th April
We hired a taxi from the hotel for 4000 Baht to take us to the floating markets, Bridge on the River Kwai and the Tiger Temple. You could probably go to a taxi on the street and get cheaper but it was safer to go
Sign in bar
Apparently you're not allowed to throw water around inside bars. through the hotel. Less chance of the guy taking us to the middle of nowhere and robbing us or demanding more money to take us back. We did go to a travel agent in Khao San Road to enquire about bus tours but the tour companies were all closed until Wed for Songkran. Since Sats was leaving on Wed we didn't have much choice. The hotel offered tours but they seemed to be very expensive about 3200 Baht for the same thing. When I asked the guy what other ways we could get to the sites he said he didn't know. This told me that he wasn't there to help, he just wanted to sell his overpriced tours.
We went to the Damnernsaduak floating market first as I think it finishes around midday. We hired a boat to take us around which was quite expensive. 1000 or 2000 baht from memory. I'm sure we got ripped off but anyway not something you do everyday. The markets are very touristy and I think it pretty much functions now just to cater for tourists.
We then drove to the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery. This was built to commerate the POW's and
civilians that died building the Burma-Siam railway during the second World War. The movie The Bridge on the River Kwai was loosely based on this. Then it was off to see the actual bridge itself. All I can say is that it does in fact look like a bridge. I haven't seen the movie so it didn't mean a great deal to me.
Another half hour drive and we were at the Wat Pa Lunagta Bua Yannasampanno Forest Monastery or Tiger Temple. This is a animal sanctuary run my monks. The most famous animals found here are the tigers. These were given to the monastry as motherless cubs, due to the result of poaching. A couple of things to note if you are going there. Women must not have their shoulders exposed. You can buy a t-shirt for 300 Baht to cover up. There's no restriction on men though which seems a bit odd. I thought it was so the tigers don't get excited at the prospect of seeing fresh meat. However maybe it's to stop the monks from getting excited. Also you are not supposed to wear brightly coloured clothes. This also seemed odd as all of the
staff are wearing bright yellow.
You walk down to a roped off area and line up to get your photo taken. The staff will take you by the hand one at a time (no group photos) to about 4 or 5 different tigers. Another member of the staff will take your camera and take photos for you. They will let you touch the tigers also. You can also get a "special" photo taken for 1000 Baht. Here you can go in a group and they will put the tiger's head in your lap. The tigers themselves are sleeping and are chained around the neck. There has been some suggestion that the tigers are actually drugged because they are all sleeping and very calm. From being there it's easy to see why there is such criticism out there.
You can also get your photo taken with a couple of cubs. They are more the real deal and are lively and playing with each other.
On the way back to Bangkok we stopped off at Nakhon Pathom. This has the reputed tallest Buddhist monument in the world at 127m. We didn't end up going inside though to have a
look.
Day 6 - Wed 16th April
Satsuki flew off Wed morning so I was now alone. I spent the next 3 days in Patpong, the end. Just kidding. I had thoughts of going to Ayutthaya today, which was the former capital of Thailand. However I got up late and by the time I got to the train station it was afternoon. Plus I just missed the train and it would be another hour before the next one. So I decided to just bum around and walked through Chatuchak Park and did some shopping.
At night I went to Nana Entertainment complex. It's a similar area to Patpong. I was walking around trying to find the place and asked a security guard quite discretely if he knew where it was. The guard then screams out to his mate "where's Nana Entertainment Complex?" Anyway found the place and it's a 3 story building with various bars. Same sort of thing as Patpong with the girls dancing on stage with numbers. I went into one place which had all she-men as I was curious to see if it would be hard to tell them from the real thing. Well I
was quite disappointed as these must have been the ugliest she-men in Bangkok. There was one ugly she-man on the couch next to me playing with him/herself. Not a pretty sight and one that I didn't hang around long to see. Anyway I checked out a few other places until lights came on at 1am. Apparently they've only recently started enforcing the 1am pubs closed rule. Previously pubs were opened quite late. Anyway I then headed back home for another cold shower.
Day 7 - Thur 17th April
The next day I did manage to get myself to Ayutthaya which is 86km from Bangkok. Took the Skytrain to Mo Chit and then took a motorbike for 30 Baht to the North-East bus terminal. Would have been nice if the guy gave me a helmet considering he was wearing one and we were speeding down the highway. The bus dropped off in town somewhere and then was immediately approached by a couple who offered to take me around town on their tuk tuk. Think it was 1000 Baht and they paid for all the entry fees to the temples. Well it was extremely hot, must have been 40 degrees so
I wasn't in any mood to walk around aimlessly. The Lonely Planet suggests hiring a bicycle and seeing the sites that way. However the only people I saw riding around on bikes in that heat were 2 tourists. It's not a small town either and would take you ages to ride around, I certainly wouldn't recommend doing it unless you were staying there for a couple of days. Anyway they took me to all the main sites. Lots of old ruins of wats which were in pretty good condition considering they were hundreds of years old, some also had been restored. But it was stinking hot. Even the people taking me around kept going on about how hot it was.
I also managed to ride an elephant at the Elephant Kraal. Very bumpy to say the least.
After getting back to Bangkok I immediately went for a foot massage. Great way to end the day. I also managed to convince one of the girls working there to come out and have dinner with me. She took me to a do-it-yourself barbeque/steam boat place nearby called Co-Co Walk. 100 Baht for all you can eat, amazing value. You just
go and select the stuff you want and cook it on the hotplate on your table.
Day 8 - Fri 18th April
Today I went into the Deutsche Bank office and met the guys there. They took me out to a local restaurant a bit out of the main city. Then one of the guys took me to another local place for a drink called Maiacon I think. I went to the toilet and all of a sudden there was a hot towel on my shoulders and some guy was giving me a shoulder massage. A bit disconcerting having some guy with his hands on you when your standing there with your weener out.
Day 9 - Sat 19th April
When I was at the Bridge on the River Kwai they were selling packets of cigarettes along the road. However these had tobacco wrapped in some sort of leaf instead of paper. When I was in the DB office I was saying that I should have bought some for souvenirs. The IT manager was kind enough to arrange for her maid to go out and buy them from the market for me. So I had to come back
to the office to collect them from her. It was only later back in the Singapore airport that I was thinking, geez I hope it's only tobacco in them, nothing else. I must have had a guilty look on my face as when I was walking out of the nothing to declare line a security guard stopped me. Asked me if I had any tobacco or alcohol on me. I of course said no. Then he asked if I had any guns or weapons on me. I laughed at him and then he let me go through.
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