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Welcome to the Land of Smiles, read the sign at the airport immigration, which is true... but it is also the land of the crazy and deceitful tuk tuk driver, and the land of the sex tourist (or maybe that was just the area where we stayed in Bangkok.
Bangkok We arrived at the airport and things went pretty smoothly... the recommendation from the tourist office was to get a taxi instead of the bus for the 45 minute drive. They said it would be cheaper, although we were not sure if this was the case... or the taxi mafia was infiltrated all the way to the government tourist office. It turned out that taxis are very cheap in Bangkok, and sometimes cheaper than buses and metro if there are two or three of you.
We got to the Sukhumvit area, and eventually found our Suk 11 hostel where we had a booking. Sukhumvit is pretty much the sex district of Bangkok, although it is a very lively area full of bars, restaurants and hotels... the sex tourists have to eat, sleep and drink somewhere! The Suk 11 was a very chilled out, almost trendy looking hostel... with a feeling
of beach hut about to fall down, but in the middle of the city (see pictures).
The first night we just wondered around the area after having a nice rest in the air conditioned room (we also get some time to rest sometimes... in case you are thinking we dont get any sleep). In our little walk around at night we realised the number of old pervert men walking around with young Thai girls (at least most of them looked like girls), and all the girls in the streets offering massages and welcoming us into who knows what kind of bars. We went back to the hostal quite early and the monsoon broke out outside... with huge thunder and lightning... it seemed like the typhoon in HongKong was not the last rain we were going to see, but this time we were home and dry on time.
The next morning we went to look for the Lao embassy, and after showing the taxi driver how to get there by following the crap map and directions we had, we got our Laos visa and met a Swiss couple (Adrien & Celine) who were also staying in the Sukhumvit area (also not
sex tourists like us). We then went off into central Bangkok to discover the rest of the city.
We went into KhaoSan... which is a street full of backpacking tourists, bars, cheap hostals and markets (first few pictures). Here you could really see all the young tourists just chilling out after the being in the beaches or ready to go. We then walked into a little temple at the end of the street... with lots of tuk tuk drivers offering their services (which we ignored after all the warnings about scams and the tuk tuk mafia). Then a very nice man at the temple showed us around with a big smile and very good english (the Land of smiles).... as usual they ask you were are you from... ah... Colombia... Valderrama!... at least he didnt say cocaine.
He then suggested we should go to visit the Lucky Buddha, a very nice temple nearby... it was only open that day in the whole year!!!... thats what they all say Lorena said. He also very nicely suggested we could get some good information on what places to visit and how to get there at the tourist information centre. He then told us
a tuk tuk driver could take us to both places and back to Khao San for 60Baht ($2usd)... somehow we agreed... just as the heavens opened... and we had the wettest tuk tuk drive of our life (this will count for all possible wet tuk tuk drives we may have in the future). We got to the Lucky Buddha (see standing buddha picture) and stayed under a tent until the rain went down a bit. Then we went on to the travel agency (not really tourist information... this is where the mafia scam comes in), and Jeffery offered us a tour to Ayuthaya for 2000 Baht each. This as we then learned was totally overpriced, since we did the trip ourselves for about 500 Baht including all the things they offered. This is how the tuk tuk business works... they get comissions from the rip offs off organised tours and jewlery sales. And even the temple guys are in on it.
Getting back to Sukhumvit was quite difficult because of all the rain and traffic, the taxi drivers did not want to use the meter... so we ended up getting on the fastest and craziest tuk tuk driver... the Valentino
Rossi of Bangkok... he took us to the nearest metro station, where we took the metro to Sukhumvit.
The next day it was time for temple watching... and we pretty much used most of the day for it. On our way to the Grand Palace and the emerald buddha, we decided to catch the metro hald way and then the taxi, becuase of the heavy traffic (the metro doesnt go all the way to the centre of Bangkok). Well.... on our way out of the metro the tuk tuk scammers were lining up. Where are you going... where are you from... how long have you been in Thailand... all good questions to see by how much they can rip you off!
Grand Palace? 20Baht... (sounds pretty cheap!)... but why dont you go to the lucky buddha, only open today!... but just one stop before Grand Palace!... we got off the tuk tuk and into a taxi, they wanted to take us jewlery shopping!
The Grand Palace is quite amazing... and the number of decorated buildings, colours, statues and the gardens are just incredible. It is as if they decided to fit as many beautiful buildings of any kind into one
place... the shapes and colours are just too much for one place.
After that we went to Wat Pho, where the reclining buddha lies in one of the temples. The heat that day was pretty amazing, and the sun was out with not much breeze to keep you cool, only the inside of the temples and some large mango trees.
The reclining buddha was just huge!!! nearly 50m long and squeezed inside a building about the same size.
After that we went across the river in a little ferry to see Wat Arun, with amazing towers covered in broken pieces of coloured ceramics... the view over the city was great. But the heat was getting us tired, so we decided to make it home at about 4pm. before the rain fell on us again. This time we went on a really nice boat ride along the river and then on the metro to the hostal, just in time before the rain came down.
That evening we met up with Adrien and Celine for a beer in Cheap Charlies (see picture) and then we went for dinner at Cabbagges and Condoms.
Well... it seem like I will have to stop writing
so much stuff on this blog, because I just take too long, and never get it finished on time. So you are all quite behind on where we actually are. Now we are actually in Phnom Phen, and have already been to Angkor Wat... tomorrow we are going into Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh), so all this Bankok stuff is a bit late, although I wrote most of it about three days ago. Anyway, enough talking crap, and get it finished
So ehere were we.... The next day we went on our trip to Ayuthaya...
Ayuthaya We got the bus quite early and got there at about 11 am... just enough time to have a good look around and get back to Bangkok at a descent time.
Ayuthaya is quite a small city compared to all the ones we had been to so far... it had more of the feel of a small town, with small buildings and roads. The idea was to see afew of the temples in the central area and take it easy. So after the usual haggle with the tuk tuk driver, we went on to Wat Phra Mongkhon Bophit, with a great big gold sitting Buddha.
Next to it was Wat Phra Si Samphet, which had lots of ruins of large buildings and three large towers in line. the day was pretty hot, but at least it was a little bit cloudy. So we just continued walking our way back throught the temples. Wat Phra Mahathat was probably the most impresive one, with a big buddha head embedded in the roots of a tree. By the time we got to Wat Ratburana, we were pretty exhausted, and it was also looking as if it was going to rain. We made it to a really nice little restaurant next to it and relaxed in front of the electric fans with very cold glass of beer (even chilled glass) and delicious food.
After that we made our way back to the bus stop and back to Bangkok... just in time for a massive rain storm, but we were in our little hostal room at Suk11.
The last day in Bangkok was pretty relaxing, and pretty much did nothing!
We did a lot of internet stuff, had a little walk around the area... slept a bit, and got our bags ready to get up early to go to
Siem Reap in the morning.
Hopefully I won't take too long to write about Siem Reap! since we are now about to leave Cambodia!
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el papá y la mamá
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hace mas de 30 años estuve visitando casi los mismos sitios y estan casi iguales! que bueno que lo hayan podido hacer. las fotos son buenísimas... que maquina? la mamá piensa que es muy bueno que se vayan a descazar a una playa a tirar foqueito! con almuerzo. hasta pronto