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Published: November 13th 2008
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Hello Family and friends! Been in Bangkok for 5 days now and already, it's quite a culture shock...and still have the really impoverished places to come! It's just a different world...you have to look twice at everything...stumbled upon a few of the many temples, as you will see, and it was amazing - a feast for the eyes with all the unbelievable decor. There's just hundreds of them scattered everywhere...you'd need years years to visit them all! We also been to lots of huge street markets which was the true shocker...the more local street markets were just thousands of people lined up on mats on the ground selling little trinkets...And then the bigger enclosed markets are just insane, you should see them - quite mind boggling i tell you...we went to the biggest one in Bangkok yesterday and it was collossal(bigger than Cork city centre) - a bit like a mart full of hundreds of corridors oozing with ornaments, clothes, Shoes, bags, jewels and fakees all at a tiny fraction of the expense at home. It was actually hell though because the market only runs on the weekends so there's was just thousands upon thousands of people there it really was
a people mart...quite unpleasant. There's just so much stuff being sold at every corner of this city though, I haven't really bought anything yet...It's too confusing and probably partially because i'm afraid once i start i won't be able to stop but also i'm finding it very hard to want to 'treat myself' seeing all the deprivation around...but i guess i'd be, in some way, contributing to their economy if i did buy stuff - not going to spend money for the sake of it mind you! I can only imagine how impossible it must be to make any money here with a population of 11 million, most of them being traders, there's a fair bit of competition in Bangkok. And a lot of the people seem to be training their children in to the family business from an extremely young age so they can take over. At the night markets the kids are all up with their folks until the small wee hours of the morning. It's heart warming yet sad when you see them all huddled around a tv in there small stall at the side of the street. Reuben even joined one of the families at one
stage to grab a sneak peak of the Man United Match and he also got a sneak peak at the real thai people - they were very warm and welcoming (and very passionate about soccer! Every one here screams "Loy(Roy) Keane Loy Keane" when we say we're from Ireland...it's so funny!). Speaking more of the people, we've been for a few thai massages - some good some not so good but all costing roughly 4 euros for 1 hour...i was a bit scared, at first, having heard so many stories of the maseuses being really violent but i think there actually not so bad. It was funny at one of them cos the girls were all giggling as they were massaging us - would love to know what they're saying(Reuben told me afterwards that it was cos there was cock roaches jumping around the beds...Thank god i had my eyes closed as i would've freaked out! It's so strange not beingable to grasp even a word of the language tho - you're trying to depend on identifying mannerisms but even that's hard because you know a lot of them aren't being themselves with you because they see you as a
money source(i know that sounds awful but it's it's only too true - except in the more wealthy corporate places and we're hoping up North it might be slightly different). When you do get a glimpse of the real people(usually when they think you're not looking) it's very nice however - they're all humans at the end of the day, trying to survive and look after thoses they love - just like us. And when they're not at you for your moula they really are very sweet people - so polite and humble and extremely hard workers. Also there's just so much poverty and also wealth mixed up - it's very confusing and as for the tuk tuk drivers - their just maniacs on the road(actually so is everybody on the road!) and they're awful chancers - badgering you constantly and you'd be holding on for dear life if you do take them up on their offer, cutting across lanes of traffic and doing u-turns in the middle of the road...and good luck to you if you want to attempt to cross the road by foot! They really take no prisoners here. I've been also thinking a lot of Charlie
and yoko...seen so many really malnourished animals around scrounging for food...especially little kittens...and undoubtedly most of them have some awful diseases...so sad😞 You just want to stroke them but i wouldn't dare. Probably the saddest thing we've seen so far was too elephants been dragged down the street on leashes - truly the most disturbing thing as you could see the poor beggars were extremely distressed and had probably even gone a bit mad. The first time we saw this was on Kohsan Road(probably the biggest most grotty tourist trap in Bangkok) and we thought by moving away from this area that we would escape it but the area we are now staying in is probably almost as bad as we saw another poor elephant being dragged around last night and it seems to be a more seedy area housing the bulk of the 'ping pong' clubs and prostitutes - I was a little horrified to discover that the hotel we're staying in is more or less a stopover for such activities after seeing quite a few older westerner men leaving rooms with young asian men...it could've all been innocent but doubtfully so. However, just as long they're not disturbing
me i suppose it doesn't really matter - i'm just going to have to get used to it!
Anyways, the last thing is the food - so many interesting tastes and smells...it's just a pity we don't have a notion what the vast majority of it is and we're so warey of not eating stuff that hasn't been cooked properly and stuff that's been washed in the water - it's crap cause it means i can't have any salads or icey drinks and in this heat it's kind of all i feel for most of the time! Also a lot of the more authentic food is cooked on large stoves at the side of the very polluted streets which i must say i don't really fancy as the fumes don't make any of it particularly appetising so, to fill ourselves, we've resorted to a lot of the safer more westernised eateries which also sell asian food - perhaps not as authentic - but just a lot cleaner and at least we know what the heck we're putting in our mouths!
Man, Everything i've seen in the last few days i couldn't possibly capture on camera - however that isn't to
say that i didn't try! And, again, i apologise for all the dodgy snaps - it's the camera i swear! But, The thing i just find the most astounding here is just the the sheer volume of every last thing here - from the general population to the cats and dogs, the ladyboys and pingpong girls(another thai I am very naive to yet I must admit is slightly intriguing) to tuk tuks and Temples to street traders.
Anyways, I must go do some research now on The North as we've heading on the night bus to Chiang Mai this evening. I'm going to have to toughen up a bit more as i'd say i haven't seen anything yet! Also, because we're headed for remote areas, we might not have as much internet access so my next entry may not be for a while!
Tashy (& Reuben)
xxx
PS We got new Thai mobiles the numbers are as follows: Tash: 0066848801187, 0066822215694 .
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