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Published: November 15th 2008
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It was a long journey from Fiji to Bangkok. About 5 hours to Sydney and then 5 hours waiting in Sydney and unable to leave the airport (they are doing up their internal transfer area and there wasn't much there!), then a 10 hour flight to Bangkok. We drank our way through the first part of the journey and slept our way through the second part, and by the time we touched down in Bangkok, apart from me having Bangkok belly already, we weren't feeling as bad as we thought we might.
Our 'boutique hotel' turned out to be an absolute godsend. Not only was it two minutes walk from the utter madness of Kao San Road, but it was utterly beautiful and such a bargain for the price - Thailand is cheap as chips! We fell into bed on arrival but didn't sleep too well as it was very very noisy down on the road and we were jetlagged. Waking up every hour from 3-7 am and discussing whether it was time to get up yet... we did eventually get up and sort out a few things on the internet before having some breakfast (me, not Rich as usual!)
and then heading out into Bangkok. We were really really excited about what was out there, and we spent most of the day hoofing it around the main sites. We went down to the palace and saw lots of temples and lots of buddhas (ennough to last us a lifetime we reckon), then we caught the river ferry down to Central Bangkok.
This was an experience and a half!!! First of all we had to dodge the touts who would really like to sell you an over-priced river tour. Then once you make them realise that you don't want to go round all their grandmothers' houses, temples and dingy haunts of the back rivers of Bangkok, you only want to go to central bangkok, you have to negotiate a sensible price. Not so easy. They refused to do anything under 400 baht per person (8 pounds). That might not sound like a lot, but Bangkok is super cheap and we knew we were being completetely conned. the same trip in a tuk tuk would have been 50 Baht!
Finally, and more by luck than judgement, we figured out where the river ferry went from and along with a
whole sea of people we jumped on. The ferry was very cramped, very dirty, very noisy, very smelly - but a steal at 14 baht per person! Ha! We were quite pleased with that.
The ferry journey we had been told would be a beautiful way to see Bangkok but I'm afraid I thought it gave you the worst possible view. the river is filthy - really unbelievably dirty, and going past the dreadful tinpots that are the poor peoples' houses there was a horrible shock. They live literally on the river in houses that have almost completely fallen down - the disease levels must be sky high. Bit of an eye opener! We were pleased to get off without falling in (imagine what you could catch aaargh) and quickly raced up to the skytrain which was an altogether much nicer way to travel in Bangkok. Shame it only goes through a couple of routes!
We took the skytrain to 'downtown Bangkok' where we found a different scene altogether. Siam Square and the shopping centre there was sparkling clean, enormous glitzy designer shops - really, the most expensive designer shops you could imagine. We had lunch downstairs in
Royal Cremation Site
1 day before the Kings sister was due to be cremated the food hall. As usual with Bangkok the choice was boggling. When unsure - go for sushi! And it was yummy! And Rich was satisfied that it wasn't going to poison him so we ate plates of it, unsure when we would see fresh food that was OK to eat again ;0)
The walk back nearly killed us though. We decided not to go in a tuk tuk and it took us about 2 hours to get back to the hotel. Bangkok is just so noisy and smelly it is impossible to describe it to you. There are rats the size of horses running the streets, tuk tuk, mopeds and busses that apparently run on cabbages or something - they disappear into a puff of black smoke at each turn. Crossing the road you quite literally take your life in your hands - no one obeys any road rules and it's a terrifying experience. The sites we saw on our walk back, beggars with no legs on their bellies on the street, kids playing in the dirty river, the stuff we smelt - God it was awful! We were sooooooo pleased to have our 'boutique' hotel to escape back
to, and we settled ourselves down with a couple of Tigers (the beers not the big fluffy animals) to get our strength back.
A couple of hours later we were brave enough to venture out again and we went to watch them celebrate Loi Kraft-something can't remember the name. Anyway, they were sending flower wreaths with candles in off down the river which sounded beautiful but was actually just really stinky. We were horrified to see people paddling about in the river, and our sense of adventure quickly left us. After scoffing down a plate of pad thai off the street (the quicker we ate it the less likely we were to get ill?!) we headed home. Turned out it was beautiful food!
More on the next one, I'm out of time.
Love from The Fryers xxxx
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Pam
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now thats what i call a honeymoon
just happened upon your blog as heading to Thailand for Christmas and doing some 'research'. way to go on an absolutely awesome, fab-tastic trip of a lifetime for your honeymoon!!