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Published: January 20th 2009
The MBK and Siam Square traffic
Thank goodness for the many raised walkwaysPolly:
On Tuesday, after a day on the beach, we caught a bus from the centre of Hua Hin to Bangkok, which cost us 160 Baht each. The bus took us to the Southern Bus Terminal, which turned out to be some way from (and east of) Bangkok city centre. The night before we had Googled 'nice areas to stay in Bangkok' and about four popular areas came up. Not really having much more information, we picked one at random, and asked a taxi driver to take us to Siam Square. He dropped us off at the MBK Centre, a huge, modern, shopping, eating and activity complex. It also housed a hotel, but one look at the place told us it would be slightly out of our price range. In our dated copy of the 'Lonely Planet', kindly loaned from Rich & Josie, we saw there was a small area a few streets away with many guest houses. Thinking it was unlikely that they'd vanished since the book was written, we headed in that direction. Indeed there was a street with many hotels on, so we systematically called in at each one, enquiring about prices. They all seemed to be
around 700-900 Baht a night, and were not open to a bit of bartering! Eventually we struck lucky and found a room at 'The Pranee Building', on Soi Kasemsan 1, for 500 Baht a night. It was a massive room, and had hot water, a double and a single bed, air-com & a balcony. Situated opposite the National Stadium and just a five minute walk from the 'classy' Siam Square, we thought we'd done quite well. We'd spoken to a couple of travellers earlier that day who'd recommended a few flea-ridden places in the infamous 'Koh Sahn Road' area for 100 Baht a night, but we didn't really fancy that!
The bright lights of the MBK Centre and the smiling face of the Colonel then drew us in, and we stuffed our bellies with a KFC. The Thai food so far has been amazing and I've rarely craved British stodge, but the thought of a Zinger Burger turned me. For the record - Zinger Burgers, or the chips for that matter, are not a patch on those at home. You don't get a slice of cheese, or the option to go 'Tower' with a hash brown.
After our
nutritious supper we wandered to Siam Square and sat outside the 'Hard Rock Cafe'. Luckily for us, there was an Asahi promotional beer tent positioned close by, and the kind Hard Rock people didn't mind us drinking from the cheaper alternative whilst making use of their outside seating. I went to the toilet in the Hard Rock Cafe, and was a bit shocked by the aging, overweight men with red noses being caressed by young, pretty Thai girls (well they looked like girls!). This was my first experience of 'seedy Bangkok'. More on that later.
That night we both had a fairly restless night's sleep, plagued by twisted dreams. We had started taking Doxycycline a few days before (as an anti-malarial), and were starting to experience weird side-effects. Ross was getting a bad head-ache, and I was having mild stomach pains and was feeling really lethargic & dizzy. We decided to give it a few days as it may just take a bit of getting used to. Also, we didn't have many other options; Malarone gave us upset tummies for a month in Bolivia (or was it the food?) and Larium is just plain evil!
Ross got up
and went to fetch us some croissants and drinks, whilst getting some passport photos done. We then took a taxi to the Vietnamese Embassy, on Wireless Road, to apply for our Vietnam visas (which are not available at the border). As it was Thursday, we would have had to wait until Tuesday or Wednesday to pick them up using their normal service, so we paid a bit extra for the 'express service'. In total it cost us about 50 GBP each for a 30 day visa - they would be ready the next day at 3pm.
We walked round the corner and found a quiet little cafe, where we had some lunch and made use of their free WiFi.
After lunch we walked to the BTS (Bangkok Transport System), which is like a monorail over the city. We travelled west towards the river, where we caught a tourist sightseeing boat. We wanted to go and see the Grand Palace, so alighted close by. Unfortunately, when we got to the gates it was 3.25pm, and the palace shut at 3.30pm, so we weren't allowed in. We had a look through the gates, and wandered around the walls and it
looked spectacular. Oooh, oozing with opulence!
We knew there were some temples in the area, so decided to take a walk. It was then that a local Thai man accosted us and insisted that his tuk-tuk driving friend took us on a special tour. He seemed genuine enough, so we jumped aboard and got taken on a tour of the 'Lucky Buddha', a tailors (we think he got some money for taking tourists there!), and the 'Standinng Buddha' - a two-hour round trip, all for 30 Baht!
After seeing the impressive, gold-plated 'Standing Buddha', we found ourselves quite close to Koh Sahn Road, so went to see what all the hype was about. It's not a particularly long road, but absolutely heaving with travellers, hostels, food stalls and markets. People were shouting, some clearly drunk or high, lights were flashing, moped horns beeping, music blasting, it was all a bit hectic. You could buy practically anything on this road - driving licence anyone? Ross was a bit gutted because they were also selling PADI diving cards! It was definitely worth a visit, but still feeling a bit under the weather, we jumped in a tuk-tuk to return to
the hotel...
Oh my word (the politest way of putting it)! What a ride! The tuk-tuk driver had either trained as a Kamikaze pilot, was completely insane, or just got-off on scaring the crap out of tourists! He pulled some crazy manoeuvres, with wheels leaving the ground and brakes screeching. He cut everybody else on the road up, and swerved in front of fast-moving lorries. When he looked in his rear-view mirror and saw our petrified faces, he just chuckled and went even faster. He took a very speedy short cut down some narrow back-alleys, which felt a bit like an Asian version of the 'Ronin' car chase scene. On emerging from the alley, he revved the engine, about to cut across a busy four-lane highway, to get to the opposite side of the road. At this point I squeezed Ross' hand tightly, told him that I loved him, and shut my eyes!
It was a fun day. The Thai people are so friendly and helpful, and Bangkok appeared to be a really clean, safe city, and so easy to explore compared to some peoples prior warnings. We neither saw, or heard of any petty crime, graffiti or
vandalism.
On Friday morning we got up leisurely, and whilst I had read in the Lonely Planet about Northern Thailand and Laos, Ross backed up all our photos and went to burn them onto DVD.
We wanted to go to the train station to book some tickets up north, but ended up being tricked by a tuk-tuk driver into being dropped at the TAT (Thai tourist centre). Here a British man tried to convince us to book all kinds of tours and accommodation packages. He was either deaf or stubbornly persistent, but eventually he realised that all we were prepared to book were train tickets and he let us go. We walked the remaining fifteen minutes to the train station. We were going to book the sleeper service to Phitsanulok, but the timetables meant either leaving stupidly late or arriving at 4am. Instead, we booked an air-conditioned day train, costing 480 Baht each, for the 13th January.
That afternoon we went to get our rucksacks, which we'd left at the hotel, and got a cab out to the Southern Bus Terminal for 170 Baht. From there we caught the number 78 bus for a two-hour ride to
Damnoen Saduak, costing only 60 Baht. This is the location of the famous 'Floating Market', and we had heard that going the night before, so that you can make the most of the market before all the day-trippers arrive, was the best thing to do. The bus dropped us off at the only hotel in the town, the Nok Noi Hotel, (meaning 'Little Bird'). As we approached the hotel we discussed the merits of trying to bargain, but we figured that we might just get laughed at, being as there appeared to be no other accommodation options. No bargaining was needed though, as the rooms were 220 Baht, and pretty luxurious. The man at reception also booked us on a boat tour of the floating market for the next day. He said that he would wake us up at 6.30am, for a 7am departure.
There weren't any cafes or restaurants in this town so we ate some noodle soup at a hawker stall, then went to bed early, as we had an early start the next day...
As promised we got a knock on the door at 6.30 prompt, so threw on some clothes and went downstairs to
Food market
The smell of this place really turns your stomach meet our boatman. It was just the two of us in our 'long-tail'. We motored along the river for about 5 minutes until we reached the start of the market. Everything was just getting started, and the sun was coming up, a truly magnificent experience. There were stalls at the edge of the river, but most of the vendors paddled along in their loaded 'long-tails'. We'd switched to the paddle too, so the only noise was the chatter of locals buying and selling their produce. There were boats stacked high with bananas, and others with herbs, and some ladies were even cooking on them on tiny stoves. We bought some coconut pancakes from one lady which were delicious.
We'd decided to try taking our Doxycycline in the morning instead, to help reduce the dreams, so we thought it wise to have a hearty breakfast. Along with the pancakes we had a cup of coffee, some coconut sugar syrup, vegetable spring rolls and some fresh papaya.
At first we were one of the only tourist boats there, but by 9.30, it was getting busy. We were really pleased we'd gone the night before. It was a unique experience, and
well worth it. It also worked out at about half the price of going on an organised tour for the day from Bangkok. We went back to the hotel, and had a few hours kip before our twelve o'clock check-out. We then hopped on the bus back to Bangkok and returned to our original hotel, 'The Pranee Building'. This time, however, we managed to get a 400 Baht room.
Sat in the room, we both were feeling quite groggy, from the anti-malarials and could have curled up for the night, but felt like a trip to Bangkok wouldn't have been complete without visiting the famous 'Phatpong' area. We took the BTS to the nearest station, and then wandered a few minutes towards the flashing neon lights. Ross fancied a beer, and I wanted a margerita to perk me up, so we were a bit disappointed to learn that everywhere in Bangkok had banned the sale of alcohol for two days because of local government elections! We ventured into the red light district' and found a funny little street bar, unofficially selling beer in white plastic glasses. Just as the waitress was pouring Ross' Singha into the glass, a load
of undercover cops turned up looking for a lady (probably...) who'd been involved in an 'incident' the day before. The waitress hid the bottle and palmed them off somehow. With the police gone, Ross got his beer, and she even managed to get me a margarita from somewhere!
We had a stroll down the street, which was very odd. Everyone was inviting us to their talented feline shows; 'Pussy play ping-pong', 'Pussy fire dart', 'Pussy write letter', etc. We declined, in favour of a short walk. Through the doorways it was possible to sneak a glimpse at the raised stages, with fifteen or so miserable looking young girls (probably...) in skimpy bikinis dancing on them. In some bars you just saw western men being seduced by teams of girls in matching red dresses. I laughed when I saw a young Brit walk out of an 'establishment' with a proud, satisfied swagger, looking to his mates for approval, only to trip over a paving stone. The whole sex-industry thing is so weird, it's so accepted here, but I really can't get my head around it..
The next morning we got up and found a German bakery for our breakfast.
We bought some extras for our journey ahead, then flagged down a tuk-tuk to take us to the station. From there we caught a train to Phitsanulok. It was the first train we had caught since England, and was a real pleasure not to get travel-sick. I like trains...
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