Bangkok - Day 3


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Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Bangkok
February 20th 2009
Published: February 21st 2009
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Greetings from Bangkok! God knows what is going on with the travelblog websie, but it just won't seem to start up! I will message you all and once it is working I will put this entry in there..! For anyon not on Facebook well it's just bloody tough...

SO I felt the need to blog right now as I have just had the most amazing experience (well it ranked 3rd) A THAI massage.. I thought at one point that she was going to pull my arm out of the socket, but for someone who has been feeling a little run down, jet lagged and generally a bit poo, it was the most amazing thing I could of done. In fact got chatting to a massusue (if that is how you spell it) around the pool and she told me this plce was the best on to go to... 4 pound 45 minute thai massage and 15 minute foot massage. The massage parlour was respectable, although I was debating if the groans from behind the curtained area were of plessure of the massaging type of something of the other...😉

Went out last night to the koh sanh road, but swiftly left it as my jet lagged state could not take the bnaging of the music, I opted for the quiter soi Rambutti and found myself in this the street sipping chang beer (whihc I will be avoiding from now on, the beer not the soi rambutti) listening to a thai man strumming his guitar to some English classics such as "laby in fred is tancing wih me" and "iwagine oll the people" Please do not mistake these spelling errors as a dodgy thai keyboard, this is what this guy was singing, as quite frankly he didn't understand a word he was saying! Very comical after a couple of beers.

Sex trade was in full swing, even in this small quaint pub and it appeared the waitress was pimping a young thai girl out to this italian man sat right next to me. Frankly it doesn't matter how much you prepare yourself for this kind of environment, it is never gonna be easy to see. I have decided to boycott the ping pong show for now, as my views on it being a bit of laugh have changed slightly. Who knows as time goes on I may learn to accept this alien way of life as just another foreign culture. But for now I will do what most westerners tend to do in these parts pretend it not even happening.


Had a pants night sleep if I'm honest, as I think the jet lag kicked in around 3 am and was up pacing around, finally got back to sleep around 4:30am only to be woken to the 5am buddha prayer calling. For any of you who have had the plessure in experiencing this, I'm sure you will agree it is an amazing xperience. In fact I find it hard to decribe! I was slightly confused where I was at one point and couldn't work out where the hell it was coming from. I have since been told that the building just out the back from my room is a WAT (Buddhist holy place). Please don't mistake this calling like the wailing sound you can sometime get from a mosque. The sound was alot more gentle... anyway won't harp on and I'm sure like many things I'm going to blog "you had to be there..".

So I finally got back to sleep and woke later on. I decided that I would go and get my train ticket to Chaing Mai today (cn't book online, have to go to the station), otherwise I think I would of bottled it and got a plane (only because I was feeling pants this am). Anyway decided that I would whizz across town in a tuk tuk. I proceeded to barter with the guy and thought the fare he was trying to charge as EXCESSIVE so I bartered away and walked away 3 times. In the end he came down to the price. I must be honest I still wasnt entiely impressed with this price but decided that the guy was going to wait at the station for me so there was a safety element involved. We make our way across to Hanglumpa station and then it suddenly started to dawn on me that this station was alot further than I first thought. In fact I was looking at the wrong bloody map, it was the zoomed out version..!?! Doh. Anyway, after a hair raising journey (I don't get scared often but blieve me if you want thrill seeking, get in one of these things) we get to the station. I then experience a snake that jumps off the neighbouring tuk tuk roof, right at my feet! FREAKED out was not the word. I did not realise I could actually scream.

Anyway, oh yes back to the point of the story got the ticket to take me to the North. I'm leaving Sunday night on the 12 hour overnight train. I did try to book 1st class but was told that these were for men ONLY!! Boy I hope I misunderstood her. so I settled for 2nd class ticket which is a bottom sleper with air con. Whatever that means. I don't really care to be frank as long as I can grab a few hours sleep. For those of you who don't know my reason for travelling by train, it is in order to see the sunrise, on the train, up in the jungles of the north, I hear it is amazing...

So after purchaing my ticket (10 GBP bargain) Get back in my tuk tuk, and matey takes me back to the grand palace. I felt a bit guilty so gave him an extra 20 baht (about 50p) I think I'm getting generous in my old age. SoI go the grand palace. Busy place, with LOTS of tourists. I thought I ws being clever whenI packed my bag in the morning and brought along a t-shirt to go over my shoulders and thought that my below knee length pants would suffice. Unfotunately not!!! So I then have to queue up for a SKIRT!!!!!!!!!!! I know! I bet the majority of you are finding this highly amusing right now!! So I reluctnantly put this skirt on (was at one point considering turning backround) and go into the grand palace. Cool place, worth a visit, but the skirt was annoying me so seen the Emerald Bhudda, and the main palace and dashed out of there pretty sharpish! Of course returning the skirt on my exit..!!!

Decided that the fumes of bangkok were getting for me so decided I would take the scenic route home and decided to get one of the many river boats. It cost me 24p to get home on this boat...! You can se that I'm not used to the cost of living yet.

After my very touristy day, I concluded with a dip on the roof top pool and my thai massage. It's currently nealry 7pm here soI'm off for a quick shower, then off for some dinner and to tryand find where all the back packers hang out round here...

If you have got this far in my blog well done! It was a long one, but a very adventurous day all in all. Just to let you all know I won't be calling home very often as it is bloody EXCESSIVE. Ten quid for a 4 minute call!

Anyways, hope you are all well and keep in touch, hopefully will be bck on the blog site when it's up and running. 😊 xxxxx

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