Thailand - An 8 day layover

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Bangkok

Initially we planned on going straight from the Philippines to Vietnam, but because we spent a week less than we had planned in China we were a week ahead of schedule, so when our visa expired in the Philippines we had 7 days to kill before our visa to Vietnam began on May25th. So we decided to fly to Bangkok and see a bit of Thailand before going to Vietnam.

So the next day we caught a flight from Caticlan, Philippines which was supposed to leave at 5 pm to Manila but was cancelled for no apparent reason, remember we are in Bizarro world, so we were put on standby as we had a connecting flight in Manila to Bangkok departing at 9pm. Luckily we were able to get on a flight that left at 5:45 and made it to Manila with plenty of time to spare. We arrived in Bangkok at midnight and headed straight to our hostel.

The next day we spent the day checkig out the city and trying to find a new place to stay, as our hostel was far away from any of the popular sights. We were able to find a place on the very popular and touristy area Khao San Road. That day we planned in seeing more of the city but after grabbing some dinner and a beer we met a deutsch couple that we talked to for a few hours and continued the drinking. They were extremely nice people and we had some wonderful conversation. While we were talking with them 2 guys sat down at the table beside us and Jeremy began talking with them as well. Turned out they were from Brazil, living in Thailand and playing professional futbol. At around 1am we went with the brazilians to a night club on Khao San Road. We had a great time drinking and dancing the night away.

The next day we woke up and changed from our hostel that was far away from Khoa San Road and got a hostel right in the thick of things. We were able to find a nice place for 350Baht ($12CDN) for a twin room with a fan. We then spent the day touring some of the city. In the evening we went back to the bar where we drank the night before. I called a guy we met in Alona Beach, Philippines named Roy. He is a teacher in Bangkok and has been living there for 10 years now. So after having a few beers with Roy, we walked through a random outdoor market where everything being sold was used and very random items. I ended up buying an unlocked cell phone with a Thai sim card activated off a random guy at one of the booths. By booth I mean sheet on the side walk LOL. I was able to get everything for 430 baht ($17cdn) I was pretty happy with the purchase, the phone is just a plain piece of shit bar phone but it will work and provides me finally with a means of being able to call people we met along the way, as well as hostels etc. Anyways, so after the market we gave the brazilians a call, they were at a prissy night club, but we went and met up with them anyways. We stayed there for about 30 min but it wasn't our crowd. To expensive and everyone there was just rich and snobby with people snorting cocain out in the open. So we left there and went to a roof top bar that was completely empty but had a very nice view of the city. After staying at that bar for about an hour we said goodbye to Roy and called it a night.

The next day May 21st we walked around the outside of the Grand Palace but weren't able to get in becuase we were wearing shorts and you need long pants and shirt. Instead, we grabbed a tuk-tuk to the sleeping Buddha. There was one that was sitting upright and the other was sleeping. They were pretty big, my estimation is that they were about 20 feet high. They were completely made of gold, and truly impressive. Once we were done there it started pouring rain so we headed back to the room. Grabbed some noodles from a street vendor and retired for the night. As we needed to be up around 6am to catch the train to kanchanaburi. Kanchanaburi is the town where the river kwai is situated.

So we awoke around 6am and flagged down a cab to take us to the train station. Once we jumped in the taxi the cabbie wanted us to pay a flat fare of 100 baht, which is rediculous, as it was a 10min drive and we knew that. So after telling him to turn on the meter he furiously turned it on and proceeded to try and sell us weed, Cocain, and prostitutes. After declining these very tempting offers he tried selling us on him driving us all the way to kanchanaburi for a mere 1500baht, we declined this as well of course. Once the asshole of a cab driver dropped us off at the station and sped off, we turned around to notice it was the wrong station. He took us purposely to the wrong train station becuase we refused to pay him the set rate of 100 baht and asked him to put on the meter. He was obviously pissed off he wasn't going to make extra money off us so he took us to the wrong train station and told us it was the right one. So after finding out it was the wrong one and that we couldn't catch the train we had to pay triple the price and take a minibus. While waiting for the bus outside the train station, we were sitting on the curb when 2 transvestites approached us asking for a cigarette. We told them that we didn't have any, but they still approached us. I told the one approaching me not to come any further otherwise I was gonna drop the he/she, so it stopped short. While I was watching the one in front of me making sure it didn't try grabbing my bag, the other one went right up to jeremy and started grabbing his balls, he let it, as he had his hands over his pockets protecting his money, passport etc. After it gropped him for a few seconds he grabbed it's arm and a little struggle ensued. After about 30 seconds they ran off and jumped in a cab and took off. After checking his pockets he thought he had everything, until he realized he had his iPhone in his shirt breast pocket and the thing had swiped it. So after getting ripped off in more ways than one before 9am we took the bus to Kanchanaburi which is where the bridge on the river kwai is.

Kanchanaburi

It only took about 2 hours to get there and we stayed at Jolly Frog Guesthouse which overlooks the River and has a very nice garden with hammocks and well manicured lawn. The day we arrived we went and rented motorbikes and drove around the town for a bit and went and saw the bridge over the river kwai which POW's from britain, Australia, US were forced to build during WWII while in captivity by the Japense. The POW's were forced under horendous conditions to construct 415km of railway tracks through the mountainous landscape. Having to carve through mountains by hand and carry out the rock themselves, around 13,000 POW's died over the 17months it took to construct the railway. After seeing the bridge which was made famous by a movie in the '60-'70's under the same name, we went to the cemetery where allied POW's are buried. The cemetery reminded me a lot of Arlington cemetery in Vỉgina, with it's beautifully manicured lawns and rows of tombstones. The differences being that this one is a lot smaller and the tombstones are small square stones in the ground with each one separted by flowers, opposed to white crosses. From there we went to a museum depicting the hitory and conditions of of the camps.

The day we arrived we jumped on the back of a pickup truck and headed out to a Tiger Temple. It is a sanctuary for Tiger's that are looked after by a group ò Monks. We didn't know what to expect, but I was thoroughly surprised. We were able to pet full grown tigers and have our picture taken with them. After having our picture taken with the full grown ones we were walking around the grounds when a monk walked up with a baby tiger on a leash, and told us to come pet it. The cub jumped up on a bench and lay down, so i sat on the ground in front of him and was able to rest my head on his and pet him and take a few pictures with him. It was a very cool experience, however this sort of thing would never fly in North America, as they are still wild animals and would easily kick the shit out of you. Their paws were masive, even the little cub could have destroyed me, especially seeing ás though my head was resting on his and he could have just swung his head around and chomped down on mine!! Either way we escaped without a scratch and had a great afternoon.

The next day we didn't do much as jeremy got sick again, so I just drove around on my motorbike and checked out a not very impressive museum.

The next day May 24 I took a tour on my own because Jeremy was still ill, to Erawan National Park which has a beautiful 7tier waterwall that was just over a 2km hike to the top of. The path was anything but a clear path, it winded up the mountain side through the jungle. We were able to see wild monkeys just hangjing in the trees as we walked by. Along the way up the mountain we were able to swim in the waterfalls pools that collected at the bottom. It was a lot of fun and nice to finally be able to hike through the jungle and see some poisionous spiders and lizards etc. We warned to watch our sunglasses and our bags á the monkeys sometimes swoop dơn and steal peoples glasses right off their head and even open bags and steal peoples stuff. While we were swimming at one of the pools a monkey was in a tree eating, he climbed down and got really close to us, after we snapped a few pics of him he got angry and sprinted after us, was pretty hillarious because we had to sprint away from him, but a random dog that had traveled down from the peak of the mountain with us ran after the monkey and scarred it back up the tree. lol

After a quick lunch that was provided for us we took off to the death railroad which is a stretch of the railroad where 1500 POW's died constructing a small stretch of track. Along side the railway was a small cave where a buddha was constructed in remembrance of all the people that had passed during construction. From there we jumped on the train that still operates on the railway for a 30min trip through the local villages.

Next day we grabbed a bus back to Bangkok to catch a flight to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

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Comments

[melissa]

Glad to see your having fun!!
Hey David!! I wanted to say thank you so much for the post card I was so surprised when I got it cause you've been so crazy busy since you've been away!! The pics are amazing so far so keep it up!! And stay safe!! Mel