Bangkok, Episode 1 - A New Country

---

Well , we arrived at Bangkok Bus Station 2 hours bloody early, as our bus driver bombed down the bloody roads at neck breaking speed overtaking everything in its path so we did n't sleep much, plus we were at the very front and saw his excellent overtaking skills!!!! Asia has not disappointed us with its superb driving skills and the abilities the drivers have of driving, smoking, and chatting on the phone while overtaking. Personally I can' t wait for the train rides to start again!!!! Anyway, we arrived at 4am and sat around for an hour as our booked guest house would be shut still!!!!! I asked the tourist info center what the price would be for us to reach the skytrain from the bus station, they said 20 Baht each(40p), so I engaged several tuk tuk drivers, and again like the rest of Asia, they try to rip you off, after 10 minutes of banter and bargaining, we gave up and instead found out you could reach the sky train via a bus for 12 baht, so we did that(lot easier). Reached the Skytrain, which is a subway system about 20m above the ground. It was air conditioned, empty(due to the time) and fast.

We then had a short walk to our guesthouse, passing Macdonald's, KFC, a shopping center, several 7.11's(Asian Spar) and many food stalls, fruit stalls, shops, banks etc. Its very modern, full of people and seems very set up for tourists, and this is not the real tourist area!!!! The people are smiley and friendly, and it seems very similar to Laos, just very modern, richer and heavily populated .

After we checked in we made our way to the Immigration center and asked about extending our Thai Visa. As we crossed over land from Laos we were given a max 15 day visa(if you fly in its 30 day) and we wanted to extend this by another 15 days. This however is not possible, by Thai law they will only grant you 1, 7 day extension at a cost of 1900 Baht each( 38 pounds), after several unsuccessful pleads and some arguing about being given incorrect information in China, we decided to leave and research an alternative!!!! Back to the guest house, we realised the only option was to do a 'Visa run'. A company for 2000 baht each, takes you to the Cambodian border and buys you a Cambodian Visa, you then turn around and leave Cambodia and re enter Thailand and get a new Thai Visa for a further 15 days. It takes 10-12 hour to go and return, but we need to do this on our return to Bangkok from the north, we would have to do this, or we would end up having no beach time in the south!!!! Joy!!!!!! Obviously Thailand's top boys are not to fussed on keeping tourists here for too long, and this is during an world economic crisis!!!!!


Anyway, we decided to go and see the tourist area of Bangkok, Khao Sao Road, and see what we have been missing for months, well not much, except a Boots Store!!! It has stalls, shops, Burger King, Subway, bars, restaurants, loud music and lots of tourists, and lots of Western Testosterone!!!! Asian men don't suffer from this, so it seems very strange to see and be in that environment again!!!! The girls were wearing bikini's and the nearest beach is hours away, how we have missed this!!!!! The boat journey to reach there was pretty spectacular though, passing several big Wats, lots of different styled buildings and the boat ride was creating a superb breeze, as Bangkok is very humid and sticky!!!!

That evening we had an early night as we needed to be at Bangkok Airport at 6.30am to meet Eleanor and Charlene( if you don't know these girls, they worked with Beck's at VE and have become good friends) who are starting their world tour in Thailand and we plan to hang out for a few weeks. Next morning, after our taxi driver took us to the airport at G force speed, we met the girls. Neither of us recognised them and they did n't recognise me, saying that I (Dan) have lost loads of weight!!! although they recognised Becks saying that traveling had n't changed her looks and she still looked fabulous. Beck's had a few tears with them and then it was time to take the girls to the guesthouse and look round Bangkok.

That afternoon, we showed them round the Khao Sao Road area, via the boat, ate some Pad Thai( noodles, bean sprouts, egg, all stir fried), and walked a few kilometers to China Town, which at night time lights up, with loads of food stalls, Chinese shops, lanterns, music being played, a mini China all by itself with loads of Chinese people in!!! Another early night again as we were up early and the girls were jet lagged.

Next day and our final day in Bangkok, before we head north to Chiang Mai and return back here in a week or so. The girls took a pedicure and manicure, while I swapped some books, we ate , chilled and walked around a bit more. That night we got chatting to 2 hilarious Irish boys, who were drinking buckets of Whiskey, entertaining us(Dan only) with football stories and just general Irish humour. We planned to go to a 15,000(yes thousand)stall market, but as we left to catch the Skytrain, the heaven's opened up in an astonishing way. Thunder, lightning and a downpour, where nobody could leave the shop covers with the roads becoming waterlogged, either with huge drains taking away litres of water every minute. When it rains in Asia, it RAINS!!!!. An hour later, we manage to leave our 7.11 hideaway, but as I crossed the road, I lost my flip flop in the puddles of water, luckily enough for me a Thai man moved his umbrella down and managed to scoop up my flip flop with it, saving me having to return back hopping!!!!!

---

Comments

[Gary]

Sinister Prison Bumming
Dan I really love reading your blog, its the highlightof my day Love Gary

[Stuart Duncan]

Sports latest
Mark Webber won the German Grand Prix and the first Ashes test was drawn, thanks to rain in Cardiff on the fourth day. England: 435 & 252-9 (105.0 overs), Australia: 674-6 (181.0 overs). England had to last out until the close of day four in order to save the game and just managed it - a really exciting finish with the last-wicket pair, Anderson and Panesar, scoring 28 runs between them. What was close to an innings defeat became a draw and Ricky Ponting was extremely pissed off, accusing England of "Stalling". Er....yes, I think that was the idea! Carlos Tevez has joined Man City (!) for £25 million (dunno how much that is in Bahts), joining Roque Santa Cruz and you probably know that Ronaldo left ManU for Real Madrid for enough money to clear the national debt of Togo.