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Published: October 1st 2009
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Thai Day 1 001 (14)
Hedge sculpted as an elephant. Hello
On our 2nd last day in HK it totally rained from the heavens. We went out for a walk around the shops. We were going to go to a zoo/theme park but it was far too wet and windy.
I have to admit that I went into HMV and played Need For Speed on the Xbox for about 15mins - it felt good. I had been Xbox cold turkey for 2 weeks but couldn’t last any longer. “Hello, my name is Russell and I am a Xbox addict”. We stayed locally for dinner, quiet day - quiet night.
The day we left we walked along and got the airport express bus to the airport (funnily enough). It was full of smiling happy Hong Kongers - NOT! The airport was massive and very modern - wifi all over, nice touch. Flew Cathay Pacific - not very good, cramped seat and the food was disgusting. Managed to watch Curb Your Enthusiasm and 2 and a Half Men so that wasn’t so bad.
We arrived in Bangkok at about 17:00 (GMT+6), it took us about an hour to get through, security, visa, passport then the bus took another hour
to get to the hotel. The bus was pretty confusing; it was suppose to be an airport express bus that followed a specific route, the driver was all over the place. Luckily Anne is like a sophisticated SAT NAV system so she knew when to get off.
Yesterday we hit Bangkok. We went to Jim Thompson house (he was an American silk merchant who had put together this awesome house). Jim loved Thailand however he went on a trip to Mongolia and never returned - ooooh spooky.
We then got on a tuk-tuk (or something, a little bike with a trailer behind it, bit like a rickshaw). We visited a few temples and got some snaps. To be honest we didn’t really catch much of the history, but the pics are good, there wasn’t much info to be had. We visited a Lucky Buddha and the Wat Po - where there is a massive reclining Buddha. Along the way on the tuk tuk we also saw the Kings Palace and Democracy Monument.
If visiting Bangkok please beware - the tuk-tuk guys want to take you to tailors and other shops that sell souvenir and jewellery. Anne was
strong with the guy and just said no way, take me to ---. They get fuel vouchers for taking you to these places but if you are not interested in spending money or getting the hard sell just be assertive. Also just about everyone is trying to sell you something or take you somewhere, they will come up to you, ask you where you are going, how long you are staying, and where you are from. “Aa Scotland - Whiskey boom boom!” There is also people that walk up to you and point in the opposite direction and say you are going the wrong way, without even knowing where you are going!! They will try to direct you into a taxi or tuk-tuk then onto another blooming tailors! Due to us already being in China we are used to not taking much notice, best bet is to talk to no-one unless you are completely lost. To be fair Thai people are really nice, it is just in and around the tourist areas.
At night we took the sky rail (which is a super efficient mono-rail system) to a shopping centre that had a cinema. We went for dinner in
a Cantonese restaurant, had 2 drinks, 2 starters and 2 mains - delicious and it only came to £6!!!!!
We went to the cinema at 9 bells, to see Pandorum (sc-fi thriller set in space in the future 8.5/10-bit like Event HorizonAlien). It was in tribute to my Wednesday Cinema Club Buddies, I salute you, hope yous are still going. We got pop-corn, 2 drinks and it all came to £5 including the cinema tickets, unbelievable.
The cinema was on the 7th Floor of the shopping centre, when we came out (11.30ish) the centre was completely closed, we had no idea how to get out. We got on the lift and got off on the 3rd floor. We were then directed back into the lift by a security guard who couldn’t speak any English. It then went up to the 8th floor which was the security station, and it wouldn’t go back down. We started to panic, another security guard ushered us out of the lift and waited for another one to come. When it finally came, it took us to the ground floor and got out the back door/delivery entrance of the shopping centre. The whole time
we were in and out of the lift, there were guys wheeling in and out massive items like ovens and giant greasy deep fat fryers - very surreal. The shopping centre was all dark and empty, like a scene from Dawn of The Dead. After just watching a scary movie, we were pooping our pants.
We ran for the last sky train got off at our station, walked passed a variety of Go Go Girls and masseuses, back to hotel for 12.15, safe and sound. :-)
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Craig
non-member comment
Siam Centre?
Hey was the cinema in the Siam Centre? Vicki and I went there too, I considered taking home a Lambourghini Gallardo from the super car supermarket downstairs but thought the shipping costs would be a bit much :)