Sawat dii kha from Bangkok

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First things first, we read all the books and heeded all the warnings about the likelihood of being scammed and robbed as soon as we stepped off the plane at Bangkok and so, determined it wouldn’t happen to us, we headed to the taxi rank outside of the airport and managed to get all the way to the Khao San Road without anything untoward happening to us. Good start we thought but we certainly weren’t going to let our guard down! The drive from the airport gave us our first glimpses of Bangkok; a huge city with a feeling of chaos created through the haphazard fusion of skyscrapers and hovels and the large numbers of 4 and 2 wheeled vehicles driven at breakneck speeds. The things that it couldn’t prepare us for was the frenetic energy of the people and the interesting smells that would accost us as soon as we arrived at our destination, which were a mix of street cooked food and something less pleasant.

The Khao San Road certainly lived up to the hype and more. We had treated ourselves to a few nights at the Buddy Lodge in the heart of the action, not one of the cheaper options, but better safe than sorry we thought. We were glad we spent the extra as it was a nice place with friendly staff and an okay en suite room - luxury after our last hostel (and it cost less). After seeking clarification on the pronunciation of some local phrases from the staff, armed with our new knowledge we headed out into the chaos. The Khao San Road is not very long, we were surprised, but there is a lot to stop and look at. Small shops and street hawkers line the street selling everything including cheap clothes, electrical stuff, tacky holiday gifts, food, massages and some time with your feet in a large tank with fish which eat the dead skin - tempting. Every few steps someone is asking you if you want a ride in a tuk tuk, or want a suit made, or want to buy something or eat something. Everything is for sale on the Khao San Road, including a few things that we won’t mention. But despite all that it was in no way threatening or even annoying and just a polite no was enough to suffice - again not as bad as we had been led to believe. Chris was continuing his mission to try and eat in Asia for £1 a time and so, with that in mind, we decided that our lunch would be from one of the street hawkers who cooked pad Thai noodles by the edge of the road. They turned out to be surprisingly good and, because there were no adverse consequences later, we were convinced we could repeat the gourmet treat and eat pretty cheaply.

Things in the Khao San Road hot up a bit at night and so, after an afternoon siesta, we were ready for the evening ahead. Unbelievably it was even busier than during the day, with what seemed like the whole of Bangkok milling around. We thought we would be sophisticated this time and eat at one of the local roadside cafes, instead of eating walking around, but to be quite truthful it was more expensive at about £3 each (oops blown the £1 budget) and it was not so nice. We explored the alleyways to see what was going on and eventually found ourselves in Mulligans (yes the Irish have made it all the way here) and listened to a great band. The only shame was that it wasn’t very busy. After Chris had satiated his desire for ........... Guinness we popped back out into the craziness and sat in a roadside bar drinking cocktails. We sat for a while watching the crowd go by and tried to figure out which of the pretty Asian girls were actually Lady Boys. I could only distinguish one or two obvious ones, but Chris seemed to think that all the really pretty girls were actually boys - I am not sure that his reasoning was at all scientific! The only negative part of the evening was a beggar who knelt down in front of us begging for money. As he kept touching my knee and looking at us pitifully I felt really uncomfortable and unsure what to do as ignoring him seemed really cruel, but he eventually left in search of more generous travellers. Our evening was finished off by a quick look in at the jumping Brick Bar. The English alcohol police think that young English boys and girls have a problem with binge drinking, well they should come here and see some of these young Asians. The club was pumping out some great music and they were dancing on every conceivable surface, but for some it was obviously too much and a number were just out for the count. It was an absolutely great place and they were having a great time, maybe next time we are in town.

The following day we headed off to explore the surrounding area and made our way to see where the Grand Palace was, although we didn’t intend to go in as we wanted to save the serious sightseeing for when Matthew arrives. One thing we did learn during the walk is not to take the guide book out unless you want a local to come and start giving you advice on where you should go and how you should get there. Our first guide book incident happened as we were almost at the Grand Palace when a really nice couple asked if we were lost. We told them that we weren’t but were just looking at the surrounding area and having a walk around. But the three phrases we were expert in obviously didn’t help us as they proceeded to tell us that we didn’t want to go to the Grand Palace today, but should go tomorrow, and instead we should go and see Phrasiariyametri “Luang Pho To” the gigantic statue of Buddha which stands at Wat Intharavihan. After borrowing our pen and kindly showing us where the sights were in our guide book they really couldn’t understand why we didn’t want to go straight there and wanted to just aimlessly wander around - obviously the concept of aimlessly wandering isn’t something they understand and ‘hello’, ‘thank you’ or ‘goodbye’, which were the extent of our Thai language abilities, were not enough to explain it. They were really nice though and their English was a lot better than our Thai. After lots of handshaking and talking about the snow in England eventually we got away and a few steps down the road the guide book came out again and flippin’ hell but another really helpful local felt the need to tell us we didn’t want to go to the Grand Palace but instead catch the no. 50 bus and head off to see the giant Buddha. What was wrong with the Grand Palace we thought. After some further confusion about the concept of aimlessly wandering around we managed to get away and made our way to the Grand Palace to see it from the outside, which was impressive. Really looking forward to seeing what it is like on the inside.

We had come to realise on our walk that the roads, and more particularly trying to cross the road, was a truly dangerous undertaking namely because of the false sense of security you get when you try and cross on a zebra crossing. We haven’t completely worked out the purpose of the zebra crossings yet but they certainly don’t mean that pedestrians should do anything as stupid as cross on them without worrying about being run over. After tentatively stepping out onto a crossing for the first time and getting absolutely nowhere, we decided that being bold was the only answer, but it certainly is a case of taking your life in your hands. We came to the conclusion that their sole purpose was to beguile foreigners into a false sense of security and get them all in one place so the locals could run them all down in one go. You certainly need your wits about you and be light of foot. On making it to the relative safety of the pavement you then come across someone driving down it on a motorbike, who obviously also thinks that driving on the road is too dangerous.

After realising our guide book mistakes we continued to wander without consulting the map and made our way to the river where we decided to ride one of the ferries. This seemed much safer than trying to cross busy roads and, at 15p each, was a good deal. Now we had mastered the ferries we decided that the only thing left was to have a ride on a tuk tuk.

We decided to take the advice of the locals and we headed off to see the giant Buddha which was started in 1867 and completed in 1927. At over 32 metres tall and 11 metres wide the statue of Luang Pho To was certainly impressive and apparently he has miraculous powers and can bless you with success if you present him with a mackerel head, a boiled egg and a lei of flowers. Although the surrounding area was an opportunity for the locals to try and fleece some holidaymakers the temple was beautiful and serene. On leaving the temple we felt our good luck would hold out if we got a ride in a tuk tuk and, after loudly exclaiming at the cost of the first one we tried, we managed to barter a cheaper rate with another and for about 50p he took us back to the Khao San Road without any incident, although it was a bit hair raising at times.

Our last evening in Bangkok, for the time being, and we decided a quick meal and walk around the surrounding area would be enough before we made the short flight to Phuket the following day.

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Photos

KSR by Day
Backpacker heaven

Gordon Lamsey
great food for a few pennies

KSR by Night
Locals join the foreigners

Taxi
Think he'd get a job with Fleetline?

Big Buddha
Title says it all

Still Big Buddha
You can't even hide him behind a huge temple

Wat a Temple
Arun of course