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Published: July 13th 2010
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I'll try to hammer out a Bangkok update now while i got a bit of downtime before pressing on northward. We're nearing a week now that we've been in Bangkok and I feel like I'm just starting to get a grasp on where stuff is and how to get around. I think another visit to the city is in the cards as there is way to much going on here and too much to do in such a short time. Bangkok is a great place, but for all it has going for it, the transport situation is an absolute nightmare. There is a public train system that doesn't seem to really go anywhere useful, and a bus system that is too complicated for the average farang to attempt to use. There doesn't seem to be any real city center either and even the downtown core is spread out quite far leaving walking around out. One of the last remaining options is the smiling tuk tuk drivers, who take great pleasure in gouging out as much cash as they can from people. We've settled on Taxis to get us around, which is a bit pricy if you don't know how to haggle.
Wat Arun
Temple of Dawn, taken from river ferry. Once you figure out the value of getting between A and B you can normally work out a reasonable price. Asking someone to use the meter is akin to asking someone to give up one of his kidneys.
For all the annoying bits, Bangkok is probably the most exciting and entertaining city I've been. We booked the overnight bus from Pukhet, an uncomfortable and freezing cold 14 hours. At least the driver was kind enough to screen us the cinematic masterpiece "GI Joe, the rise of cobra" back to back. Dubbed in Thai language of course. We arrived at Bangkok's southern terminal at 6 in the morning to a cracking thunderstorm and torrential rain. The rain cleared up a couple hours later and since then we haven't seen a single drop from the sky. Everyday has been blue sky and very very hot. We grabbed a Taxi to Khao San Road, also known as the backpackers Ghetto. It's low season in Thailand as all the northern hemisphere travelers would rather enjoy their summers and travel down to these tropical countries during the winter. This makes accommodation easy to find and amazingly cheap. We got a really nice room in
a hotel with a rooftop that has a pool and an incredible view over the city.
Khao San road is convenient for travelers with everything you could need at hand. Food, Internet, Massages, Bars, Clubs and a market like atmosphere down the street where all the foreigners hang out. It's also within walking distance to some of the must see sites. The temple complex of Wat Pho as well as the grand palace are especially noteworthy. Wat Arun was also quite beautiful but we only saw it from the river ferry. Only problem with Khao San is transport to anywhere else is quite difficult. There are no public transport options and the roads are in perpetual gridlock. It takes forever to get to the city center and the train lines.
There are a few other uniquely Thai things to check out in the city. On Friday night we went to the Muay Thai kickboxing at Lumphini stadium, got some cheap tickets in the back and watched some guys beat the crap out of each other. Thai boxing is interesting in that a punch is considered the weakest attack, that's where the padding is. It is far preferable to
attack with the elbows and knees. Even better is the perfectly legal move of grabbing someones head and pushing it down into your kicking knee. The concrete stands were packed with Thai men gambling away and using some confusing system of hand gestures to make bets amongst each other. We have no idea how it works but after the fight suddenly tons of money exchange hands between everyone. Don't know how anybody keeps track of things but I assume it all works on the honor system. Yumi wanted to get involved and attempted mimicking the hand gestures of the punters. After the fight one guy randomly handed Yumi a 500 baht note. Unfortunately she didn't actually accidentally win anything, everyone just wanted to have a laugh at her perplexed reaction.
Also took a trip out to the Kanchanaburi region to see a floating market, as well as some more ww2 history. The floating market was an interesting look into another way of life, despite the tourism which probably accounts for a good 75% of the business going on there. More interesting was hiring a long tail boat that took us around the local village where we can see how
people live out on the canals. It looks like something from 200 years ago and it's really refreshing to go somewhere without any other tourists around. Also in the region is the famous "bridge on the river kwai". The bridge, part of the infamous death railway connecting Thailand to Burma, was built by POWs during the second world war. On location you get a chilling perspective of the atrocities that happened there, and learn how divorced from reality that movie actually was. The reality is over 100,000 were killed building the bridge and railroad. At the end of ww2 hundreds of POWs were forced onto the bridge in an attempt to stop the allies from bombing it. It was bombed regardless and hundreds of lives were lost. The bridge was rebuilt by the Japanese after the war as part of a reparation program and it looks more or less like it did back in the day. Bomb damage can still be seen on the pylons closest to the shore. Apologies for the history lesson, I'll leave it at that.
As for the nightlife, I'll only go as far to say that it is indeed as interesting as one would
Muay Thai
Lumphini Boxing Stadium expect. Lots of what is referenced in the blog title. P.S. if anyone gets the reference and knows where it is from then you have earned my never ending respect.
Tomorrow we move onwards from Bangkok into the north of Thailand. First stop is the ancient capital city, Ayuthaya. We've got to pick up the pace a bit as there is a lot of ground to cover and we're down to the last 5 weeks in south east asia. I only touched on a few points of the week we spent in Bangkok. Like I said, there is a lot going on here. We'll certainly need another few trips to Thailand in the future.
And by the way, the coolest guy in all of Thailand is the guy selling popcorn at Lumphini stadium. You know who you are.
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Aunt Karen
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30 years later
I would like to see Bangkok now. I imagine it has changed a lot in the thirty years since I was there. The traffic was terrible then and crossing the street was life-threatening, so that much at least hasn't changed. Take care, keep on keeping on.