Except for The Shopping, Snooker and Crocodiles

---

Next we wanted to head north which meant going via Bangkok. This time, we found a guest house which did not turn its fans off at night. Tiny and I set off for the American Express office as they have a service whereby they will accept mail for anyone who has American Express Travellers Cheques. Tiny had fourteen letters from his girlfriend back in England, which considering how long we had been away was pretty good going.

That brings me to my next travel tip, although email has probably made it obsolete now. Your parents may not be very impressed about you turning down a job to go off round the world and your girl/boy-friend might be all bitter and twisted about being dumped for a year, but there is a chance that somebody somewhere might want to send you some post. Despite the fact that you are on the move, this does not stop any such post from reaching you.

First of all, many major post offices have the 'poste restante' facility, whereby they hold onto any mail sent to you, c/o them, and will hand it over after checking your passport. Furthermore, American Express offices will also hold on to any post for people who have an American Express card or travellers' cheques.

All you need to do is let people know roughly where you are going to be and when you are going to be there and they can send you some post ready for when you arrive.

So my Travel Tip number 2 is "Check the postal facilities".

We got back to find the others in a snooker hall. That place occupied a large proportion of their time in Bangkok, which, given that we were in one of the most exotic cities in the world, struck me as being a little sad.

We knew there was an area in Bangkok where all the shops and market stalls sell all the dodgy cassette tapes and fake Rolex watches, but we had no idea what it was called. We tried for sometime to explain where we wanted to go to a tuk tuk driver, but he ended up taking us to some huge hotel. We tried again to explain where we wanted to go and, after talking it through with some colleagues, he concluded that we probably wanted to go to the sex district - not an unreasonable assumption for a group of blokes in Bangkok.

The journey ended up costing us a lot of money. If ever you are going to use any service that costs, and the exact cost is not advertised or metered, then arrange the price in advance, giving you the option to negotiate it or walk away and look elsewhere. This especially applies to taxis.

If you take a taxi ride without agreeing the price, then you are hardly in a position to argue about it afterwards. Walking away would be slightly unethical, although it might be a good way of getting value for money from your medical insurance.

Talking of insurance, good travel insurance is essential. Otherwise, if you get ill, you could end-up bankrupt or dead. The possible exception is if you have a working visa and you are entitled to some level of medical care that is available for the resident population. It is also a good idea, if you are travelling to some of the less advances parts of the world, to take your own needles in case you need an injection, to guarantee that they are sterile. These are available from a British Airways shop.

So my Travel Tip number 3 is "Arrange prices in advance".

By an amazing stroke of good fortune, the sex district is also where the shopping is. I got a Rolex for my Dad and a Cartier for my Mum, but what really caught our eye was the ubiquitous tacky red facade of a McDonalds. It was very sad I know, but after several weeks of healthy Thai food, we were dying for some stodgy western crap. The next night we found a Kentucky Fried Chicken.

We thought it would be a good idea to visit the Bangkok Crocodile Farm. We saw crocodile wrestling and blokes putting their heads in crocodile's mouths etc., but it was generally a complete waste of time. The crocs were so doped-up that they probably didn't know that they had a mouth, let alone that some prat was putting his head in it. I suppose it beat watching Mike and Alan play snooker.

Bangkok was the hub of our travels around Thailand and consequently we came back here again later (see An Incident in Bangkok).

---

Photos

Crocodile Wrestling
Crocodile Wrestling at the Samphran Crocodile Farm

Crocodile Feeding
Crocodile Wrestling at the Samphran Crocodile Farm

An Elephant Show
All very "The King and I"

Elephants
An Indian elephant getting ready for its act

Magic Show
Mike playing the asistant at a magic show