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Published: August 10th 2011
OK, so I'm finally onto writing the blog for our trip to Thailand and Cambodia in April. Sorry for the delay!
Day One
Yay - off to Thailand and Cambodia on our much anticipated trip for 2011! We flew Air Asia X (the new budget airline in NZ) through Kuala Lumpur, to get to Bangkok, which took about 19 hours altogether. Air Asia X wasn't anything to rave about, and the transfer through Kuala Lumpur was a nightmare overall, but we didn't really have any specific issues and we arrived in Bangkok safely in the mid-afternoon. It was cloudy and humid, but we managed to negotiate the airport train and then two metro trains to our hostel, near Siam Square. The ride on the train(s) was a good introduction to Asia for Vaughan, as we went past a variety of buildings on the way (from shacks on rice paddy fields, to cosmopolitan high rises), and it was really interesting to see the diversity in Thai life, right from the beginning of our trip. By the time we arrived in the wealthier centre of Siam Square, it was clear that Bangkok is a very modern city, and even on the
train we had already noted the high fashion and technology available to the Thais who lived there.
Our hostel was almost right underneath the metro station (which was an elevated station), and we were glad to reach the air conditioning. We checked into our comfy double room, and were quite impressed with the hostel, which was really new and flash (it's always nice to have an awesome shower). Directly opposite the hostel (if you could get across the street without being knocked down), was a big mall called MBK. Vaughan and I decided to go for a wander out from the hostel to see what was around (and if there was anywhere to pick up supplies), and we had a look down a couple of the alleyways next to the hostel, where the street food stalls had just started setting up for the evening. Vaughan got a couple of pork skewers to try, and we started to get into the swing of how to communicate with the locals, as most street vendors speak very little English. The smells of the food were amazing, and managed to cover the usual drainage type smell that permeates most Asian countries. After Vaughan
had his tasty snack we went over to the mall and wandered around for a while. Parts of the mall were quite western, with your regular shoe and clothing stores, but some sections (or whole floors) of the mall were filled with hundreds of kiosks, all competing for your business in the mobile phone market (especially accessories). Another section was almost like a market bazaar (but still indoors), selling all kinds of Thai silk, knick knacks, fake designer stuff - it was all so close together as well as packed out by people. It was pretty intense and there are no clear directions, so it only took us a few minutes to get lost. We had plenty of time though, so we just kept on wandering and eventually made our way out. It's probably the biggest mall that either of us has ever been in, being seven storeys tall, and taking about 20 minutes or so to walk from end to end on each level. We managed to find a massive cinema complex on the top floor, where things were a bit quieter, and we cruised around for something to eat, finally settling on a Thai buffet that cost about
$1.40 each. We didn't know what any of the dishes were, so we just randomly tried heaps of stuff (until Vaughan ate something that was too spicy, even for him) - it was a bit of a taste bud extravaganza, and we enjoyed our taste-testing mall dinner. What a great start to the holiday!
Day Two
We had decided to venture out to some of the cultural sights fairly early, before it got too hot, but on arriving at the Grand Palace by taxi, found that it was closed for the day due to a public holiday known as Chakri Memorial Day or the King's Day. No, this wasn't a scam - it actually WAS Chakri Memorial Day (6th April). Unperturbed by the Grand Palace closure, we were quickly offered a day tour in a tuk tuk by one of the curbside drivers (of course), and decided to go for it - he planned out a half day for us, and it was cheaper because petrol is free on Chakri Memorial Day (it was only 40baht instead of 200baht or so, which was about $1.60 for both of us, for half a day - I
didn't really believe him, but it was still cheap all the same), and also, all the temples were open for free too - mint! Well, assuming they are not always open for free. Either way, who cares? We visited the Grand Mount, where the driver parked up to wait for us, and we climbed the 300 or so steps up to the temple there, seeing our first Buddha statues up close, and looking out at fantastic views over Bangkok. It was nice to be up so high, away from all the people, the humidity and the chaos, just feeling the breeze on your face and looking out at the landscape and architecture so different from our own. It was so incredibly hot and humid down at street level, so we loitered at the top for longer than we needed to, before heading back to the tuk tuk for the next part of our journey.
Next up we went to the Lucky Buddha, which was on the list of 'must see' things to do because apparently non-Thais aren't allowed to visit the Lucky Buddha on any day other than Chakri Memorial Day (again, so they say), but we went along
with it for something to do – these types of things are usually a scam (ie: that it’s open today only), but since everything was free, we didn’t really have to worry about it. This was the Chinese Lucky Buddha (not the Thai one), and we were really impressed with the temple itself, as all the interior walls were covered with very old gold-guilded artwork. Most artwork tells a story of the different dynasties, and everything was very elaborate and ornate. The lucky Buddha was quite small, and right up the top of a number of platforms – completely unimpressive to us in some sense, but very special to Buddhists, without a doubt. From there the driver made the mandatory stop at his associate's store, where he gets a percentage of any sales made – we had expected it and didn’t really mind too much, as the store was a local Thai silk store, and we got to see all kinds of clothing, especially suits, made out of fancy Thai silk. They didn’t con a sale out of us though, and we headed off on our way again.
At this point the driver wanted to take us to some
factory that we didn’t want to go to, and he got unreasonably angry at us for declining the next stop. He decided to drop us back to where he had picked us up, and drove like a madman to get there. I think he was trying to scare us, but we didn’t really care, and found it pretty exciting to be tearing along in a tuk tuk at a speed not usually undertaken by that form of transport. Traffic in Thailand is crazy enough as it is, with drivers giving way a lot but not tending to obey any street signs or traffic lights. Tuk tuks seem to drive wherever they want (including on the other side of the road), and when we went over a bump at speed, the tuk tuk nearly came off the ground – I think it scared the driver back into behaving himself, as his tuk tuk is his livelihood. The driver looked surprised when we still gave him some money when we got out, but we didn’t mind as it was very little to us, and we had still had a good time with what we had seen so far.
It was so
hot that we decided to take a break from sightseeing as such, and wandered down to the river, past the touristy Khao San Road area (full of bars and backpackers joints), and down to a nice park where we sat for about half an hour or so, just watching the world go by. The park was very quiet, and another nice change from the chaos of the roads and central city areas – it seems that you can still find quiet places to relax in Bangkok, despite the population. Unfortunately I had started to get a migraine, but I still wanted to trek on – we stocked up on water and guzzled a whole lot back, and I started to feel a bit better, so we headed off to yet another Buddha, which was supposed to be the tallest statue in Thailand. At 45m tall, it certainly was impressive, but it was almost flat (ie: very thin), and not really what we had been imagining. From there we headed to Chinatown which was really intense as it was seriously so packed with people that you couldn’t even walk. Of course, this meant that the temperature was also higher, and it
didn’t take long before it was really far too hot to enjoy in any sense, so we jumped in a cab and got out of there.
We went back to the hostel for a few minutes (back to the air conditioning) before heading out again quickly, back to the street food stalls that had once again come out in the early evening. We also went to the 7/11 store (open 24 hours), just a few metres away from our hostel, which was great for cheap water, and also for stocking up on breakfast for the next morning. Vaughan tried some chicken and beef kebabs from the street vendors, and even ventured into trying the hot chilli paste as a topping. After we finished a bit of a munch we went back to MBK, so that Vaughan could get his phone unlocked (NZ 60c) and buy a cheap local SIM card. We noticed in the phone section of MBK that there were even phone charging booths, where you could just rock on up with your phone, plug it in to charge and then watch a little TV screen to pass the time while you waited for it to charge up
– pretty cool really. On our way back to the hostel Vaughan decided he had to try some more street food, so he bought even more kebabs, plus some fresh fruit and a BBQ’d banana on a stick for me. We had a better look at the vendor carts themselves while they cooked the banana for us, and we enquired about how it all worked. The side of the cart has a small charcoal BBQ grill type thing hanging off the side of it. They keep it stoked up and hot, ready to BBQ your food when you choose it, so it’s cooked fresh. Food poisoning is a big risk, but we were willing to try everything on offer, and we were glad we did – so many tasty local items at a fraction of the cost back home. Yum!
Day Three
Today we headed off to the Grand Palace, finally hoping to get to see the main cultural area of Bangkok. We took a taxi towards the river, and the driver told us that it would actually be better to visit the nearby Reclining Buddha prior to visiting the Grand Palace, rather than afterwards,
as the Grand Palace only opened on that day of the week at 1pm. We weren’t sure whether to trust him, but as he got the same money from us no matter which destination we went to, we decided to go with it, and stopped off at Wat Pho (Temple of the Reclining Buddha), but came in the wrong entrance, and spent forever wandering around looking for the giant reclining Buddha. In the meantime, we enjoyed the Wat Pho complex in general, especially all the incredible tiled buildings, statues and monuments. Some of the tiles were mirrored, and looked very effective with the light bouncing off them. I cruised around taking photos, and we ended up outside a small room where Buddhist Monks were chanting, although we couldn’t really walk in for a decent look as we didn’t want to disturb them – everything around the complex was so peaceful and calm, once again despite the population of the city, with birds chirping, and happy people smiling and nodding (or bowing if they were Buddhist) to us, as well as tranquil monks and general niceness. The only drawback was the heat, and as it was both sunny and humid, it
was pretty intense. The tranquillity was lost once we finally found the Reclining Buddha, as the bus loads of loud western tourists buzzed in, generally taking over the place and causing complete mayhem. Vaughan and I were both grateful that we were not part of one of these rushed package tours, and managed to get in to see the reclining Buddha before the crowds really knew where they were going. The reclining Buddha is basically a giant golden Buddha, you guessed it, reclining. It was much too big to photograph (as it’s 46m long and inside a temple), but was quite impressive. The soles of the feet were made of mother of pearl, and the walls were once again covered in elaborate, beautiful story-art. It really was an incredible sight, as well as humbling, to see the scale of the artwork and statues that the Thai people have managed to make with far fewer resources than we have today.
We probably spent a bit long at the Wat Pho area, as the heat of the day was really setting in, and we were already almost over looking at temples and Buddhas. However we decided that we couldn’t miss the
Grand Palace, so we grabbed a tuk tuk ride over for a look. On our arrival, Vaughan had to hire some awesome harem pants (also known as poo pants, or MC Hammer pants). They were an attractive shade of baby shit mustard. Why – you may ask? The Grand Palace has a dress code, and shorts are not allowed (and females are not allowed to wear short sleeves either). Dress code compliant, we went through to the main area, which was a real visual feast – so many colours, amazing decorative tiling, different sized/shaped temples, statues, historical artwork and golden structures. We didn’t even know where to start, so just kind of meandered around from thing to thing at our own pace, trying to avoid more giant bus loads of tourists, but generally having trouble as the place was packed! One of the temples was so tall that even Vaughan was completely dwarfed as he stood against it for a photo. We went inside the main temple to see the emerald Buddha (called the Temple of the Emerald Buddha - go figure - where the Buddha is actually made of jade), which again was actually very small, but precious to
the Thai people. The Temple of the Emerald Buddha was just so massive, colourful and amazing, and I had never really imagined that the architecture would be quite so incredible. Unfortunately it was clouding over, and it was very glarey, so I struggled to be able to take a photo that could really illustrate what the building was like – plus the view was blocked by 1001 tourists from the bus groups, so we high-tailed it out of the main area for a break from the crowds. On our way out we went past the Chakri Maha Prasat Hall, which was not open to the public, but was a completely different display of almost European architecture (not that I would really know). The heat was pretty overwhelming by this time, and we managed to find a quiet shaded garden around the corner where the breeze tore down the alleyway and past some outdoor seats, so we relaxed there for a while and I wrote some postcards. It was really pleasant!
We decided it was time to head back to the hostel for a change of scene as we were completely templed-out (and buddha'd-out), so we arrived back there just
in time once again for Vaughan to buy some more street food from the vendors by the hostel, and we wandered back over to the MBK mall. There was actually another (more western style mall) on another corner of the intersection, but MBK was actually really interesting, and on Wednesday nights they were meant to have live kickboxing in a ring outside, where you could watch for free. Unfortunately there was some other type of event going on, which was kind of like a launch party for some crazy Asian boy band, and they were up on the stage, singing and dancing around while hundreds of Thai girls screamed in delight. I got the giggles and had to see the situation up close so I actually made it to the front quite easily (as Thai people are so polite, even the hysterical girls), although I lasted about 10 minutes before I was bored, and we headed off again, past the people fully dressed as animé characters, selling promotional material for the band. It was pretty random, but I was really disappointed about the kickboxing because it was one of the main things I had wanted to see in Thailand, so
Vaughan managed to find out that kick boxing was also on the same night at Ratchadamneon Stadium, which was due to start in about 20 minutes, across town. We didn’t think there was any way at all that we could manage to get there in time, but we quickly hailed a tuk tuk, and went on an Amazing Race type adventure – our driver first wanted to take us to a ticket booth to buy the tourist ringside tickets (as he couldn’t speak much English, and thought that’s what we wanted like the other tourists) but we managed to get through to him that we just needed to get to the stadium, and FAST. He was AWESOME, and if not for him, it wouldn’t have been such a fantastic mission, driving through red lights, spending most of the journey on the wrong side of the road, and one time even on the footpath. He actually managed to get us there far faster than any taxi could have taken us, and we left him a big tip when we got out. The marshals outside spoke excellent English, and although they too tried to convince us to go for the expensive ringside
seats, we managed to get into the caged area with the locals (although it still costs more for tourists than for locals in the same area). We were so glad that we had made the effort, both to get to the kickboxing and to sit with the locals, as the ringside seats actually didn’t look like much fun as they were almost below the ring, and were mostly empty. The cages where we were had large tiered concrete steps to stand or sit on, and the evening was not a busy one, so we sat on the far side with heaps of space around us, and a perfect view! The second bout was on when we arrived, and there were about 11 overall. The fighters seemed to increase in ability level as the night went on – some of the fighters were just kids, but were already quite muscular and highly skilled. The local crowd opposite us in the cages would get rowdy every time a fight started, and a loud chant would sound out whenever a kickboxer made a great hit. The atmosphere was fantastic, and it was really exciting and loads of fun – we even got to
see one person get knocked out! Vaughan bought a cold slushie drink, and we were grateful for the space around us, as it meant the air conditioning was more effective. Even though it wasn’t that cheap for our tickets, I would still love to go again, and would definitely recommend sitting up in the cages with the local fans. We both had an excellent time and really enjoyed that part of our Thailand experience.
After the main fight was over, we headed back out for Vaughan to try more street food (of course), before jumping back in a taxi and making it back to the hostel. By that time the night was almost cool enough to sit outside comfortably (rather than hiding in the air conditioning), so we bought so drinks from the 7/11, and just sat at the tables on the deck at the front of the hostel, and watched the world go by. Even at that time of night there was a lot going on. It had been a long and busy day but it had been incredible!
Day Four
Today we had been going to go on a river cruise (or
something boat-orientated), but Vaughan wasn’t feeling very well. While he had a decent sleep in, I did some washing, wrote some more postcards and used one of the hostel computers to catch up on email and news from home. After a while it was time to leave for the bus station for our trip to Pattaya – we were both looking forward to reaching the beach, to see another side of Thai life/tourism. At the bus station we found it difficult to buy tickets and find the right bus, and we almost missed it, but luckily they waited for us. The bus was comfortable enough, and on the way we drove through an intense thunderstorm (I don’t even know how the driver could see anything), and also saw a very injured guy just a couple of minutes after a scooter crash. We took the fast route, which was on the motorway only, but if we ever go back, it might be nice to take a more coastal route to see if there’s a nice view. It took about 3 ½ hours to get to Pattaya, and as we came into town, we could already clearly see the difference between this
beachside town, and the large city of Bangkok that we had left behind – the streets were more dusty and rural somehow, the buildings smaller and more ramshackle, and it was far more laid back, with everyone cruising around at a much slower pace in beachwear and bare feet. We arrived at the bus station and then found a songathew to take us from Pattaya over to the next beach (Jomtien Beach), where we had chosen to stay a little away from the crowds and tourist resorts. Songathews are like open-backed utility trucks, travelling the main beachfront roads along the coast, and you just get on and get off wherever you like, paying about 10 or 20bht each, depending on the distance. The place we were staying was down a small side lane off the main beachfront road at Jomtien Beach, but it was a few blocks past any real amenities, and everything seemed a bit abandoned down our end, even though it actually wasn’t – we had just moved beyond the tourist area, and were staying in a much quieter area, surrounded by locals once again. It was perfect! We only had to walk down the lane for a
couple of minutes and we were on the beach. As it was the off-season, Jomtien Beach was dead quiet, breezy, and exactly what we had been looking for. We walked along the beachfront road, past restaurants and convenience stores, where we bought some snacks and drinks, and we sat on the beach for about an hour as darkness settled, watching a family have an evening picnic on the sand, and a noisy after-dinner swim. The breeze was fantastic, the humidity was non-existent, and being on the coast, it was a complete change from central Bangkok. After a while we wandered down the beachfront road and picked a restaurant to eat at in the open front that faced out to the beach (it was an odd Dutch/Thai combination of restaurant, but the owner guy was chatty and fun), but the food was average, although we did enjoy the cocktails, especially when he had heaps left over and gave it to us for free. It was a nice relaxing start to our time on the coast. Bliss!
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