Taken by Bangkok, chewed and spit back into the atmosphere


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Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Bangkok
September 2nd 2011
Published: September 9th 2011
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Weekend Market in BangkokWeekend Market in BangkokWeekend Market in Bangkok

Jan experimenting
by Polona

As you probably figured out from the title of this blog we have seen and done Bangkok 😊. For me it was at the right point of the trip as I was getting a bit tired and Bangkok was the right cure for my “disease” as I was busting with energy again and I got my “travel buzz” back on.

Arriving to Bangkok early in the morning (after yet another overnight bus journey) we got settled on Kaoh San road. I immediately understood the appeal of the street – although fully adapted to hoards of tourists arriving to Thailand's capital. The street is bursting with life, there is so much cheap food on offer (for me it was Pad Thaaaaiiii moment almost every day, aw my lovely spicy noodles - without you I still wouldn't master the craft of using chop sticks). Where was I...oh, food on offer...😊

We did quite well in Bangkok and we walked for miles and miles almost every day. We arrived on a Sunday morning and as it was my first time in Bangkok, I forced Jan, bless him, to go to the weekend market with me. The venue for this market is HUGE and divided into sections: clothes, jewellery, food, home, pets...There is not a thing you couldn't buy there. After, what probably seemed hours to Jan, of walking past a gazillion of clothes shops, we decided we will try and find the pets/animal section of the market, which we eventually did find. To my luck and Jan's disappointment there were no creepy snakes or the likes. There were however numerous little puppies, sooooo cute, bunnies, kittens...And apparently what seems to be the trend – loads of stores with dogie fashion. Yup, all you can think of from accessories, to coats, T-shirts...all for puppies, horrible! I think there were probably more clothes shops for animals, than actual animal shops. Well, it is true one dog needs more than one collar, jacket, pair of shoes...

After the busy and hard day at "work" we treated ourselves to a Thai body massage, for, read it and weep, £3,5 for an hour. Aaaaah...it was painful though.

And then we come to evening..sad, sad day in the memory of all true Arsenal fans. Scouting Kaoh San road, or should I say meticulously scanning and proofing all the bars that were showing football that night, we sat in one of the many, ordered our bucket (the best invention ever, after coffee of course and maybeeee...yeah, after Pad Thai 😊)- cheap drink in, well, a bucket, that can get you all drunk and oozy very quickly with no particular effort. We watched the first match as an intro to the Premier League season, Tottenham vs Man City. After that and after yet another bucket, it was time for Arsenal vs Man United. Huh, what can I say..we got eaten, big time...Jan, was so angry/sad/disappointed that he decided he was to have another drink or two with his newly found friend, a Scottish lad called Dean, a Celtic fan, one of the rare people in the bar who did not support Man U. For all those who were wondering – Arsenal is still his favourite club, he did recover, and is now looking forward to the match vs Swansey on Saturday – thank you for asking.

We met up with Dean and a couple of really nice girls he was travelling with, Georgia and Sally, the next day, after yet another marathon walk around Bangkok, and we went out together. Huh, after about 2 buckets, I was having difficulties concentrating and was just staring blank trying to listen and filter through all that was being discussed 😊. Jan was still OK by then, and was adamant we should have yet another drink before calling it a night. Boy was that a wise choice 😊, putting him to bed for the entire next day as he was still feeling drunk when he woke up in the morning. Needles to say, that was it for buckets and us, well at least on Khao San road. With Jan recuperating and hydrating I took the chance and went to explore China town and Little India. What can I say about the Thai version of the two streets? Same same, but different?

Next to the reception of our hostel there was a notice board, where Jan found a note from a girl, saying that when she was in Bangkok she visited an English guy in one of the Thai prisons, Gary, who was accused of drug trafficking and sentenced to death. She said Gary was happy to receive any visitors and gave instructions how to get there. Jan was immediately interested and decided he will go and visit Gary, I needed a couple of days to consider (visits are only possible 2 days in a week. Email us if you want to do it and we will pass on all the needed details). But I did go in the end. The easiest way to get to the area where the prison was by boat, and as it was based at the end station of the boat route, I also got, as Jan pointed out, what I wanted – a cruise down the river. Which was true. Arriving to the prison, they told us we need to return the next day, as it was not the right day for visits. So Jan and I headed back. Not to waste the day away we headed to the newer part of Bangkok, Lumphini park (Thai's answer to New York's Central Park) and Siam square – area of Bangkok filled with huge shopping malls, hotels, bars...Hearing so much about Bangkok's night life, I wanted to visit one of the renowned red light districts. Jan and I decided to go to Nana Entertainment Plaza – almost like a shopping mall, with the difference that there are no stores just numerous strip bars/brothels in a three-level shopping mall with bars with names like G-Spot, Spankys etc... Besides the bars there were also beauty parlours where the ladies were getting ready, places that offered rooms for short or long stays. You could see all types of women, ladyboys there and surprisingly, as Jan pointed out to me, the visitors weren't all white, pervy men as I expected, the majority of men there were Asian. We stepped into one of the bars and my focus was immediately shifted to two old white geezers, which resulted in me explaining to everyone that ALL the man in the red light district are white. Erm, a lie that Jan clearly pointed out to me later.

We returned to the Bangwang prison the next morning, applied at the registry – you need to fill out a form and then wait for them to call you and take you to the visiting area. We also bought some food in the prison store, as we assumed he would be happy to get something else than just prison food (not like any of us knows what prison food is like). We were then sent to the visiting area and the closer we
What we boughtWhat we boughtWhat we bought

puppets/key chains
got the faster my heart was racing. It was such a bizarre feeling – curiosity, nervousness, fear...all meshed into one. We also saw a couple of prisoners being chained to each other, taken outside of prison – we later found out they were being taken to court. Apparently you can tell by the colour of the edge of their shirts what the sentence will be – prison for 10 years, prison for 25 years or prison for life/death sentence. They namely still execute prisoners in Thailand, a certain number every week and the prisoners bribe the guards to keep putting their file on the bottom of the heap to avoid being sentenced week in week out. After some difficulties, we waited long before they finally called him, we met Gary. I was a bit late as I spoke to a Serbian guy, living in Bangkok, who visits inmates as part of a volunteer program. By the time I joined Jan, Gary already knew that I was a bit scared of the whole situation. Gary is an older guy, who has been all over the world, has a family in the UK and has been in the Thai prison for about
Thain massage for £3,5Thain massage for £3,5Thain massage for £3,5

it felt darn gooooood
9 years. You speak to the inmates via telephones, and there are 2 glass windows between you, so you don't really get to see each other properly. Gary told us about life in prison, how they have to pay for everything themselves – med supply, food...there is a lot of bribing going on and it is a live or die world. What we heard, was...well daunting and to say the least shocking. I only realised how shocking it was when visiting time was over and Jan and I got out in the open again. Jan was doodling something down on a piece of paper – Gary was suggesting what books, articles to read to learn more about Thai prisons, but they took the paper from us on our way out. I started panicking that I would go to jail now, that they will look for me and grab me and get me to confess I killed the Tooth fairy. I really lost it. But Jan was so good and he made sure he kept my mind occupied so I would loosen up. Still the following day I woke up, I had problems letting it go.

As we were pretty much finished with Bangkok and I was adamant I want to see one of the floating markets (all are a short journey outside of the capital) Jan had a great idea. We saw there were quite cheap tours within and outside of Bangkok available at the hostel we were staying at. One of the tour combination included a visit to the floating market and drive up to Kanchanaburi. As this was to be our next destination anyway, Jan calculated it would be cheaper to take the tour, take our bags with us and stay in Kanchanaburi, then to do just the floating market and sorting out the transport to our next destination ourselves. What can I say, my man is smart. 😊 So off we went. It was a chaotic tour once again with a horde of vans piling up towards the same goal and with all of us tourists getting our stickers again, which were to tell the van drivers which tours we were doing. They namely combined all the tours together and then dragged you from one van to another, depends on what your next destination was. Dropped off at the floating market, I was immediately impressed with all the colours, the way it works (food, clothes, pretty much all you can think of is being sold from boats, they even have large cookers on the small boats, and they can fry you a banana, cook you some noodles, bake a sausage...). The only downturn was that the particular market they took us to is particularly intended for tourists, and was packed with other farangs, which makes the whole thing loose a bit of its charm.

Onwards and upwards, we were sent to yet another van, full of people visiting the tigers at the Kanchanaburi Tiger temple, and Jan and I were randomly thrown in together with the group. Jan visited the temple during his first trip to Thailand, but learned horrible things about it later so I decided I didn't want to go. They treat the animals really bad (drug them, beat them), make loads of money from the tourists wanting to take photos with the tigers, so I was like “Nope, I am not doing that”. This all got confirmed to us a few days back when we met an English girl who volunteered there, before literary escaping the place. We didn't mind as we arrived to our destination, we had a fun day and we were in Kanchanaburi at last.

Travellers blues

The weekend of our arrival to Bangkok was our 4th month-a-versary of our trip. Time to reflect on what we have done so far and where we have been. Although we have had an amazing experience so far, we both agreed that we sort of miss being home, having a routine to hold on to (like work, weekends), having our friends close by and having the small luxuries of every day life at hand (flushing toilet being one of them). The long-term travellers call this disease “travellers' fatigue”, yup it has a name, though it's not an official thing, hmmm, yet 😊. But don't get me wrong – we realize fully what we are doing right now is indeed an opportunity of a life time and neither of us would change anything about it. I guess what you don't realize when you start a journey like this is that it is not all fun and play- it becomes stressful, tiring but all in all the negatives disappear as soon as you experience something new and awe-inspiring. Over and out.

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Khao San roadKhao San road
Khao San road

where my lovely Pad Thai noodles were sold in tons


11th September 2011

Hi there
Hey, that looked like a very relaxing massage! I should try that when I get there in December! Take care, you two!

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