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Published: January 24th 2012
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Bangkok. The word conjures up images of ladyboys, 'massage therapists' and hangovers! And we were interested to see if it would live up to expectations!! First things first though, we had to get there from Siem Reap, Cambodia. We decided to get a private car to take us to the border (I know, very flashpacky! but we had been advised that the bus could take six hours). When we booked it, we were told "new car, very nice" but this is Cambodia so when a beat up old 1994 Toyota Camry pulled up, we were not that surprised! As long as it had seatbelts, which it did, we were ok! After a fairly hairy two hour ride to the border, we queued up to get across the border. Once we had officially left Cambodia, we had to walk a couple hundred metres to the entrance to Thailand where we again queued up to go through immigration. I got through but vinny had to go back to the Cambodian desk cos the official there had forgotten to take his departure card. Eventually, he got it sorted and we were in Thailand, the land of smiles... not! We were told there would be
minivans on the border to take people to Bangkok but a few travellers we met who were waiting advised us they had been there hours. We decided to get a taxi and asked around for anyone who might wanna share with us. One guy from Israel joined us, who at one point Vinny asked where he was celebrating Christmas, to which he responded "Eh, Im jewish"! It was a bit of a Larry David moment! So off we went to haggle with the taxi drivers! Eventually, we got sorted and about four hours later, we were on Khaosan Road!!
Walking down Khaosan Road is exactly what you imagine Bangkok to be like. There are people everywhere, food stalls selling Pad Thai, music blaring, people drinking from buckets and every kind of tshirt and souvenir for sale! It was class! We checked into Khaosan Palace, right in the heart of things and headed out for a proper Thai curry!
After walking around and taking it all in, we had a few beers at a bar right on Khaosan Road where we could watch the madness going on around us!
The original plan was to only go to Bangkok
for one night, on our way to Chiang Mai, but as most of you know, Vinny is a die hard Liverpool fan and big Robbie Fowler fan and has followed his career from his time at Liverpool. Accordingly, he knew that Fowler was player manager of a team outside Bangkok called Muang Thong Utd! We checked their fixture list while in Vietnam and saw they had a home game on the 14th of December so we got to Bangkok a few days earlier than planned, on the 13th, to try and go to the game.
We spent our first day in Bangkok lazing around on the roof of the hotel where there was a small pool before heading for some Pad Thai. We had been told that traffic in Bangkok is mental but nothing prepared us for the trip out to Muang Thong that evening! Despite only being about nine miles away, the journey took an hour and a half! Thankfully, we had arranged a set price. When we got there, we went to the box office and we able to buy the best seats in the stadium, right behind the players for $5 each! We then went back
out onto the street where vendors were selling cheap beer and after a few cans of Lion Beer and some questionable meat on sticks, Vinny hit the official store and bought a jersey and a Robbie Fowler t-shirt that basically said he was a god!! Vinny was wearing his Liverpool jersey and was attracting lots of attention! The Muang Thong Utd camera crew got talking to him and he gave a short interview!!
We then headed into the stadium for the game! The atmosphere was fantastic despite it being quite a small place and our seats were brilliant! Again, Vinny attracted lots of attention and the photographer on the sideline took loads of photos of him holding up his new Muang Thong jersey with Fowlers name and number on the back! When Fowler and the team came out, they were right in front of us! While the rest of the team headed onto the pitch, Fowler who was kitted out, stayed on the sideline. Vinny shouted over, "Robbie, why arent you out there?" to which he gestured over that he had 'a bit of a tweak in his hammy'. At one point in the second half, Vinny started singing
"There's only one Robbie Fowler" to which Fowler grinned and gave him the thumbs up although it was a bit embarrassing cos Vinny was the only one singing!!
The game kicked off and Muang Thong United scored before half time. However, they conceded two goals in the second half and even though Fowler came on with about fifteen minutes to go, it finished 2-1. As it was their last home game, the team did a lap around the stadium and on his way down the tunnel, Vinny managed to get Fowler to sign his jersey! As you can imagine, he was high as a kite!! It was a great night, so when we got a taxi back to Bangkok, we headed to a bar with two for one buckets and had buckets of Long Island Iced Tea!! A few hours later, we are sitting in McDonalds chatting to loads of fellow backpackers! We also managed to book our 3 day 2 night trek in Chiang Mai while we were at it!
The next day, nursing slight hangovers (!) we spent the day again lazing around. On our third and final day, we figured we should at least see
some of Bangkok as we hardly been off Khaosan Road so we headed in the direction of the Grand Palace and the other temples down alongside the river. It was actually really nice and definitely worth a visit. After taking in the sights and taking lots of photos, that evening, we bordered a night bus to Chiang Mai for a trek that is easily the highlight of our travels so far!
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