Advertisement
Published: November 13th 2014
Edit Blog Post
So after a 12 hour bus ride, 1 visa stamp, 2 runny poo's and absolutely no sleep..... I touched down in Bangkok. Thailand has alway intrigued me. It's bizareness and craziness I hear from other traveller's stories and popular movie culture, made sure it was a place I had to experience myself. You can only get so much from television documentaries and magazines. I needed to see from my own eyes if the so called desperate, unprincipled older men were frolocking with attractive thai women. What was the attraction? Are they happy?
Another captavating and thought - provoking puzzle was the Thai ladyboys. Apparantly it's more accepted in Thailand, I needed to see what the facination was all about before I left.
The ping pong show? The grotesque, unnatural and perverted 'show' was also another mad and crazy experience travellers talk about, unfortunately everything about it seemed shady. A few people I was with in my hostel did not wish to go see one. The tuk tuk drives and scams were their to see. You saw many thai men trying to promote you to go see a show around Khao San Road.
So after dodging the cows and
dust from a very long ride from Siem Reap to Bangkok. The shuttle bus stopped at Khao San Road. Around five thai men were trying to get my attention. At this point of time I wanted to get into my hostel and sleep. I got the nearest taxi and showed him where my hostel was. BAD MISTAKE. To other travellers, never do this. Always go with a metered taxi as they can screw you over with the price. I made a typical school boy error by not knowing the conversion rate from pounds to baht. I gave the taxi driver 400 baht which is all I had. He was complaining how poor he was an it wasn't enough. Tough. I was slightly worried I gave him too much, but it only ended up costing £8 equivelent. He did drive me for an hour, so fair enough.
I checked into my hostel and sorted out my travel plans there and then. Very efficent and effortless. The staff were very helpful and I the checked into my room. The room was spacious, whacky and unblemished. I chilled out watching Kidulthood and fell asleep pretty early.
So the next day I woke up early and began my adventure in Bangkok. I got the number 47 bus (No air conditioning) outside my hostel into the Khao San Road area. It cost around 8 Baht and took around thirty minutes. Then I made an error judgement. I got offered a tuk tuk tour around the city for 20 baht. Seemed to good to be true? I was a mug to think it couldn't be a scam. The elderly tuk tuk driver took me to a few lifeless and mundane places around the city before he stopped me and asked if I would go to a tailor suit shop for five minutes to look around, as they give him commission if he brings in customers. So I replied 'yes'. What a waste of five minutes, a was lying to them, and they were quite pushy toward a sell.
I got back into the tuk tuk, I asked the driver kindly to take me to the great Grand Palace, the temples and bulidings at the heart of Bangkok's tourism. He took me to another tailor shop. Was this guy high... probably, I said the grand palace and refuse to go into the shop. I used my assertive approach on him and he got back into the tuk tuk and took me to the Grand Palace. He wasted my time, I was pretty furious with him but I got there finally and I wasn't to be dissapointed!
It cost 500 baht to go into the Grand Palace which was more expensive than I thought. I had to cover up my legs and hire out white trousers which didn't look the most attractive. The temples and building were covered by exquieste interior and exterior, rich with gold and muriel paintings. The architectural ground were something else, well worth the money indeed.
After I ditched the tuk tuk driver and walked across to the river and caught a boat to the Temple of Dawn. Another amazing temple which brightens up in gold at night. Quite beautiful if you ask me. I paid only 100 baht this time to walk up the temple. Let me say this isn't for someone who is scared of heights, as the steps are a little too close for comfort. In fact you saw many scared and tiresome faces looking down at the prospect,thinking 'getting down from here looks a lot harder'. However, the few from the top was incredible. You could see all the way to the financial area, flowing from the Chao Phraya river. At the Temple of Dawn, I saw my first experience with a thai bride and an a deseperate old man. It was soo odd. Here you have a beautiful olive young asian lady with a wrinkled old German man. He was shouting at the top of the temple ' I pick you, I pick you'...... cringe. I could only laugh. She seemed miserable, I hear that a lot of mothers encourage their daughters to find rich western men to better their lives. But do they? No.
After I was all templed out, it was time to head to Khao San Road. The road is the tourist hub of Bangkok. Full of Hair braiding, markets, cheap accommodation and no ID needed bars, yet you still have these annoying fuckers asking you if you need a suit. Christ I'm in Bangkok mate, leave it. I'll be wearing my Haivanas, Short and Ray Bans for the rest of my trip.... do one.
I was always coming back to Bangkok after I experienced the south. I was flying home from bangkok. I still had so much to do. But I couldn't leave before I tasted bangkok's finest street food. For 30 baht (70p) you could buy sheer deliciousness. Ok there were scorpions and and other creepy crawlies for sale which I did taste, funnily enough it wasn't that bad. I would class the food I eat in Bangkok, was the best food I had on my travels.
So after a mad and interesting day in Bangkok, it was time to get ready for the sleeper bus and head to Phuket. This is where the craziness of Thailand finds Cass.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.084s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0399s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb