Blogs from Bangkok, Central Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 736

We've only been here a few days and have already had some amazing experiences. Bangkok is every bit as noisy, dirty & smelly as we expected, but also a fascinating place. Have visited a few wats, had a thai massage (only two pounds girls - think I might be having a few more of those) and spent this morning travelling around on a tuk tuk. Karl is loving feeling so tall among all these Thais! Had a delicious dinner on the street in China Town last night - yes Mum, they really do wash the dishes in the gutter - and we live to tell the tale! We just took a river taxi out to the suburbs, along with some schoolchildren and monks, past some incredible houses / huts on the river, interspersed with beautiful temples ... read more

We arrived in Bangkok seriously needing some sleep, having been awake for approximatly 72 hours. The lack of shut-eye was unintensional, but after a very bouncy 'sleeper' bus from Goa to Mumbai and then a flight at 5am (2am check in!) to Bangkok we seemed to have missed any reasonable opportunity. In the cab from the airport to Kohsan Road we looked like a couple to nodding dogs! We spent all of about 2 minutes finding a hotel, the only requisite being that it had a bed and a roof! We told ourselves that although we really needed to sleep, we had to stay awake until the evening so that we didn't muck up our sleep pattern too much. So for the rest of the day we walked around like zombies, took a trip to the ... read more

Island girls, oh how I miss them, now that we are back on the main land. We took the night train back to Bangkok last night, a pretty slick unit, the seats on the ground slide into a bed and then there is an overhead compartment for another bed. April and Jessica and myself, stayed up and had a few beers thinking about the waves and the hammocks and the overall experience of the islands of southern Thailand. Today we found a guesthouse, relativley clean, for 8 dollars a night we can be picky but not that picky. We got our train ticket to Chang Mai and our Visa for Laos, so we are off in 2 days, but in the mean time we will just take it all in and see what bangkok has to ... read more

Yesterday after all the excitement of the crooks that roam Bangkok and Thailand in general, we got a real awaking from the aftermath of the big wave. As we were walking down Khao San road, at the end there was a huge donation box for the Red Cross to support the victims and the clean up, but there behind the box was a 30 foot wall of pictures of people. There are over 5000 people in Thailand dead and as of yesterday nearly 4800 were not even identified. So there they were, pictures of the people sent from their families and loved ones, posted, hoping someone somewhere would recognize there face. It was so weird to see the dead bodies washed up on the beach, quite stomach turning to see how they laid, unaware that anything ... read more

Hi all, We’ve safely arrived in Bangkok and are loving every minute thus far. It’s true what they say about the city being an assault on the senses. The moment you walk off the plane you’re hit from every direction. First thing is the wall of heat. Thick and sticky. Then before you get used to that there’s the smell. Petrol, noodles and age. There’s constant noise. The city never seems to sleep so why should we? It’s beautiful. Haven’t done too much since arriving. Thanks to Crister’s advice we got from the airport to Khao San Road then, after a slight miscalculation and a little backtracking, found a little guesthouse behind a Wat (Buddhist temple) It’s away from the madness and general mayhem of Khao San in an area called Banglamphu. It’s costing about $12 ... read more