A new country and a new start

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We leave India on a high, saying goodbye to all our friends, be they primate, canine, feline or other! We fly into Bangkok airport landing about 9.30 pm and grab a cab straight into Khao San Road, the big backpacker strip in Bangkok. We share a cab with 2 absolutely crazy Aussies. They have travelled round India for 3 weeks with nothing more than a tiny rucksack an 2 guitars and have an 8 hour stop over in Bangkok on their way home. They plan to hit Khao San Road with avengange to drink the hours away before their next flight. After causing havoc at the pre paid taxi counter securing me the only pink taxi in the rank they start strumming on their mini guitar in the back of the cab singing a song dedicated to our driver. The Thai cabbie loves it! Giggling and clapping his hands the journey flies by. We make it to Khao San Road just before 11pm but we're on India time so it feels like only 9.30. Aware of our early morning appointment at the embassy across town to sort out some wedding legalities we promise ourselves we'll be in bed within the hour. But the lure of Pad Thai from the street venders and the bright lights of the bars prove too much and we stagger up to our room at gone midnight after a cheeky Chang. 

It felt like the middle of the night getting up he next morning! 7 am is bad enough but when you are a couple of hours behind it feels horrible! Our trip to the embassy went fairly smoothly, until they asked Rich to sign a form saying he was single and free to marry, at which point he said 'well no, im not single, I'm with Rachel arn't I!' despite this it looks like they should let us get married - phew! 

We wandered down the road to the local park, marvelling at the laziness of Thais. We mentioned to the lady coordinating our wedding legalities that we planned to walk to the park and she couldn't believe her ears! 'but it such a long way!' she exclaims, we wonder if we have read the map wrong until she follows this up with 'it's almost 20 minutes walk'. After a pedalo around the lake we are feeling the late night, early morning, and the extra humidity of Thailand. But we are so close to the immigration office that we think we better pop in and see if we can persuade them to extend our visa so we don't have to do a border crossing before the wedding. We walk for what feels like hours only to find it's been moved to the othe side of the city. Deflated and tired we head home. Glad of the air con room that we booked by accident. We decided it was time to treat ourselves, we forked out about 4 quid and Rich had a foot massage and I had a pedicure, Rich was very confused and slightly disappointed when he wasn't offered a happy ending, that's what happens in a Thai massage parlour isn't it? I quickly try to dispell that particular stereotype! But with plans to go to a ping pong show in Patpong I think my efforts went unheard. 

Well, Patpong had certainly changed since I was there with mum four years ago. Touts were everywhere as expected, all saying 'come see ping pong show, no charge' we finally agree to go in one and after paying for an over priced beer they try to charge us another 300 baht each. About £6 each! A fortune in Thai terms. We walk out and loiter outside with our beers. We see another couple being dragged in being told 'no charge, Free to look', we stopped them and told them about the scam. Thanking us profusely they walk off and the manager of the club comes out trying to threaten us, pushing Rich and I away from the front of his club. Laughing and having gotten our revenge we wonder off. However, Rich is sorely disappointed that he hasn't seen a show. So we head into another bar after being promised no charge. We settle down with beers, tipping genorously watching girls do unspeakable things with their whatsits! When Rich goes to pay the bill they have slapped on an extra 1000 baht each - £40 in total on top of our beers! No way! We leave the beer money and move to walk out, but the 3 lady (boys?) lock the exit and refuse to let us leave!! Wondering what on earth they will do to make us pay, have they got big muay Thai boxing champs out the back? We get lucky and a swarm of customers come in. Restraining us further would have caused such a scene that we manage to get outta there, run down the stairs, through the night Market and straight into a taxi - get us out of this crazy place!!! What an introduction to Thailand!

We had a lazy day the next day, a little shopping, some more time in the spa and Rich experienced his first Thai massage. He also realised he was experiencing what some might call 'culture shock'. He missed India! Moving from a country where we had lots of friends, and even local strangers were so unused to White people in their country that they would come and talk to you, smile or offer you a head waggle. You felt pretty special, despite how annoying it is being stared at constantly! So far Bangkok had been pretty cold and unfriendly in comparison. With sleep deprivation and man flu to add to the mix Rich felt pretty down about it all. Luckily, knowing and loving Thailand already I was ok and hopefully I have been of some help in making this experience easier for Rich. I can't help but think what a shock it will be to go back to England for both of us. We see Thailand as so westernised, I know it isn't compared to the UK but I can't imagine how it can be any more Westernised. My standards have been reset by India.

Our Thai adventure perks up after we kick off our 3 day tour to Kanchanaburi. Waiting for out pick up at 7 am I am hoping tat we picked a decent company to manage our excursion. Our pick up arrives, a good start! There is a sticker system that is amazingly complicated but a mixture of 3 colours placed in differen orders on everyone's t shirts explained to the numerous mini buses leaving Bangkok exactly where you are going, what order you are doing things in and whether you are on a half day trip, a 3 day trip like us or anything in between. We spend the morning at the floating Market, amid the mass of brightly coloured boats we enjoy pad Thai breakfast with a fresh coconut to drink. We are then treated to a tour of the klongs (Thai canals) on a long boat sporting what appeared to a car engine to propel it along at high speeds. Apparently that sort of behaviour would be terribly frowned upon in the Grand Union, so Rich tells me. The afternoon is taken up more by playing musical buses than sighseeing but we finally get to see the Bridge over River Kwai and head of to our floating house to spend the night. It really is an entire guest house on the river! 

The next day is much more smooth, with no chaos caused by Rich and I mixing and matching which tour we are on. First thing we head out up the river on a bamboo raft, the scenery is beautiful and Rich has his morning swim inthe River Kwai. A move that inspires half of our group to dive in fully clothed and the other half to cringe at the dirty water. Jumping in a Songtheow (a pick up truck with benches in the back) we are taken to the elephant sanctuary to ride the giant Thai elephants. They must be twice the size of the Sri Lankan elephants. I couldn't vouch for the place interns of how it treat the animals, we didn't get much of a chance to look into it so we closed our eyes to the scars on the elephants heads and backs and hoped that these were the result of what they had been rescued from and no where they are now. Back in the songtheow we head to Hellfire Pass. A section of the death railway which was dug out of the mountains by the bare hands of the POWs. Well, they had basic, rusty tools but certainly no machinery to help them. The horrors endured here were harrowing to read about and we felt pretty silly for moaning about the short walk up from the old tracks when POWs had to work all day and all night on a starvation diet. 

After lunch Rich heads off to the Tiger temple for some feline loving. I had been before and it was an expensive trip so I ha an afternoon of relaxing. I'll pass you over to Rich to tell you all about it!        

 Well the Tiger Temple was a rather surreal experience. It was  totally commercially done, to the point that you'd forget it was ran by a monastry! Arriving at the tiger pit, we weren't quite sure what exactly to expect, but I was surprised to see about 15 tigers all lounging around each with a short chain. The tourists were lined up at a queuing station, and there were about 30 members of staff scattered around, every other one with a tourist in hand being led to pose with each animal, who to describe as 'chilled' would be an understatement. My first reaction was that the animals were drugged, but the leaflets handed out stressed that this was not the case and they had simple been hand reared by humans and therefore were extremely placid. Personally if I'd been a tiger there I've have found the staff there utterly uninspirational and boring, and would definitely have eaten a couple of the really dull ones.
Being toured around the tigers, it was more of a photo grabbing exercise than a chance to meet the tigers. I did manage to stroke a couple of them (they were a lot softer than i'd expected) and rubbing the belly of one of them seemed to worry the staff enough that one jumped out of way and ushered me onwards. Interacting with a tiger? Surely that was pushing the boundaries.....
That night I got a bit excited and rather than joining in with a game of musical chairs that was being put on for a Canadian's birthday, I was a bit too into afganistan mission part of my book Shantaram and read for three hours! 
The last day in Kanchanaburi we went on a trip to Areone watefalls. It was GREAT fun! It was a bit like a natural waterpark. There were swimming pools, water slides, water cannons and fish that ate your feet. Ok well you don't usually have skin eating fish at waterparks, but they should - it really adds to the thrill factor! Rach was terrified to get in but we came up with a plan where I'd distract the fishies and then she ran in from a shallow bit. It worked and we got to the waterfall and splashed around. But the way back involved heading back through the ferocious fish invested waters. Rach did very well to eventually overcome her fear, and we powered through the carnivorous waters and through to safety :-)
I must say though, the biggest ordeal of the day was the journey back to Bangkok, where we had to sit through the continuous thundering monotone monologue of a French Canadian engineering chief-geek preaching the ways of the world to his disciples. "You want see Ping pong show?" was never a more welcome sound!
 

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Photos

Choo Choo
At the bridge over the river kwai

Dawn from the floating house
On the River Kwai near Kanchanaburi

Good kitty
At the tiger temple

Rach takes a shower
At Erawan Waterfalls

The reclining Budha
At Wat Po

Comments

[jill]

not long to go
Hi guys,at last you are in Thailand and the wedding wil become a reality. Mum is getting panicky but I spoke to her today and she was more relaxed as she had got the nailpolish to match her dress for the wedding!!!! We will be in the maldives on Cinnamon island but will celebrate and toast you looking out at the sunset. if we don't get to speak again have a lovely day and enjoy every moment. Its a day to treasure. Lots of love Jill and Dave xxx