Return to Bangkok

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Thankfully the journey went well and we have now returned to Bangkok for our final few days in Asia. It ended up being so simple, just one hour on the boat to the mainland and then another seven hours by bus to Bangkok... It does makes for a very long day but both of us are really looking forward to coming back to somewhere familiar... We are also staying in the same hotel we first came too as it was cheap, close to everything and to be honest it was too much hassle to look around for somewhere else.
We now have ten days left in Asia and that gives us a great opportunity to explore Bangkok in more detail. To be honest the more we look the more we love this place! Here in Thailand the people are exceptionally religious. To give you an idea roughly 90% of people are Buddhists, 5% are Muslims and 5% are Christians. For the masses they live under five very basic rules... (1) You must not Kill (2) You must not Steal (3) You must not commit Adultery (4) You must not Lie and finally (5) You must not drink alcohol... although the Thai people by their own admission do love a beer!
They also have some fascinating ways of dealing with situations for example if you lose face during a disagreement then you is the one in the wrong not the other person... In simple terms, if you lose your temper/control in a situation in any way (i.e. lose face) then regardless of what the other person has done to you, you are shamed not them. There are many example’s that we have seen of this but probably the best one is when two people crash into each other on their mopeds. They will just pick themselves up, dust themselves down and get back on.... back home all hell would break lose!!
Also a very handy tip for anyone thinking of coming to Thailand... NEVER get a Tuk-Tuk anywhere! Sadly we learnt the hard way that Bangkok is full of fabric factories and the way they attract people is very clever... these shops will give away free fuel to any Tuk-Tuk driver that brings them customers, so what happens is that once you’re in a Tuk-Tuk the driver takes you to these shops even if you didn’t want to go there! We agreed a fee with one driver to take us round a few temples and sights of Bangkok and before we knew it we were looking at suits?? The worst bit however by far and the reason never to get a Tuk-Tuk is that once they have got their free fuel it’s not worth them keeping the original fare from you as the fuel is worth three times as much... So in our case once the driver had got his fuel, he took us to one more temple and then drove off as soon as we went inside leaving us stranded in Bangkok even though we still had loads of places to go!! It’s very cheeky but you have to laugh... the fare was less than £1 so it’s not exactly a problem but needless to say the next time we were forced to get a Tuk-Tuk the driver went straight to our destination mainly because Lynds threatened him with death if we went anywhere else!
We have also found out a few other bits of interesting stuff about the people of Thailand. Firstly as we discovered in the train station weeks before, they love their King. During our ill fated Tuk-Tuk trip we passed his Palace and they really do take his security very seriously. In addition to the armed guards stationed every 20 metres the Palace has a moat dug around the outside. Now upon first glance you think it is pointless as it’s less than 10 feet wide, however as we looked closer you can see full grown alligator type reptiles swimming in it!!
It all makes for a very interesting city but you do have to learn quick that as lovely as Thailand is, the people here will rip you off blind if you give them half a chance. They rely on the fact westerners have lots of money and very little knowledge of the value of how much things actually cost. So in general you have to half whatever they are asking for the true value.
Being here for a while has also given us the chance to visit the Bridge over the River Kwai & the Burma Railway (more commonly known as the Death Railway), which was just amazing to see firsthand. Some history for those who are interested... back in 1942 during WWII Japan invaded Burma from Thailand and seized control back from the British. To ensure they kept things that way Japan needed to bring in supplies but at the time the only route available was via the sea, which was subject to submarine attacks. To combat this issue they commissioned a project to build a railway that would stretch 258 miles from Bangkok in Thailand to Rangoon in Burma, This would provide them which a much needed safer route to ship ammunition and other supplies. To achieve this, the Japanese used 180,000 Asian labourers and 60,000 POWs. Sadly though due to horrendous working conditions over 90,000 labourers and 16,000 POWs died during construction... it was interesting to find out that the prisoners of war would use the weakest wood they could find to build the railway in the hope that it would break under the train’s weight. However part of the original track is still used today so sadly their attempts at sabotage weren’t as successful as they hoped.
Part of this railway was the ‘Bridge over River Kwai’. Now the bridge today is not the original bridge built during the war as the Allied forces successfully bombed that in February 1945. But never the less the one standing today is a stark reminder of the bridge and conditions faced by the POWs.
Possibly the saddest part of the day though was a visit to the local war cemetery, where buried there are some 6,982 British, Australian & Dutch Allied soldiers. These guys had died in captivity helping to build the railway and most were only in their early twenties. A few graves we came across simple read ‘An Allied Solider of the war, 1939-1945, known unto God’.
On a positive note the day did include Elephant riding, which was interesting as our elephant kept sucking up dirty puddles and blowing them in our general direction. However he soon cheered up when we bought him some banana’s for lunch... Bamboo rafting was also on the agenda for the day which was amusing as our guide fell off at one point leaving us momentarily with a stunned local in his underpants frantically trying to steer us to safety.
A few other bits worthy of mention during our time in Bangkok... firstly we tried something called a Foot Scrub... now I’d wanted to try this since I first heard what it was. First they soak your feet in warm water to soften the skin then once soft they slice off all the dead skin with a knife leaving you with new feet! I can’t be certain but this poor lady had to remove so much dead skin from my feet that I am fairly certain I’ve dropped a shoe size... I’d like to say Lyndsey’s feet were better but they were just as bad and by the end of it the poor lady was ankle deep in dead skin ugh!
Also we braved it once more one day, bought a map and headed to the shopping centre district of Bangkok. The place we were aiming for apparently has an IMAX & the biggest indoor aquarium in Asia so would be well worth a look... 30mins on foot, according to the lady in our hotel, so off we went. Well all I can say is that she must walk really fast as it took over an hour to get there along the dirty busy main roads of Bangkok and was miles away. The IMAX wasn’t showing anything decent, the aquarium was a no good either as they had a school trip on that day but all was not lost as there was a Boots... so at least Lynds got some make-up!!
One of our final nights we took the opportunity to do a guided bike tour of Bangkok. The ride was around 11k so not far and we’d be stopping at various sites on the way so the whole thing takes around four hours. It was probably one of the best things we have done... Bangkok is just stunning at night. They light their temples up so they look even more spectacular and the history behind them and the various different cultural influences each one has makes them even more impressive. We stopped at a 24 hour flower market where amongst many things you can buy a dozen red roses for less than a pound! But the highlight by far was Lyndsey managing to drop her entire ice cream into her bike helmet before we headed home...
One last request from Lyndsey before we leave Asia was to ‘live it up’ for one night in a really nice hotel. I certainly wasn’t going to complain so here we are in the Somerset Lake Point hotel in Bangkok. Our room is more of an apartment; it has a kitchen, washing machine, x2 huge bedrooms, x2 Bathrooms, x3 Showers, a living room, x3 flat screen TVs and even a phone in the toilet for whatever reason?? All for £44 – Bargin!....
As we finish our stay in Asia all I can say is that is has just been brilliant... yeah ok there have been some moments of near death... interesting battles with spiders the size if small pets... lizards, mozzies and a whole load of other creature nasties but none of that can take away from just how amazing this whole place is... views that take your breath away, places I never thought I would see, friends we have made and an adventure that was even better than we had hoped for!
Aus, NZ, Fiji & USA... will they be better?? Not sure but one thing is for certain that we will have fun finding out!

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