Thailand - Bangkok

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Today we were off to Thailand! A couple of hours, across the flooded rice paddies of Cambodia, brought us to the border! After being fingerprinted (again!) we walked into no-mans land, where there are a few large casinos, and then onto the Thai border. Unfortunately there were long queues and it took about an hour to filter our way through customs so we didn’t leave until 12.00ish.
The mini bus driver drove like a maniac.....(or so we thought! After a few days here we are actually used to it now!!) and we reached the hotel ( Erawan House) about 5.00pm. A quick walk with Martin around the back streets and local market stalls, , food and drink and that was us done for the day!
The next day we decided to take the boat down the river (Pier 13) to stop No 1, going past the Royal Palace. From Stop 1 we walked down the street (ignoring the tuk tuks – Tracie beware – there are many scams!) to the BST railway which gave us a pleasant ½ hr ride above the traffic to the National Stadium stop. Had a quick look in the MBK centre, a huge department store (expensive!!) before finding our way along the canal to Jim Thompsons house. We had never heard of him but apparently he was an American who fell in love with Thailand, and after the war, constructed his house by transporting and using traditional Thai houses 200yrs old. He also helped revived the Thai cottage silk industry and on 26th March 1967 disappeared in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia never to be seen again!
Anyway, off to find IT City, a huge 5 storey IT department store, to check out the price of I Pad 2......came to the conclusion that as you were only saving about £80.00, that unless you knew exactly what you wanted, it wasn’t worth the risk! A quick KFC lunch (there are also a few Tesco’s on the outskirts....and Macro!) and then a speedboat canal ride and got off at a Wat, where we were able to climb to the top for the views and wander around reading, deep, meaningful, Buddhist proverbs. Sheltered from the short thunderstorm (fortunately a Monk had brought our shoes inside!) before walking to the Golden Mountain, a beautiful temple with a gold tower, with a lovely helter skelter walk up through the gardens, planted with wild orchids and many small waterfalls. At the summit there was a shop (!) and a lot of people praying and walking purposefully around the tower, whilst a monk was emptying into three huge sacks, the offerings of money made by the people!
Walked back via Ratchadamnden and the Democracy Monument and then through the grounds of Wat Chana Sangkhram, as a shortcut to the markets and our hotel.
Bumped into the rest of our group who were organising a farewell evening (another one!) Now I’m not sure I can write about it on here – suffice to say that the twelve of us took three taxis to Patpong ‘Night Market’ a particularly shady part of the city and after walking around and harassed by several club owners, eventually, went to see the ‘Ping Pong show’! We only stayed ½ hour (that was more than enough time to ‘see everything’!!! ) Anyway, thank you Tracey, a farewell evening to be remembered!!!
After about 4hrs sleep, we were up again at 5.45am, as the coach was picking us up at 6.50am to take us to the famous floating markets. Another manic mini bus ride and we reached the markets about 9.15am where we had an hour to take a slow boat around the market. It all seemed quite expensive so apart from a bunch of bananas (10 baht!) we didn’t buy anything! A speedboat ride around the canals, past all the stilted houses, with their pots of orchids, bouganvillae and other colourful plants, and then dropped off where , if you wanted for an extra 200 Baht, you could see a snake show! We contented ourselves with just looking at an active, poisonous, large python through a glass window and checking out the festival in the temple next door where there were loads of people dressed in white arriving before getting the mini bus to our included lunch stop. A thirty minute stop to eat a fairly pleasant lunch before being herded back onto the bus and taken to the River Kwai.
Stopped at the Kanchanaburi War cemetery on the way, beautifully maintained, and wandered around looking at the names of all the English and Dutch soldiers, who gave their lives in the 2nd World War.
Dropped off at the River Kwai and had an hour here to go into the museum and to walk across the famous Bridge. 15,000 prisoners of war and 100,000 local people died during the construction of the Burma / Siam Railway and the building of the Bridge, overseen by the Japanese. The Bridge was eventually blown up by the British, the Japanese making Prisoners of War, act as a human shield, standing on the bridge and waving, in an attempt to prevent or dissuade them dropping the bombs.

Nearly a three hour mini bus trip back to Bangkok, where we then had a meeting with London (thats his name!!) our Group Leader and our new group members who are coming on the next leg of the trip with us. Fourteen of us altogether!
Today was the BIG day in Bangkok! The Grand Palace! Checked out of hotel, caught the ferry to stop 9 and walked through the market to the entrance! 400 baht each to get in but it was definitely a WOW! Amazing palace...........all gold and mirrors, a huge golden tower, massive mosaic pillars.......it was almost too much to take in!! Wandered around for about an hour marvelling at the magnificent statues and monuments and then went into the Royal Monastery of the Emerald Buddha. The Buddha is carved from a block of jade and was first discovered in 1434 in a stupa in Chaing Rai covered in plaster, by an Abbot who noticed that the plaster on the nose had chipped off revealing what he thought was emerald underneath.
Onto Wat Po, which is situated behind the Grand Palace and is another huge complex of pillars and mosaics, built as a symmetrical series of courtyards, with an excessive amount of buddhas’!! The highlight is a horizontal Buddha, about 60 metres in length and about 10 metres high! Very impressive!
Spent the afternoon shopping in the markets, before getting all our stuff ready for our overnight train journey to Ventienne in Laos. The train was almost luxury with two queen bed bunks at the bottom and single beds at the top, with clean white sheets and curtains for privacy! Goodnight!!

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Photos

Bangkok 005
Crossing the border

Comments

[Laura]

Bangkok looks fabulous!