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Published: March 16th 2007
Emerald Buddha temple
No pictures were allowed of the actual Buddha but he is an impressive sight. He changes costume based on the seasons. My anti-jet lag thesis got utterly destroyed. I stayed up for the duration of my longest flight ever (13 hours) from Auckland to Bangkok. I watched a total of five movies on my personal entertainment centre but it was all for not.
Upon arrival in Bangkok at 10pm, we were informed that it was a humid 28 Celcius. We caught a taxi to our guest-house and were in bed by 11pm. I awoke at 2am and again at 6am. It felt impossible to sleep in the heat. The next morning, we upgraded to an air-conditioned room for an extra $3 per night. It was the best $3 I have spent in my entire life. and we will be staying in air-conditioned rooms wherever possible from now on. It's the beginning of the dry and hot season so things are only going to get worse as far as heat and humidity go.
We took it easy the first day and just did a little exploring of the skytrain system and our neighborhood. Our guesthouse is a fifteen minute walk from the skytrain. The walk to the skytrain give us a good glimpse into the inner-workings of a thai neighborhood as it wasn't
a touristy area by any stretch of the imagination. Food stalls are how thais eat. We have yet to come across a supermarket. Rich or poor, all the thais eat from the stalls. The second day saw us visit the Grand Palace and other religious shrines along the river. The emerald Buddha is really spectacular as is the 'reclining Buddha'.
The markets in Bangkok put the Richmond Night Market to shame. They literally had thousands of stalls selling everything and anything. Megan found some $2 shirts and I found a long-sleeve cotton. typical thai tourist shirt for $5. We managed to see a Muay Thai boxing fight. It reminded me of the Jean Claude Van Dam movie "Bloodsport". The arena had three classes of seats. Most of the foreigners were in the ringside seats where gambling was forbidden and waiters were constantly available to bring you a beer. Second class was above us and betting was allowed. Third class was completely fenced in by a chain-link fence, and they had their seperate entrance. Fights aren't uncommon and the betting gets fast & furious.
Six days in Bangkok was more than enough for us and we couldn't wait to escape the
hot, dirty, overcrowded, and polluted city. We headed south to Koh Samui Island where we splurged and got a poolside room at a beach-front motel. We were on Lamai beach which is quieter than the well known Chaweng beach. It was perfect for us. Unfortunately, I got sick the first day, and spent our 4 day stay eating crackers, drinking water, and watching copied Dvds in the room.
After Koh Samui, we headed south again to Phuket. We booked in for a week of relaxation as New Zealand and the first part of Thailand was go go go. We've spent our time here hanging out at the beach, and we took two great day tours. The first was to James Bond Island, where they filmed "The Man with the Golden Gun" back in 1974. After viewing the Island, we moved onto sea canoeing, and then watched a monkey show, and then did an elephant trek.
Our second day tour was to Phi Phi Island, and the bay where the "Beach" was filmed (Leonardo De Caprio). This movie was my original inspiration for traveling so it was great to see it even if I had to share it with 500 other
Reclining Buddha
The key to life... tourists.
Thailand has been pretty good so far but it's definitely a little too developed for my tastes. Phuket could be just about any beach resort in Mexico, complete with beach sellers and their usual wares of sunglasses, sandwiches, junk jewellery, and asking "you want coke", "you want buy something". Bangkok has incredible things to see but I wouldn't want to spend a day longer than necessary seeing them. I know the movie "The Beach" wasn't a good indication of what our adventure would be, but it seems that Thailand has lost a fair bit of its culture and charms. Every sight worth seeing is bulging with tourists and the locals of all sorts that we attract.
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shirley collins
non-member comment
Greetings from Vancouver II
John, It is a thrill for me to see what you are seeing in your travels to places I have not dreamed of travelling to until now, thanks to your stories and stellar photo taking. You are living your dreams! Shirley