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Published: January 29th 2009
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So far our organisational skills and capability of finding anything in Bangkok has been shocking! What with all the tuk tuk drivers out to take you for a ride...literally...its hard to get anywhere that you actually want to go! The government seem to give the drivers tokens for petrol if they take tourists past the tourist information centres around the city...great if you are compleeeeetely lost...but awful if you have somewhere in mind and you just cant get there! The language barrier also proves difficult but believe me you soon develop hardcore bargaining skills! It's sometimes funny to take a step back and realise that you are bargaining over the difference of 10p..but here, pretty quickly, haggling becomes part of everyday life!
With these difficulties in mind we decided to book a tour to take us around some of the famous sites of Bangkok! This meant that we could be taken in a mini bus (air con included thank god) and would be taken around by a guide! We soon realised that if we were to see any of these places this tour was a necessity...everything is sooo far apart and requires a lot of bussing to get to!
After getting up at 6am and picking up some other tourists along the way...including some reeeally drunk Ozzies...who were peaking now, but Laura and I predicted they would crash in approximately an hour.
Our first stop was the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market in Ratchaburi province. As predicted, one of the Australians had passed out in the back of the bus...I believe he stayed there all day! The other two girls accompanied us on our tour around the market along with some other people on the tour. We all hopped aboard a small long boat and began to meander through the waterways past the market stalls...selling everything from freshly cooked spring rolls (yes fire on the boat) to fake Gucci handbags. It really was a feast for the eyes....so many things and people to look at...! Soon the ozzie girls started buying complete new outfits of crap...including approx 6 new purses (each); some thatched pointy hats and some silk house coats...boy would they regret that once they sober up!
Soon we got to a bank where a man was holding a large python...of course I had to hold it...and then i made Laura hold it also....the man dropped it
on Laura...she was not amused! Soon I was holding both the pythons and began contemplating a career in the circus! After a quick peck of the python we were on our watery way again...
After we had seen all the stalls of the geriatric Thai women, we got on a bigger long boat and explored the village where people lived right on the water and went about their everyday lives...we also witnessed a MASSIVE dragon just chilling on the bank...rather scary. Then, rather worringly...drunk ozzie girl took the helm of the long boat...Again, not for the first time this week, we feared for our lives!
Miraculously, we returned to the mini bus unscathed where we met a delightful man from Slovenia who claimed he worked with BIG lasers. Thus we named his laser man. He was very chatty, but sadly I found his excessive dandruff rather distracting from his general chat. It was also at this point that we encountered the aptly named "Squatty Potties"....fairly self explanatory!
So with our new buddies aka Drunk Ozzie and Laser Guy...we were dumped at a roadside eatery to sample the delights of stewed veg, rice and omlette. MMMM i hear
you cry! At this juncture we met some new friends...namely the Sleazy Shark Attack Victim Ozzies and the Kiwi Troll Couple. There were another couple but they really aren't worth mentioning.
After lunch we were so excited....allegedly we were heading to the Bridge over the River Kwai, although to our dismay we were again dumped just us (along with Laser Guy) at the side of the road. They reassuringly told us they would pick us up...time frame wasn't important. We looked around the close vicinity and realised that we were at Kanchanaburi Cemetery a memorial to British, Australian, Dutch, and American POW's during WW2.
We spent some time looking at the graves, it was really emotional. The cemetery was so well maintained and the headstones had many personal messages from family on them, this was not something I expected from a foreign war cemetery.
Finally...a new guide and bus arrived to take us (and Laser Guy) to the Bridge. We were amazed to find out that trains still ran on the track and if you were walking on the bridge you just had to jump out of the way...Easier said than done when there are no walkways
Market Trader
Employment Requirement: Must be able to haggle and row simultaneously...applicants under 80 need not apply! or proper sides to the bridge. Suprisingly, there was very little there to commemorate the many people that had died in the construction of the bridge. All the memorials seemed to be out of view of the bridge itself. We walked along the bridge over the river and witnessed the Japanese look out towers. These areas now seemed to house shops and places for toursts to hydrate.
We also saw our first elephant! :-)
On the way back from the Bridge we visited the Big Pagoda which housed countless Budha monuments. We were astounded to see Monks dressed in their traditional orange tunics using their mobile phones to take pictures of the temple. We were then packed into yet another bus and began the rather long trip back to Bangkok! Altogether the trip had taken 12 hours....very much worthwhile tho!!! Time for a nap before the night time activities commenced...:-)
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Scott
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Snakes
Well done you two for holding thoses snakes!