Advertisement
Published: February 1st 2009
Friday, January 30th, 2009 After waking late again went headed down the street on the prowl for breakfast. We found a Thai-Muslim ''cafe'' that didn't serve breakfast but they did make us some wonderful fried noodle with vegies and chicken for Ferdi. Later we went in search of a barber so we could make Ferdi look less like a werewolf. We found a nice barber shop / Internet Cafe where Ferdi had his 1st proper hair & beard cut in probably 15-20 years. We also needed to find Cutex and remover, nail clippers and some hair bands since Talita's gear box stayed behind in SA. We found a 7/11 that sold the stuff we needed and, to our great surprise, beer at half the price the hostel sells it for. We eagerly grabbed some beer, only to be told at the counter that they only sell alcohol between 11:00 & 14:00 (it was 14:02 at the time) and again between 17:00 & 24:00, so our nice cold beer was whisked away back to the freezer from whence it came. Oh well... Easy come, easy go. We sat by the pool waiting for 17:00 and discussed our plans for the near future.
We decided to move to another hostel or guest house the next day, most likely in the Banglamphu area of Bangkok. We made no reservations. We'd just pitch up and see what's what. We had dinner to the mewling sound of some locals in the karaoke restaurant down the street.
Today's highlights:
1. Discovering beer at half price
2. Getting Ferdi's hair cut
3. Planning the next phase of our trip
Saturday, January 31st, 2009 We had a quick breakfast and left the Bansabai Hostel for the area of Banglamphu. When we arrived we looked for a place to stay but the first two places we tried were full, so we moved deeper into Banglamphu where we got a bit of a culture shock! The place was crawling with westerners! Like being in an Americanized-hippy-version of Hatfield! Horrible! It's strange, but we feel much more at home with the locals. Kinda wished that we had stayed at Bansabai, but oh well... We booked a night's stay in the Rambutrri Village Inn just down the road and went to the roof to take a swim, cause we were dripping with sweat. Our packs needed a serious diet if we
were gonoing to be moving like this! We walked to the National Museum, having to run across a highway to get there. The Museum turned out to be too expensive, so we walked down the road and found a modern little cafe next to the university where we had some delicious orange shakes to cool us down. Thoroughly refreshed, we walked through a political rally of some sort on our way to an open air music show on the Museum's lawn. We were 2hrs early so we chilled on the grass listening to music and sound checks. The show started at 17:00 and it was great sitting amongst all those old Thai people. Hanging out with the old age home folk! There were a few performers accompanied by a good-sized orchestra. During the performance people would go up to the stage and give flowers, gifts and money to the performers. An old Thai lady offered us some meat on a stick. We said thank you the Thai way with a nod and both hands together at the chin. We enjoyed the strange music and some cheap local food. It was a cultural experience! We headed home around 19:15, swung by
the 7/11 for a couple of beers, then headed to our room to plan our escape from touristy Bangkok. This part of the city is NOT for us!
Today's highlights:
1. Had a nice chat with the lady that served us breakfast
2. Discovered the music show with cheap food & snacks
3. An old Thai lady sharing some of her food with us
4. Cheap beer from 7/11 and planning our trip to Ayuthayu
Sunday, February 1st, 2009 We made good our escape from Bangkok! We got a local bus (free) to Hualompong train station. As we arrived we were intercepted and escorted to a "Tourist Information Center". Turned out to be a travel agency, but we think that was fortunate (more on that as the days unfold :-). We got on the train to Ayuthaya (we're on the train as I am typing this) and arrived within 90mins. We hiked to our pre-selected guest house on the river called Bann Kun Pra where we got a tiny room. Then it was time to go exploring. Ayuthaya is an "island" city (surrounded by a river). We walked to the Chantrakasem National Museum where we got an idea
of what to go see the next day, the headed back to the guest house for a well deserved rest (and beer ;-).
Today's highlights:
1. Getting out of Bangkok before all the tourists wake up
2. Getting a free bus ride to the train station
3. Getting the guest house we wanted in Ayuthaya
4. Enjoying a chill evening by the river (with a couple of beers)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.075s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0291s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb
Sandra
non-member comment
dankie vir julle dagboek
Hallo Talita en Ferdi, ek het pas julle dag 4-6 stories gelees. Ongelukkig is die meeste van julle foto's pikswart op die blog. Weet nie of dit gesensor is, en of dit maar net nag is daar by julle nie! Hoop die probleem word uitsorteer, want ons wil graag alles sien! baie groete en goed gaan vorentoe