Advertisement
Published: January 7th 2010
Edit Blog Post
So on Monday we left Cambodia on a bus to take us from Siem Reap across the border and onto Bangkok. Start of the journey went fine, border crossing was ok but once we got on the other side we were told we had to get a different bus which would mean waiting around for another 2 hours outside the immigration office in the sun with no seats!! Was stupid, was so unorganised then after an hour of waiting around they shipped us all off in these minivans to around the corner where we could wait in a cafe for a proper bus to Bangkok, then after about half an hour we just got back in the minibusses to go to Bangkok, was a complete waste of time. Other than that the journey was smooth and luckily the minibus dropped right in the backpacker district 😊
After hunting around for a decent room (prices here for air con were a lot more than in Cambodia and most rooms are not as nice and clean as what we have had before, and for a much nicer room you are looking at paying $20) we eventually found a cheaper room with a
fan for 200 Baht, about $6/7 4pound, had a shared bathroom, but they were okish, the room was a bit gross but had a huge big bed and a fan right above it...no TV either, change for us! But hey it saved us a lot of money, we had been treating ourselves with the nicer rooms in Cambodia and Vietnam but unfortunately dont think we will be able to afford it in Thailand.
After freshening up we head straight into the backpacker Khao San Road which is full of restaurants, hotels, bars and market stalls all the way up. It was pretty mental! Had a walk around trying to find somewhere cheap to eat but were again dissapointed with the prices we saw - most meals are about 100-150 baht ($3-5). we eventually found a good deal with Thai Green Curry for 70 Baht each. I was so excited about getting the curry, looooovvvvve thai green curry and have been looking forward to Thailand so much to try the curry but....it wasn't that nice!! Shocking! My sisters version is much better! Maybe it was just the restaurant, I will keep trying it! The beers were a shocking $2/3! Thats
the most expensive we have seen in a while. Dont think there will be much drinking going on round here, that was until walking back to our hotel we saw Frank and Caroline!! Our dutch friends we met in mongolia and again inn Yanshou china! We joined them and their friends for a drink ($5 for a jug of beer which I forced myself to drink again as the cocktails were about $4 each) Think its gonna take us a while to get used to these prices after being in such cheaper countries. Had a nice catch up with them. Walking back to our hotel there are loads of street stalls selling Pad Thai (Thai noodles) for about 30 Baht, so think we might do that some more.
Tuesday after breakfast we headed out for a full on action packed day of sightseeing! We had a nice walk to begin with until the heat got too much, losing our bearings of where we were going, thirsty, tired, hot and sweaty! Seen a few nice sights the main Wat Pho Temple which like a fairytale and had a glimpse as the royal palace from the outside, didn't go in as
you aren't allowed to have hardly any skin showing and cant wear flip flops. Took a walk through the muslim district, then through Chinatown - walked pretty far, tried to get some info abut trains at the station and then caught the "Sky train" which isnt as exciting as it sounds, just a metro line overground. Sky train is good though as the traffic is mental around here, plus its only about 45p each! In the afternoon we visited Siam Square which I think is the posh area, full of huge shopping malls! Was amazing though because of all the air con! Finally cooled down a bit. Had a nose around the area before we noticed a cinema! 😊 They had cheap tickets on Wednesdays so decided to come back tomorrow to see Avatar in 3D. In the evening we got the sky train right over to the east town where Little Arabia is and the Nana plaza! We wondered around Little Arabia looking for somewhere to eat but at this point my stomach wasn't feeling quite right and a curry was the last thing on my mind, managed to find some outdoor cheap canteen area and got some basic fried rice for cheap. We headed down to the Nana Plaza next which is famous for its...ladyboys! Haha, bit of a anti-climax though as the whole street had a power cut, we went inside the Nana plaza which is just like a few bars outside then about 3 floors with people standing around which I presume are all the ladyboys, but since there was no lights, it was pretty difficult to tell!! Wondered around for a bit, seemed like a popular area just to have a drink and that, not sure we would feel that comfortable with all the half naked half man/half woman people wondering around, so we didn't stay long and to complete our day got the sky train down to Bangkoks Red Light District. Again another strange area, two main roads full of bars covered in Neon lights and down each street is a market! Of all places you would want to do your shopping... Anyway, the bars were mainly full of Thai women sitting with a man, or the odd man sitting in a bar on his own. On one road loads of the bars are for "ping pong" shows, which we didn't go and see! To be honest, the area was just a bit grim, tacky and sad when you see all these men sitting on their own. After this long exhausting day we then had to wait about another 2hours to get back as the busses were rubbish and took forever!
Wednesday I woke up to a pretty bad stomach bug, and Ste had a pretty bad headache, we decided to go back to sleep and didn't wake up till 2pm! We must have been tired! After finally scrambling out of bed and bringing myself away from the loo,a few paracetamol we decided to still go to the cinema to see Avatar. Once again had an awful bus journey there, got the wrong bus, had to walk ages, then get the skyline, was raining loads, we finally made it. The film was pretty good, nice to do some normal! Ventured back home, bus journey much more sucessful this time and crashed into bed absolutely knackered.
Thursday we both felt a lot better and had decided to leave Bangkok today to go to Chiang Mai. We wanted to find out about bus and train prices and what was cheaper, but we wanted to do it directly at the station as we have heard a lot of bad things about when you book bus or trains with the tour agencies, and scams or getting ripped off. We decided to head to the bus station first to ask there, which meant getting another annoying long bus, couldn't find the bus stop and bumped into this Thai guy who told us about a Tourist Agency that is government run and can book the tickets for you so you dont have to go to the station, we had heard about this one before so decided to give it a go. Finally got there only to find the guy didnt want to sell us train or bus tickets at all but a full on package tour for Thailand and Laos. After eventually getting it through to him we didn't want a tour, he wouldn't sell us any tickets, we decided to just head straight to the train station ourselves. Walked down to a main road where we caught a bus to the station, even though a thai guy we asked where the bus stop was told us there were no busses and we could get a tuk tuk for 100 baht! Such a pain, always scamming people. Anyway, finally got to the station, got a cheap ticket for an overnight train to Chiang Mai at last!!!!! Only took us about 4 hours! Came back to Khao San Rd to chill out and sort ourselves out before our train tonight. Both looking forward to getting a train again, much more pleasant than all the busses we have done in South East Asia. Arrive in Chiang Mai at 1pm tomorrow and will probably stay there for 4-5 days.
Hope everyone is ok.
Lots of Love
Layla & Ste xxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.112s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 56; dbt: 0.0606s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Lara
non-member comment
Hey. I cant believe my Thai Curry is better!...well actually I can but must have been a let down that was one thing I was looking forward to if I ever go to thailand! Sounds like a bit of a nightmare Bangkok! Hopefully you will have a more enjoyable time in chang mai Love you lots cxxxx