Advertisement
04 05 2010
Well after our journey into Bangkok we woke up to a lovely view of the huge swimming pool. It had obviously stormed overnight. Took a few photos of our bedroom view and went down for breakfast. Great choice of food, I had pork and rice followed by toast whilst Wendy opted for more traditional breakfast.
The place is lovely and clean, our room enormous, everybody is very pleasant and polite.
We then went to the lady at the travel desk. We were given a street map of the area with crosses on it next to the hotel which was presently unavailable to go as it had been taken over by the Red Shirts so a no go area! We decided to get a taxi to the railway station to book to go to Chang Mai. The roads here are full of suicide jockeys on bikes and even in a car it was unnerving. People changed lanes, beeped their horn, whizzed around you at speed and crossing the road as a pedestrian was terrifying. They obviously need more traffic Police here to do some law enforcing. The variety of vehicles using the road was
also amazing, there were motor bikes with side cars which were mobile BBQs which were still ablaze, people sat astride mopeds without helmets, tuk tuks of every colour, buses and lorries all mixed together in what felt like a race to the death.
Having got to the railway station it was obvious we stood out from the normal crowd. People would stop and ask if we wanted to go to see this or that, if we wanted a taxi, a personal tour, a trip to see some temple etc. We didn’t want any of these things so carried on politely refusing all offers which were apparently a special deal just for that day. We probably missed out on a few bargains but c’est la vie.
Unfortunately there were no 1st class seats left for the train we wanted and second class travel looked a little scary. Then it was off for a stroll to China town, it was more luck than judgement that we found it. To say it was crowded, hot and lively would be an understatement. At times I was forced to walk sideways just to slip between the seething mass of humanity. You name it
they sold it, cooked it or had a cloned copy of it.
We felt in touch with the real Bangkok here. Every available inch of space was utilised.
We did get via a trip down the river to see the Kings Palace. Had to don a fetching pair of green trousers in case my knees offended his bigness and we were in. The décor was ostentatious in the extreme but completely captivating in its beauty. So many intricate details on a vast scale. We had time to study it in detail as the thunders clapped and the rains did pour. Apparently these storms are the norm for here at this time.
We were approached by various people outside the Palace all offering wonderful alternative trips. One of them even had a cap which said Police on it. Policeman, my arse, conman more like. The signs on the wall even said “Beware of wily strangers” wish I had a photo of him next to the sign. Needless to say he failed the Eastman “So you are a Policeman?” test.
Anyway we wandered around this amazing place and were in awe at the attention to detail and
over the top décor. We also saw the Palace guards in their white uniforms which were very smart.
We then went to the reclining Buddha which was an enormous gold statue of a big bloke reclining, the sort of thing I can see in a mirror if I am unlucky.
We got to the stage of being sweaty in the sultry air, tired and templed out so grabbed a taxi back to the hotel.
Went to the air conditioned room and I went to log online while Wendy went for a shower. The internet then gave up the ghost so I popped downstairs too enquire. Bumped into the bloke for the business lounge which we had access to. He was on the phone immediately and reminded me of the Thai equivalent of “Fronk” from the film Father of the bride. Even so he was mortified I had suffered an outage of internet so free drinks were at my disposal, courtesy of a lovely Thai girl (I had a smallish whisky) and a plate of small delicacies appeared. By the time I was on my second drink and plate of food I had phoned Wendy to let her
know it was happy hour down here and to get here ASAP. Such a hardship.
To recover we had booked into a Thai massage which was exquisite, pain followed by pleasure. The end result was we felt we were walking on air.
This was followed by an Italian meal and very good it was.
Bon Giorno all.
Wendy and Phil.
XXX
Advertisement
Tot: 0.209s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 11; qc: 53; dbt: 0.1095s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Dennis/Socorro
non-member comment
Sounds like a nice place. Did you get out with all you belongings? I notice the picture of the bike, seems a little out of place relative to the other pictures. Glad to see your enjoying your selves. We miss bumping into you guys and have slowed our pace considerably.