Koh Tao to Bangkok

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Our trip to Bangkok started well, a lovely 3 hour boat trip, sitting on the deck in the hazy sunshine, it soon went downhill when we saw our overnight bus. For our journey back we opted for the Songserm company, after our experience I wouldn’t recommend them, air con broken, cramped bus etc, my advice would be go with the Seatran company, far superior and worth the extra few baht.

We arrived in Bangkok to the sound of the driver repeating calling “Bangkok, Bangkok, last stop, get off bus quickly” He wasn’t hanging around to see what the protesters were doing. We disembarked into a pack of taxi and tuk tuk drivers. Like seagulls scavenging for food, these drivers wanted us. I took a second to get my bearings and we quickly headed off into the night, tripping over a big dead rat in the process, welcome to Bangkok :-)

The violence in the city had increased in the last fews days and the government had issued it’s final warning to the “red shirts”. The normally hectic streets of the Khoa San road area were quiet and tensions were high with most people glued to the tv / radio news. We of course took advantage of the situation and shopped. Haggling was easy when you were one of the few customers they had, deals were made and money was spent. Virtually every transaction we made was followed with the ritual of blessing their merchandise to bring good luck from the day, as far as I understand this means it’s their first sale.

The tv news showed the army moving in and armoured vehicles were being used to break down the barricades, as all our shopping was done we decided to head to the safety of the airport. So with backpacks full we set out in a minibus with a few like minded travellers. The driver took the quickest route across the city so we headed directly over the troubled zone, going through the columns of thick black smoke, the acrid smell of burning tyres filling our lungs and with sounds of gunshots ringing out we sped away from Bangkok.


ps. I'm writing this in the UK, it's sunny and we survived :-)

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Photos

Shopping time
There may not be many tourists but there are still many stalls

Comments

[alison]

You are now officially hard core travellers!!!

[Sarah]

You crazy fools!
Say no more!!!