We’re leaving on a jet plane…….

18th February 2007

Our first day in Bangkok started early, stepping off the night bus from Koh Tao at 4.30am. Night buses are something we will not miss when we hang up the backpacks in 50 days time. On paper they are a traveler’s best friend, a free nights accommodation and the chance to sleep through the several hundred km’s you cover between destinations. The reality is somewhat different, as you arrive with a stiff back and red eyes, having managed only short bursts of sleep in between various interruptions (e.g. the person in front of you reclining their seat into your knees, the person next to you snoring – I always get the seat next to Charlotte!, the kamikaze moves being pulled by the driver as he fights to stay on schedule / awake).

On arrival we took a Tuk Tuk to our hostel, which unsurprisingly was closed at 4.30am, so we grabbed a seat on the terrace, and waited around the 4 hours or so before we could check in. We dumped our bags, took a quick shower and headed straight back out for our first adventure in Thailand’s capital city.

Our first stop was the Grand Palace and Temple of the Emerald Buddha. Walking from our hostel we were stopped twice by locals trying to tell us that it was closed today. This is the prelude to a well publicised scam! The ‘helpful’ individual firstly offers to take you to another attraction, and en route takes you to a ‘random’ shop selling gems and offering the once in a lifetime opportunity to act as an agent for the outlet in your own country, with the promise of huge profits! It all ends in tears when you leave, minus your money and in possession of some not so valuable colored glass! Obviously you would have to be pretty stupid to fall for this scam, and we politely declined the offers of help. Unfortunately this and other scams seem to be the norm in Thailand (or at least the tourist trap areas we have visited), inevitably the dishonesty of a few makes you skeptical of all the locals offers of help, which kind of takes away from the overall experience of traveling here.

The Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha are on one huge sight by the banks of the Chao Phraya river. The buildings were impressive, and the gold leaf covering the temples was dazzling in the morning sunshine. The highlight of the visit for me however was definitely seeing Charlotte in the short sleeved pastel green shirt she was lent to cover her shoulders when in the temples, bring on middle age!

After the grand palace we went to the Temple of the reclining Buddha, dodging a couple more scam artists en route. This Buddha is 46m long and lying on his side in a pose representing the passing into Nirvana. All we need now is to find the temple of the Buddha walking on his hands to complete the full set of all possible Buddha images! Feeling all temple’d / buddha’d out, we retreated to our hostel to get some relief from the scorching sun and the choking pollution of Bangkok’s streets.

As a great man once said, when in Rome, wear flip flops. So, for our first sample of Bangkok’s notourious nightlife we headed out to the red light district. Before taking in the ping pong at Patpong, we warmed up with a couple of large changs (beers) on the equally famous Khao San Road, the ultimate travelers ghetto! Khao San is wall to wall bars / hostels / shops selling all sorts of knock off goods from CDs to Levis. In the road itself are various food stalls selling Thai foods and some tourist dishes of locusts, deep fried scorpion and maggots! The road has a real energy, especially after dark, when the hundreds of neon signs and sound systems pump up. From here we jumped into a taxi where the ‘fun’ really began!

Our taxi driver tried the obligatory scam of taking us somewhere different to our request in order to earn himself some commission, but when we rumbled him he kindly decided to take us to Patpong. This area started out as a destination for American troops looking for some ‘R&R’ during the Vietnam war, but nowadays is full of tourists like ourselves enjoying the vibrant night market and / or looking to take in one of the ‘shows’ on offer in the neighbouring bars.

We eventually ventured into a bar, but before we could even take our seats we were subjected to yet more scam tactics! Ordering 2 beers, which should have cost 200bht, the evil barmaid firstly demanded another 200bht, despite the fact we had handed over a 500bht note. Slightly confused we tried to explain that 2 beers at 100 bht each was 200 bht, and in fact she owed us 300bht change. This did not compute and she began shouting at us, demanding more money. Trying to avoid a scene, we simply handed back our beers and asked for our money back, so we could leave and go somewhere a bit friendlier! Now she denied we had even given her any money, and suddenly lost the ability to speak English! Eventually we managed to get our beers and sit down without having to pay any more cash (I’ll spare you the details!). We stayed for about 2 minutes, before realising that this place wasn’t really for us, and we headed to the door to the sound of balloons being burst by darts being fired out of women’s bits, nice!

The next day we set out to try to get hold of some Cambodian visas from the embassy prior to our planned next trip to Siam Reap. Bangkok has a really poor public transport network, especially if you are staying in the west of the city like us, so this journey involved taking a river boat, followed by the sky train and took the best part of 2 hours! When we arrived we found that the embassy had moved to the other side of town, things just aren’t going our way here in Bangkok! We decided to give up on our visa mission, opting to take our chances with the corrupt immigration officials at the border instead. So from here we took a leisurely 4/5 hour stroll back across town to our digs, taking in the huge Chinatown (preparing for new years celebrations!) on our way.

The next day we headed out of town to the weekend market at Chatuchak on the outskirts of the city. This is the biggest flea market in Asia, and you can buy absolutely anything here, from fake designer clothes to fighting cocks! We strolled around the place regretting the fact that we couldn’t really engage in too much shopping as we didn’t want to carry everything through Cambodia and Vietnam. Next time Gadget, next time.

On our final day in Bangkok, we chartered a long tail boat along with and Irish lad who was traveling on his own. We both really enjoyed this trip, and got to see some of the non touristy areas of Bangkok on the other, residential bank of the city. The canals that work their way through the inner suburbs are almost black with pollution, but this doesn’t stop the locals jumping in for a swim, very brave! We got to see a floating market and were surprised to see lots of fish managing to survive in the water, and even a large lizard, which had someone in the boat shouting ‘Crocodile!’.

This brought about the end of our first visit to Bangkok, we will be back here for a couple of days in April before flying back to the UK. It is fair to say that Bangkok did not really do it for us on this visit. I’m sure the areas we have visited in Thailand so far are not representative of the ‘true’ country, as with the exception of Koh Tao, it has felt like being on a package holiday in the med, surrounded by even more dubious characters! Hopefully when we arrive back here, in the city of angels, at the end of our trip, our experience from these few days will help us find a way to enjoy more of what I’m sure this huge city has to offer.

Tags: Thailand

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