We arrived in Bangkok after a 2 hour boat trip from Koh Tao to Chumpeon, a 1 hour layover and an 8 hour bus journey.
Thankfully, I'd a good bit of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to get through so that killed over half the trip. It's brilliant by the way, can't believe I hadn't read the series before now. If you haven't read them, do it! For the last half of the trip, we played cards and this annoying game called 4 pics 1 word that Leanne is obsessed with. It's so stupid as most of the questions are so easy and then they stick in one absolutely head-wrecking one. After 8 hours on a Thai bus, the last thing you need is a brain twist.
We got to Khaosan road at around 8pm and were hounded by the usual chancing taxi drivers who are hassling you before you've even got off the bus. I was sick of being ripped off at this stage so I had a row with a taxi driver who was trying to charge us 20 times the price of the fare (not exaggerating) and he finally gave in and only charged us 5 times the price of the fare (they can screw you when you don't know where you're going).
We pulled into the hotel and were mortified as it was an absolute palace! It had cost very little even though it was a 5 star hotel and the two of us wandered in looking like two absolute back-knackers! After weeks of beach huts, it was great to check into a nice place. We were well chuffed!
We were only there for 2 nights so we packed in loads of sights the next day. We hired a cab driver named Dum Dum (no mess) for the equivalent of €5 an hour and he took us to all the main temples where we made a quick stop at each, took the requisite photos and legged it. We are great at the cultural stuff so we are and Dum Dum knew where to go to get all the best spots in so we had it all done in 4 hours, happy days! We felt a bit bad saying, "can you take us to Grand Palace please Dum Dum?". Brian calls me that all the time so there was some confusion at times!
In one day we packed in:
- Grand Palace and Wat Prakeaw
- Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn) from a distance but still counts
- Wat Pho and the reclining Buddha
- Chao Phraya and Waterways
- Pathumwan markets
- Khaosan Road
Not bad eh?
When we arrived at the Grand Palace, we had to hire clothing to cover our legs and shoulders. I was wearing a t-shirt so got away with hiring a long skirt but Brian had to go the whole hog and hire the shirt and trousers. He looked like he was scrubbed in to perform open-heart surgery on the Emerald Buddha. Either that or he'd just escaped from Bangkwan Prison.
The Palace was breath-taking and we really enjoyed it, despite our usual disdain for temples and ruins, etc. We even took the guided tour! It also had a big model of Angkor Wat, since we never made it to Cambodia.
There was a group of cute little Buddhist monks visiting the Palace on a school tour. Our guide explained that all Thai men must become monks for part of their lives, even for just one day. The tradition dates back to Thai legends about human kings and demon kings and monkeys and snakes. I got a bit lost as they had monkey kings and human kings and demon kings who pretended to be human to kidnap a princess and then they all tricked each other and I totally missed the whole raison d'être of the tale but the whole thing was really cool nonetheless.
That night, we went to Khaosan Road and had some dinner, a foot massage, and enjoyed the hustle and bustle and the street performers.
We weren't brave enough to sample the local wares though (crickets, mealworms, scorpions, cockroaches), especially since we'd made such good friends with some cockroaches, it would have been like cannibalism.
The King of Thailand and a painting of some guy.
On our last day, we did a bit of shopping in the cheap markets before heading for the airport. Bee picked up a souvenir from his favourite part of Thailand.
We were very excited to get to Melbourne to meet friends and family and see our good friend Collie (a.k.a. skinny, 7, 3 weeks, weeks; tobie, Niamh, Gollum, moonskrawn, Protestant nose; Ngog, Kiptanui, Dhalsim; Arsen Wenger, Uncle Meeley, etc.)
No comments:
Post a Comment