Bangkok Part 1
Bangkok Day 1:
Anyway, my accommodation in Bangkok had already been sorted out well in advance thanks to my Mum who has a couple friends working as teachers in Bangkok. Her two friends - Richard and Michelle - had kindly agreed to let me stay while I found my feet in Asia. I like to think of it as jumping in at the deep end in the knowledge that I can still touch the bottom.
From Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport I took a taxi to the condominium where Michelle and Richard live just outside the Riverside & Silom district of Bangkok. They live on the 14th floor so their view is, of course, quite spectacular...
Richard and Michelle turned out to be excellent hosts! I can't thank them enough. After catching up on my sleep I woke up around 8:30am and was treated to Frosties and a cup of coffee, home from home! Richard and Michelle took me to see the school where they work as teachers. I was very impressed! It is the sister school of the Shrewsbury public school in England and it's facilities are second to none! If I were to go into detail of what they had it would take forever, it basically had everything!
From the school we took a boat along the Chao Phraya River that runs through Bangkok up to the center of old Bangkok where Richard and Michelle talked me through some of the classic tourist spots of the city.
First up was Wat Pho, a big Buddhist temple with a HUGE reclining Budda; very impressive, and he had very nice feet too. We wandered around the temple taking in the thousands of images of Budda and enjoying the temples gardens. Next we took a boat across the river (which cost about 3 Bhat, which works out at about 6p) to Wat Arun, which is a large monument with some of the steepest stairs I've ever seen.
From there we took a boat back in the direction of Richard and Michelle's condominium, we stopped off for lunch at a French sandwich place and then on to an international supermarket where Richard and Michelle often stock up on the food stuffs that remind them off home. It's worth noting that the prices were far higher than at home. Jars of Marmite were almost double the price, and Ribena was almost four times as much as it can be in England!
We took the food back to the condominium and had a little rest before heading out to dinner at a local street food restaurant. As with most of the street restaurants the plastic chairs, the industrial chrome tables, the dirty kitchens and the hundreds of stray dogs that skulk around the place don't make for a very appetising site, however I've yet to be disappointed. The food is always very simple and fresh - having been delivered that same day from the markets - and it always immediately cooked in front of you, the only thing that might trouble your stomach is the how spicy it is!
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| Michelle, Richard & I having Dinner at a local street restaurant - the whole meal including drinks only came to 10 Pounds! |
After Dinner we went out for a couple of drinks and then on for a quick walk around Bangkok's seedy red-light district of Patpong. With markets selling fake goods, Lady Boys, and 'shows' of all kinds I wouldn't say the district has charm but it certainly has a personality. Taking in the hustle and bustle was good fun but after a long day and with jet-lag taking it's toll I decided to head back to bed and leave Patpong for another day.
Bangkok Day 2:
By day two jet-lag had caught-up with me, the result being that I woke up extremely late! Luckily Michelle and Richard had gone about their daily business and when I'd eventually had breakfast they took me to see Jim Thompson's house. If you'd like to know who Jim Thompson is click on the link!His house is a mix of traditional Thai architecture (raised on stilts and within slanted walls) and art with Western design and ideas. We had a tour of the house where I was told that I had long ears and would therefore live a long life, the tour guide then started apologising profusely because she thought she had offended me (She hadn't I was just looking for a mirror so check how long my ears were).
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| Decorative flower pots - they also had lots of small fish in! |
We had lunch in the restaurant connected to Jim Thompsons house - which included a very nice curry that was served in a pineapple - then we headed to see Bangkok's mega malls...
Planning regulations in Bangkok seem to be none existent within one square mile (probably less) of Bangkok's shopping district there are at least 5 mega malls all of which dwarf the biggest of the English shopping centers. Some of them contain their own aquariums, 20 screen cinemas, and they also contain every shop you could ever think of, including M&S! We had a look round a few of the malls but we only had time to skip through as each mall could easily take up a day. One disadvantage of the lax planning regulations is the traffic - queues that make the M25 look like a race track - the Bangkok way of travelling seems to be leave 2 hours earlier that you had planned and maybe take a book to read on the way!
We headed back to the Condominiums to drop off some of the shopping and Richard took me out to experience a Thai Foot Massage. All over Bangkok there are Massage Parlours, some of them very stylish and of course expensive and others resemble your everyday Chinese takeaway with big chairs in. The place we went to was very much at the Chinese takeaway end of the scale, but it is also where the majority of the Thai's go themselves so I felt I was getting a better experience. The massage was excellent, a foot massage actually seems to include feet, legs, shoulders and head, though there was no sign of the legendary 'Happy Ending' - which was probably for the best!
After the massage we went back to the Condominium and ordered in some Thai food while we watched the Formula 1 Grand Prix (Richard is a big fan!). It was then time for bed as Richard and Michelle had school the next day and I was planning to head south to Koh Tao!
Night, Night!
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