We arrive in Bangkok after a short and uneventful flight. Well, we do actually have to give some credit to Cathay Pacific for squeezing dinner plus one & a half television programs into a brief schedule (Alcatraz - has some potential; Person of Interest - distinctly uninteresting).
We're already impressed when we discover that coffee costs less than GBP 1 at the airport - this bodes well for our cost-cutting plans! We make a few stops, at 7-Eleven (ubiquitous in southeast Asia, it seems) for snacks - it's full of weird & wonderful things! - and at tourist information for maps. We then find our way to the SkyTrain, but are not allowed on because we're drinking iced coffee ;-) Like Hong Kong, food & drink are forbidden on public transport...tidy but inconvenient!
Finally we are finished our coffee & cookies, and are allowed to board the 11pm train. We're a bit worried that this will mess with our plan of connecting to the Metro (MTR) but there's not much we can do about that now...fingers crossed....
We get off at the interchange station only to find that it's not a very smooth interchange. We hit the stifling wet heat of the Bangkok evening to find a roadway, lots of warning signs about illegal taxis, and an occasional sign pointing us towards the MTR station. We run across a couple of busy roads and finally find the station...tightly shuttered up for the night.
So it's time to try a taxi - at least we are used to these from Kathmandu, as it's hardly our usual mode of travel. We soon realise that Bangkok taxis come in a veritable rainbow of colours (more on that later) which makes for a very striking image at night, when you view a group of them stopped at a traffic light! We choose a lovely pink taxi and are pleased to discover that he a) has a meter and b) is actually willing to use it! It costs something hilarious (less than 100 baht - which is about GBP 2) for our 20-minute journey to Silom, one of the neighbourhoods in south Bangkok.
Unfortunately, much like in Nepal, the taxi drivers have no idea where things are in Bangkok. And here they don't make the extra effort of asking random strangers for directions either! We can't quite figure out why they are always dropping us off at random places (always on the correct street, but with no consideration of which part of it) since there are actually building numbers in Bangkok. Ah well, it's a good chance to explore our new neighbourhood as we lug our packs up the road to our guest house (the Thai word for hostel ;-) ). Lisa notices that it seems to be the jewelery area, which is good news in her quest for bead shops (stocking up for her future bracelet-making business in Canada), but of course at 12:30am everything is closed ;-)
We finally find the guest house tucked behind some shops, and take a little while to let the sweat dry while Lisa knocks back a Lemsip (still fighting the cold she picked up in Kathmandu). We are staying in the 10-bed "fan only" dorm which we soon discover is not conducive to actually sleeping - it's very hot and everyone is restless, plus the door is propped open for air circulation. One of the boys is up when we arrive, and tells us that the hoards of mosquitoes woke him! Lisa takes this warning (and the risk of bedbugs) seriously - she douses herself in repellent and wraps herself in the mosquito net. Still, she only manages about 5 hours of sleep and feels compelled (unusually!) to jump out of bed at 7am - leaving a peacefully sleeping Chris, she has a quick shower and heads for the breakfast buffet. It's nothing exciting but for 160 baht (about GBP 3) she can eat as much as she likes, and she even manages to resist buying a "real" coffee in favour of the free instant coffee!
We really have no idea what we're going to do in Bangkok, Thailand or the rest of SE Asia for that matter, so when Chris arrives at breakfast we decide to start with the basics - we'll head out to the mall to pick up a map of SE Asia & a local SIM card. We planned to start applying for visas right away, but it turns out to be a public holiday in Thailand so all the embassies are closed (it's Buddha's enlightenment day - we're 99% sure this is the same day that was celebrated about a month ago in Nepal!). At least the travel desk at the guest house provides us with all the info we need about which countries require an advance visa, and where those embassies are located!
We have a quick chat with our lovely Thai friend Cherry, and another with our Nepali mate Suman (he is a student in Bangkok and returned here about a week before we arrived). We set up some potential meet-ups for later that day with both of them, and then head for Siam to the shopping mall (like HK, there are a LOT of these in Bangkok!). The mall, Siam Paragon, is having an amazing Orchid Festival (who knew there were so many types of orchids?). The bookstore turns out to be a perfect stop, with a big section of travel maps, and we find a good one of Thailand/Cambodia/Vietnam/Laos. After a tasty waffle & brownie stop, we head into the orchids to await Cherry's arrival. |
| yes, orchids can grow this big!! |
We actually end up in some kind of food & drink overload with Cherry - we stop at a small & trendy-looking (but empty) place near the cinema upstairs for a cup of tea, and then move on to her sister's guest house (in the tourist area of Khao San Road) for dinner. There is a huge spread including all the classics - pad thai and tom yum amongst them - and we eat until we are stuffed! We find it all rather spicy, but worryingly these dishes were prepared for "farang" (foreigner) tastes, so the real Thai food is going to be a big challenge for us. Anyways, it's great to spend the evening catching up with Cherry, and we part with a hug and return to our hostel (where we've upgraded to the air-conditioned dorm after realising that cheapest is not best, if you can't actually sleep!).
We do a bit of blogging and exchange some texts with Cherry, which result in us booking a room at her sister's guesthouse (Lamphu House) for the next 3 nights. We really liked the garden area and we feel like it'll be easier to meet people in the tourist area around Khao San Road. Our current location in Silom is great for peace & quiet, and observing local life, but we haven't really met anyone and we need some travel inspiration!
The next day we leave our backpacks in the hostel's "left luggage" and head for the Chinese embassy on the north side of the city. We join a long line of people outside, and suddenly after about 20 minutes we are ALL ushered inside. By now, we've filled in part of the required forms, and we manage to bag a small space on the floor of the crowded waiting room to finish them off. Handily there are even some small pots of glue for sticking your passport photo to the form.
While we complete the forms, we observe a new queue growing in the middle of the room. There's a young woman at the head of it who seems to be checking the forms. Unsure if this is required, we ask some Americans in the queue - they say they've joined it because everyone else has, but actually only about 1/4 of the people in the room have joined. Well, we're something like #206 and they're on #98...and moving along slowly...so we figure we might as well queue up in proper British fashion! We meet a nice girl from the Netherlands whose travel plans are almost as vague as ours, and exchange concerns about the actual requirements for a Chinese visa application (there are several signs saying we need flight tickets & hotel bookings, which of course we don't have!).
Finally we reach the front of the queue -having just seen someone turned away because she was self-employed, but didn't have a business card to prove it- and the woman looks through our forms. With a shake of the head, she explains that we definitely need to know our dates and route, as well as having a hotel arranged for the first couple of nights in China. Finally, we need a copy of our bank account statement since we're unemployed. She recommends that we apply in Vietnam or Laos.
At least now we can make an escape from the boring, stuffy embassy (to the hot, stifling outdoors!) along with our Dutch friend who's fared no better. We walk back to the Metro station together and say our goodbyes at the shopping mall. Lisa is feeling a bit sick so we stop for some salad and a drink, and then take a spin through the technology mall (soooo many phones & laptops!!) before heading back to the city center on the Metro. Lisa reckons we have enough time to get to the Vietnam embassy and put in our visa applications there before it closes for the day...and she is right, it's so easy (and empty!) compared to the Chinese embassy!
By the time we get back to the hostel it's twilight, and there is a sudden storm so we share a bottle of beer while we wait it out. Unfortunately this means that we miss the last ferry going upriver towards Khao San Road (they stop about 7pm apparently). Some green & yellow striped taxis try to convince us to travel with them for 200 baht, but we know that they should be using their meters so we decline. We find one of our favourite pink taxis and make the trip in no time! The room is a twin with a fan, but it's not such a bad idea to have separate beds in this sweaty climate ;-) Lisa is still not feeling great, so she lies down for a while and Chris goes out to find some take-out - a sandwich and some pad thai, yum!
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| Democracy monument |
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| Royal decorations? |
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| Canal boat |
We have read that it's the opening night of the Buddhist Film Festival, and Lisa wants to do some celeb-spotting. So we hop off the boat near Siam and check out the Art & Culture Center. Although they have lots of interesting stuff on, the film festival is not on their itinerary, so we're not sure where to look. By now it is raining - not good wandering weather - so we just take in the sight of an outdoor boxing match across the road (a bit strange, part of the popular activity of watching farang fight each other, we think), and then start to make our way north to Cocowalk, where we're joining a Couchsurfing meetup. It's really busy, probably 30+ people in the group, mostly ex-pats who are settled in Bangkok for a year or more. We meet an American website designer and his Thai girlfriend, a publisher, a woman from New Orleans, several Canadians, lots of teachers (including a maths teacher from Gloucestershire and an newly arrived Texan English teacher), and a couple of other travellers. We share some towers of beer and enjoy the Thai rock & roll singer. Eventually, most people head off home and we're thinking of doing the same, when we are accosted by Casey, a Canadian who is keen to take American boy Trevor out to "Soi Cowboy" for his 18th birthday (today!). After some effort, he convinces us (and the German fellow & Indian woman we are currently chatting to) to join them, and we bundle into a couple of taxis.
Soi Cowboy is notorious for strip clubs & prostitutes, so this probably isn't the best idea, but this is a major reason why many travellers come to Bangkok so we are more than a little curious. Upon embarking from the taxi, we are immediately offered a "ping pong show" (which someone has to explain to us, but we will not explain here!). When the group is reunited we stroll along looking for a likely club, and choose one based on it's advertisement of cheap beer. Again we stress that this is NOT our usual idea of a night out!
It's a bit of a shock to enter the club and find a stage full of naked (yep, completely naked) gyrating Thai women. Not so much a show as a market, it seems. We order some beer (which is decidely NOT cheap) and hide ourselves in the back row behind an enthusiastic Casey and a rather freaked-out-looking Trevor. They obtain a bucket of ping pong balls which they throw haphazardly towards the girls, but there doesn't actually seem to be a point to this (except that we're sure there was a cost associated with the balls), and chat to the suspiciously masculine-looking "lady" hostess. Lisa glances around to find an interesting array of workers, some dressed in beautiful kimonos and others just roaming around naked, but not attempting to make any contact with the customers. There are two American-looking guys across from us who seem to have paid for a girl for the evening, and she is enthusiastically dancing in front of them while they pretty much ignore her.
As we drink our beer, the line-up changes and a few more patrons enter - a group of young lads, and two older fellows with their Thai girlfriends in tow. It's a really weird atmosphere! Casey, Trevor and one of the other fellows in our group take a fancy to one of the girls (disappointingly, the far too skinny one with the fake breasts and nose job) and have a lap dance in a back room. This escalates quickly into the girl sitting on Casey's lap in the main bar, and somehow both he and Trevor end up on stage stripping...?! When the line-up changes again (even more strangely, to the same girls as when we entered, but now in lingerie - even the girl who seems to be "rented" by the American fellows has donned a bra and underpants), we step outside for a breather and witness Casey running off down the road with someone in tow (not sure it was the girl he fancied, perhaps her job is just to get the men excited enough to go off with anyone?). He did seem ridiculously keen to come to Soi Cowboy and now we can see why. Poor Trevor, although he does seem to be enjoying himself in a bewildered sort of way.
We decide we've had enough, as do many of the others, and find a taxi to take us home. One of the Canadians (a journalist, I think) promises to take good care of Trevor and ensure his safe return. We do hear from him via Couchsurfing the next day which is reassuring. Possibly this will go down as the weirdest evening of our lives...
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| Temple of the Dawn |
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| Mai Kaidee meal |
We have a delicious vegetarian dinner at Mai Kaidee (thanks to our veggie friend Hugh for his recommendation!). Then we meet up with a few newly-arrived Couchsurfers to see if we can find someone to travel with, but they are all heading north to Chiang Mai and we've got our hearts set on visiting the islands in the south. We plan to leave the next day (Saturday) on a night train to Ko Tao, but when Lisa gets to the train station on Saturday around lunchtime, she discovers that the only tickets left for the night trains are for air-conditioned sleepers (apparently quite chilly, and much more expensive) or for seats. Neither of these appeals, so she buys tickets for the 13:05 train the next day.
This works out nicely as Chris is keen to watch the rugby matches (latest one is England vs South African at 21:45) and Lisa would quite like to see the NHL finals match (07:00 local time on Sunday morning). We find that all the sports bars are in the center near Nana Skytrain station, so while Chris watches rugby, Lisa scopes out hotels in the area. Most are over 1000 baht/night - compared to less than 500 which we paid at Lamphu House - although she does get some great room upgrade offers for this price, since none of the hotels are full. One hotel recommends the Star Hotel as the cheapest in the area. Indeed, they do have a 799 baht room and one is still available! They are a bit worried that Lisa won't like the lack of windows - and she has a good giggle at the mirrored ceiling! - but it's clean and this is actually a really good price for an air-conditioned room in the city center, so she books it. There is even a shiny new sports pub "The Game" next door which will be showing the late rugby match (but unfortunately hasn't yet achieved it's claim of 24-hour opening, so won't be open for the hockey).
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| Lamphu House... |
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| vs Star Hotel |
The rugby match is a good one and there's a small crowd to cheer them on, although we are crowded out during the 2nd half by some Dutch & Danish football fans who squeeze in to watch a match. We even meet a local American who recommends a place called "The Tavern" nearby to watch the hockey. When we get back to the hotel around midnight, Chris has a catch-up with his family on Skype and then we catch a few winks before our early wake-up call.
The Tavern is indeed open at 7am, and there are lots of characters in attendance to watch various sports such as an NBC basketball semi-final & a big boxing match. But the owner manages to find a TV for us to watch the hockey, and in fact we all converse about the various sports on show, learning a little about each of them! An old drunk fellow perches next to Lisa and has a whiskey (at 8am!!) and then proceeds to fall asleep, possibly in an effort to avoid his bill (he also keeps trying to pay by Visa but the girls explain that the bill is too small). We choose the more sane option of cooked breakfast and bottomless coffee. We also pick up some holders for our beer (stubby holders, to our Aussie friends) which are great in this climate, if only to stop the sweaty beer can/bottle from dripping all over you! There is even enough time after the game to have a quick nap at the hotel before we head to the train station =)
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| Metro sign. There is also one forbidding the consumption of (smelly!) durian fruit. |
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