I was pretty sure that I would be spending the first few hours at Bangkok airport being grilled, probed and possbly arrested by customs. I only found out after I had booked my flight that they're not too keen on any drugs ending in '-pam'. As it turns out it was one of the smoothest and easiest airports to get into, through quickly and I even had a little joke with the customs men who were very friendly chaps. I was thinking of going in for a high five, but thought better of it.
The airport was very clean and modern which is not what I was expecting, and this continued into the centre of Bangkok on the skytrain. The buildings in the centre were shiny and new, as was my hostel, and the city was not at all what I was expecting - something a bit more rundown and ramshackle I suppose.
Thankfully there was very little evidence of flooding. Lots of sanbags and makeshift concrete walls outside the shops and houses showed that there was uncertainty about what was going to happen and all the locals I talked to assured me that ''the floods are coming''. I booked a flight up north.
My first night I went for a walk as I had managed to book a hostel well away from any other backpackers, so I went to tryand find some life. First tuk tuk ride through crazy traffic took me to Patpong which turned out to be sex tourist central. I felt really disppointed cos it was the stereotypical idea of Bangkok that you hope isn't true, but the streets were just lined with young prostitutes and guys trying to either sell you one of these prostitutes or a suit.
I wanted neither, so found myself the only bar that was not a brothel, had a beer and watched the Thai version of Strictly Come Dancing with the 70 year old woman who owned the place. She assured me that she used to be the Thai ballroom dancing champion. I hope it was the truth but I think she was telling porkies.
Met some ocals outside my hostel on the way back. They were really friendly, sorted me out with a free sim card and fed me beer and something crispy, not sure what it was.
The next day I slept off the jetlag and went to get some cheap mystery meat from a street stall. Took some immodium with me just in case it was needed after, but thankfully not. Strong stomach.
Went to the Khao San Rd to see what all the fuss was about. It's crap. McDonalds, KFC, Burger King etc... It was just miscellaneous Britsabroad hotspot.
But anyway, I thought I'd try my best to blend in so went to a bar and got out my Lonely Planet. Ended up chatting to a Turkish girl called Gigdem and we arranged to go to a market the next day - Pratoonam. Little did I know it would be the BIGGEST market in the world. Think of the biggest clothes market you can, double it, add a million people. It's way bigger than that. Way, way bigger.
We emerged after about 3 hours, had some mystery meat and then got a tuk tuk to the Golden Mount which is a monk hangout surrounded by a funfair. An odd mix. I was expecting the temple to be a quiet retreat, but it turns out that temples here have loads of big bells that everybody rings as they walk around, so it's actually pretty noisy and not very relaxing. I don't know what the significance of the bells is, but I'll find out. I'll ask a monk - they seem pretty friendly.
Back to the hostel to pack my bags ready for a flight to Chiang Mai the next day...
The airport was very clean and modern which is not what I was expecting, and this continued into the centre of Bangkok on the skytrain. The buildings in the centre were shiny and new, as was my hostel, and the city was not at all what I was expecting - something a bit more rundown and ramshackle I suppose.
Thankfully there was very little evidence of flooding. Lots of sanbags and makeshift concrete walls outside the shops and houses showed that there was uncertainty about what was going to happen and all the locals I talked to assured me that ''the floods are coming''. I booked a flight up north.
My first night I went for a walk as I had managed to book a hostel well away from any other backpackers, so I went to tryand find some life. First tuk tuk ride through crazy traffic took me to Patpong which turned out to be sex tourist central. I felt really disppointed cos it was the stereotypical idea of Bangkok that you hope isn't true, but the streets were just lined with young prostitutes and guys trying to either sell you one of these prostitutes or a suit.
I wanted neither, so found myself the only bar that was not a brothel, had a beer and watched the Thai version of Strictly Come Dancing with the 70 year old woman who owned the place. She assured me that she used to be the Thai ballroom dancing champion. I hope it was the truth but I think she was telling porkies.
Met some ocals outside my hostel on the way back. They were really friendly, sorted me out with a free sim card and fed me beer and something crispy, not sure what it was.
The next day I slept off the jetlag and went to get some cheap mystery meat from a street stall. Took some immodium with me just in case it was needed after, but thankfully not. Strong stomach.
Went to the Khao San Rd to see what all the fuss was about. It's crap. McDonalds, KFC, Burger King etc... It was just miscellaneous Britsabroad hotspot.
But anyway, I thought I'd try my best to blend in so went to a bar and got out my Lonely Planet. Ended up chatting to a Turkish girl called Gigdem and we arranged to go to a market the next day - Pratoonam. Little did I know it would be the BIGGEST market in the world. Think of the biggest clothes market you can, double it, add a million people. It's way bigger than that. Way, way bigger.
We emerged after about 3 hours, had some mystery meat and then got a tuk tuk to the Golden Mount which is a monk hangout surrounded by a funfair. An odd mix. I was expecting the temple to be a quiet retreat, but it turns out that temples here have loads of big bells that everybody rings as they walk around, so it's actually pretty noisy and not very relaxing. I don't know what the significance of the bells is, but I'll find out. I'll ask a monk - they seem pretty friendly.
Back to the hostel to pack my bags ready for a flight to Chiang Mai the next day...
Just wanted to let you know that, yes, people do read your blog...;) Keep up the good work, will be fun to read about your adventures! By the way, Elin's in Singapore these days so give her a shout if you're heading that way! Take care and stay away from the floods!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure I recommended a sleeper train to Chiang Mai!! And yes, Khao San Road is crap, and much much smaller than expected...there is also a seedy road in Chiang Mai...we got shouted at by the drunk owner of one when we played pool one night (as it was the only place with pool and had cheap beer) an apparently were driving sex customers away...sad. Go and explore in Chiang Mai, there's lots of waterfalls and the mountains are beautiful, and go to the Night Safari if you can find someone to act childishly with, it was f***ing awesome...but we got well into it.
ReplyDeleteHave a wicked time :) Bree xx