Bangkok, not so seedy reallyMay 16, 2012
|
|
Bangkok from the river taxi
Bangkok from the river taxi
Bangkok from the river taxi
| So after the first night at the hotel we thought we would try to find our way around some of the city. We had done a bit of research and there were a few things to see and do apart from look for lady boys in the late night bars. The sky train is the best way to get around, basically there are 2 lines which meet amusingly at Siam station and both go roughly east to west and north to south. They public transport is very cheap here and the stations run like clockwork and are really clean unlike the rest of Thailand which as we have said before is a bit dirty. The travel card all day is 120 baht (£2.10) so we bought one each and headed to where we needed to by a ticket to get to our next destination. The place we had to get to was called Thonburi station and we worked out that we could get the sky train to the river then get a water taxi to the pier close to the station. Once we got to the river, we thought we would jump on a river taxi but ended up being blagged into getting on a tour boat, we didn't realise but it was only 30 baht each so it wasn't bad. We hurtled down the river on the boat at a speed that would frighten Richard Branson in his boat and the bloke tying up the boat just jumped on and off the boat it was mental. Once we got to our quay we thought we would jump a tuk-tuk to the station and the guy again drove us around a bit before dumping us at the station. The station itself was straight out of the 1930's as was the ticket seller although he was very helpful and got us tickets for 3 days time. As it happened, the train we would be getting was in the station and getting ready to leave that day, i took the chance to jump aboard and have a look and the train was also out the 30's, the 1830's!! it looked like one of those jobs you see in India carrying all the poor buggers up and down the country. Anyway we left the station looking for a tuk-tuk to take us back to the quay, none about of course so we thought we would walk it in 30 degree heat, after about 20 minutes of walking around a just finished market swarming with rats we found our quay and got a proper water taxi on the river. We jumped off at the stop for the grand palace as we wanted to go there, a short walk and we were in teh grounds but you had to pay 400 baht for a ticket which lasted till 4.30, it was after 3 then so we thought we would come back tomorrow, we got a couple of piccies though which was fortunate in the end... We headed back to the hotel with the plan of having a drink in teh bar then going out for some nice Thai food just along the main street where we were staying, a place called Sukhumvit. We had a voucher from the hotel for a welcome drink each, we though great a G&T before we leave nice. Apparently the welcome drink is just a glass of this concoction they make up in teh hotel which is like honey and lemon veno's so we left it and ordered a beer. We then went for a wander up and down the main road looking for a decent Thai place to eat, in Bangkok..could we find one? could we shite. Anyway after wandering around all the massage parlour areas and the girls who can't say no we found a small street with a couple of places in and one of them was Thai. The food was gross, by far the worst we have had and the bill was over 550 baht with a drink each which is also one of the most expensive, we were not happy. The best thing to come out of the evening was finding a local pub which showed the football so we knew somewhere to watch the final matches of the season on Sunday. On the Sunday we went to the best market in the world at chatuchak market, this was at the end of the sky train line so that was easy enough. The place was packed but really well laid out so you could wander up and down the aisles without too much fuss. There everythinghing you could think of, all no doubt fakes but as our friend Lauren say's 'genuine fakes'. I wanted a couple of Chang Tee shirts and got them for about £2 each. We also saw some ace Xmas lights but we knew we would have to carry them around and that wasn't really on. We stopped for a bite to eat at one of the nicer looking stalls and had some crab spring rolls with tamarind sauce, god they were good. Ang didn't want anything but naturally ate half of mine. We then had another walk about and saw a cock fight in a proper pit as well, not a pretty sight unlike the wonderful fish, birds and dogs and cats in the animal section. We left the market at about 3 and called in at this fabulous shopping mall on the way home for a drink and a look. The food hall was amazing and there were so many free samples that we didn't need to buy any lunch, especially in the gourmet food hall, lovely. We went back to the hotel and had a rest before getting cleaned up and heading to the black swan to watch the footy, that was a great night we met this really nice Argentinian bloke who was a city supporter so he was over the moon as they say and we chatted to him for a bit before going back to the hotel. Next day we realised that we had been in Thailand for almost a month, then we realised that you are only allowed to stay for a month!! We went on the net and found out that you can extend your visa by going to the immigration office. We checked on the Thai government website and headed to the place, that was a trek as no sky train went close to it and we had to get a metro. As it happened, the metro was also the line we needed to get on to get our train tickets to Chiang Mai the next week. We went on the metro to the main railway station and this really helpful info woman literally took us to the window to buy our sleeper tickets up and down then waited and took us up stairs to a travel agents who sorted us out with accommodation in Chiang Mai and a lift from teh station, she also told us she could organise the trip to Cambodia across Thai border but we thought we would wait for that. So Chiang Mai all sorted, now just the visa to do. We went back on the metro 2 stops, except we got off after one stop for some reason and then had a really long walk up and down the street until we found immigration only to be tthat tha this was not for Europeans and we had to go right across town. We only had a couple of hours and we left the next day to go to the River Kwai so we had to jump a taxi which was good but cost us another 300 baht. Then we had to negotiate paperwork and photo's and photocopies before being stripped of another 1900 baht each to extend the visa by a week, which is actually not long enough as it expires the day before we leave so we will probably be fined another 500 each when we cross into Cambodia. This could have been avoided if i had sorted out visitor visas before we left like I did with USA, OZ, Vietnam but hey what can you do. To get from this new place to Bangkok centre was another mini nightmare, we got a taxi and asked him to take us to Mo Chit which is the sky train terminus but after driving for about 40 minutes he took us to the bus station, as if we looked as if we needed the bus station the knob. We did plan to go to Italianlian again but we were so stressed after that we went back to the black swan and had some food there before going back to the hotel and just cooling down. We had arranged a taxi for the next day to take us to the station for Kanchanaburi which is where the bridge over the river kwai is, we got in the cab and set off and hit the traffic which is appalling at any time of the day in Bangkok. After toing and froing and asking other people the way he managed to get us to our train 10 minutes before it left. We took our seats in the palatial 3rd class seats and set off for the next round of our adventure. |
Advertisement 
|
