It took about an hour and a half on the boat and about 8 hours in the bus before we reached Bangkok. We checked in at Bhiman Inn, close to Khao San Road, but not so close that you can hear the thumping music. Khao San Road is an iconic landmark in Bangkok, known for it's bars, restaurants, accommodation and shopping-all at a cheap price. It is of the most popular backpacker hotspots in all of Southeast Asia. Since we got in to Bangkok rather late we just got some cheap pad thai and had a little it if a wander to check things out. While on our walk about we found some amazing street food-another thing Bangkok is famous for.
The following day we decided we were going to walk to a temple called Wat Pho. On our way a suspiciously friendly Thai man confronted us and we talked for a little bit. We told him that we intended to go to Wat Pho, but he said it was closed until 12:30pm(it was about 9am when we started off). We believed him and we were also on the look out for souvenirs, so he suggested that we go to a certain place. He arranged for a tuk tuk to take us their for only 50baht ($1.50) and we agreed. The tuk tuk took us halfway across town to a fancy jewellery factory. As soon as we pulled in and saw ladies with fancy dresses we knew it wasn't where we belonged. We tend to shop at cheap local markets not upscale gold and silver jewellery manufacturers. We peered inside and turned right back around to flag down a taxi, which luckily is very easy, even in remote parts of Bangkok. Obviously there were some commissions being paid to the involved parties in the scam. It wasn't really a bad scam, we didn't loose anything except a bit of time, but it was aggravating to know we couldn't just assume that people would be honest and helpful instead of trying to rip you off.
After the scam we went back to the hotel to have a swim and relax before my mom and I headed out to Wat Pho. And of course when we arrived we soon found out it wasn't actually closed till 12:30pm. Wat Pho is home to Thailand's largest reclining Buddha. Wow! It sure lived up to it's title because the Buddha was absolutely enormous. It is 46m long and 15m high! The reclining Buddha was the first and most impressive attraction in the temple compound, but there were many other ponds, statues and pagodas as well. Since we walked over to Wat Pho we decided to take the river boat back. The river was a rather hectic place with boats constantly stopping and starting, going in all directions. It was a neat experience and the view of the city was great-a different perspective than from the road.
The next morning we checked into a different hotel a bit closer to the Khao San action, but still not noisy. The room was nicer and we also got English TV channels.
After we got all checked in we took a taxi over to MBK-the most well known mall in Bangkok. MBK is known for it's cheap stuff, you don't go looking for Louis Vuitton and Chanel. There is a good variety too, it's quite boring looking around a mall with only clothes or only electronics, MBK has a bit of everything. We did a bit of shopping and browsing around MBK before searching for a hotel for the following night nearby. There are several other malls in the same vicinity so we thought the location would be great. And great it was, we found a hotel called A-One Inn, only about a 3 minute walk from MBK. We then booked the hotel for our next two days in Bangkok (since we already had one on Khao San Road for that night).
Back to Khao San we went, after we knew we had a new hotel in a great location for the next night. On that evening we took the river boat to Asiatique night market. We had a long and fun river boat ride to Asiatique, the boat constantly cruising into the docks at full speed and then hammering on the reverse, meanwhile the conductor is blowing piercing noises out of the whistle. I gotta say the boat ride to the market was quite a bit better than the market itself. It was overpriced and the shopkeepers wouldn't even look (let alone talk!) at you when you said you could buy it somewhere else cheaper. In my opinion Thailand in general did not live up to it's reputation of being the 'land of smiles', there were just so many miserable people. I think it's because they have had so many tourists that they don't care any more and we are a nuisance to them more than anything else. I'm not saying all Thai people weren't friendly, but there were lots that were. I think by far the friendliest people we have met in Thailand, were from Myanmar working. The Thai people don't have to pay the Burmese (Myanmar) people as much money as they would other Thais, and even at that the Burmese still make more money than they would back in Myanmar. The Burmese were appreciative that they could get a job in Thailand and were happy to help the tourists. I think that the Burmese both in Thailand and Myanmar were the most friendly I have met abroad. Now back on track...we didn't stay long at the market but it was worth going just for the boat ride. We passed some very beautiful and nicely lit up temples on our way up and down the river. There were also some very fancy dinner cruise boats we passed on the river, most of them almost empty.
That next morning we did some last minute t-shirt shopping on Khao San Road before checking out of our hotel. On Khao San Road there are also many vendors selling all kind of insects to eat. My dad decided to try some scorpion, cricket, cockroach and larvae. Yuck, yuck, yuck, definitely not for me! Once we got the taxi to MBK we dropped our bags at A-One Inn and went shopping. We checked out some of the other nearby malls but wandered back to MBK in the end, because it was our favourite.
For dinner that night we ate at an amazing restaurant inside MBK. I don't remember what it was called but it was spectacular! It was all you can eat hot pot, sushi, ice cream and juice for an an hour and fifteen minutes. There was a conveyer belt going around with all sorts of stuff to cook in your built in hot pot table. The sushi bar was also great, with loads of different types of sushi. It was a VERY good meal for 300 baht ($10) each. It was expensive for Asian standards (we usually eat at little cheap places on the side of the road) but it was well worth it. You would NEVER be able to get something like that at home for even a remotely similar price. Evidently word had gotten out about the great deal because there was a big lineup just to get a table.
The next day was our last day in Bangkok. So we made the most of it and full out shopped all day. An early start was made so we could head out to Chatuchak Weekend Market and beat the heat. Chatuchak market is absolutely huge! It is 35 acres and has about 15,000 stalls. Luckily we came on Saturday so it wasn't very busy and not all the shops were open. I'm glad they weren't all open because we made out just fine with the hundreds or thousands that were open. It would be too overwhelming with all if them and all the people. We bought lots and lots of souvenirs there and even found some obscure and difficult to find carvings we saw on Koh Tao. We were overjoyed that we finally found them, because we had been looking all over Bangkok for them. We did a bit more shopping in MBK and I found a really cool retro Pan Am Airlines bag.
Finally we headed to the post office to mail home our hoards of stuff. 25 kilos actually! After a lot of packing up the parcels we headed back out to shop yet again!
This time we headed over to Pratunam Market. It was a not bad market but there wasn't a lot of variety, so I bought a change purse and a t-shirt. We ate some lab kai and papaya salad at a tasty sidewalk restaurant before continuing shopping. There were some stalls set up on the side of the road with very nice stuff that we checked out on our way back to the hotel. The stuff I thought was a lot better looking than the stuff in the market itself and was also quite cheap. So I bought some shorts and a tank top and my dad bought some really cute baby outfits for his friend's kids.
After an exhausting day of shopping and walking we headed back to our hotel to catch some sleep, before our flight to Delhi the next morning. We walked A LOT in Bangkok, on our last day alone we walked at least 10km, we left at 9am and never really had a full rest until we got back at 9pm. We were totally ready to do some sitting for a change, on our four hour flight to Delhi.
After the scam we went back to the hotel to have a swim and relax before my mom and I headed out to Wat Pho. And of course when we arrived we soon found out it wasn't actually closed till 12:30pm. Wat Pho is home to Thailand's largest reclining Buddha. Wow! It sure lived up to it's title because the Buddha was absolutely enormous. It is 46m long and 15m high! The reclining Buddha was the first and most impressive attraction in the temple compound, but there were many other ponds, statues and pagodas as well. Since we walked over to Wat Pho we decided to take the river boat back. The river was a rather hectic place with boats constantly stopping and starting, going in all directions. It was a neat experience and the view of the city was great-a different perspective than from the road.
After we got all checked in we took a taxi over to MBK-the most well known mall in Bangkok. MBK is known for it's cheap stuff, you don't go looking for Louis Vuitton and Chanel. There is a good variety too, it's quite boring looking around a mall with only clothes or only electronics, MBK has a bit of everything. We did a bit of shopping and browsing around MBK before searching for a hotel for the following night nearby. There are several other malls in the same vicinity so we thought the location would be great. And great it was, we found a hotel called A-One Inn, only about a 3 minute walk from MBK. We then booked the hotel for our next two days in Bangkok (since we already had one on Khao San Road for that night).
For dinner that night we ate at an amazing restaurant inside MBK. I don't remember what it was called but it was spectacular! It was all you can eat hot pot, sushi, ice cream and juice for an an hour and fifteen minutes. There was a conveyer belt going around with all sorts of stuff to cook in your built in hot pot table. The sushi bar was also great, with loads of different types of sushi. It was a VERY good meal for 300 baht ($10) each. It was expensive for Asian standards (we usually eat at little cheap places on the side of the road) but it was well worth it. You would NEVER be able to get something like that at home for even a remotely similar price. Evidently word had gotten out about the great deal because there was a big lineup just to get a table.
Finally we headed to the post office to mail home our hoards of stuff. 25 kilos actually! After a lot of packing up the parcels we headed back out to shop yet again!
This time we headed over to Pratunam Market. It was a not bad market but there wasn't a lot of variety, so I bought a change purse and a t-shirt. We ate some lab kai and papaya salad at a tasty sidewalk restaurant before continuing shopping. There were some stalls set up on the side of the road with very nice stuff that we checked out on our way back to the hotel. The stuff I thought was a lot better looking than the stuff in the market itself and was also quite cheap. So I bought some shorts and a tank top and my dad bought some really cute baby outfits for his friend's kids.
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