Dave and Jen arrived in Bangkok International Airport to be met with another hour long wait in the immigration line to be processed for visas. Looking around in the queues, it was quite interesting seeing your typical 20 year old tourist heading to Thailand in the hope of a tan, a romance (read sleazy drunken pick up), and a couple hundred vodka red bull buckets at the infamous full moon party... Complete with mullet and Chang Beer slogan singlet top. Dave and Jen were very happy that we had both moved on from this stage of travelling, and were, rather, searching for quieter more intrepid adventures...
So used to being able to speak a bit of the language, Jen struggled not to say 'termia kasih' (thank you in Malay and Indonesian) at the appropriate times... Luckily, she was well equipped for such circumstances and had loaded World Nomads Language Guides onto my iPod for all the countries we were visiting -so at least I'd have some of the basics. They are terribly funny and involve Scott (an Australian traveller) in conversation with a 'typical' person of that country getting them to teach him the local phrases. For
Malaysia it is a Chicken Satay vendor, for Laos it's a buddhist monk and for Thailand it's a t-shirt salesman... He does have some useful ones such as thankyou, how much and vocab such as boat, bus, train etc... But, obviously influenced by the Shapelle Corby episode (where an Aust. chick got done for drug trafficking in Indonesia and now resides in a Bali Prison), Scott learns how to say 'Dont Shoot! Those drugs aren't mine!' - I can say it in 4 languages and counting so far... So ridiculous, but at least if that situation arises, I know we'll be ok. So, on the plane Jen wrote down as many useful Thai phrases as she could on her arm to increase her vocab and must have looked terribly strange pulling up her sleeve each time she tried to say thank you to someone...
Dave and Jen's main purpose for a stop over in Bangkok was to get our Vietnamese visas and for Dave to get tattooed again by a buddhist monk this time... Jen consulted travelfish.org, the best companion for independent travel in South East Asia (and no sadly I don't get money for endorsing them, but I definately think I should) to find a good guesthouse. We chose to stay in Sam Sen Sam guesthouse near the tourist centre of Khao San Road, but far enough to be away from the crazyness of it all. While being a tad expensive, at 37 USD a night, it was one of the best places we'd stayed in all the trip. The room was great, flushing toilet check, air conditioning for Dave check, but the standout was Bobby, the main dude/owner. He went out of his way to help us with everything, which was good considering Dave's somewhat strange requests... He helped us with our visas, drew us a map to his favourite restaurant -which had amazing and cheap food by the way, and organised transport for our tattoo adventures...
After an 'interesting' breakfast due to miscommunication, which consisted of two bowls of fruit and a side of bacon (supposed to be toast and one bowl of fruit), Dave was obviously disappointed -Jen quite happy especially considering the fruit had mangosteen in it! -A new found love and one of the most amazing fruit in the world... Jen and Dave met Pong, our Thai taxi driver and companion for the next two days. We went to a temple about an hour out of townm to check out some tattoos... Dave negotiated a good price -getting them down by more than half, with Bobby's translation help via mobile phone through Pong, and got a traditional tattoo complete with monk blessing... (Ask Dave about the meanings because I can't remember them -but it looks very cool) Jen tried to get some photos and videos, as per Dave's wishes, but struggled with the customs and after being told off too many times she gave up... Luckily, she'd managed to get at least a few good ones.
On our way home, Pong stopped at a roadside coffee stall and even though Dave and Jen pleaded that we were fine for drinks, Pong insisted on buying us two iced coffee concoctions. They were really nice, except for the fact that Dave doesn't drink coffee and Jen can't drink milk or coffee... So we spent the whole trip back 'pretending' to drink and making delicious sounding noises in case Pong looked at us through his rear view mirror so as not to offend him. Dave and Jen arrived home to find Bobby patiently waiting to see Dave's new ink. -Very impressed, but also somewhat disappointed that Jen didn't get one too considering we went all the way out there... After exploring infamous Khao San Rd and heaps of street stalls selling really interesting food, Dave and Jen stumbled upon probably the only Indian Restaurant in all of Bamphamaloo and induldged in some naan bread and roti (it's becoming an addiction...)
The following morning, Bobby had preordered our breakfast, with extra mangosteen for Jen, so there would be no misunderstandings and at 730 Pong arrived to take us on our next adventure. Dave and Jen went to the floating markets, rather ignorantly expecting some 'authentic' shopping and were met with, it seemed, Khao San Rd on water. We spent about an hour going through the canals attempting to avoid pushy shop keepers who would grab our boat and pull us in to sell us thai souvenirs which are actually made in China... We, or Jen, was more interested, of course, with the fruit boats and had Dave on the look out for mangosteens and bananas...
Pong then drove us to have a look at the Death Railway Bridge over the River Kwai (named beause of the POWs in WW2) and the Tiger Temple. A temple, or sanctuary, for injured wildlife that is cared for and rehabilitated by buddhist monks. Dave and Jen paid a rather expensive entrance fee, but this allowed you to go and pet and take pictures with a fair few tigers. There were at least 15 fully grown tigers lying in the shade and a guide would take you to go and pet them (they were all asleep or way too hot to notice). If you really wanted to, you could also have a photo taken with the tiger's head on your lap... Dave enjoyed seeing the tigers, but Jen's highlight was seeing nearly 20 water buffalo cooling off in a nearby dam! It was so awesome getting to see them relaxing in the water! Hot and tired from a long day driving and sightseeing around Thailand's Central Provinces, Pong stopped at one more 'tattoo' temple, but due to lack of time, Dave will have to save his next tattoo for his next trip...
That night Dave and Jen had booked a sleeper train to Ubon Rattachani, where we were to make our way to the Laos border. Jen, terrified of night trains, due to all of the horror stories of people being gassed and then having their stuff stolen, had been persuaded since we'd bought 1st class tickets. These tickets were supposed to give us our own private room with a locking door... The train arrived and Dave and Jen quickly looked for our carriage and seats. To our dismay, the 1st class sleeper train had been damaged and so we were relegated to Jen's worst nightmare of sleeper out in the open. After complaining in a broken Thai/English conversation, but clearly conveying the general message of being pissed off, the conductor apologised and assured us that the difference in ticket price would be refunded at our destination... Nothing else could be done at this point aswe had to make it to Laos the next morning. So, after a fair few tearsd, and attempted from Dave to reassure her, Jen managed to calm her nerves and even got some sleep on our 10 hour train ride.
We arrived at the station, caught a tuk tuk, bus and song thaew (a local 'bus' -a pick up truck with wooden planks down the sides for seats) to the Laos Border. 3 hours, 4 police instigated stops and 4 corresponding pay offs later, we had arrived at Laos Immigration...
