Bangkok
is known as Krung Threp to the locals – the city of angels. Our
arrival in the massive and massively modern Suvarnabhumi airport was
straightforward after the three hour puddle jump to Sydney and a
quick connection for the nine hour second leg with Qantas. SE Asia
was where the plan ran out. Neither of us had spent any time here
apart from my brief holiday in Malaysian Borneo a few years back so
we were suitably looking forward to what David Scott, my old travel
literature professor called “the other”.
I
had booked a place on Soi Rambuttri, near the infamous Khao San Road
and asked the taxi driver to take us to the door. He found the street
but not the guest house ... He shrugged his shoulders and asked for
his 400 Baht fare. I was struggling too much with the double whammy
of the unfamilar bank notes and the fact that a small elephant was
outside the car, blocking my exit, to notice that my phone had fallen
out of my pocket in the taxi.
It
was a complete sensory assault arriving well past midnight in
Bangkok's traveller heart. The mahoot was looking for cash for
elephant feed, the street bars selling vodka and red bull served in
buckets I used to make sand castles with as a kid were looking for
punters and all the while we were looking for our guest house. After
a 20 minute wander, feeling conspicuous in our rucksacks we found it.
At
about 12 pounds a night for an air conditioned double we had landed
back in the cheap developing world at last. The air con gasped into
life and we struggled to find room for our bags around the bed. Good
job it was only booked for 2 nights, enough to get our bearings.
After a quick breakfast the following morning we went for a wander.
The place was totally different by day – the street bars replaced
by food stalls and vendors selling every type of tat you could
imagine. Practically every person I made eye contact with and every
tuk tuk and taxi driver came up and asked “where are you going
now”, offering tours of the city for 10 Baht (about 20p) and
generally perpetuating the cliché of taking advantage of the
first day arrival. Only thing is it doesn't just last the first day!
We
strolled around the streets, trying and failing to make sense of it
all. A random Thai woman said hello and started asking us the usual
questions. She said there was a special government sponsored deal on
today with the tuk tuk drivers that they would give a city tour for
20 baht. We had also heard that there was a big pro-Thaksin,
anti-government rally on today aswell. She drew things on our map and
then, unbidden went out to get a tuk tuk for us – she negotiated
the 20 baht deal and we were off before we knew it. A surprisingly
sudden and quite exhilarating MOT number 31. Still paranoid about
being taken to dodgy gemstone shops (a common tuk tuk scam) we sought
reassurance from the driver by pointing and gesture but he seemed
genuine enough.
Our
first stop was the Wat Indraviharn, dominated by a 32m tall golden
standing Buddha. It was a little strange to be on a tour to places we
had never heard of and didn't know the significance of. Only later
did we find out not only that it's the tallest Buddha in the world
but that you can climb up him. Ah well. Need to read guidebook in
advance in future.
In
a flash were off again and racing towards what we thought was the
Tourist Information Bureau (of which there is only one in Bangkok).
Actually it was a Tourist Agency (of which there are thousands in
Bangkok, all trying to sell all manner of tours and trips). In
retrospect I now think that that woman who sent us on this crazy trip
was actually employed by this agency. We didn't buy anything and
moved on, this time towards another Wat (temple) further North.
The
traffic was terrible and we didn't move for a long time near one of
the filthy canals. Eventually we eaked forward enough to see the
problem – a barricade of red shirted Thaksin supporters. We
u-turned and headed up another way, but this time the traffic was
worse, so much so that all the mopeds and motorbikes had reorted to
driving on the path. The heat and fumes were starting to get really
bad and the driver started looking stressed. Another 10 minutes and
he said in broken English that he didn't know if it would take 1 hour
or 4 hours to get to the wat or back to Banglamphu, where we had
started off. We were better off walking back. To be fair he said we
didn't have to pay as we hadn't done the tour yet, but I gave him the
20 baht anyway, thankful he hadn't tried to scam us. We walked back
following the map, asking the police (mostly dressed in riot gear)
for directions along the way, all the time dodging the bikers using
the footpath. If we felt a bit bored in NZ we had now come to the
cure!
