Sa Wat dii ka [sa wah ti kah] (hello),
We have arrived save and sound at Bangkok.
We got to the airport at 11:30pm Bnk time and 2:30am Aus time on Tuesday...SO TIRED when we got here. Didn't get any sleep on the plane and some wanker chops spilt his Bourbon on Jamies Game boy case, NOT HAPPY. He fell asleep with it in his hands and it spilt all over it. Candice was so tempted to punch him cause she had hardly any sleep and he had put his seat back while she was eating, she was not happy again. We are going to have to get used to it, as we have plenty of flights to go.
We are experiencing the culture and the annoyingness (don't know if that's a word) of the Thai people. Bangkok is STINKY and DIRTY! We went on a tuk tuk (local motor bike thing with seats). It cost us 100 Baht (3.55Au) to drive us around town for 4 hours. However it has it's set backs. They are all little schemers and take you to the Jewelers and taylor shops to buy stuff. If the tourist buys something the tuk tuk guy gets a free fuel voucher. So we got suckered in by that one and Jamie bought a nice ring with pink sapphire for 4,300Baht ($150Au)for me. We got to see the craftmen change the size of it for Candice cause it was so tiny. So it wasn't all wasted. However our little tuk tuk man got his voucher, he was very happy.
It's really horrible seeing so many poor and dirty people. There are a few beggars that you feel really sorry for. There are heaps of shops selling EVERYTHING and anything imitation. You have to barter with them otherwise it's a HUGE rip off.
The hotel we stayed at (Indra Regent Hotel) was very nice so we got to ease into poverty slowly.
We went to the Marble Temple yesterday and seen a big gold Buda, they LOVE their king and their Buda heaps.
After that we went on a boat ride around the canal to see all the houses built in the water. It was really nice but the water was really dirty and smelt. There were kids playing in it oblivious to the dangers!
While on the ride we got suckered into looking at this rich guys house and little farm out the back. It was 200 baht each ($7.15Au) to look at this house with hand carved wooden crap.
Then when we got back on the boat and went around the rest of the way, a lady in a boat pulled up to sell us stuff. We where getting sick of being told to buy this and buy that when it was our fist day! So we told her "NO THANK YOU", and got off the boat. After that we ran into more schemers when a guy we thought was nice and helpful told us to get on a tuk tuk and go to the happy Buda, which we did. Little did we know that he had told our tuk tuk guy to take us to the SAME places as the first tuk tuk dude (tailors and jewelers) so we just kept saying, "No we've been there". Candice started getting pi$$ed off with him, so we told him to take us to the Indra (hotel). He took us as far as he could, I don't think he knew where it was.
Then we were to fend for ourselves. Which we did really well. Jamie spotted a building that he had seen outside our window of the hotel so we hot tailed it there. As Jamie would say "The leader saved the day".
We are traveling to Ko Samui today (17th May) and staying there for 5 nights including train travel there over night. So we don't have to pay for accommodation tonight cause we are traveling on the train...so smart! For 5 nights, train and boat ride it's costing us $165 each! SO CHEAP.
We are in the Internet Cafe at the moment and it is costing us 53cents per 1/2hr so it's nice and cheap too.
