Sunday 20th November: Its about 2am and we have just arrived at Big John's hostel. There are lots of mangy looking cats and dogs skulking about. Jess thinks they're cute but I'm not so sure! We had to wiat so long at the airpor for a taxi and I'm already regretting the size and wieght of my backpack! I look like (and am) such a novice! Our room is ok (apart from being on the 4th storey), its a 4 person female dorm and we are sharing with an as yet unknown girl. I hope she's not noisy when she gets in as I am shattered! Am completely overwhelmed by everything at the moment. I really want to wake up tomorrow at home in Perth...will undoubtedly fell better after some sleep though.
Monday 21st November: Arrgghhh!! what a day..sleep didn't reall help that much. We learned that breakfast was not included with our room as we had thought, and we had to sit outsiide a bank for ages to change travellors cheques. The 'girl' who we were sharing with turned out to be an Aussie guy called Gary. Both Jess and I got a shock when he showed up in the middle of the night. He seems nice enought though.
It turns out that where we are staying is absolutely nowhere near anything (other sie of the city to Kao Sarn rd)! We decided to try and take the skytrain over to the central area - Siam Square, and eventually we did manage to do this (after walking for a few hours in the wrong direction!! At Siam we were picked up by a tuk tuk - the driver promised to take us to a tourist information place. He did, to his credit, do this although it was a travel agent. The people there were very (almost too) helpful - we have booked train tickets to CHiang Mai and once there a 3 day trek to the hill tribes. It sounds great but we appear to have been ripped off as Jess's guidebook says we have paid 3000baht more than we should have!! Oh well, it was bound to happen at some point or another.
Our tuk tuk driver then took us to a tailor where apparently if we browsed for 15min he would get a free fuel coupon. It's not very easy to browse when there are 3 tailors wanting to take your measurements for a suit! Will probably be going somewhere for dinner soon - all we've had since the plane is some peanuts and a kebab stick from a street stall.
Tuesday 22nd November: After breakfast at Big John's we headed to the skytrain with the plan to make it over to the other side of the city - the Grand Palace, Wat Po etc. We arrived at Siam Square and were having difficulties finding a taxi or tuk tuk (especially because we had to avoid the driver from yesterday!!). We have quickly worked out that sitting down with your map and looking lost illicits helpful advice from the Thais. A lady kindly pointed us in the direction of the number 25 bus to the Grand Palace. The bus took ages, but went through China Town which was interesting (so much gold!). We eventually arrived at Wat Po (buddhist temple). The architecture was amazing, as were the statues, especially the massive reclining buddha. Unfortunately the Grand Palace was closed to tourists after 12noon - we'll have to go another time.
We wandered through some markets for awhile and then took a tuk tuk to the lucky standing buddha. We met a nice Thai man there (he liked us because he has a 21yr old daughter who is also a student) who gave us some good advice. Our tuk tuk driver then took us to another tailor and then refused to take us any further because we didn't look long enough!! We walked for a bit (had the most delicious banannas done in batter and sesame seeds) before taking a taxi to Kao Sarn rd. It was filled with backpackers, food vendors, clothing stalls etc - awesome place! We ate in a resturant there, I had my first Thai Red Curry (was yum). After a few more wrong turns we made it to the Banglumpoo boat stop. We took a longtail express boat (form of public transport) to Central Pier, and then the skytrain back to big john's. We are off to the 'local pub' (yes it is actually called this) for happy hour with our roomie Gary.
Wednesday 23rd November: Am sitting in Lumpini Park at the moment. It is one of the only big green spaces in Bangkok, and it kind of reminds me of Hyde Park or the Supreme Court Gardens in Perth because of all the random people here. There is a guy wandering around talking to himself and kicking things, and we just had a half hour converstion with a ladyboy! She just came over and asked to sit down and talk to us. Apparently she is a student and has a Swiss boyfriend (?). She asked us if we thought she was a lady or a ladyboy, the stubble kind of gave it away. She then went on to detail the operations she had in France (too much info!!).
Last night was really nice. Didn't end up at the local pub, but rather drank outisde Big John's with Gary, an Aussie called Morgan, American/Mexican called Marco and Kerra from Minneapolis. There were lots of political discussions, especially about the treatment of indigenous peoples in Aust. and the US - Jess got particularly passionate! Gary is a disease control/health worker, so we are all up to date about the bird flu, denghi fever and malaria (which he ahs had twice!).
We ate breakfast this morning at a foodcourt in a supermarket. I don't think they det many westerners there as not much was in english, and they laughed at us alot.It was cheap and good though. We still have a few hours until we need to leave to catch our train to Chiang Mai - I'm a bit bored.
Today has gone from good to really bad in like 10minutes!! Apparently a train derailed on the way to Chiang Mai last night so we can't get through. We were taken to a tourist office where they refunded our tickets and we got ones for a bus instead. It was a bit of a debacle as there was only 3mins until the bus was leaving - in the rush I left my documents wallet sitting on the office desk!! It had travellors cheques, plane and train tickets etc in it! We got loaded onto the back of a truck (literally) and driven to where the big buses were waiting. The driver handed me his mobile (I was a little surprised to recieve a call in this manner) and I found out about what I left behind - was very stressed and upset! continued in morning as bus light was switched off... We got to the big buses and things looked a little better as there were lots of other people who had been told the same as us. The bus trip was ok, a bit cramped and cold because of the air con. but I slept a little.
We finally got to Chiang Mai at about 6.30am and there was a driver there to meet us. We went the to bus company office and I got my stuff back (thank god!) and we are now at our hotel. We see now that we weren't actually ripped off with this Chaing Mai trip, we're just booked into a way more expensive hotel than we would have liked (like 2000baht a night instead our usual 180!)
