We left you on our first flight. There isn't a lot to say about long flights other than they suck. Air Canada, surprisingly was excellent. They have a great entertainment system, the food and drinks came often and the staff were very friendly. Tim and I had our fair share of drinks and were appreciative to have been supplied with a couple for the road. The second flight United Airways 747 felt considerable longer. The flight had pretty much nothing on the comforts of the first flight, the food and drinks were OK, but we almost had to beg for it. We were very happy to get off that flight.
The Bangkok airport is extremely efficient, got money exchanged, through customs, collected our bags and got a taxi. The taxi was extreme; the driver drove about 140km in the posted 80 KM zone. It felt like his steering wheel and gas pedal were faulty, with him pumping the gas and swerving all over the place. Who needs Canada's Wonderland with a ride like that!
We made it to the area of our hotel and after two trip around the block, we insisted to get out! It took us about 20 minutes walking around before we found our back ally hotel. King Royal Hotel, nothing special to look at but it is clean, the staff are friendly and the free breakfast is extremely good with custom orders and a fancy latte machine.
After a short sleep, we went out into the adventures of Bangkok. The neatly compartmentalized days I had plan went out the window about an hour into our adventure. We took the BTS Skytrain from Sasurak to Saphan Taksin and were tantalized by the sounds and smells 'Old Bangkok' had to offer. The area probably should be enjoyed at night as most of the hawker stalls were absent and only a few food venders were offering the standard Thai fair. Tim took the executive decision to take a boat ride...
We walked around the Central Pier for a bit, before deciding on which one wasn't a tour (not an easy task when everyone is trying to sell you a package and we just wanted the normal boat transport) Even after our efforts we still got hustled onto a tourist boat. Although seemingly cheap at 40 baht, from what I have read, the normal boat is only around 10-20 baht... Oh well. We thoroughly enjoyed the boat ride to Cha Tien pier; a great way to see the city from the poverty to the affluence; the ugly realities of a major city to the beautiful sites of the Wats and gardens along the river. The river is used extensively to shuttle people and goods around and from the look of it, is quite polluted.
From the pier, we enjoyed the serenity of a very nice park. We took off our shoes and walked in the short soft grass; drank some water and contemplated our choices. We decided to check out Wat Pho, the home of a massive two story high, 100 foot long reclining Buddha. Although the place was extremely beautiful, I could not shake the feeling the I was a voyeuristic tourist. They had a beautiful religious ceremony where the Buddhist monks were praying with about a hundred Thais following in chant. Because we didn't plan to visit the Wat, I wasn't appropriately dressed with my shorts on. The staff was nice enough to provide me 'pants' to enter one temple and a beautiful robe to see the reclining Buddha. Tim enjoyed seeing me play dress-up!
From there we decided to walk to China Town; but with the heat and distance we decided a beverage was in order. A quick stop at 7-11; the store of choice in Thailand with one on every corner (sometimes two). As apposed to convenience stores in Canada, 7-11 is the same price, if not cheaper than the grocery store. A two pack of king cans cost 88 Baht and water was 6 baht for 500 ML. A 2-1 ratio was the plan, but with limited washrooms in the city, we ended up having more like a 1-1 water to beer.
Along the walk, we stopped at the local police station to consult our map (don't pull out a map on the street unless you want a hundred tuk tuk drivers hassling you for rides to god knows where. Ducked into the open air lobby of the station; Tim decided it was a good opportunity to use the toilet (the urgency of his need is under expressed; just know that I am laughing thinking back to him dropping everything and running off). Although he had seen a squat style toilet in his previous travels, he was not mentally prepared for the experience. No details needed...
We made it to Yaowarat (China Town), only to find Soi Wanit 1 (covered street of vendors selling everything from stereo equipment to fabric) extremely busy . It took us the better part of an hour just to shuffle through the tight ally and escape to the comparatively quitter Charoen Krung road. We stopped on some steps close to a 7-11, enjoyed some water and people watched for about 30 minutes. Our one major observations was that Bangkok would be a lot cleaner if they had street garbage containers. We also saw our first sex tourist; an old white dude with a young (maybe really young) Thai girl.
We made our way back to our hotel, taking the MRT (subway) from Hua Lamphong to Silom (18 baht). We stopped and enjoyed some chicken Yam Tom soup on Soi 20; a street Tim found on one of the travel guides as a popular food destination (it was good, but standard Thai quality).
After a short nap we took the BTS to Siam square, grabbed a couple beers at 7-11 and adventured to MBK Mall (a huge maga mall that had thousands of stalls selling mostly knock-off cloths and cheaper electronics. Unfortunately we only arrived a hour before closing so decided to check out the night life. Although no more “larger than life” then Las Vegas or Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Soi Cowboy is a must see. Quite the “flesh market” the lights and ambiance is set for those looking for “love”. It is a little sad, but we purposely made up stories that the girls are working their way through college ;-) Pat Pong was far less impressive with vendors aggressively trying to pull us into freak shows where every detail on the large print flyer started with “Pu$$y”, no $.
The night ended with the best foot massage ever! For 250 baht, plus 50 for tip, we “enjoyed” an hour of having our feet, calves, shoulder, neck and head being pushed, pulled, hit and rubbed. It was at times quite painful, but very relaxing and needed after a long day of walking. Something we will probably enjoy daily...
Sorry we are having an issue with the internet trying to upload photos, we will work on it again tonight to get you some photos.
