Bangkok is an assult on the senses. The background noise of the constant "beep, beep" of traffic horns and the "where you go?, 'suse me, maam. where you go? I take you 10 bat" combined with the intense food smells (mostly delicious) except of course for the fish sauce which I think smells like urine when it is cold from the fridge - you can imagine how temperatures in the high 30's help. The exceptionally dirty streets (especially near our guesthouse in Chinatown - which was in the automotave repair section) and the lack of traffic rules - traffic lights? Rarely. Rules of the roads? Apparently not. Driving on either side of the road? Sure! Motorcycles on sidewalks? Sure. Sidewalks? If you're lucky. Driving in one lane? Where is the fun in that? Driving on the shoulder? How about making a new traffic lane of the shoulder and weaving randomly in and out of traffic? Now that's more like it!!
We spent a few overwhelming days there - days where finding an internet cafe and typing anything more than a few sentences felt like a bit much. But we also had a lot of fun.
Our first day was spent wandering the shopping centre of MBK. Unlike shopping centres back home, MBK is more like a air-conditioned market selling everything! We managed to unlock our cellphone and buy a Thai sim card from a ladyboy with a five-o'clock shadow. We even found a camera charger for our camera which was about to become as useful to us as a parka. We even went back to MBK to upload our pictures as the internet connection was far faster than the one at our guesthouse!
On our first real night there we went to a Cabaret show. Who doesn't want to see lipsyncing ladyboys - who have better bodies than most women I know - dance the night away? We didn't take many pictures but the performances were varied and highly entertaining. Espcially, watching this one poor audience memeber, a middle aged man, become the centre of attention from one very comical and touchy performer. ;)
The next day we hopped aboard a river taxi that runs in the small water cannels around the city. Aside from the insanely dirty water and the funny smell - it was an awesome way to get around. The trip was fast, a bit rock and roll, and cheap - 9 Baht each (that's less than 30cents Canadian!). Slightly disoriented after our river taxi we decided to take a tuk-tuk driver up on his offer - "10Baht each, many stops okay." It started off okay. We got to visit the giant Golden Budha and another smaller shrine. After that is when things started going downhill. After a visit to a travel agent - um no thanks and then a tailor - heck no! We paid the driver (much more than aggred upon - just to get him off our case, and considered it a good learning experience (since everyone should get taken for a ride by a talented scam artist when they travel to Thailand. Three dollars isn't much to pay - some poor tourists end up paying a lot more buying expensive pre-packaged tours and "silk" suits).
Here are some things we saw during our ride:
Giant Golden Buddha and a (fake) monk sitting opposite.
Below: After walking through a school yard game of soccer we saw this much much smaller temple and met our tuk-tuk drivers partner... one of many I'm sure.
**sadly I accidently erased the video Peter took of our crazy ride**
After, our fun tuk-tuk ride (a crazy ride which was worth the 3 dollars) we headed for the backpackers ghetto of Khao San. We did not last long there - we were approached by another con-artist "an English teacher" who just happened to know of some great deals and places to go via tuk-tuk (fool me once...). Khao San is not our scene. Hundreds of tuk-tuks and taxis all asking "where you go?" grotty looking places to sleep and things to do. Travel agencies that probably rival the tuk-tuks in number and of course tons of backpackers. We stopped at an ice cream store to look at a map (as looking at one outside will no doubt get you a lot of tuk-tuk attention) and asked the cashier how to get to the river. After a bit of a hike we managed to find the river and we quickly hoped aboard a river taxi and headed for a new guesthouse in Chinatown.
At the park in front of the river taxi stop:
Not only does milk do a body good it is also a super hero of sorts!
A view from our much bigger river taxi. Chinatown here we come!
