We landed in Bangkok at 6:45am (Thailand Time). After more than an hour to get through immigration we found our bags in a pile on the ground in the airport. We got a crazy taxi man to bring us to our hotel on the Khaosan Rd. He had no speedometer on his dash. Drivers are mental here. Jim says there’s no such thing as indicating here in Thailand and sure we all know he’s mad into his indicating. Couldn’t believe there were so many pickup trucks on the motorway with people hanging out the back. No seat belts there!! And yes we were very observant for that hour of the morning after a 15 hour flight!!
Checked in and slept for 5 hours to be bright eyed and bushy tailed for our introduction to Bangkok. The adventure begins! It was already dark out again we got up and out onto the Khaosan Road and it was crazy. First stop food. And of course we both got chicken and steak with chips for dinner!! Haha. Looking out from the restaurant we could see the hustle and bustle of the Khaosan Rd. After a good feed we went for a wander and stumbled across the Krathong festival Friday night market where we heard Bangkok’s equivalent to Daniel O’Donnell on stage. After all the walking we went to Swensens and had the yummiest giant ice-creams ever. We then topped off our ice-creams with well-earned massages which we washed down with a big Chang beer.
Day two in Bangkok. Just getting over the jet lag. Great day today jam packed. Made our way down towards the Grand Palace in the afternoon but didn’t quite make it there as we ran for shelter from the lashing rain. We ended up at the city pillar shrine. There we got chatting to a Thai couple who told us all about the annual Loy Krathong festival on this weekend. They hailed us a tuk tuk, haggled him down to 10thb for us to get to the Ranichi Pier where we would grab a long tail boat to bring us around the Chao Phraya River and canals on a tour. The tour was amazing. We got to see all the temples and real Bangkok life living along the river. We saw a mad big yellow and black striped lizard in the river and further down some Thai guys swimming, the mad yokes! After the tour we got dropped off at the Pier for a gander around Chinatown.
Later that night we hit skype to make everyone at home very jealous! After dinner we headed down towards the Golden Tower where the Krathong festival was in full swing. There we got a funny cartoon pic drawn of ourselves. Jim is convinced he looks like Ben Affleck in it, haha!! Off over to the Giant Swing monument then for some more sightseeing and afterwards back to the spa for a dip in the fish tank. It’s a crazy feeling having lots of tiny fish nibble on your feet and toes, eek! It was hilarious seeing everyone’s reaction when they put their feet in first and the shock feeling of all the fish touching your legs and feet. Definitely a must try when you’re on hols!
The next day for a second try we headed towards the Grand Palace only to be told that only Thai's were allowed in today so we headed on down the road to Wat Pho to see the humongous reclining Buddha and drop coins into the money pots which the Thais believe to be auspicious i.e. bring success so let’s hope that auspiciousness holds out when we’re looking for jobs in Oz!! From there we took the river ferry over to the Temple of Dawn (Wat Arun) where we climbed to the top for some fantastic views of Bangkok. That night we caught the last night of the Krathong festival in Bangkok by following the crowds to where all the action was going on near the river. We bought a Krathong flower float each and launched it into the Chao Praya River for good luck and to thank the river for supplying water to the people of Thailand. Apparently the longer distance it goes down the river the more luck you will have. We didn’t have much luck though as not too far down some Thai children jumped into the water and stole our Krathongs out of the river. Needless to say we weren’t too happy. The little feckers!!! We choose however to think more along the lines that we hadn’t used much water in Bangkok so didn’t need to be thanking the river much for supplying us with water. ha
