Sawatdee Ka Everybody :D
Wow, well we finally made it to Bangkok after a 23hr plane ride. The flight from Van to Incheon Korea was uneventful. Alaska and Russia look the coolest from the air. Then we had a 2hr stop over at the MASSIVE Incheon Airport, got back on another plane and started heading to Bangkok. Well, about 30min into the ride we noticed that the plane starts decending fast. They had just served the inflight meals, but the pilot didnt make any announcements and the flight attendants didnt seem fazed so we figured everything was fine. All of the sudden the flight attendants are freaking out, trying to get everybodys trays back and get everything secured. (we knew something was up now). The pilot announces that there is a technical problem and that we have to land immeadiately on a little island called Jeju in southern most Korea. So we all strap in and brace for one teeth jarring hard landing. Even the flight attendant infront of us cringed. lol So we had a 3hr stop over in Jeju while they fixed the cockpits window defroster. lol, what a scarry ride lol. And then it was off to Bangkok.
We arrived in bangkok at 4:30am, and got picked up and taken to the Queen's Garden Resort. Which was sub par at best. I remember waking up in the morning and looking outside and thinking, "wholly crap, Im in Bangkok lol". We went for breakfast at the little cafe in the resort, where we got seriously ripped off for a crappy breakfast of Omelette and the whitest, thinnest toast you could ever imagine. Next we grabbed a taxi into bangkok and got dropped of at the beginning of Ko San Road. lol... where do I begin. Ko san is the crazyist thing we've ever encountered. There is tonnes of clothing, accessories, shoes, alcohol, and everything you could ever need to buy. There are persians in fez's trying to sell you tailored suits, Tuk Tuk drivers trying to take you for a ride (what a rip off!), East indians wanting to tell you your fortune, people handing out information, taxi drivers asking "where are you going, get in ill take you for a ride", prostitues standing in a line primed and ready for market, people from all walks of life, and the very common white fat old man and young uninterested pretty Thai girl. The smells are a mix of food, sewage, pollution, and filth. lol, Nev took a great video tonight of the entire block of Ko San, ill send it to you all, along with all the other pictures as soon as I can.
So we checked into our hotel, The New Siam 1 Guesthouse, which was quite nice for the price. Air con, full bathroom, Bilingual TV and hard bed. We then decided to get out and start shopping. We ended up at this Wat (temple) just up the road, where this very nice Thai man chatted us up and gave us lots of great advice (or so we thought lol), he proceeded to hail us a Tuk Tuk to take us around and show us several temples, for the low low price of 20 baht (.70 cents). Great we thought, this is awesome. Well then we realized "crap, we've been had". He stopped at several cool temples and Buddah statues, then proceeded to make neumerous stops at tailor and souviner shops (where he gets a commision for bringing us there). lol, after an hour and a half of riding around in the poulluted streets of bangkok, we had had enough. It took alot of persuading and a huge guilt trip on his part, for him to just stop and let us out lol. Well I guess everybody has to experience it once. Now every time we see Farangs (forigners) in Tuk Tuks we think " NO DONT DO IT, GET OUT NOW WHILE YOU STILL CAN" lol.
We then decided to go to the MBK mall (The biggest mall you could ever imagine) in the Siam Square district. And after our Tuk Tuk experience, we decided to just walk. And wow, what a great way to see Bangkok. We walked a fifth of the way through bangkok, and were pretty much the only farang around. We got to see real Thai's living their day to day lives. By far this was the most enjoyable part of our experience so far. When we got to MBK we were just blown away. There were 8 stories to this mall, and every level was crammed full of stuff. We wandered around for about 3 hours, just mezmerized by all the stuff and junk. And everybody was selling the same stuff. lol it was hillarious. It was pretty much 8 levels of the same crap. We did manage to buy a basic cell phone for $30 CAN. Which was great.
Then back home for some drinks at a bar down the road and some relaxation. LOL, 2 long islands later and we were just tanked. lol. Man the drinks here are sooooo strong. So we took one last crazy, wild ride down Ko San road on the way back home, and crashed in bed.
Today, we got up at 11am, (ahhhhhhhhhhh finally got a good nights rest), and went for some excellent pad thai at a little veg restaurant just off Ko San Road. Then we decided to take a taxi down the the TAT (tourism authority of thailand office), and finally figured out that if you get a meter cab somewhere AWAY from a tourist area, they wont hassel you and try and make you stop at shops so they can get a commision, (YAYAYAYAYAY LOL). Then we went to the Patchanaburi Market, and WOW. lol. That was awesome. I cant wait to send you all some picts (dont worry their coming soon!). When we came back home Nev found this awesome artsy bar (political art which was really cool) with an awesome roof top bar overlooking bangkok and the Temple Mount. We were the only farang there, and we each had ONE long island that was stronger than the TWO long islands we had had the night before. lol. And here I am now, emailing you all.
From time to time we both look at eachother and say "wholly crap hun, WE"RE IN BANGKOK!!!!!" lol. Its crazy here. But also completely safe. Even walking the streets drunk at night no body bothers you. Its great. The people are so freindly, (even if their trying to squeeze your wallet), and the food is amazing, not to mention this place is dirt cheap. But alas, we cant wait to get out of bangkok and get down to some real relaxation on Ko Chang. We will be there on Nov. 9, so we'll email you all again as soon as we can. Hopefullly with some great picts.
Please email us back with any questions or comments, it would be great to hear from you all k :)
Love you all, and MAI REN PAI (No Worries)
Send us all your positive vibes, we will need them :D
Love,
Shauna and Nevin
