So Bangkok, city of utter and absolute mayhem. If you were to conjure up an image in your head of the hectic Asian metropolis, made up of snippets of movies and documentaries, then this would be it. We have been here for three days now and have tried as much as possible to live, breathe (try to!) and ultimately let the city make its mark upon us.
After the nightmare boat journey to get us here I think we were even more excited to be in Bangkok than we otherwise would have been. Waking relatively late after not arriving till 3am the night before we headed downstairs for the sanctity of a fantastic buffet breakfast, the first one of our trip (possibly the last!). The food was excellent and for a couple of budget travellers like ourselves it was incredibly cheap to be in a position not to have to pay extra for breakfast and if we ate enough, which we did, we could keep going right through till dinner, saving even more money!
I guess the great thing about travelling with our own means of Internet has been the ability to research and book ahead for our next destination, this has meant on most occasions, we have managed to get somewhere that ticks most of the relevant boxes- good location, clean rooms etc. This we got in Bangkok. Our place was called Wendy guesthouse which, despite the immaculate rooms and breakfast, it was it's location which was it's biggest advantage. Right next to the skytrain it was also adjacent to the shopping behemoth that is MBK. Our first day then consisted of perusing the many many malls, MBK being one of them, replacing clothes that have literally been worn and washed to death. I'm not a great shopper, I have zero patience, so when faced with maniacal Pompey shoppers and/or happy slapping chavvies I tend to stay at home but I have to say, despite the crowds, shopping in Bangkok has been a pleasure. You see everything is cheap, this is to be expected, but it is in quality though which surprises you. The fact that Thai guys are small, in this instance anyway, definitely swings in my favour-everything fits! For poor Shell though, department stores aside, her slender size was too big for most of what the Thai stores had to offer. Even so, in the truly momentous MBK, Shell managed to buy two more dresses added to the one bought in Koh Phangan, I even offered opinion! Shell also managed to get some cheap converse, for 14 quid! I managed to buy two pairs of quality shorts and even a t-shirt with Ziggy Stardust era Bowie on the front!
After almost four hours perusing MBK's almost infinite stores and buying lots of cheap goods we headed for the top floor and their equally impressive food court. Now food courts can sometimes conjure up images of school canteens and lumpy mashed potato but here in Bangkok the food court has taken on it's own art form. Every food station prepares food from fresh right in front of you and the quality and price are unspeakably good. We paid just over three pounds to chomp on chicken pad Thai, hong kong pork omelette, a delicious rice and egg dish with melt in the mouth roast pork and a clear broth-like gravy, you could seriously feast breakfast, lunch and dinner in these places and still leave change from a tenner!
From the MBK we headed four stops down, in quite possibly the coldest train carriage you could possibly imagine. In fact as I sit here in Penang some days later the memory of being able to see your breath as you are covered in sweat is a strange old feeling. From there we went to mall number two, a brand new building called terminal 21. Now if MBK was only fools and horses then Terminal 21 was keeping up appearances. The place was eight floors high with each level imitating a different city. This alone would be enough to make you want to pop on over for a browse but as you scale the escalators from the ornate statues of Rome to London you are faced with an exact replica of a London bus and low and behold, a full replica of a London tube train...as the toilets! It's not until you get to level seven though, and San Francisco that the sight of a mini golden gate bridge truly makes you stop slightly slack jawed. We ended up on the top floor buying cinema tickets where as we sat waiting for our film to start we were told to stand for their national anthem coupled with moving pictures of their beloved king. They adore him over here, and in a way you can see why. The Thai people are a proud bunch and have a national unity that can only be marvelled at. The king is the epitome of this spirit. It is, quite literally, moving stuff. Arriving back at the hotel I think we were both a little taken aback by the sheer size of the city, we have never seen anything like it, even Hong Kong pales in comparison!
Up early the next morning we had our usual breakfast fix (this time with cornflakes!) before heading for the eponymous grand palace, essentially Thailand's Buckingham palace but on an even grander and ornate level. Despite the sun and heat doing it's very best to melt us we walked on after catching a river boat upstream to the nearest pier. After arriving at the entrance we were then told we had to completely cover up. For Shell, who was wearing a dress, this meant donning a cardigan and wrapping a large scarf around her legs, for me this meant queuing up with all the other boyfriends and husbands so we could hire, seemingly, Jackie Chan's cast-off trousers. Despite looking like a couple of those kids who are allergic to sunlight we marched on and into the delights of the palace.
As palaces go it was phenomenal. Everything was either solid gold, brightly coloured tile mosaics or stone carvings that showed a staggering array of intricacy. The kings face was again everywhere and the difference to somewhere like buckingham palace or Edinburgh castle was that 90% of the people in their were Thai not foreign tourists. We read that these people may have been here many times already but cone to pay their respects to the king and his residence whenever they can. From there we hopped over the river to visit an equally stunning temple called Wat Arun which had steps so steep, a man popped underneath us to take an upskirt shot of shell as she scaled back down. The big perv.
After the cultural heights of temples and palaces we decided to walk to Koh San road, probably the most famous backpacker enclave in Asia, maybe the world. Truth is, it's just as seedy and grubby as any other inner city busy street. We stopped for a beer and spied some cheapish lonely planets but apart from some predictably horrible types of tourist there just wasn't a lot there, unless you like burger kings and cheap flip-flops. We then decided to walk back to the hotel as on the map it was just one straight road all the way. Thing is, in Bangkok a centimetre on the map corresponds to about a mile so we ended up walking for about two hours down half hacked pavements besides one of Bangkok's busiest roads, at the height of rush hour, the exhaust fumes were choking. Bangkok, is just not made for pedestrians...
The next morning we travelled up the metro line to Chatuchak Market, a weekend Market so colossal that it even has it's own map in the guidebook. The size, intensity and heat are insane, kind of like Bangkok in a microcosm. We wondered around for most of the day, and you know what, we could of stayed longer. We bought some absolute bargains from stalls that you so desperately want to see back in the UK. For example, a stall just selling UK indie CD's and t-shirts. The bloke was amazing, I would peruse through a section, pick up a CD to take a look at the track listing and before I knew it he would have the best track of the album blaring out of the speaker. Even crazier still was when I and another bloke picked up a Joy Division t-shirt to look at the same time. Turns out he was called Sam and he was from Uzbekistan and had a huge love for the smiths and joy division. Insane. Quality bloke who even let me buy the t-shirt. Uzbekistan!!
From there we headed back into the centre in search of lonely planet guidebooks but failed miserably after learning they cost about as much as a small African country. As we had probably walked about 20km throughout the day (in flip-flops) we headed back to the hotel where we dumped the bags before heading back out to a pizzeria at the bottom of the road which was always full. Turns out the pizzas were some of the best we have eaten, all done in a homemade wood fired oven outside. Stunning.
We have decided to leave on Wednesday so three more days to take in this urban Goliath!
Much love, Tommo and the face. Xxx
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