This adventure has been a long time in the making. Having deliberately made the choice to fly “directly” to Sydney for our first year away, we made the decision to stop in a new country before making our way back to ‘Straya’.
Thailand was our pick this time. It’s a country with many personalities; the bustling city side; the ‘in the middle of the sticks’ side; and the 'let’s get absolutely sh*t-faced' side. Neither of us had been before but we’d had friends visit and it was on our list. We decided that it would be a travelling holiday- living out of a backpack, mostly on the cheap with a few comforts and luxuries along the way, just because we could!
The process of sorting out our trip took some time. I’d spent many long hours trawling through the sea of blogs and posts on Pinterest (the main source of much of my travelling inspiration, I must get out more!); Kjel doing the same before another gruelling shift. After much long, and frankly not that interesting conversation, we picked our destinations: Bangkok (obviously), Chiang Mai, Phuket and Koh Yao Yai. We paid off bits and pieces over a number of months in the lead up to our departure, which made our financial lives much easier then and definitely easier now.
It was a different lead up to leaving than it was last time; having ‘done it before’, it was and still is nice to feel like we’re a little more clued up and ready to just get going, rather than the ‘it’s all so new and exciting and scary because we have no idea what we’re doing and so naive to it all’ feelings of before. That being said, it didn’t stop the jitters coming and going in the last few weeks and days- are we doing the right thing? (The answer is yes, it’ll always be yes); are we getting too old to not be ‘settled down’ (probably but honestly, who cares?!); will it be everything we hoped it’d be? (I’m not going to give you the answer to that one just yet!).
Our trip to Heathrow went without a hitch. We treated ourselves to an evening flight so it gave us time to cook a rather delicious fry up in the morning, pick up our final pasty for lunch and have a reasonably leisurely chauffeured drive to the airport courtesy of my dad (thanks!). We checked-in in easily record speed and headed to the lounges. Amongst the crowds of holiday makers, travellers and staff, were a gathering of monks (I’m unsure of the collective noun for this- perhaps a mingling of monks; a mass of monks; a mess of monks? Who knows?). There is something so intrinsically intriguing about them; more so that they’re now all so glued to smart phones like the rest of us! But more than this observation, it stirred up all sorts of excitement that in 11 straight hours, we’d be in and around them and their temples.
It actually looked like we would arrive an hour earlier than scheduled when the flight maps appeared onboard- this was in fact incorrect as we were sat in the parking space for 45 minutes, and on the runway for 15 more. Mind you, this would turn out to be the only hiccup of our flight, which was literally the best one we’ve ever taken. We had booked these tickets way back in January and before the main hoards had got there. Originally, we’d intended on booking to leave on the Sunday but in the process of checking information, had clicked ‘back’ on the laptop, which kicked us out and the seats we’d chosen were ‘gone’ even though we knew they weren’t. So Sunday went out of the window and selected Monday instead. We smugly chose the first row after the Business Class section, with all the legroom- and I mean it. So. Much. Room. It was the best thing ever. I’d also packed one of those super-concentrated squash bottles to help make it easier to drink water rather than the sickly fruit juices to keep hydrated. Not a dry mouth in sight, not a cracked lip to be seen, I honestly don’t know why I haven’t done it before but I’m never flying without one again! And to top off what was already a good flight, with it being overnight, we both slept- oh yes, the actual close your eyes, fall actually asleep slept, for easily 8 of 10-11 hours of the journey. Bliss.
Given our delayed departure, it wasn’t overly surprising that we arrived in Bangkok a little later than planned. We weren’t, however, expecting it to take nearly two hours to get from the plane to the point of exiting the airport. The queues were so long and so slow- each person needed to scan every finger print on arrival as part of the biometrics checks for immigration. Once we’d finally made it through, we headed for the train station. I’d decided to get ahead of the game back in the UK. Rather than look like complete melons, I’d done my research and noted which stations we needed to go to in order to get to our hotel cheaply- and it worked. For the equivalent of £1.60 ish each, we’d navigated the MRT like seasoned pros and made our first venture into the city and to our hotel.
The hotel was within spitting distance of the station, which having lived backpack free for 18 months, was a blessing, as the kilos on our shoulders were already uncomfortable. Upon check-in at the hotel, we were informed that we’d been given an upgraded room- result. In fact, it was less of a result than we’d anticipated: if our room was supposed to be better than what we had booked, I am not quite sure what state of room we should have had! It wasn’t horrendous, just rather outdated, with delightful views of a multi-story carpark (not dissimilar to the description of pretend rubbish holiday postcard stories I helped to write with my first class of year 6s, but I digress). The mattress was borderline rock hard but it was a bed at least.
It was already dark by the time we’d actually gathered ourselves together and left us with few hours left in the day to explore. We took this opportunity to brave Khao San Road. I’d booked our first GrabTaxi (which having only access to wifi inside the hotel and not knowing what car make, colour or at the time reg plate to look for was a tad stressful but we got there in the end) and we painfully made our way through Bangkok at rush hour. The auto gearbox of the taxi didn’t much like the stop-start journey and informed us throughout our journey with painful wails. But, after winding through lane after lane, we’d made it to the entrance. It was exactly as I’d pictured, given that I’d spent 0 time looking at it before we came out. It was busy, packed with street venders selling all sorts of dodgy tat, food and “Want a suit?” (No, I didn’t want a suit, I didn’t want one the first time you asked and I haven’t yet changed my mind!). There were the classic “I’m in Thailand!” scorpions and tarantulas on a stick that we had no idea of which day they may have been cooked and there, like the bad smell at the back of the fridge where something you’d forgotten several weeks back had not only gone mouldy but had started to fester, was our (in)edible kryponite, Durian. We hadn’t missed it and it was everywhere (and still is!). We walked up the full length of the strip to take it all in (what I took in was that I didn’t like it much) and returned down to grab some dinner. I fancied something really obvious. So I chose Pad Thai. In a restaurant called Pad Thai. It was far less tasty than our other noodle dish choice- disappointing given that it was the main selling point for the whole place!
We didn’t stick around and still feeling mostly fresh, we wandered the nearby admiring their beautifully lit streets, temples and monuments. I’m glad we did as it was actually the only time we did see them at night. We made it as far as glimpsing the Golden Mountain and decided to head back before we’d ventured too far. We decided to be extra adventurous and hailed a Tuk-Tuk for the ride back to the hotel. We haggled the price reasonably well, getting it reduced to half his original “Oh that’s very far” price. The ride was something special. There’s something so magical about the concoction of excitement, sweat and butt cheek-clenching fear when turning tight corners very quickly in a 3 wheeled vehicle, it really gets your adrenaline going.
As we’d lost a few more hours than expected the day before, we were not hanging about on our first full day in the city. All the blogs said it: get out early to beat the rush. So we got up as early as we dared for a day of temple running. We’d reached the bank of the Chao Phraya river by half past 8, booked our ferry tickets and were ready to get going- until we realised the first ferry wasn’t until half 9. We took this slight oversight as an opportunity to get some breakfast. Nearby were a few food stalls and adopting the ‘eat where/what the locals do’, we bought dumplings. They were delicious!
9:30am finally came around and we eagerly clambered up the stairs to get front row seats on the top of the ferry. Bossed it. Sat down, soaked in those roofy views- thought this would be a great time to start capturing some footage for our videos. Got as far as getting the GoPro out of the bag because some how the battery was dead and worse yet, I'd managed to leave our SD card in the UK. Muppet!
We sucked up this misfortune and soldiered on. The river was bustling with boats, huge ferries, cute oriental-house style boats ferrying hotel guests around, long boats with engines billowing dirty black smoke and these slow garbage guzzlers, using conveyor belts to catch floating debris in the water, and there was enough of it. Our first stop-off was to visit Wat Arun. Wat a start to our Wat adventures! Its nick-name is the Temple of Dawn (taken from namesake, Hindu god Aruna, who is shown as rays of the rising sun) and, while we’d arrived later than we’d hoped we might have, it was stunning in the early hours without the flocks of tourists that we saw crowding around it later in the day. What could have easily been written off as a concrete-coloured temple of doom from a distance was actually magnificently decorated with hand painted panels, colourful tiles and porcelain fixtures. Larger-than-life sized statues of Chinese soldiers and animals in a variety of poses stood guard around the site, while the enormous Yaksha statues were stood proudly outside of one of the temple buildings, taking care of the precious contents- that being said, while some are ‘guardians’, it is said others are in place to devour travellers, so perhaps this was their job? After all, they certainly wouldn’t go hungry! This time, they let us slip by without a bite. As we stepped inside one of the Buddhist prayer rooms, adorned with golden statues, figurines, flowers and donation boxes, we were offered the chance to be blessed by a monk. Why not? The ritual chant began and the monk sprayed water using reeds over us before tying a ‘Sai Sin’ or sacred thread around our wrists. The string itself had been blessed by monks in prayer. It’s meant to bring good fortune and given the misfortune of the start of the day, we’d take what we could get!
Continuing our ferry adventure, we made our way towards Wat Pho and its colossal reclining Buddha. Through the entrance, we were shoe-horned into a side corridor, with glass cabinets full of interesting artefacts but the crowds were drawn towards a large gong where people were seemingly trying to stroke the central dome- it looked rather odd. We stood around for a short while before a gentleman, who we presumed worked there, took position and, moving his hands up and down the curve of dome, somehow managed to make the gong ring! The chap beckoned me around the back of the gong whilst he made it ring and it was almost deafeningly loud. It was some sort of wizardry because no-one else had succeeded, including us, I thought that as I saw it being done, it would be easier. I was sorely mistaken.
Wat Pho is meant to be one of the oldest and largest temples in Bangkok and it needed to be large. How they managed to squeeze the Buddha inside I’ll never know, I suppose the same way the pyramids were build or Stone Henge was constructed. To put this fellow into some kind of perspective, the feet alone on their side were about 3 metres high and five metres long. I don’t think they make flip-flops that big. They were beautifully tattooed with mother of pearl images of all the characteristics of the Buddha.
The same ferry pit-stop gave us the chance to see the Grand Palace as well. Now, the majority of the day so far had been fairly cool and overcast; it was actually quite pleasant. However, it felt like someone had forgotten to turn on the “warm sunny weather” switch in the office and had remembered in a panic, instead turning on “extra damn hot and sunny” to compensate the moment we turned to walk towards the palace. It was bad, especially as we’d dressed “appropriately” in our long trousers. The entrance wasn’t far from the street, we could see it pretty clearly but instead of the short, simple stroll through the gates, we were forced into the tourist labyrinth, weaving in and out, on and on and on before being squeezed through airport style scanners before being allowed to walk some more to get to the queues for the entry tickets. In comparison to the entry fees of the previous temple sites, it was rather pricey but given that we’d sweated our nuts off to get onto the site in the blazing heat with definitely not enough water onboard, we weren’t about to turn around. The palace grounds were beautiful with enormous lawns and the striking buildings; it was indeed fit for a king.
It was a little late for lunch when we left the palace ferry dock but we’d worked up a hearty appetite. We ate in a quiet restaurant called Pinocchio (although it was spelled differently and I can’t remember how, oops), which overlooked the river. Our meals were delicious and came to no more than a tenner, bargain.
On the return journey, we made a quick stop to Park Khlong Talat flower market. We almost didn’t see it as either we missed the signs for it or there weren’t any when we got off the boat. Once we managed to track it down, it was a hive of activity- mainly of special garlands made of Jasmine flowers being quickly rustled up as a couple of days before was Mothers’ Day in Thailand, though they’re used to decorate cars and motorcycles and are often used for Thai weddings and religious offerings.
Arriving back to the hotel, we decided that we were satisfied with how much we’d achieved and had a quiet night in...is what should have happened. Instead, we’d gotten back on the train and headed to a night market just around the corner from the Thailand Cultural Centre. To say it was busy was an understatement. It was heaving. The aisles between each row of stalls were narrow and jammed full. It was a stop-start affair. There were tables and tables of people stuffing their faces with buckets of volcano seafood and racks of ribs spread over plastic sheets rather than plates as there was so much. It was pretty uncomfortable really. There were a few skewers that looked interesting but nothing that jumped out (or at least nothing that wasn’t going to cleanse my bowels immediately). Eventually I’d spotted a curry stall that looked alright so picked a green curry and some rice. Kjel hadn’t made his choice for dinner yet but rather than let mine go cold, he kindly let me eat mine first. We perched on some steps so I could get munching. I took 1 and a half bites. Firstly, it was cold and then it was super, super hot (I try not to be a wuss but I also like to be able to enjoy my food). As I didn’t fancy food-poisoning from dodgy rice, we disposed of it pretty pronto. After a wander around the bar strip and passing the gates of hell on the corner, sorry I meant the Durian Shack, we gave up on a market dinner and headed into the next door mall. The restaurant we stopped at had a menu filled with yummy sounding dishes but in an attempt to rectify my failed dinner, went for a Thai Red curry and Kjel went for a pork knuckle stew and they were both on the money! Proper tasty.
I couldn’t help feeling pretty tired and somewhat achey when we finally called it a night. I had a quick look on my health app and we’d covered 18.8km! Not bad considering that we were practically couch potatoes for the last year or so!
We began our last day in Bangkok by rectifying our SD oversight. Kjel had located a shop that sold what we needed so we off we went. The route took us past Terminal 21- an airport style shopping mall, with 8 floors that had their own city theme (Istanbul, London, Tokyo etc.), it was huge! We hadn’t yet eaten so stopped for a hot drink, a pastry and some classic Tom and Jerry on TV- love that!
The building we needed to get to to buy the card was around the corner in a side road. It wasn’t what I was expecting- it wasn’t a ‘shop’ like Maplin or Curry’s. The building felt more like an office block and the ‘shop’ wasn’t much more than a box room once we got in but what it lacked in size, it made up for in producing the goods and after handing over a wadge of cash, we finally had a camera we could use.
Lumphini Park was a short stop away so getting out of the city hustle and bustle, we took a leisurely stroll around the lawns and lakes of the park. It was lovely! We even managed to catch an enormous monitor lizard going for his swim in the green water.
We thought we’d spend the afternoon in Chinatown. Everywhere else we’d been to had seemed fairly easy to navigate to but for some reason getting to Chinatown was so complicated! Not helped by trying to look for a road that 3 different roads were named. Each, peach, pear, plum... we chose our road and hoped for the best. It wasn’t the ‘right’ road in the end but after some detours we eventually got there. It wasn’t dressed up like other Chinatowns tend to be and every other shop front was a gold shop. Being a little simple, we ended up having lunch in the only place that had the word ‘restaurant’ on the sign. We were shown to our seats, then a pair of brits were ushered towards us- double date? No, instead, we were taken out of our seats and moved elsewhere to they could sit in our freshly warmed booth. Delightful!
Chinatown wasn’t really that interesting so we ditched it and trekked towards Giant Swing. It was definitely further away than I thought it was but having told Kjel that “We’ve got legs so we can use them” instead of hitching a ride, I kind of had to put my money where my mouth was. A couple of km later and we’d caught the first glimpse of the swing. At the same time, we’d spotted the Golden Mountain that we’d glimpsed the first night. Rather than going back on ourselves, we took the short detour to the mountain. From the ground, the mountain was beautiful but with not enough money to go in, tired legs and a lack of liquids, we didn’t much fancy the climb up the thousand stairs. It was really rather hot by this point so a meander around the side of the temple lead to the entrance of a cave. Inside was a huge Buddha carved out of the rock face. It wasn’t as large as the reclining Buddha but it was still impressive.
We left the grounds and walked on to the Giant Swing. It was tall, it was red and it was old (apparently built in 1784!)- and had its centuries of ceremonies H&S red-taped in the 30s after a few incidents!
We’d accomplished what we’d wanted to see in central Bangkok so it was time to head back. We were almost 3km away from the closest station and our measly 50 Baht was not enticing any tuk-tuk so we apologised to our feet and walked. It was not fun and I think I was at least an inch shorter afterwards. Eventually and thankfully, we made it back to the hotel and jumped straight into the shower. To enjoy our final evening, we took the lift to the roof and enjoyed the sunset from the pool, it was the perfect close to our time in Bangkok.
We probably could have ended things there but that wasn’t our style. Instead, we went to Patpong night bazaar to see what the fuss was about. Really, it wasn't anything to write home about, although the allies leading off it were lined with ping pong shows (and the ladies on offer), so I suppose that is what normally interests the tourists but it wasn’t for us.
Our time in Bangkok had been lively, colourful and exciting. We felt that we’d definitely spent enough time in the city, perhaps a few more days might have given us the chance to explore further afield but to start off a new year of travels, it was the perfect amount of time and we were ready for our next stop!
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