Braving Bangkok

After perhaps 2 hours of sleep on the fun and ever so comfortable overnight bus, we arrived at Mo Chit station at 5.30am ready (or in my case not ready) to face the day. We quickly jumped in a taxi to take us to our hotel and were met by a dude listening to thai talk back radio at full volume. He quickly realised that this wouldn't be to our tastes and switched to some epic party anthems to make it feel like we were in a 3 person dance party. I was much more interested in peace and quiet but knew this would not come for awhile. As our driver searched for the best choice of song to get the party started, I searched for a seatbelt which appeared to be missing from the backseat. I tried to contain my fear as the driver speed up on the motorway and prayed to the taxi gods that he didn't crash into anything in the next 20 minutes.

We arrived at our hotel slightly more frazzled than when we started the day, and attempted to check in early but the hotel was full and we would have wait until at least 10am for a room to become available. However, we were able to have a nice warm shower in the changing rooms by the pool to at least make ourselves feel more alive.

Once showered, we made our way out of the hotel and into the Bangkok wilderness ready to face the day head on. We found a cafe open that would make us some blended iced espressos (my new favourite thing) before we made our way by boat up the river to the Grand Palace.

By the time we got to the palace we were starving and walked around until we could find something light to eat. The lack of sleep made everything slightly more difficult and the decision of where to go took a lot longer than expected. We quickly ate at an overpriced cafe and made our way to the Palace, where we discovered that Jamie was not wearing the right attire and wouldn't be allowed in, in his current dress. We decided to come back on Monday, when it might not be as busy as it currently was. In light of our plans being thwarted, we decided to walk into the old town for a look around. On the way, we passed the main entrance for mourners to pay their respects to their King who recently passed away. Apparently over 35,000 mourners are attending the palace on a daily basis to pay their respects and never to miss a chance to make money, they certainly had the infrastructure to cope with pop up restaurants and shops everywhere.

As we walked around, I remarked to Jamie at how dirty and run down the place was. On first impressions, Bangkok certainly isn't my type of place, especially with the rubbish observed in the city's waterways (see photo). We decided to make our way to the Giant Swing, but when we arrived we noted that it was just a giant arch. Apparently there used to be a swing in this, but many people died using it and consequently they took it out. Smart.

We now found ourselves adjacent to the Suthattepwararam Temple and decided to go for a wander inside. We walked in to be greeted by 10 signs all telling us not to talk to anyone in the temple who would try and offer us cheap tuk tuks or other transportation services as we could be taken to pornography places or robbed. Feeling safe and petrified of opening my mouth, we paid our foreigner fee and proceeded to walk around avoiding eye contact and standing 10m away from the nearest person where possible. We saw probably our 100th Buddha on this trip but they are all spectacular in their own way.

Starting to feel a wee bit dizzy due to the lack of sleep, food and water we made our way south past what seemed like 100's of gun shops until we arrived at the Old Siam Plaza, a small little shopping centre comprising local vendors with a small indoor food market. We grabbed a mini shawarma each and sat on the stairs outside which was the only available bum space. I started to feel weak and dizzy in the sun, as I was probably still struggling with the ongoing effects of heat stroke. Jamie decided a McDonalds ice cream cone was in order so I could get sugar before we made a quick getaway back to the hotel for a much needed nap.

We grabbed a taxi, but it would probably have been faster if we walked given the horrendous Bangkok traffic. 1 hour later, we were back at our hotel and lying down. Jamie was getting worried that my heat stroke was making a come back so proceeded to feed me liquids and commanded that I slept for a couple of hours to try and recover. He is nurse militant to my nurse Nancy, but I can't help feel that he is right. I woke up around 5pm feeling more alive and we decided to get an early dinner at a local indian restaurant to ensure we had an early night. Gone are the days of Cocktails, right now, its the last thing we want.Read more