Bangkok

Day 89 - 22/08/2010 - 17:34 - Bangkok (In transit), Thailand

I've been pretty lazy over the last few days with regards to the blog so here I am writing it all up on the train to Surat Thani (for Koh Saumi). We're still in Bangkok, going past all the little shacks/homes that tend to be the norm in South east Asia - along the railway line. We're passing so close to the iron roofs it feels like we're scraping them. We've treated ourselves in Thailand to a first class cabin. It's a good size and there are only two of us sharing which is nice. The staff are all very friendly and we've got tea at 7pm for £3 each. Not bad.

So we've had 4 days up until this point and we've seen much of what Bangkok's had to offer both old and new. On the 19th (Thursday) we managed to get to the Royal Palace. Of course when we got there we were pulled to one side by some official looking guy who said the palace was only open for Thai people at the moment, for prayers. Complete lies of course, and there was nothing wrong with the opening hours of the palace. Absolute cocks. The palace was very impressive as was the Wat within it's grounds, and was a lot more "sparkly" than the like palace in Phnom Penh. After that we stopped for a bite to eat before heading over the waters to Wat Aran, a rather old yet spectacular Wat. We'd seen the main (old) sights within a short space of time and thought we'd check the newer side of the city out. We got the boat back to the Sky train station and then took that to Silom, which was known as "central" to the sky train map. It did look like there was a lot there on the map and there was. Shopping centre after shopping centre. It was pretty dull to be honest, they all housed the same, over expensive brands that you can find in England. We did however see one difference. One of the buildings was completely closed off and it was charred to bits. This was the shopping mall which was burnt down by the red shirt protesters just a mere couple of months ago. The following day we were walking along the sky walk past it and it's stupid how the government has pretended that it's some sort of refurbishment going on - signs like "We miss you Zen" posted on the building along with "I love Thailand" signs everywhere. All felt a bit fake. Never mind. That evening (we're still on Thursday here) we went to see Toy Story 3 at the IMAX in the Paragon shopping centre. The screen was beautiful and it was immaculate inside. We had to stand for the national anthem before the film started, ugh - blind patriotism, my favourite. The film was good though and after that we went back to the hotel. That evening we watched the Villa game on TV - 2/2 so far, the coverage of European football is very good here. It didn't start until 23:45 but I watched the whole thing!

Naturally, we got up late the next day (Friday) but it wasn't a problem, we were planning on not doing much, just looking around different parts of the city (newer parts). We didn't leave the hotel until gone noon, which was a nice, lazy change and we spent a lot of the day looking around... more shopping centres! We went further down the sky train route, stopping off somewhere where we knew there was a book shop for Laura. She's bought another book! That will last here 2 days. Luckily she's resisted the urge to start it thus far - wish me luck on keeping it that way! A couple hours later and it was chucking it down with rain, which wasn't fun as we were planning on going to a city park to have a look around. We decided on going back to the cinema again but the only times we found for films we wanted to see were either later on or in special screens where the tickets were £14 each (they looked nice but when normal tickets are £4 and the Imax was only £6 we passed!) we had a look around other shopping centres/plazas where supposed cinemas were but we didn't find anything.

In the end we decided to give it a miss, we would come back the following day in the evening and go to the later showing then. That evening we had a massage in our hotel (it's an Accor brand hotel so we knew it would be legitimate!) Laura decided to treat me to a back, neck and head massage for an hour, for all the work I've done on the trip - bless her. It was really not what I expected. I was "massaged" to within inches of my life at some points. The woman was only small but she had brute strength! My back was clicked, neck was clicked, a lot of it hurt a bit, but I stupidly didn't say anything. The oil massage on my back was very nice, but it only was a brief respite from the onslaught of this small Thai woman. We later found out that apparently Asians like pain in their massages - if I'd known this I'd have waited to get back to the UK!! That said though, I do feel better after it although she pointed out to me a muscular problem in my right shoulder which I should check out at the docs when I get home. After all of that we had a Skype with my Gran in Cornwall who turned 80 that day. It was really nice to speak to her (with video) as well as the rest of that side of the family - I even spoke to my dad!

So yesterday we were planning to go to Ayuthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand which was one and a half hours away by train. We decided against it in the end for numerous reasons - we had to be up very early as the gap between trains in one instance was 2 hours and we would have only had 4 hours or so there if we'd got the train we wanted. The other reason was that we felt that we just couldn't see any more temples. We are seriously templed out after all that we saw at Angkor, then Battambang, then even the 4/5 in Bangkok. Never mind, I'm sure we'll visit again in the future, just spending the time in one country would be nice! Instead we got up later but visited Chinatown, the only real part of old town we'd not yet visited. We walked from the boat station, all the way back to the city centre metro station, passing loads of stalls selling a huge variety of goods. We also went through thieves market, a city of shacks selling all sorts including fully automatic weapons! It was incredible. Once we'd been there, we headed back to the newer part of the city to go to Lumphini park, the city park we wanted to visit the day before. That was actually really nice and relaxing, and it was a really peaceful park. It was quite funny watching the free aerobics lessons too. We came out of the park at the "Silom" end of the park, near the notorious red light district. Just walking along the main road (where all the shopping centres and transit stations are, not even the red light district!) I was offered invitations to watch Ping Pong shows (Google it) and tried to be sold a variety of rip off porno films. It was only 5pm as well! Shocking. For some reason, no-one asked Laura if she wanted either despite the fact she really wanted to see a ping-pong show (just kidding!!) But you can tell who they make their money off (white males!). After all of that, we headed to the cinema to watch Inception. Great film. We didn't get out until half 11, by that time it was chucking it down again. Luckily in that part of the city you can get to and from your destination without stepping outside (or at least out from cover) but we still got rained on when we got to our sky train stop and had to walk back to the hotel from there!!

Finally today. Well, we didn't do much today. We had a late night last night so didn't get up early at all today, despite the fact we still needed to pack - never mind! We were taken to the metro station in the snazzy All seasons (white and green) tuk tuk for free which was cool and spent the afternoon chilling out in cafes (of the drink and Internet variety). Now we're on the train and I must say I'm REALLY looking forward to lounging on the beach tomorrow. Bring it on!