Most people start their southeast asian excursion in Bangkok – and cruise outta there as quick as possible. We came up through Malaysia so our first logical stop was the south islands and we ended up wanting to spend a little time in the big old city.
After taking a 12 hour night bus – which is similar to the most uncomfortable place on the planet – we arrived in the middle of nowhere with touts pulling us in every way wanting us to utilize their services. At 5AM this is an experience I like to call `sensory overload` but we were dropped off at the wrong bus terminal and were another 45 minutes out of the city. As with most times we show up to a new city – we got ripped off. A cabbie wanted us to pay 500 baht to get to town. Now its 5AM but there is no way we are gonna get THIS ripped off! After much haggling – and us walking away two times we settled on 350 and headed into town where we were anxiously awaiting a bed to crash in.
We rolled into our guesthouse at 6AM to find out they didn’t have a room for us – hmmm this is a problem since we both got about 2 hours of sleep on the bus. The owners promised to have our room ready by 10:00 so we wandered around and found a cafe to lounge try and stay conscious at.
Great start to the big city!
Temple Hopping
Bangkok – like many places in Thailand – is home to many elaborate temples and ancient structures with one of the most famous being the Grand Palace.
I will start with the Grand Palace: this place is immense and likely one of the most elaborate place we will see on the trip. Everything is covered in gold or some other shimmering item which covers 218,000 square meters. Honestly you could spend an entire day there – and we did. And had to pay twice. Be aware as we easily passed through the point of no return in the Grand Palace and your ticket is only good for one walkthrough. Since we snapped Zero pics we needed to go to capture it for your viewing pleasure, so comment away. In the end it cost us 350 baht a person twice over so 1400 for a day but well worth it.
After the Grand Palace we hit up the reclining Buddha at Wat Pho, and Wat Arun (temple of the rising dawn) both were awesome and seeing the sun set over the peaks of Wat Arun was an amazing sight to see. There are a whole bunch of other similar sights in BKK but after a full day of checking them out we had a little case of temple burnout so we took the local water taxi (highly recommended) and headed back to our crash pad.
Instead of me rambling about it for thousands of words, check out the pictures here: http://www.worldlycouple.com/blog/1141/photos/pictures-from-bangkok/
Bring shorts to the Grand Palace and you get stuck wearing the new line of elephant inspired Zegna sweatpants
Nothing says trendsetter like played out black wayfarers and a foam visor to advertise to the world you are a lazy tourist
Carry around an SLR and everyone wants you to take their family portrait. The best part is when they explain to hold the button halfway down until you hear a beep.
Safety regulations are pretty high here in BKK
MARKET TIME
If you want to buy anything, I mean ANYTHING, buy it in Bangkok. The streetsides of Sukhumvit are lined with the wares of various entrepreneurs selling everything from bootleg viagra to street weapons. No Joke. It is wild, every person is selling a mix of goods with the most entertaining ones being the guys selling fake western porno, unbelievable ‘Adult’ toys, viagra, vicoden, valium, swords, huge knives, brass knuckles, nightsticks, keychains, tools and t shirts – sometimes at the same stall.
We spent hours wandering around in bewilderment looking at all the crazy things on display, but never ended up buying anything. Don’t ask me how you barter with a guy with massive knives at his disposal, I didn’t have the balls to do it, but throwing a pair of brass knocks on is definitely a strange feeling. After throwing them on my fist I asked if they were legal – a prompt reply of ‘No’ came my way…strange seeing as the street stalls are littered with them.
Quick Pick-Me-Up for the Sexpats, for the low price of $2
One stop shop: Blades, Brass Knucks, a Pipe and a Deck of cards if you are bored
Comment and tell me something imaginative that you can do with the items on this table: Brass knuckles, fake cigarettes, a butterfly knife, a flashlight, calculator, massage tool and a pen...
BANGKOK BOOZIN’
Everyone has seen movies and heard One Night in Bangkok which gives the vision of an uncontrollable, lawless mecca soaked in sex and booze after the sun sets behind the smog. You have Patpong – land of the pingpong shows, Nana Plaza – ladyboy central and Soi Cowboy – mini street popularized by some yankee with a cowboy hat. Long story short – the place is filled with old, fat, sweaty white dudes clinging on to girls that could be their granddaughters (or sons if they don’t know what they are getting into, or maybe they do?). Its actually a little bit lame, but we still got pretty wrecked at one of the side sois (streets) and chatted with some cool local girls working at the bar who taught us to say Happy New Year in Thai which came in handy for Songkran.
Having a couple cold ones at a rooftop bar in BKK
All in all Bangkok is an immense city with a lot of shit going on, you could spend 5 months there and still find something new to tickle your fancy. Next time we are back it will be with a little more cash so we an take advantage of some of the cool things to buy at tonnes of unique stores.
