Bangkok, Thailand

So we had decided to treat ourselves and flew Business Class from Brisbane to Bangkok – what can I say??? LOVED the leg-room! And as I’ve always said, apparently terrorists don’t fly business class because you get real plates and glassware and metal cutlery!

Anyway, we arrived in Bangkok on Sunday night and our first chore was to negotiate the airport and the taxi rank! There are plenty of signs everywhere telling you that you have to pay the metered fare and that there will be a 50 Baht surcharge when leaving the airport. And you go to a taxi rank person, tell them where you want to go and they select the taxi for you and tell them (in Thai) where to take you. All sounds normal, so far… But, when you get into the Cab, suddenly you are told that the meter doesn’t work and that it will cost you 400 Baht to get to your hotel.

Day 1 (Monday) – we decided to do some simple exploring and found our way to MBK, which is a huge shopping centre but we got there before 10am and had to wait for it to open. After much wandering around, we managed to spend some money and had bought a few do-dads (no souvenirs yet). We caught up with another traveller that I had met last year when I was in Fiji and spent the afternoon comparing travel stories with Richard Dean. We then decided that it was time to sample a Thai Massage. There were 3 establishments within walking distance from our hotel, so we selected one which looked quite respectable and booked ourselves in for a 60 minute Thai Massage, for the grand total of 300 Baht each – but looks can be deceiving because Nick was told that for that grand sum of 2000 Baht, he could have a really nice experience (with some appropriate hand motions). Thankfully, for his longevity, Nick refused! After our massages, Nick decided that we would visit the Silom Night Markets. I don’t know but maybe Monday night is quiet night because there were hardly any food stalls or shopping stalls open, but we still managed to find something to eat and things to buy!

We had decided to do a few tours as I hadn’t been to Bangkok before and it just seemed simpler, so we booked to do a Klong Tour, a “taste” of Thai culture Dinner Show and a day-long tour which would take us to Ayutthaya. For those of you who haven’t been to Thailand, a Klong is what they call their canals. So our tour was in a Long Boat and we had a buzz (literally) scooting around the canals before visiting the Temple of Dawn (Wat Arun). Now this entire Temple is covered with decorations made from ceramics. OK, so they decorated it, but we found out that apparently King Rama III ordered a huge supply of porcelain crockery from China and by the time it arrived, it had all shattered. So what do you do with a load of shattered plates, bowls & cups? You use it to decorate your newest Temple! In the afternoon, we struck out on our own and managed to get to Wat Pho despite one Tuk-Tuk driver wanting to charge us 500 Baht for a one-way trip! We settled on a nice air-conditioned taxi for the grand sum of 150 Baht. We had a hot afternoon walking around looking at the Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho, we tried counting the number of statues of Buddha but kept on losing count. All I can say, there were 100s of the things! After a hot afternoon with much walking, we treated ourselves to a WONDERFUL massage at the Massage School at Wat Pho. Nick had a Thai Massage (without any extras) and I had a totally drool-inducing foot massage!

In the evening, we went to the Siam Niramit Dinner-Show AND I GOT TO FEED TWO ELEPHANTS!!!!! For 30 Baht (that’s one Aussie dollar), I got a basket of small cucumbers and was feeding them to one of the two elephants when I felt a whack on the side of my head! Yes, the other elephant had flicked his ear at me to remind me to feed him too! The Siam Niramit show is supposed to be a Thai Cultural experience – I thought that it would give you a bit of a rundown on Thai history but instead it tells you about the four areas that make up Thailand and also about their beliefs of what is Hell and Heaven. When we saw their version of Heaven, all we could think was that someone had been smoking something really interesting! We didn’t learn much about Thai history but we did learn that Thai music is not very tuneful!

On Wednesday, we headed north to a placed called Ayutthaya, which used to be the capital of Thailand until it was destroyed by the invading Burmese Army. So, the highlight of Ayutthaya is the 500+ Temples, most of which were in ruins. I am now an expert of the four different styles of temple – Chinese, Khmer, Ceylonese & Thai as well as the difference between a Stupa and a Chepa (none) and can explain this auf Deutsch – the other people on the tour were from Berlin and whilst they spoke some English, they had trouble understanding our Tour Guide, so I was able to step in to assist! We also visited the Elephant Kraal which is where they used to catch wild elephants and had an elephant ride! Yes, I know that we’re being the ultimate tourists, but I don’t care! After lunch, we had another boat ride through the three rivers which surround the island of Ayutthaya.

Our last day in Bangkok was spent doing a bit more shopping (!) and then we took a Tuk-Tuk (with my heart in my mouth) to the Royal Palace where we spent about 3-1/2 hours walking around in the very hot sun, frantically looking for a bit of shade or breeze to try and cool down. Saw some truly amazing sights (all decorated with a fortune in gold leaf) but I have to say that the dress restrictions when visiting the Royal Palace mean that you can’t dress coolly and as a consequence, melt! Nick finally got to have his Pad Thai, his favourite dish, in Thailand.

After quite a bit of time as a passenger in Thai vehicles, we have gained a pretty good understanding of Thai driving. My first piece of advice re driving in Thailand is DON’T! Lanes mean nothing, you can turn right from a left-hand turn only lane. You can overtake on the left or the right and you can split lanes. In fact, you can create a lane that doesn’t exist, if you want to! Motorbikes are everywhere and like oil floats to the top in water, motorbikes always have to be at the front of the lane when stopped at traffic lights. In fact, they don’t really need to stop at traffic lights! And if you want to turn right from a side-street, then you can edge out until you have stopped all the traffic so that you can push your way into the lane that you want!

So our visit to the first country on this World Adventure is over and now we head off to Korea.