First wanderings… in Bangkok
After checking in to our hostel we were ready .....
to SSLLLEEEEPPP!!!
We wandered Khao San Road, staring for dangerously long periods at the foreign sights in the busy street, bumping into most passers-by. After minimal wandering we hit the sack & passed out for a healthy 16 hours of sleep. Nicky doesn't believe in jet lag ... naive strikes as an apt word!
The next morning we felt slightly more adventurous & went in search of a 'tuk tuk' driver to take us around. Needless to say it was less than 5 seconds before we were offered all sorts of trips around the city. We opted for the fully toothed young gentleman who did not scare the shit out of us & headed out to Bangkok's 'Wats' (or temples), the highlight of which was the enormous eptly named Big Buddha at Wat Pho.
Several buddhist experiences & a street pad thai later we arrived at a pier on the Dong river for a river 'cruise'. The word cruise should be viewed here as a very loose term to describe our journey through the back alley waterways of the Dong. The boat was a fairly large wooden longboat which took us through the windy close quartered channels, with squalor & poverty lining the banks. It was a real eye-opener to the way most people must live in this metropolis. That evening we headed out with the hordes of other tourists into the bars of Khao San for a few cheeky ones. I was fleeced by a devious & strangely strong-thumbed young lad before we headed in for the night.
The next day we decided to go by foot & get a real feel for the city. We meandered around the palace walls, the tips of the extravagant domes peeking into view, & continued into Chinatown. We roved through the thousands of market stalls that sprawled for miles. Street after street stuffed to the brim with random junk. If you knew your way around I bet you could find anything !!... but that's a pretty big IF! We jumped in a tuk tuk & headed to the much more civilized Siam centre. A mere 10 minutes in a tuk tuk, but a world away in reality. An hour or so of aimless wandering before the skytrain provided our next mode of transport to Lumphini Park. Like most city parks Lumphini is a reasonably tranquil getaway from the hustle & bustle of the city. Skyscrapers loom above on all sides but it's somewhat peaceful & detached. We hopped into one of the glamorous duck boats available to scour the offerings of the lake. Massive Monitor lizards were EVERYWHERE! Our flimsy duck boat looked like it could be toppled by these beasts at any given moment!! But with my greatly skilled steering skills & some leg power we avoided peril. Needless to say the dragonesque monsters were much less fazed by our presence than we were of theirs. The evening was a more relaxing experience, soaking up the atmosphere in little arabia with a beer, a shisha pipe & some people watching.
The following morning was fairly lazy with jet lag still lingering, but by lunch we were wandering the National Museum, a stone throw away from Khao San, & ascending the Golden Mount by sunset. The views from the lofty Golden Mount were a nice finish to our time in Bangkok, the huge palaces prominent amongst the city's streets from our elevated viewpoint. We returned to our hostel, collected our ginormous backpacks & headed to the train station to catch the overnight sleeper train north, to Chiang Mai.