Time for Thailand!

THAILAND

The 8 hour flight from Sydney went fine until we had to be re-routed to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam because of stormy weather preventing us from landing in Bangkok! We ended up landing 3 hours after we should have in the end and by the time we got to the hotel it was 4.30am and we could smell them cooking breakfast. Not so good for Rich and me who had no sleep on the plane and had been up at 7am (Oz time) which meant we had been awake for over 24 hours! (At least we can say we've been to Vietnam as well now!) The hotel was nice when we arrived though and certainly the 'poshest' the kids had been to.

After breakfast we went off to explore Bangkok. We got a taxi to MBK which is a large shopping centre selling all manner of stuff including loads of fake things, Ollie was in his element!  We ate here in the food hall at the top and sampled loads of dishes because each one was so cheap!

On Thursday we had hired Joe, our taxi driver from the airport to take us to the Floating Market.

He told us it was about an hour away which seemed a long way but then by the time we arrived we had been in the car 2 hours! This was partly to do with the amount of traffic in Bangkok! 

The floating market was brilliant. Loads of stalls at the side of the river, some by the bank and some were actual boats. If you wanted to stop off at any, you told the driver to pull in and then the stallholder would pull you in with a hooked stick! One lady even just pulled us in with her stick anyway hoping to discover a sale!

It was fantastic to see the culture of these people and their boats, some selling local crafts and some filled with all types of fruits and veg and even some people cooking meals on them! 

On the way back, I let out a scream, Rich though the boat was leaking but it was because I had spotted a man at the side on a boat holding out a huge python on my side of the boat with a big smile on his face. I was petrified that our boat driver would stop thinking we would want to hold it, but luckily he carried on at speed!


We were supposed to be going to the temples afterwards but because of the time we had spent at the market and travelling time, Joe decided it was better to go tomorrow instead of rushing. We think this was probably his plan all along that then we would spend some more money with him tomorrow!

We had also planned to get the overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai the next day and Joe was going to take us to buy the tickets before dropping us at the hotel. He told us he had rung the train station and the tickets were fully booked for the next few days. We had been told and read on the web that you couldn’t buy these tickets online but had to come in person and that there should be no trouble in availability. Joe’s sister, who is a travel agent had apparently told him there were none available. As we drove back to our hotel (another 2 hours) he rang his sister again after we asked him to find out bus times instead. The manager of the travel agent told him he miraculously had 5 tickets for the train the next evening. I was thinking this is some sort of scam but couldn’t speak to Richard who was in the front because of Joe being there and I think he understood a lot of English. He was insisting of taking us to the travel agent on the way back. Richard went in to speak to this manager who he said he didn’t warm to at all. The guy said he had 5 tickets but the prices were the same for the kids as well as adults which meant it was way over what the actual tickets were for. Richard told the guy he would talk it over with me. When we got back to the hotel, Richard delved deeper, ringing the train station, it was correct, there were no tickets left but they don’t have allocated tickets for agents either. So this guy probably had tickets but because the train was full, no chance for us to use them so he was scamming us. We rang Joe and told him we didn’t trust this guy and wouldn’t be buying his tickets and also didn’t need him for the temples the next day as we wanted to not rush around. A prime example of Bangkok scams!

On the way back he took us to The Siam Culture Gardens which was full of different buddhas from different generations each one slightly different in terms of how that generation interpreted how Buddha would have looked. There were also examples of real Thai houses throughout the northern region and the tranquil gardens a welcome respite from the frenetic city!

THE KING AND I

We got our own taxi to the Grand Palace which is sometimes the home of the King and Queen of Thailand. Today they were in residence – the King lives in a hospital (so the taxi driver told us so believe it if you want?!) as his health is quite bad, he is 84, but today they were in the palace. I thought we may get an invite for a cup of Thai tea but not today, they obviously didn’t know we were coming!

The Grand Palace is lovely. Very ornate made up of lots of mosaics and gold leaf with buddha’s galore! In order to go around the grounds you have to have your legs and shoulders covered. We had to stand in a massive queue to put a deposit down for a sarong for me and some very iffy looking trousers for Ol! It was so hot aswell so not that comfortable to walk around in!

The Grand Palace is also home to the Emerald Buddha. You weren’t able to take photos from inside because of the holiness of the place but we got one from outside in!

A ritual before going in was to dip a type of flower in water and put on your head for good luck.

RECLINING BUDDHA

Next stop was to go to see the Reclining Buddha . It was about 20 minutes walk away and was so hot and humid so we got on our first Tuk Tuk! They really only seat 2/3 but all 5 of us, complete with rucksack managed to get on! 

The Reclining Buddha (or Lazy Buggha as we affectionately refer to it...!) is absolutely massive. 

After here, we had a wander away from the tourist area and found ourselves right in the thick of a Thai wholesale market. Proper day to day Thai life.


We didn't see a Western person in sight and although people were inevitably staring at us, we never felt in the least bit threatened. They were all really friendly.


We now had to book an extra night in the hotel becasue of not being able to get the overnight train to Chiang Mai so we got a taxi to MBK shopping centre again and went trawling round the shops and stalls there. We bought an extra holdall for the increasing weight and space issues we have with the airlines and luggage!

To sum up our experience of Bangkok would probably be to say we are glad we have been but probably wouldn’t go again. Its such a busy city with 14 million people living there and very humid. We noted that no one seems to walk anywhere which is probably why there are so many cars on the road. The traffic was manic and we spent a lot of time sitting in traffic but not actually moving for absolutely ages! Very frustrating, especially for the kids who we are proud to say were excellently behaved the whole time.

NEXT STOP – CHIANG MAI IN THE NORTH OF THAILAND……