I am leaving Perth for Bangkok Thailand tomorrow morning. My flight leaves at 8:45 AM and I get into Bangkok sometime after 4 PM. I'll be there for eleven days, and hopefully I'll have a good time and not have any troubles.
DAY 2
I woke up the second morning and ate at the breakfast buffet attached to the hotel lobby (free/included in the price of the room. I ate breakfast there ever day of the trip, which was corn flakes and milk, a noodle/vegetable/sausage dish, fried rice, toast and jam, fresh pineapple and watermelon, and orange juice. Then I payed for 3 more nights at the Sawasdee, for 2000 baht (roughly 60 USD). I went out for a walk to scope out the area and take some photos. I walked to the Democracy Monument and took a photo (I didn't actually touch it, it is in the centre of a 5-lane roundabout) and then turned south towards one of the 440 Buddhist temples of Bangkok, Wat Sutthat. I found a bookstore on the corner and bought post cards and the book Bangkok 8. It was in the 30's centigrade and sunny and humid so I picked up some bottled water at one of the many 7 Eleven conveniance stores and continued to Wat Sutthat, which was pretty cool. The inside perimeter is lined with seated Buddha figures and there is a central chamber with a big golden Buddha. I went inside the chamber (after removing my shoes of course) and there was cool mural art on the walls. From Wat Sutthat I wandered around some more and stumbled upon a small park with fish ponds full of tilapia and some carp like fish. I then walked over to the Royal Palace (Thailand is a Kingdom) but I couldn't enter without long pants. A man there talked to me and showed me some places on my Bangkok map that I should see and got me a tuk-tuk driver to take me around to five places for 20 baht. It was a really good deal so I decided to go. It was worth the experience I suppose, but not something I would normally recommend, and I passionately avoided tuk-tuks the rest of my time in Thailand. Tuk-tuks are 3 wheeled gas powered carriage taxi things and are all over Bangkok. I got in and braced myself so I wouldn't fall out and die. The cover prevented me from seeing anything except the street and cars around us, we spent most the time stalled in heavy traffic jams (it was hot and humid and I was tired and thought I was going to black out because of all the CO exhaust). First he took me to the Lucky Buddha, which didn't look like much, just a Buddha seated in a dead end alley way. I met a Thai school teacher who was really nice and chatted with him for a while and he got photos of me lighting the incense and in front of the Lucky Buddha. I went back to the tuk-tuk and he brought me to a Thai suit tailor shop (there are TONS of these in Bangkok) and the he wanted me to stay in there for at least 15 minutes so he gets a gas coupon. I did and then disappointed the guy in the shop by abruptly saying I don't want a suit no matter what deal he offered and I left. Then we went to another two shops, a silk factory and a gem store, both of which I was to stay for 15 minutes so my driver can get his gas coupons. I actually bought stuff at them, silk shawls and a Jade Buddha as gifts. Then tuk-tuk driver took me to the Marble Temple, which was a lot like Wat Sutthat, and then to the Standing Buddha, which was huge. Then he brought me to a TAT (travel agent shop). By this time I had a good feel for what the temples were like and at 3 PM I was exhausted and felt I wanted to get out of Bangkok so I hastily bought the first thing the guy offered, a trip to Kho Samui, an island in south Thailand. It cost about 5500 baht ($130 US), which included bus from Bangkok to the southern coast and back, round trip ferry ride, and 5 nights at a beach bungalow. All he told me was that they were picking me up at Khao San at 5:30 PM on the 25th. Then I went back to the tuk-tuk and told him I was ready to go back to my hotel, and he did...after one more suit tailor shop. So, I was back at the hotel, sick of Bangkok, and it was only 4 PM. That was the longest afternoon of my life, I tried to read and kill some time but I couldn't concentrate so I forced myself to watch soccer and BBC news. I was worried about going south now, because I didn't have any info on when to get back and the last thing I wanted was to be stranded and broke in Thailand. If anything went wrong I was screwed. Plus the bus ride was 11 hours long, overnight, and the TAT guy was concerned that I might be too tall for the bus, and it may have been one without seats where you have to stand which would have been miserable, not to mention how bad the ride would be if I got sick off the water or something. The bungalows looked like they'd have been full of mosquitos too. The problem was I didn't even have enough money to pay for accommodation to stay in Bangkok, so I was stuck going. I pretty much freaked out and felt miserable, trapped, and lonely. I was thankfully able to fall asleep early again.
DAY 3
I got up, ate breakfast, and went online at the hotel's internet cafe to email my dad for more money. I couldn't stand staying in my room so I decided to go for another walk, and I wrote and mailed off my post cards, which were somewhat depressing because of how I was feeling when I wrote them. I walked north from Democracy Monument this time, and made a big loop until I was near Wat Sutthat again. There a guy on the sidewalk stopped me for a chat and saved me from argueing with a tuk-tuk driver (they usually don't take a simple "no" as an answer and always ask you where you are going, what you have and havn't seen yet, why you don't want a ride, offer a better deal, then get pissed off when you still refuse). The guy was named Kamkai or "Sam" and he said he'd walk around with me and show me some things. So we walked around and he pointed all kinds of things out and we talked about Superman. He didn't like that there is a new superman movie coming out because "superman died last year". We went to the Hindu section of town and saw Vishnu, Shiva, and Ganesa figures and went into a temple, where we tied these cloths on our heads, tying them around our chins, and removed our shoes to go up to the sacred chamber area. We left there and nearby was a big lot of concrete debris, which Kamkai said was burned in 2003 because the owner was a rich Indian man. He said lots of businesses are controlled by Indian, Chinese, and Singaporean rich men and that many Thais don't like that. We next went to the Chinatown of Bangkok and walked through the markets, which were full of very strange foods like whole dehydrated fish, guts, and vegetables, bamboo foods, fresh fish, whole roasted birds, slimy sea cucumber like things, and lots of stuff I have no idea what it was. We kept wandering around and Kamkai said several times that there are three things I need to try in Bangkok: Thai beer, Thai food, and Thai lady. I took him up on the first two, as he took me to a real Thai restaurant where no English was spoken so he did the ordering. We sat in that place for two full hours, and I was getting a bit impatiant, but I had nothing better to do really. He ordered us three dishes, vegetables and noodles, fish and shrimp soup, and another tofu and noodles dish. It was all very good, except the soup was a bit too spicy for me. I had to eat with chop sticks too, so that was an experience. Kamkai ordered Singha beer by the litre, and I had three glasses and wanted to stop but he kept ordering more so I stopped drinking so he couldn't keep topping my glass off. He ended up drinking over four litres and he was trying to tell me stuff the whole time and it was getting really hard to understand him. He challenged me to arm wrestling and I beat him easily both left and right handed and he called me Superman, then corrected himself "Superman's dead" and said I was Spiderman then. Kamkai told me he was from Chaing Mai but has been living in Bangkok for thirty years, he's 39 years old, he has a degree in philosophy and is Buddhist like most Thais. He was a monk for three years and said it was tough becuase he wasn't allowed to drink, but he has a good optimistic outlook on life. After listening to Thai and Khmer music on the jukebox we were finally ready to go, and of course he didn't have any money on him, which I pretty much expected. Unfortunately I didn't have enough cash to cover the 660 baht bill, so I had to go to an ATM escorted by an employee - and I had to ride on his motorbike! So I found myself zinging through crazy Bangkok traffic at night on a motorbike and no helmet, and with a beer buzz. Basically I thought I was going to die. Fortunately we made it safely back, I paid, and then Kamkai escorted me home, as I insisted, as my "body guard" though he was in no shape to defend anyone. I had a headache when I got back, possibly from the beer or maybe just from breathing in air pollution all day, so I showered and went to bed after watching the end of an Newcastle United vs Arsenal soccer match.
Day 4
I spent most of my time in my hotel room this day, watching a Yankees vs Baltimore baseball game, reading Bangkok 8 and Harry Potter, skipping between HBO, ESPN, and BBC world on the tv, and sleeping. It's been a matter of killing time, but at least I felt a bit better for deciding to stay in Bangkok and ensuring I don't wind up lost and stranded out in the country side. At least I am feeling healthy now. It's still pretty boring and lonely though. In the evening I wandered over to the Chao Phraya River and found a nice little park by Phrasumaine Fortress. There was a little gazebo thing there in the style of a one of the Buddhist wats, or temples. The view of the Rama 8 bridge and the skyline along the river were cool, and it was neat to see all the river traffic and be down by the water. A bunch of people were doing aerobics exercises there. As the sun set I walked a path along the river and stopped and chatted with an old man that was admiring the sunset. He spoke really good English, and told me about his travels throughout the US. We shook hands and exchanged wais (a bowing of the head with palms together near the chin, used as a sign of respect.) and I went back to Sawasdee Inn and watched Anchorman.
Day 5
Today (25 April) is Anzac Day, and it is unfortunate that I am missing out on Australia's most important national holiday. My dad was a life saver by getting money for me so I can afford to get through this holiday and beyond. I read some more of Bangkok 8, which obviously compliments my experience here, even though it deals with some disturbing issues like drug trafficking and extremely high proportion of transexuals and prostitution in Krung Thep, the local name for Bangkok, meaning "City of Angels". It's interesting that parts of the book actually take place on Khao San Road. I watched Stepford Wives on HBO, and went out for a walk and to mail off my postcards (which I wrote the second day so they are all somewhat depressing). I went for a walk again later and crossed the river, wandered through a less touristy neighborhood of town as I wandered upstream to the Rama 8 Bridge. I sat down by the water under that bridge for a long while and just relaxed and thought. It was overcast and slightly breezy so it felt good to be outside. Thankfully I didn't get the bird flu from Mr. one-legged pigeon and his sea gull friends. A storm was coming in and I stood on the Rama 8 Bridge and looked over the surrounding area of the city with a strong wind in my face. Lots of people were jogging along the bridge's footpath. I then went to the riverside park by Phrasumaine Fortress again, and as it got dark out I sat on a bench and watched lightning over the river, with the lit up Rama 8 Bridge to the right and music and exercisers to the left, under a tree full of noisy insects. It started to sprinkle so I went back to the hotel for the night and watched Anaconda on HBO.
Day 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
I stopped writing journals on the 24th so I have forgotten some of what and when I did things (it is 1 June 2006 as I write this). On the 26th I stayed in the hotel most the day: I watched the Spurs beat the Kings in an NBA playoff game, finished reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix, and watched Anacondas 2: Hunt for the Blood Orchid. I went over to a grocery store up the street and picked up some candy and soda. I also booked a tour for Ayutthaya for the 27th. I was picked up after breakfast for the tour by a taxi that brought me to the bus (I later found out they had already started to leave without me) and we stopped at a big white square temple of Burmese style. Then we went on to the old royal palace area of Ayutthaya, which was really cool. It consisted of a walled in area with 3 large gray pagoda things (stupas?) and lots of other crumbled walls made of red bricks. The grass was really green around that area, there were blossoming trees and butterflies flying about, and our tour guide told us in hard to understand English about the places history. Behind that was a large grassy area with brick structures here and there. It was like something out of a Final Fantasy X or something. We saw a traditional Thai house, some elephants, an old execution depression in the ground, and then the tour bus took us to several more ruins. It wasn't as good as it should have been because it was so hot and humid. We had lunch and then saw another really cool ruins area, Wat Mahatat. (Our tour included a Danish guy that whinged a lot, girls from England and Japan, a couple from South Africa, and a couple of Thais). On another day I went to the National Museum, which was really good. There were heaps of sculptures of Buddha and of Indian gods and goddesses. On my last day in Thailand I booked a tour with Fishthailand, run by Eddie Mounce of the UK. It was really awesome and put a bright ending on that Thai holiday. I caught 11 Mekong catfish from 23-50 pounds, and 5 Striped catfish from 16-23 pounds. (My previous biggest fish were a pair of 15 pound carp). I was so sore I couldn't handle any more fish by the end of the day. It was overcast, but still humid and fairly warm. I got a taxi to the airport fairly early the next morning and watched a bunch of planes take off and started reading The Lathe of Heaven. It was very very comforting to touch down in Australia again.
Now, on 4 July 2006, I look back on my Thailand trip and am happy to have the experience. It's hard to recall the miserable feelings now and I don't regret going. I do wish I'd have planned ahead so I didn't get bored or spend unneccessary money though.