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We arrived in Bangkok after a 4 hour flight from Hong Kong and as it was
late, decided to book a hotel from the reservations desk at the airport
with at the time seemed quite reasonable. We took a taxi to the hotel,
which prompted me to wear a seat belt. I dont think Thai people need
to take a test by the style of their driving. When we informed the driver
of the hotel we wished to be taken to, he did laugh and repeatedly asked
us if we were sure!
Unfortunately the pictures that the reservations guy at the airport
showed us which incidently did look quite nice, were obviously of a different
hotel.
The Thong Poon Hotel (one for the lads I
suppose) is situated right in the middle of a thai
ghetto, next to a very busy freeway. The room was sufficient,
not club class as was in hong kong and the cockroaches
dont make much noise after 11pm and also pressed the buttons in the lift on request...
It was ok though because after getting a tuk-tuk taxi
(3 wheeled scooter) to a very dodgy looking bar... which I might add, we didnt
go in... (it was like something from 'dusk til dawn'),
we then took a taxi to china town, walked up another very
dodgy looking street as we were the only westerners
there, decided to get another taxi back to the hotel bar.
We had a few beers and sang karaoke which was twice at that point, as I had also
sang with the band at the Kowloon Regal Hotel in Hong Kong!
We also missed our alarm call for 7 and were woken at
7.30 by the hotel saying our canal tour was about to
leave... but we made it! It was a fantastic tour up the
main river of Bangkok on a boat similar to James Bond
'The Man with the Golden Gun'.
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We visited a floating market where there were all sorts
of strange foods on sale and the smells were diverse.
Then on the way back we visited a snake sanctuary... Steve
Irwin would have loved it! "woo hoo snakes!!" There were
lots of types of snakes, monkeys, birds and even some
crocodiles too.
After taking a nap buy the pool we went to the legendary Khoa San Road,
had some great thai food! just enough this time! and
a few bottles of Amstel... there were many other back packers
and tourists there, and we felt a lot more relaxed.
The following day we visited the Grand Palace,
which was built in 1782. It was an awsome sight, with
lots of gold and gems inset into some really amazing
architecture. It is renowned for the temple of the
emerald buddha. We had to take our shoes of before
going into the temple itself where there was gold and
more gold... (I couldn't believe was wearing brand new trainers,
cos my feet were really stinkin!!)
We also visited Siam Square, which is mainly a
shopping and tourist area, hard rock cafe, boots,
marks and spencers etc... really strange to go from a
mainly Thai area to this. Our next destination is
Chang Mai.
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