· You pay 300 baht for new sunglass? You look velly hot!Bangkok, Thailand · 30th Dec 2007 · Posted by Chris
Right so here we are in Bangkok, Thailand's most famous destination for oh so many reasons. We arrived at 4am after a long bus ride from near Ko Tao after expecting to arrive at 5:30 a.m. - yep the bus drivers LOVE driving fast here!
This is one of the places we decided to splurge on our accommodation and we'd arranged to stay at The Novotel hotel in Siam Square. Walking into the main door with our shorts, jandals, singlets and backpacks we must've looked like we definitely had the wrong address. In hotels like The Novotel it's amazing how the rich folk around the world give not-so-rich-looking people stares of disapproval. Oh well, if their snobbiness makes them happy, more power to 'em I reckon. :)
After getting some well-deserved rest in total luxury we headed out to have a look around Bangkok. Not far from our hotel is the MBK Centre, an enormous marble shopping mall that is eight stories high and 330 metres long with 2,500 shops (thanks Wikipedia for that snippet hehe). As with all the shopping places we've seen so far we walked around goggle-eyed and marvelling at the fact that you can really can buy anything in Asia. MBK is mostly market-style stalls and shops where bargaining is pretty much expected - we're getting pretty good at it. :) We also visited the Siam Paragon, another huge mall (Thailand is full of them as you can tell) but it's a bit of an exception to the normal rule - the big brands are the real thing and with real pricetags to go with them. How about a gold Mont Blanc pen for NZD$6000 or a blingy Patek Phillipe watch for NZD$35000? Nice.
After soaking up the expensive-smelling air for a bit we headed just down the road to The Jim Thompson House. Jim Thompson was an American architect that devoted a large chunk of his life to reviving the silk industry in Thailand with massive success. While living here he built what's known as The Jim Thompson House, a collection of buildings constructed using (mostly) authentic Thai techniques, e.g. raising them off the ground to escape flooding and putting wood 'planks' 6-12" high across the bottom of every door to prevent evil spirits entering the house. We took a very interesting guided tour around the complex and learned all about the complex itself while looking at Jim's stunning collection of Buddhist art, statues, paintings and other works of art, some of it over 4000 years old. Under pretty spooky circumstances during Easter weekend in 1967, Thompson disappeared while on holiday with friends in Cameron Highlands, a northern Malaysian resort. He was never found.
A lot of public parks in Bangkok have free aerobics classes too. We sat and watched one of the sessions for a while and felt guilty about an old woman that must've been at least 70 doing more exercise than us! Check it out (someone else took this video - YouTube isn't working for us anymore).
That evening we tracked down Lumpini Boxing Stadium. The boxing was pretty cool actually. The fighters were quite young but that didn't stop them beating the crap out of eachother! The atmosphere was pretty quiet when we got there but as the fighters got better the betting started and the 3rd-level crowd got very excited. The first fight ended with one of the fighters getting taken away in a wheelchair because he couldn't stand unassisted ... scary. The music that plays continually is really cool and you can tell people have a lot of respect for the fighters and for the sport in general - plenty of fighters are full-time professionals. It was well worth seeing though and I'm glad we went.
The next day we met up with our friend Bunna's cousin Kae who spent a few hours driving us around Bangkok so that we could see the Chatuchak weekend market. It's a massive area devoted to soi upon soi (soi means 'lane') of the now infamous cheap Thai deals. You can buy everything from dresses to dogs to sugar to squirrels. Yes, squirrels. :) We wandered around one part and played with the puppies and kittens and squirrels for a while - stupid cute little things hehehe. A huge thanks goes to Kae for driving us around and for finding a place to eat that serves mango and sticky rice mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm so good.
In the evening we took a cab out to Patpong, one of Bangkok's well-known dodgy areas. All I can say is ... WOW. From the moment you step out of the cab you are absolutely assaulted by people trying to sell you stuff. The usual stuff is here - clothes etc - but you can also buy people. If you're reading this and don't know what I mean think people that will 'hang out' with you for 1500 THB/hour then go back to work. You got it now? Yeah, just like that. :) I expected it to be sleazy but it was almost uncomfortable sometimes. We found a pavement bar and sat there watching the people go by for a while which satisfied our people-watching fascination for the day. It's scary how many fat European men with broomstick-skinny Thai girls walk around Patpong - they don't care that everyone knows what they're up to.
The next day we were due to fly from Bangkok to Chiang Mai so we got up in the morning and went to Khao San road, one of the 'not to be missed' areas on the tourist trail. Out that way is The Grand Palace, Phra Borom Maha Ratcha Wang. Love that name! Unfortunately it was closed by the time we got there but we managed to get a good look at the enormous palace that started construction in 1782. The architecture is absolutely stunning - we've vowed to come back here and take a real tour around the insides.
So, that's Bangkok. It's an incredible city but there's no way we could've covered even 10% of it in the time we had so we're definitely coming back one day!
Now, on to Chiang Mai!
This is one of the places we decided to splurge on our accommodation and we'd arranged to stay at The Novotel hotel in Siam Square. Walking into the main door with our shorts, jandals, singlets and backpacks we must've looked like we definitely had the wrong address. In hotels like The Novotel it's amazing how the rich folk around the world give not-so-rich-looking people stares of disapproval. Oh well, if their snobbiness makes them happy, more power to 'em I reckon. :)
After getting some well-deserved rest in total luxury we headed out to have a look around Bangkok. Not far from our hotel is the MBK Centre, an enormous marble shopping mall that is eight stories high and 330 metres long with 2,500 shops (thanks Wikipedia for that snippet hehe). As with all the shopping places we've seen so far we walked around goggle-eyed and marvelling at the fact that you can really can buy anything in Asia. MBK is mostly market-style stalls and shops where bargaining is pretty much expected - we're getting pretty good at it. :) We also visited the Siam Paragon, another huge mall (Thailand is full of them as you can tell) but it's a bit of an exception to the normal rule - the big brands are the real thing and with real pricetags to go with them. How about a gold Mont Blanc pen for NZD$6000 or a blingy Patek Phillipe watch for NZD$35000? Nice.
After soaking up the expensive-smelling air for a bit we headed just down the road to The Jim Thompson House. Jim Thompson was an American architect that devoted a large chunk of his life to reviving the silk industry in Thailand with massive success. While living here he built what's known as The Jim Thompson House, a collection of buildings constructed using (mostly) authentic Thai techniques, e.g. raising them off the ground to escape flooding and putting wood 'planks' 6-12" high across the bottom of every door to prevent evil spirits entering the house. We took a very interesting guided tour around the complex and learned all about the complex itself while looking at Jim's stunning collection of Buddhist art, statues, paintings and other works of art, some of it over 4000 years old. Under pretty spooky circumstances during Easter weekend in 1967, Thompson disappeared while on holiday with friends in Cameron Highlands, a northern Malaysian resort. He was never found.
A lot of public parks in Bangkok have free aerobics classes too. We sat and watched one of the sessions for a while and felt guilty about an old woman that must've been at least 70 doing more exercise than us! Check it out (someone else took this video - YouTube isn't working for us anymore).
That evening we tracked down Lumpini Boxing Stadium. The boxing was pretty cool actually. The fighters were quite young but that didn't stop them beating the crap out of eachother! The atmosphere was pretty quiet when we got there but as the fighters got better the betting started and the 3rd-level crowd got very excited. The first fight ended with one of the fighters getting taken away in a wheelchair because he couldn't stand unassisted ... scary. The music that plays continually is really cool and you can tell people have a lot of respect for the fighters and for the sport in general - plenty of fighters are full-time professionals. It was well worth seeing though and I'm glad we went.
The next day we met up with our friend Bunna's cousin Kae who spent a few hours driving us around Bangkok so that we could see the Chatuchak weekend market. It's a massive area devoted to soi upon soi (soi means 'lane') of the now infamous cheap Thai deals. You can buy everything from dresses to dogs to sugar to squirrels. Yes, squirrels. :) We wandered around one part and played with the puppies and kittens and squirrels for a while - stupid cute little things hehehe. A huge thanks goes to Kae for driving us around and for finding a place to eat that serves mango and sticky rice mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm so good.
In the evening we took a cab out to Patpong, one of Bangkok's well-known dodgy areas. All I can say is ... WOW. From the moment you step out of the cab you are absolutely assaulted by people trying to sell you stuff. The usual stuff is here - clothes etc - but you can also buy people. If you're reading this and don't know what I mean think people that will 'hang out' with you for 1500 THB/hour then go back to work. You got it now? Yeah, just like that. :) I expected it to be sleazy but it was almost uncomfortable sometimes. We found a pavement bar and sat there watching the people go by for a while which satisfied our people-watching fascination for the day. It's scary how many fat European men with broomstick-skinny Thai girls walk around Patpong - they don't care that everyone knows what they're up to.
The next day we were due to fly from Bangkok to Chiang Mai so we got up in the morning and went to Khao San road, one of the 'not to be missed' areas on the tourist trail. Out that way is The Grand Palace, Phra Borom Maha Ratcha Wang. Love that name! Unfortunately it was closed by the time we got there but we managed to get a good look at the enormous palace that started construction in 1782. The architecture is absolutely stunning - we've vowed to come back here and take a real tour around the insides.
So, that's Bangkok. It's an incredible city but there's no way we could've covered even 10% of it in the time we had so we're definitely coming back one day!
Now, on to Chiang Mai!
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