Bangkok (16 - 18 November 2007)
The overnight train to Bangkok was surprisingly pleasant - it did not smell bad, it was spacious enough not to feel as though your neighbour is peeking over your shoulder and we did not have any snorers. When we bought the train tickets, they told us that they only had tickets for the upper bunks, but these were cheaper so we were quite happy to take these seats. Well, as we’ve learned in Asia - if something sounds too good to be true, then it is too good to be true. The upper bunks’ curtains could not close totally and so we had a bright light directly in our eyes right through the night. The aircon was also full blast in our faces and I had to put on my thermal undies in the middle of the night. But besides this, the train was the best that we’ve had in Asia.
We arrived in Bangkok train station the next morning and were too hungry to wait until we got to a guesthouse to have breakfast, so we decided to eat something at the train station. There was a food court with various dishes, all dodgy looking, so we bought something from ‘pie and pastry’. I settled for a sausage roll and Eon for a curry chicken pie and we grabbed a coffee. We had to sit in the food court as there was no suitable place elsewhere. As soon as I moved the two trays that were lying on the table, two sneaky cockroaches scurried away. Under normal circumstances I would have thrown a little tantrum, but by now I have learnt that no one actually cares and that it was me against the roaches. I flicked the creatures off the table with the tip of my finger, sat down and enjoyed what turned out to be a REAL sausage roll - a pie-pastry with a little vienna-like sausage inside 
Next it was mission “Transport to Banglamphu”. A helpful ‘Information Attendant’ told us to look for the number 53 bus and then get off at Banglamphu. Finding the bus was easy (and cheap - 7 Baht each), but figuring out where to get off was another thing. Using the map in the Lonely Planet, I finally worked out where we were and was waiting to get close to our destination before indicating that we needed to get off the bus. Then, out of the blue, the bus boy pointed to the door and said: “you get off here”. Well, who are we to argue? We hopped off, re-oriented ourselves and started walking to where we assumed Banglamphu was. And it is true what they say about women’s internal compass - it exists and it is spot-on We found Banglamphu area and started scouting for accommodation.
At this point, we thought that we would only be in Bangkok for one day before moving on to the beaches. So when we asked what the remotely posh D&D Inn priced their rooms at, we thought ‘what the heck, we aught to spoil ourselves a bit and splash out on a 750 Baht room for one night’. So we ended up staying in a nicer place than we had been used to these last three months - we even had the privilege of a swimming pool on the Inn’s rooftop!
Banglamphu is the backpacker area in Bangkok - Khao San Road is the infamous hub-hub for tourists with millions of bars, clubs, McDonald’s, stalls selling clothing, food and souvenirs and bookshops. We were planning to catch a movie in Bangkok, so as soon as we had checked in, we set off to find the famous MBK shopping centre. We asked a travel agent which bus to catch and off we went. On the way to MBK, I had a chance to really take Bangkok in - traffic beyond believe, skyscrapers disappearing into the heavens, thousands of taxis in so many different bright colours, monuments, temples - Bangkok is a fusion between historic relics and temples and modern day buildings and vehicles.
Menlyn Shopping Centre eat your heart out! MBK is HUGE in comparison and very upmarket as well. We located the cinema and opted for Beowulf - the movie was okay, but the experience was amazing! To start with, before the movie commends, everyone in the cinema stands with hands neatly next to their sides to listen to the national anthem blearing over stereo speakers. I also had a popcorn surprise - I asked for salt, I got majority salt and every now and again I got a piece with BBQ, chives, caramel or spring onion
From MBK we took the sky train to the weekend market - we hopped off the sky train, walked around the market for about 15 minutes and decided that we were just too exhausted to do any shopping. So we caught the underground back to the city centre and then a bus back to Banglamphu.
We went for dinner and on the way back to the hotel, Ash jumped out of nowhere (Kate and Ash are two of the people we befriended in Laos). So what we thought would be an early night, turned into a 2am affair
Needless to say, the next morning we struggled out of bed not to miss the buffet breakfast that was included in the D&D deal (the highlight of my breakfast was cornflakes with real milk, not because the other dishes were bad, but rather because I have not had this in months!)
We met up with Ash and Kate and walked towards the pier, thinking that we would catch a ferry somewhere and just wander about Bangkok. In our debate on deciding where to go and also, how to get there, a friendly Thai couple approached us in an attempt to assist these lost foreigners. We told them that we did not know where we wanted to go, and then they asked us to join them for lunch. The couple soon turned into a group of six Thais and the four of us followed them through the narrow streets and markets close to the river. We ended up in a back alley in a little restaurant. We had a great time - discussing many different topics and sharing about 10 different meals. It is amazing how friendly and outgoing these people are.
We received news that Werner and Chanel (two of our friends from SA also doing long term travel) were in Bangkok and so we met up with them for a drink before we moved on to Krabi for a few days on the beech. We enjoyed the Afrikaans company so much that the drinks turned into new travel itineraries for both pairs - we decided to stay another day in Bangkok and W&C decided that they would go south first and then head into the northern parts of Thailand, so that we could spend some time together.
The next day the four of us visited the Grand Palace - the former home of the monarch. On arrival, Eon and I were prevented from entering as we were wearing shorts. At least we could ‘borrow’ more decent attire from the palace. I was equipped with a really beautiful sarong (I looked better in my new outfit than in my original one) and Eon with a dull looking pair of trousers.
I do recall the palace to be a spectacular sight, but I have to admit that I missed a lot of the splendour due to my constant verbal diarrhoea - Chanel and I were both girl-conversation-deprived!!
Eon and I have created this little ‘reading competition’ to see who can read the most books, and on a micro scale, who can read the most pages during our trip. For some reason Eon is always ahead. I am sure he sneaks off in the night to go get a couple of pages in… on the other hand - I am reading Wilbur Smith’s ancient Egyptian tales and Eon is reading a thin book about a murder in a Big Brother House… is this totally fair?!
And that was it for Bangkok - we were excited to move on to the coast for a few days of lazing in the sun.
Click on image to view Bangkok gallery: