Wet 'n Wild Bangkok

And so we arrived in the jewel of south-east Asia; Bangkok was a big stop on our travels and we had put aside almost four days to explore it. We arrived by coach and were immediately lost, resorting (after a number of failed attempts to catch city buses) to a taxi to our hotel. Somehow we had managed to get a fantastic deal at the President Royal hotel on the trendy Sukhumvit Road. The place was very plush and our room, or ‘studio’ as we found out, was even better. It was huge, with a bed the size of a small village, TV with two hundred channels, a gigantic minibar, kitchen, and even a study area complete with mahogany table, writing materials and free super-speed Internet access; all of this on the 10th floor overlooking the skyscrapers of the city. Stilted bungalows seemed a long way away! That night we treated ourselves to dinner at a French restaurant and ate spinach and feta crepes – Rach was in heaven!

Our first full day in Bangkok saw us enjoy an enormous complimentary buffet breakfast, which we devoured with some energy (especially the huge Danish cart!), before we jumped on the speedy Sky Train and headed to the famous Chatachuk market. The 20 acre squared market was like a city in itself, and as soon as we ducked inside the first alleyway we were thoroughly disoriented. A friendly American fellow helped us for a bit before he got distracted by some cheap silk shirts, and we were on our own again. Luckily though there was so much to see that we forgot about getting back out. We wandered in and out of wooden craft stalls, sword dealers, silk merchants, fake watch sellers and a thousand different food stalls. It was crazy! We bought some great coloured lights and chilled out to people-watch with some tasty Pad Thai, before overheating in the sweltering temperatures and heading, eventually, for the exit. We then went over to the huge MBK shopping centre for more bargain hunting. Gaz got some funky trousers and Rach indulged in a t-shirt and cushion covers – it was so hard not to go bananas and buy all the cheap stuff! Completely exhausted we went back to the hotel, stopping for some huge burritos en route.

The next day we decided to do the touristy thing and went over to the Grand Palace in the Baglamphu district. Being non-Thai meant getting ripped off on taxis, so we kept asking drivers to go on the meter and not charge a set rate (often three times the meter rate). After eight dishonest taxis had said no, one eventually picked us up and we were soon at the palace. Again we got fleeced for being foreigners as Thais got in for free and we coughed up a fair few pounds to enter. Still, once inside it was pretty spectacular, even it we were dying from the midday heat (point noted that this is not a sensible sightseeing time) – lots of gold plated Buddhas, towering shrines and glittering mosaic roofs. We watched locals burning incense and chanting before the famous jade Buddha in the central temple. After wandering the manicured gardens of the palace we walked over to Wat Po to see the huge (over 60ft long!) reclining Buddha with mother of pearl feet. It was amazing to see this enormous gold statue inside an even bigger temple with loads of Thais offering prayers all around!

We had discovered that our visit to Bangkok coincided with the Thai New Year, also known as Songkran. Essentially this involved one giant city-wide water fight over four days – almost 80 people die every year due to falling of bikes, crashing tuk tusk and so on, but it is still allowed to happen by the police to epic levels. Until that afternoon we had seen little of the celebrations as it was the first day, but we decided (unwisely it turned out) to walk from Wat Po to see the famous Khao San Road. Before we had even got there a tuk tuk pulled up and some locals got out, sprayed us with water and smeared traditional talc paste on our faces. We thought this was as bad as it was going to get. How wrong we were! On arrival at we were confronted with thousands of locals, all intent on soaking each other with Super Soakers, buckets and hosepipes. They also had barrel loads of the talc paste. Within minutes we were soaked and looked like ancient relics with all the talc! We took it in good spirits until we actually hit the main part of the Khao San Road, where the water fight got a bit heated. Gaz’s camera was targeted, getting totally soaked, and Rach got a couple of mouthfuls of talc. We decided it was time to escape! We managed to get home without too much more soakings, catching a taxi through the carnage. We got back to Sukhumvit Road and turned heads everywhere with the state of our clothes and faces – McDonalds in particular almost came to a standstill when we walked through the doors! It turned out for the best though as on the walk back to the hostel none of the tailor touts who routinely hounded us to buy suits even came out to talk to us. Hooray! That night we went to the nearby VIP cinema to relax after the manic day. For very little money we sat in gigantic seats, drank beer and ate popcorn whilst watching ‘Love in the Time of Cholera’ on the huge screen in the near deserted theatre – brilliant!

On our last day in Bangkok we decided that we had not done anywhere near enough shopping, so headed again for a shopping centre. We saw plenty of adverts for bargain suits so we went to a recommended tailors and did some serious bartering. Gaz, using the old ‘I really do not have lots of money for this’ tactic, managed to wangle two top quality suits for a brilliant price. Rach, experiencing some serious ‘bargain envy’ jumped at the opportunity for a custom fitting and splashed out on a three piece suit for herself. Pleased with our work we went for some amazing Wonton soup and steamed buns in a local Chinese restaurant, all washed down with Jasmine tea. After some relaxing around the hotel that afternoon and hiding from the water-throwing gangs that hung around on all the street corners soaking passers by, people in tuk tusk and even cars, we decided to head over to one of the best hotels in the world – the Oriental. We took the complimentary converted rice barge down the river to the hotel’s private jetty and were welcomed into the gardens. We headed for the bar and were only just let in due to the fact that everyone else was in suits and we were in shorts (doh!). Still, we didn’t stay long as the drinks prices were just insane, so we took the free boat back to the Sky Train Station. Feeling a bit pleased at somehow getting a free river tour we went for a much cheaper dinner in a great local Thai restaurant. The waiter warned Gaz off the spicy dishes but he risked one anyway and managed it with only a little eye watering! That evening we abandoned our planned visit to Patpong (more full swing Songkran celebrations) and went instead to a little ex-pat bar where we drank some beers and listened to a dodgy and totally hilarious version of Bohemian Rhapsody sung by a live Thai band!