I got off the 12 hour bus from Vientiene to Bangkok, and was dropped off in the infamous Khao San road - made famous by the film "The Beach", and countless travellers' tales. Task number one was to find a hotel - I was shown several extortionately priced, cockroach infested hellholes, but in the end (bearing in mind that Khilna was arriving was the following day) I settled on a Thai chain-hotel, that was both moderately priced and clean-ish. My task for the day was complete, and I consulted my new guide book (the Time Out guide to Bangkok to see what to do). Walking around, guidebook in hand, I couldn't help but notice that at 8am in the morning, people were still crowded around glasses of Thai whisky and soda - presumably carrying on from the previous night. And no Mum, I didn't join in and have a drink at that hour of the morning!
My week in Bangkok was spent sightseeing and shopping. In my 6 day visit, I must have seen about 12 golden Buddhas, and an equal number of shopping malls! That's not to say that some of those temples weren't magnificent - I saw the very impressive Grand Palace, the solid gold Buddha in Chinatown, and the enormous reclining Buddha at Wat Pho. All were interesting in very different ways, but, as a book I recently read stated, if the Buddha was to come to modern day Thailand, and see the temples adorned with gold, idols, and imagery, he'd be shocked by what had become of the religion. But this is a travel blog, not a spiritual commentary, so I'll stick to the topic at hand.
(the Buddha at Wat Pho - enlarge image to see the full scale)The real story of Bangkok is probably my hair! After receiving months of comments saying that I looked like everything from Shaggy from Scooby Doo, to Frodo Baggins, to a 1970s Bollywood star(!), I took the unprecedented step of getting my hair dreadlocked!! The whole process took about 2 hours, and initially left my hair looking like Coolio (tight and sticking out at random angles), but after a few days, the dreads started to form. Unfortunately, I chose not to look after the dreads properly, and they hadn't formed correctly, so I had to go and get them redone the other day. I start an office job at a prestigious American firm in a number of weeks, and this is perhaps the last time in my life to do something crazy with my hair. I'll let you guys judge the results for yourselves!
We took a break from the hustle and bustle of Bangkok to visit nearby Kanchanaburi - most famous for its role in 'Bridge over the River Kwai'. I'll be the first to admit that I hadn't heard about the River Kwai, the River Kwai Bridge, or any of its history, but some fellow travellers had recommended Kanchanaburi so we duly followed their advice.
Kanchanaburi itself was another smallish town, which could be traversed in under an hour. Originally intending to spend a couple of days there, we swiftly revised our itinerary to spend only a night there. The day in Kanchanaburi was interesting - we visited a waterfall, and some hot springs, and spent some time at the Hellfire Path and the Death Railway. The latter two monuments with the ominous sounding names, were leftovers from the Japanese occupation of Thailand in World War II. I'll be quite honest when I say that the World Wars are two areas of history in which I am seriously deficient, and it was eye-opening to learn about the attrocities commited by the Japanese against the Allied Prisoners of War whilst they built this railway. I recommend a visit if you're in the area.
Back in Bangkok with a couple of days to spare, we chose to take a tour to the Floating Market. I had previously visited a floating market in Vietnam, and I expected this to be along similar lines - early morning traders selling exotic fruit and fish from boat to boat. This wasn't to be the case, and the floating market turned out to be a complete tourist trap, complete with people hawking the standard tourist rubbish, and the Alton Towers-style candid photo shown to you at the end. I can't stress this enough - don't go there, no matter how good the image of it is in your head.
Ayutthaya was another one of our one day excursions. Named after Ayodhaya in the Ramayana, this was yet another set of ancient temple complexes and ruins. However, having visited Myson in Vietnam, and Angkor Wat in Cambodia, this seemed much less impressive - aside from the Buddha carved into the tree. The highlight of our day was seeing the "elephant panda" (an elephant painted in panda colours) - yet another indication of the lengths that Asians will go to in order to please the tourists!
During the course of all of this business, we were offered the opportunity to feed the elephants - which was quite a cool experience.
I'll be back in Bangkok in a few weeks time, but for now, I had had a great time, although I was ready to escape to the cooler climates of Chiang Mai.
Love to all,
Nihal
We took a break from the hustle and bustle of Bangkok to visit nearby Kanchanaburi - most famous for its role in 'Bridge over the River Kwai'. I'll be the first to admit that I hadn't heard about the River Kwai, the River Kwai Bridge, or any of its history, but some fellow travellers had recommended Kanchanaburi so we duly followed their advice.
Kanchanaburi itself was another smallish town, which could be traversed in under an hour. Originally intending to spend a couple of days there, we swiftly revised our itinerary to spend only a night there. The day in Kanchanaburi was interesting - we visited a waterfall, and some hot springs, and spent some time at the Hellfire Path and the Death Railway. The latter two monuments with the ominous sounding names, were leftovers from the Japanese occupation of Thailand in World War II. I'll be quite honest when I say that the World Wars are two areas of history in which I am seriously deficient, and it was eye-opening to learn about the attrocities commited by the Japanese against the Allied Prisoners of War whilst they built this railway. I recommend a visit if you're in the area.
Back in Bangkok with a couple of days to spare, we chose to take a tour to the Floating Market. I had previously visited a floating market in Vietnam, and I expected this to be along similar lines - early morning traders selling exotic fruit and fish from boat to boat. This wasn't to be the case, and the floating market turned out to be a complete tourist trap, complete with people hawking the standard tourist rubbish, and the Alton Towers-style candid photo shown to you at the end. I can't stress this enough - don't go there, no matter how good the image of it is in your head.
Ayutthaya was another one of our one day excursions. Named after Ayodhaya in the Ramayana, this was yet another set of ancient temple complexes and ruins. However, having visited Myson in Vietnam, and Angkor Wat in Cambodia, this seemed much less impressive - aside from the Buddha carved into the tree. The highlight of our day was seeing the "elephant panda" (an elephant painted in panda colours) - yet another indication of the lengths that Asians will go to in order to please the tourists!
During the course of all of this business, we were offered the opportunity to feed the elephants - which was quite a cool experience.
I'll be back in Bangkok in a few weeks time, but for now, I had had a great time, although I was ready to escape to the cooler climates of Chiang Mai.
Love to all,
Nihal
The hair kinda suits you!
ReplyDeleteUsually I just read your blog, and don't have much to contribute in the way of comments. But this time, I have something relevant!
The Elephants you saw were painted as Pandas as a stunt by zookeepers, but not purely for tourists - the recent birth of a Panda in Thailand has drawn attention (and therefore money) away from the Thai elephants, which are the Thai national animal. The elephants were painted as pandas to try and highlight the fact they were being neglected.
Looking forward to the next blog!
show us a better picture of ur coolio style dreadlocks...perhaps wear some sunglasses when u take it
ReplyDelete