BANGKOK! Known for it's ladies, ladyboys, parties, bargains, smells, street food, and sketchiness. I am happy to announce that we experienced them all in our 3 short days in Bangkok! We arrived early in the morning on Wednesday and opted to take a taxi ride into town. We were staying with a friend of a friend of Jaimie's, who graciously offered us a place on his couch last minute. We had been warned about Bangkok by many people, and how unsafe it was for 2 girls, so we were quite happy to have a local to show us around and keep us safe! Unfortunately when we arrived, he was at work, so we dropped our bags off at the reception desk, and running on zero sleep in over 26 hours, set off to explore the city. We started off at the incredible mall in the city center to have some delicious pad Thai for lunch. We then ventured outside to explore the nearby market, but after a sudden downpour, we booked it back inside to escape the rain. With multiple failed attempts to find wifi, we decided to try and find somewhere to take a nap before the big night ahead. Then we found our answer: the movie theater. We bought a couple tickets to whatever movie was playing next, which happened to be 50/50. Horrible choice. The movie turned out to be quite good, and not at all what we expected, and as luck would have it, we didn't sleep a wink! Seeing that the rain was clear, we ventured back to the market to have a look around until it was time to meet our host Andrew for dinner. We met him at an old Irish pub for a drink, where he brought along his friend and coworker, Paul. The four of us then went to a nearby street filled with foodcarts, where we sat and dined on chicken, crispy pork, and duck noodle soup, beer, and mango sticky rice! It was all so delicious, and less than $10 total for all 4 of us!! After dinner, the guys asked us what we wanted to see in Bangkok, so we said we wanted to SEE Bangkok. Stereotypical Bangkok, the Bangkok everyone has heard about, the Bangkok we were slightly afraid of, and boy did they deliver. First up was a strip club...tame. Second was another strip club, but this time with the infamous ladyboys. That was a little too disturbing for us, so we were quickly outta there to settle for a beer at an ancient outdoor pub. By now the boys were hungry again, so on our way to our second dinner, we stopped by an old VW van transformed into a bar on the side of the road-awesome! Our second dinner included naan, hummus, and chicken shwarmas, all delicious. Stuffed to the brim, we called it an early night and headed home.
Thursday we were on our own again, so after a good sleep in to make up for our 36 hours being awake, we were off to explore. First was a boat ride along the Chao Phraya river, a scary experience seeing as though the floods were expected in Bangkok at any moment and the river was rushing like I'd never seen before! When we got off the boat, we were forced to walk over raised platforms and duck under rooftops because the river had already begun flooding there and the stores and restaurants were overtaken by at least 1 foot of water. It was quite a sad sight. Our first stop here was Wat Po, a famous and absolutely stunning temple. From there we walked to the Grand Palace, which was unfortunately closed for the day. Wanting to get to the famous Khao San Road, we hopped on board for our first tuk tuk ride! What an experience!! At times we thought we might die, but after a short, fun ride, we made it! This street is insane with food vendors, clothing vendors, fruit vendors, bars, and tourists galore. Here is where we finally bought our first articles of clothing since starting this trip almost 2 months ago (what a record)! We each bought 3 little tank tops for less than $3 each, and I bought a pair of Jean shorts for about $8! Not bad! We ended our visit to Khao San with a delicious passion fruit smoothie and a tuk tuk ride to the nearest metro station. We met up with Andrew at a Mexican restaurant, where we indulged in free margaritas for ladies night! For dinner, we were kindly invited to join Andrew and his friends for delicious ribs as a going away party for a friend of theirs moving to Israel! However, if we had known what we were in for, we probably would have opted to stay at the Mexican place! A famous chef and friend of theirs was making a huge feast of ribs, macaroni and cheese, deviled eggs, and corn chowder for dinner for just 400baht ($13). The catch? This chef's restaurant was actually another strip club. Not only were our ribs served by strippers, but we were forced to eat them with the stage as our table, and naked girls dancing above our heads. Quite possibly the most awkward dinner of life. Made even more awkward as the guys drank more and started taunting the girls by spanking them with ribs. It made me quite sad to see what these women subject themselves to just to make extra money. Even worse is that you could clearly see that nearly all of them had had children before, a vicious circle. Luckily after dinner, everyone left, and therefore we did as well. However as we left the bar we were caught in a MAJOR storm, so we ran to the main road to catch a cab. Just as the cab was pulling up, the power box above our heads exploded, sending sparks pouring over us and wires flying through the air, over a flooded ground, which we were standing in. That taxi hadn't even come to a complete stop before we all climbed in on top of each other to get out of the puddles. I can honestly say I thought we were done for at that very moment. Our taxi driver sped through insanely flooded roads the whole way home, never even slowing for fear of hydroplaning. Again, I saw death in my near future. Walking in the door to his house that night was the biggest relief! We sat on the balcony listening to the thunder roar and watching the lightning light up the sky. Just as we were heading inside, the lightning struck the pool just down below! I swear it's a miracle I'm still alive. By now it was time to call it a night, just to ensure we wouldn't die before night's end!
Friday we slept in and woke to yet another crazy storm, but luckily we had a cozy house to hang out in and wait out the storm! We packed our bags and set off to the train station to book our ticket down south for that night. Unfortunately with the impending flood, everyone else had the same idea, so all trains were booked. We ended up paying double the price for an overnight bus/ferry combo ticket, but at least we had a ticket out of the city before the floods trapped us in! We left our bags there and went back to the mall and market to kill the next few hours. We ate a delicious lunch, bought ourselves some hippy pants for the jungles of Laos, and bought some much needed waterproof shoes for exploring! By now we were ready to collect our bags and hop on board the bus! Back at the train station, we were escorted outside and into a shady taxi driven by a man with just 1 eye and no English speaking ability. Scamville here we come. We thought for sure we were in harm's way and began planning our defenses in case we were right, including putting all credit cards and passports into our underwear! Luckily the guy pulled through and took us right where we needed to be, we boarded the 2 story bus and were on our way, overnight, to Koh Tao!
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| Street food! |
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| So many delicious options! |
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| VW Bar |
Thursday we were on our own again, so after a good sleep in to make up for our 36 hours being awake, we were off to explore. First was a boat ride along the Chao Phraya river, a scary experience seeing as though the floods were expected in Bangkok at any moment and the river was rushing like I'd never seen before! When we got off the boat, we were forced to walk over raised platforms and duck under rooftops because the river had already begun flooding there and the stores and restaurants were overtaken by at least 1 foot of water. It was quite a sad sight. Our first stop here was Wat Po, a famous and absolutely stunning temple. From there we walked to the Grand Palace, which was unfortunately closed for the day. Wanting to get to the famous Khao San Road, we hopped on board for our first tuk tuk ride! What an experience!! At times we thought we might die, but after a short, fun ride, we made it! This street is insane with food vendors, clothing vendors, fruit vendors, bars, and tourists galore. Here is where we finally bought our first articles of clothing since starting this trip almost 2 months ago (what a record)! We each bought 3 little tank tops for less than $3 each, and I bought a pair of Jean shorts for about $8! Not bad! We ended our visit to Khao San with a delicious passion fruit smoothie and a tuk tuk ride to the nearest metro station. We met up with Andrew at a Mexican restaurant, where we indulged in free margaritas for ladies night! For dinner, we were kindly invited to join Andrew and his friends for delicious ribs as a going away party for a friend of theirs moving to Israel! However, if we had known what we were in for, we probably would have opted to stay at the Mexican place! A famous chef and friend of theirs was making a huge feast of ribs, macaroni and cheese, deviled eggs, and corn chowder for dinner for just 400baht ($13). The catch? This chef's restaurant was actually another strip club. Not only were our ribs served by strippers, but we were forced to eat them with the stage as our table, and naked girls dancing above our heads. Quite possibly the most awkward dinner of life. Made even more awkward as the guys drank more and started taunting the girls by spanking them with ribs. It made me quite sad to see what these women subject themselves to just to make extra money. Even worse is that you could clearly see that nearly all of them had had children before, a vicious circle. Luckily after dinner, everyone left, and therefore we did as well. However as we left the bar we were caught in a MAJOR storm, so we ran to the main road to catch a cab. Just as the cab was pulling up, the power box above our heads exploded, sending sparks pouring over us and wires flying through the air, over a flooded ground, which we were standing in. That taxi hadn't even come to a complete stop before we all climbed in on top of each other to get out of the puddles. I can honestly say I thought we were done for at that very moment. Our taxi driver sped through insanely flooded roads the whole way home, never even slowing for fear of hydroplaning. Again, I saw death in my near future. Walking in the door to his house that night was the biggest relief! We sat on the balcony listening to the thunder roar and watching the lightning light up the sky. Just as we were heading inside, the lightning struck the pool just down below! I swear it's a miracle I'm still alive. By now it was time to call it a night, just to ensure we wouldn't die before night's end!
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| More noodles |
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| The only flooding we saw in the city of Bangkok, but it was pretty bad here |
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| Tuk Tuk! |
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| So scary! |
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| Khao San Road |
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| mmmm ribs! |
Friday we slept in and woke to yet another crazy storm, but luckily we had a cozy house to hang out in and wait out the storm! We packed our bags and set off to the train station to book our ticket down south for that night. Unfortunately with the impending flood, everyone else had the same idea, so all trains were booked. We ended up paying double the price for an overnight bus/ferry combo ticket, but at least we had a ticket out of the city before the floods trapped us in! We left our bags there and went back to the mall and market to kill the next few hours. We ate a delicious lunch, bought ourselves some hippy pants for the jungles of Laos, and bought some much needed waterproof shoes for exploring! By now we were ready to collect our bags and hop on board the bus! Back at the train station, we were escorted outside and into a shady taxi driven by a man with just 1 eye and no English speaking ability. Scamville here we come. We thought for sure we were in harm's way and began planning our defenses in case we were right, including putting all credit cards and passports into our underwear! Luckily the guy pulled through and took us right where we needed to be, we boarded the 2 story bus and were on our way, overnight, to Koh Tao!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! You passed Cory! You can now officially join me in my travels...or maybe I should join you.
ReplyDeleteI hope you saw this too.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2011/1021/Thailand-s-worst-floods-in-decades-reach-Bangkok-as-political-fallout-mounts?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+feeds%2Fworld+%28Christian+Science+Monitor+%7C+World%29