Final day in Bangkok – big changes, some good.

Bangkok has really taken it out of me. I was really getting edgy towards the end of the third day and felt like I was about to crack. After chatting to the Gecko’s tour guide I had to make a very difficult decision to cancel my tour to Chiang Mai and surrounds. My blistered feet are making it hard to walk long distances at the moment, my state of mind stemming from Bangkok communication and culture was not good, and the tour itself turned out to be with a bunch of hippie back-packers, none of whom I related to. The last thing I needed was 10 days of village hut conditions, and all I could think of was that I would be unable to get back to civilization for 10 days, and would probably end up in a mental hospital.

Goodbye to my tour fee, and hello to more accommodation spend. However, enjoying myself is more important than money. The good news is that my last day in Bangkok was actually quite fun. I decided to check out the Computer City plaza. A huge place full of technology for sale.

First I checked into my hotel, and learned that I really should be watching out for the good looking pick-pockets. Seeing as I wasn’t pick-pocketed that day I never found out why, or even what management thought was good looking.

Walking along the tiny lane-ways, looking for pick-pockets, I passed through a very popular market.  This view is repeated in rows of three or four for the length of the street, and nobody moves to let you through. I eventually learned to be more aggressive in my movements around people.  No-one complained.

In a city of chaos there is some sensibility.  There are traffic cops who look more like military police, and then there are traffic management guys like this one. His responsibility was to stop left-turning cars from running over pedestrians, and as you can see he did so with the use of movable barriers.  We could use those in Little Bourke Street to stop the pedestrians from running over cars.  To add to Thailand confusion, I’ve noticed some streets in which cars change the side of the street they drive on!

Street vendors dominate this place, although I still haven’t eaten from one.  This lady looked more Chinese to me, but you can see from this angle how she sets up and, in a rare example, she can serve seated guests.  One of the main reasons I haven’t been eating from these vendors is that it seems most of the food is meant to be takeaway, and I would rather sit down whilst working out what things are and how to eat them. Not to mention that it gives me a table to discreetly throw up under if it comes to that.  Just kidding – all the food I’ve eaten so far has been awesome – except Burger King.

I really should have tried some of this squid.  It looks great! This stall was along a street that presented jewelery, perfume, clothes and food according to no particular plan.

I get the feeling that the local touts are too busy with passing traffic to bother poor tourists as much on Sundays, as I was hardly harrassed at all today.  I was able to dawdle along a few city blocks before eventually arriving at Computer City.   I have a reasonably wide-angle camera with me, but I wasn’t able to fit enough into this image. To fully appreciate the size of this place you need to imagine what you see times two in height (five floors), surrounding you on all four sides, with each floor occupying the depth of an entire city block.  That’s not impressive if you think of Chadstone or the Singapore malls, but it certainly is when you remember that this mall is for nothing but technology.  I purchased a translation gadget and a power adapter.  I wanted a lot more, but the prices didn’t seem to be any cheaper than what we can get at home.  The only touts here were at the DVD/VCD stores.  Dodgy types were standing on each side of the walkway quietly asking if you wanted to “buy sexy video”.  In a real turn-about in my retail experiences they took “no” for answer.  Probably something to do with the fact that their trade is rather illegal.  In the larger stores, the salespeople that actually understood English didn’t seem to want to make a sale. Those on the ground floor were actually helpful.  The lady who sold me my translator put batteries in, showed me how to use it, took $500 baht off without me saying a thing, then when I said I wanted to pay with credit card she said I would have to pay the full price (surcharge) on the card, but that she would give me the $500 baht discount in cash!

Despite being told that monks are not allowed to shop, plenty were.  I’ve since been told that these aren’t “real” monks.  I just think that monks understand the importance of technology to society more than certain unnamed Australian retail organizations might.

I was extremely close to buying this from a second-hand store for about $250.  Then I realized that I didn’t actually think I’d want it in my house!  So a photo will do nicely.

My Bangkok trip finished at Soi Cowboy (spelling?). Soi means “street”, by the way.  It’s effectively Bangkok’s red light district (although I got the impression the entire city was a red-light district!). In my opinion it seemed more like a bunch of sideshows at a carnival.  I parked myself at the bottom end in an Aussie bar, drinking Singha and watching the passing parade.  Highlights included an actual floor show on the street involving 12 “Moulin Rouge” style dancers and a cabaret singer, the tiny little kid that kept trying to sell me roses for the entire time I sat there (on my own mind you, after having said no at least 15 times). Best of all was the tiny elephant that regularly walked right through the very crowded street with her trainer   I got footage on my phone, but can’t upload from there so you’ll just have to use your imagination for now.

I got talking with a couple of Aussies, which was a breath of fresh air – to actually be able to hold a conversation again!!!  They were regulars and wanted to show me the sights. I let them do that until we entered the third bar, after which I decided enough was enough and grabbed the next available tuk tuk back to the hotel to get some peace and quiet.  I won’t bother trying to describe what goes on here.  You’ll just have to experience that for yourself.  I won’t be back to do it again, that’s for sure.

PS – I started my Malaria tablets when I hit Bangkok.  I’m not experiencing any side-effects at all, unless reduced tolerance for people is one…

Bangkok – Day 2, blisters and a twisted ankle

Aaargh!!!

It didn’t take long. I’ve ended today’s adventures with a twisted left ankle (which I initially thought was a lot worse) and, at last count, five blisters on my left foot and one on my right. News about that later.

Seasoned travelers will probably be disappointed, but I have to say I do NOT like Bangkok. I am quite disappointed that I booked another couple of nights after I get back from Chiang Mai. Don’t get me wrong, there are endless things to see and do, however I am incredibly uncomfortable here. I struggle with the money, the lack of English (I can’t grasp Thai at all), the streets, the weather, the pollution and even the people. I can’t wait to get out of this city, and tonight I have come home early and am staying in my hotel with Burger King. Yep, I haven’t even had a go at the street food, and I don’t think I will until I am with a guide who understands what things are.

Some images of Bangkok street-life follow. Below is a very typical lane or alley. Crowded, smelly and old. Every building is dirty, run-down or derelict. I don’t know what is in the water on the ground, but it is everywhere and I’ve already dropped credit cards and put my backpack down into a puddle of the disgusting stuff.

So many people work on the street. This happy lady with most of her teeth missing didn’t seem to have a corresponding business. I couldn’t see how you engaged her, but perhaps she was just doing her own mending? Nice machine. I think my grandma had one just like it.

Construction workers building the new Skytrain work right on the edge of their massive concrete structures, with no safety railing, ropes or other form of protection. This air conditioner mechanic (who will never be out of work given the number of air conditioning units I saw in one tiny block) also lives on the edge. It kind of looks like fun, though…

I booked a four-hour tour to see some temples and take a ride on a riverboat. Instead I ended up in a taxi on my own with a driver who spoke no English. As a result I decided to just see Wat Arun (once Thailand’s seat of power and probably the best known temple in Thailand) and call it a day. It actually took a couple of hours to get there anyway as the traffic was appalling. On the way we drove through the protest to throw out the current Thai president. I couldn’t get a shot as the taxi driver didn’t understand I wanted him to stop. I couldn’t be bothered trying to make him understand – I thought pointing a camera at a rather large protest about something this important would be self-explanatory.

I think this monk was rostered on to ensure farangs (foreigners) don’t fall. I’m not sure if achieving enlightment introduces the ability to levitate large Americans. Fortunately there were none around. This guy was very patient, silently acceding to the demands of Japanese men wanting photos of their wives draped all over him. I chose to shoot quietly from half a kilometre away.

Carefully edging my way down from the top of the tallest tower I made it to the very last step when CRACK! Down I went as I had only momentarily looked up to watch a group of Japanese tourists. I do this a lot, but this one hurt more than I can remember and I had also damaged a spot halfway up my foot. In a tribute to genuine Thai helpfulness (a trait I have previously attributed to the possibility of making money), a group of four teenage girls immediately came to my aid. When I waved them off with a smile, they continued to look concerned for me, but continued on their way ahead of me. I rounded a corner only to run into their leader, who had come back to me with a glass jar of something green to rub on it. I don’t know what it was but I assured her I was OK and gave her a nodded “khawp khun” (thank you) and another smile. The group wisely chose not to follow me home, and reluctantly moved on. Reckon that would happen in Melbourne?

Hopefully this next image shows just how intensely “gold” this gold finish on the roof of one of the temples is. On a pretty dull day, where most colours were muted, this stood out dramatically.

Everyone’s a model. These two were at it for a good 10 minutes with their little point and shoot, and “Fashion TV” moves. I hope they took a timeout for long enough to understand what the actual structure stood for.

I also got the feeling they hardly ever left their air-conditioned coach, and that is probably a good thing given what I’ve experienced in such a short time so far. A blind and rabid dog staggering along the street only inches away from a river of traffic, beggars with signs asking for a specific donation, people living inside demolished apartment blocks, shanty towns where the dogs seem to outnumber the people (tough in Bangkok, I tell you!).

OK – on to tomorrow. Getting up at 6am to be picked up for an organised tour of the floating market and some tiger thingy. Back at 6pm for a Chiang Mai tour group meeting followed by a suit fitting. I’m yet to decide if I got a good or bad deal, but I know I got a LOT of clothes.

Bangkok – first impressions

I don’t even know where to begin. No photos yet to share with you as I didn’t feel comfortable taking my camera out tonight.

Smells (think sewerage in many places), noise, pollution, people, lights, street stalls, dogs, aggressive taxi drivers (all of them insist on taking you somewhere you don’t want to go, and none of them take no for an answer), incredibly fake politeness. It’s overwhelming and I don’t know how I’m going to get through tomorrow on my own.

Tonight I needed a massage to remove the pain from my feet (walking) and shoulders (pack). The shop-fronts offering massage are everywhere, so I asked a taxi driver to help me find a good one. I ended up at some ridiculously opulent building which immediately felt wrong. Inside were about 200 bikini clad Thai girls behind glass, all trying to get my attention. It felt like a zoo and terribly exploitative. Don’t the girls feel less than human in that situation? Trying to get out of there without upsetting the bloke in charge was a delicate task.

Once I got out I made my way to Sukhumvit 24 where in wait lay a diamond in the dirt. I can’t remember the name of it, but the seafood on offer was “special” as Brucey would passionately declare if he was there. However, he wasn’t there. In fact no-one else was there – only me. I was treated to a floor show of traditional Thai dance, and no less than six very attentive waiters. I went to visit my meal for the night, whilst it was still alive, and got to know all 4 river prawns and a very nervous crayfish quite well.

The meal was incredible, the wine I chose was some Italian Zinfandel which blew my mind, and the service exemplorary. It was only spoiled a tiny bit when my throng of waiters had their attention diverted by a pair of latecomers – a 60+ UK divorcee (so he said to ‘her’) with his evening’s “girlfriend experience”. The only downer for me was that I was alone at my table, and my main waiter wouldn’t join me for a taste of that fabulous Zinfandel. It was probably because he couldn’t understand a word of Englsh and thought I was propositioning him.

So, my first night in Bangkok wasn’t all bad, but who knows what tomorrow will bring. I’m nervous…