Same same but different...

Greetings from Thailand: the land of smiles.
Well, they only smile when they want your trade and then when you suggest a price they don't like the smile miraculously disappears. :) The greeting is 'hello, I give you good price', which of course is Thai for 'you're a stupid foreigner and I'm going to rip you off as much as possible..'
I met up with my friends Shari and her boyfriend Andy with no problems at Bangkok airport late last Saturday night and we headed to the YHA which was possibly one of the smallest hostels I've ever seen. The 3 of us were squeezed into what can only be described as a cell-type room (one bunk and one single bed) plus the lovely eau de urine eminating from the bathroom and the sea view - well, lack of any view in fact, just made the place really. It was an exclusive abode near an open sewer (which basically is what the whole of Bangkok rests on because most of the place stinks of piss). It's saving grace was that is was round the corner from a Delifrance which had rather nice croissants for brekkie.
We moved after 2 nights and found a lovely place called At Home off one of the roads off Khao San Road - the backpackers' mecca. I have my OWN ROOM, yes MY OWN ROOM. After 5 months of sharing dorms I finally have some privacy and it's BLISS let me tell you. I also had a DOUBLE BED all to myself and en-suite bathroom. Hoorah! All for 5 pounds a night. Heaven. And it looks like that's what it will be like for most of South East Asia. Bring it on! I hope all of the guesthouses we stay in are this nice - in my naeivity I realize they won't be - but one can dream.
Khao San Road is a little world of its own with stalls along each side of the street and endless silver shops and nick nack stalls - no TAT shops but you could argue that most of what's for sale on the stalls is just that. ;) It's dirty and dirt cheap. I bought a pair of trousers, a skirt, a top, a pendant, a bag and headscarves for less than 11 pounds. You wouldn't get that back home. in fact the only reason I'd come back here would be to bring an extra bag and fill it with goodies as there's some really nice stuff on offer on some stalls. Perhaps later in the year...
Yes although it's fairly filthy in parts, there are many Western touches here such as endless branches of Boots the chemists and Tesco. Yes, every little helps is a global phenomenon. As is the ubiquitous 7/11 store and thank God for it cos let's face it, what would we do without it?! Starve probably. :)
The rule here is that you have to barter for EVERYTHING. However, it has now gotten to the stage now where I don't believe a word anyone says because one person will give you a price for something (train tickets for example) and then down the road another person will pluck yet another figure out of the air which makes no sense whatsoever. And how something can be the 'same same, but different' God only knows!!! And when a sales lady in a jewellery shop insulted me by asking if I was Shari's mother, Andy was the father and we were a family, it doesn't really encourage you to buy anything... I mean I know travelling can be stressful but my God I didn't realize I'd aged that much! ;)
You can buy anything on Khao San Road: including such edible delights as cockroach, stick insect and various worms. These stalls only come out late at night though to catch all the stupid English pissheads rolling out of the bars. Well if they're that stupid I have no sympathy! There were 3 such pissheads on the evening we first saw them: young lads who proclaimed 'you're in Thailand man, you have to eat a bug!'. Needless to say the crunchy morsel did not stay between his liquor-soaked lips for very long. Just one advantage of being the sober one.. ;)
This is the land of the tuk tuk. And funny little tuk tuk drivers called Tung Mai (see fourthpic) who promise you a tuk tuk hour-long ride for 10 baht (12 pence) and then take you all around the houses including to 2 tourist information centres (admirably called TAT: Tourism Authority Thailand) to try and extort yet more money from us. We didn't buy it but did him a favour as he got free petrol coupons from taking us to various places. The hour lasted for 4 until we got fed up and asked him to take us back to Khao San Road. Still, he was a funny little guy who kept saying 'no problem, no problem, Thailand number 1', and we did get to see a large golden Buddha (eighth pic), the Golden Mount and lucky buddha.
Shari and I visited the grand palace (second and third pics) and were served lunch by 2 ladyboys in a nearby market which was hilarious. They served our lunch and one of them said 'follow her, I mean him' to a table. Brilliant. I've only seen a couple walking out on the street as women though - perhaps we're not out late enough for those kind of antics. Although we may take in a ping pong show upon our return to Bangkok - apparently girls dance and you pick the one you like the most by throwing a ping pong ball at her and they get paid for how many ping pong balls they collect!! Only in Thailand.
We've also been to Wat Po with the 46m reclining Buddha (fifth pic). He was a big boy. The wats (temples to you and me) here are very elaborate and bejewelled with LOTS of gold all over them. A little too much bling for me. I like my temples discreet and subtle like the ones in Japan. It's interesting to see though. I think the religion here is Hinduism but the bling is very much against Buddhism I would have thought, but there you go. We see lots of monks walking around. We saw some with digital cameras at the Golden Mount - that was a surreal moment let me tell you.
They're a very patriotic bunch here in the land of smiles. They love their king. I couldn't tell you his name but I can describe him in perfect detail because his face is plastered all over the city: huge photos of him everywhere, in ever shop, outside every major building. He has quite a hypnotic stare too which is rather off-putting. You can buy yellow t-shirts with the Royal emblem on it too which everyone seems to wear - especially on a Monday as I think that was the day the king was born or something.
We did a 1-day trip to the floating market (sixth and seventh pics), kanchanaburi and the bridge over the river Kwai, and a Tiger Temple (first pic). There was a 'art gallery & war museum' near the bridge because it's just so obvious to combine the two - why didn't I see that before?! The speed boat to the floating market was exhilarating and I got some nice photos of boat people with their wares. The tiger temple was not so much a temple, more of a quarry with a couple of monks, lots of yellow t-shirt cladded volunteers grabbing eager tourists hands to have their photo taken with said carnivores. Andy was a little worried bless as not all 0f them were chained and there were no volunteers sporting tranquiliser guns should one of them have decided to get playful. He became more alarmed when he realised that bright colours such as red and orange should not be worn: he was sporting his fancy new luminous orange 'A Clockwork Orange' t-shirt. Fortunately the driver got him a white tunic to wear instead. So we got some photos: I don't know which was worse: being near wild animals or having some guy forcibly hold your hand and drag you like a child between the animals. At least he focussed my camera so my pictures weren't blurred.
So tonight we head to Chiang Mai on the bus. We had to take the bus because the trains are full. There is a flower festival there at the moment and apparently everyone and their mother is heading in that direction. Yay. I just hope the bus is reliable and my bag ends up at the final destination with me. Time to get the PacSafe out methinks...
Ciao for now. x