Bangkok - 6th & 7th March

With quite a rushed costume change from flightsuit in Gabon to beach baggies for Thailand (one night!) Cath and I left from Durban for Bangkok via Dubai. A painfully long flight (8 hours + 7 hours), arriving late afternoon and very ready for sleep. Cath got a tiny headstart on the manky carpeted floor of Dubai International between flights.

Almost fast asleep at my feet. Good girl! *pat pat*…	Stylish guests in a posh hotel

A lovely room in an impressive hotel – given Cath had to work a budget of R250pppn following the whinging of the ever-tight-arsed Grant.

Messy 5mins after arrival	The view looking down from our 12th floor room

Bangkok is a very crowded, bustling city with very run-down buildings alongside very impressive, modern office blocks, shopping malls and hotels. Unless you go looking for trouble, you’re unlikely to find it, so we wandered around the streets at night, through some of the night markets scattered all over the city, and eating from street vendors on the sides of the road. The home of the cheap t-shirt and fake watches lived up to expectations. As long as you’re prepared for an exhausting amount of haggling and negotiating you can really drive prices right down (about 20-25% of starting price). We quickly discovered its best to look unimpressed with everything so that you’re doing them a favour by buying something.

One of hundreds of markets in late afternoon and through the night	Powerlines run in massed bunches along every road. No scooter hiring here!

Given all the waterways in and around Bangkok a river tour to the Grand Palace was a must. We hailed a tuk-tuk, negotiating a price before getting in (as all the travel books advise) and on our way to the docks the very friendly driver asked if we would do him a favour. Apparently some shops in the city give the taxi drivers fuel vouchers if they bring tourists to their shop, so he asked if he could take us to just one store, have us look around and then we could leave. He took us to one of many “Armani Suit” stores where you can get measured and have a suit made for you in a few days. Apparently very cheap and good quality, but firstly I’d just arrived and wasn’t going to carry a suit around with me all holiday, and secondly I have one suit which is used twice a year for weddings and funerals (as the case may be). I don’t need another suit. So we looked interested, paged through a few example magazines and then escaped as soon as we could to our waiting taxi driver.

This guy was great – he took us to a train station to book our trip to Koh Tao and to the longboat docks all within the original price	Plenty of Wats on the banks of the waterways throughout the city. Even the Grand Palace is right on the waterfront

He tried to get us to another store but it was hard enough making up excuses to leave the last one and we were wasting time so after 2minutes of us saying “no” he finally got the picture and took us to the dock where we were frog-marched onto a longboat. There is such competition amongst tour guides here that you can’t afford to be hesitant or 5 tour operators will all be ushering you into their boats at once.

All sorts of different homes along the way	And all sorts of different wats
Some really were very colourful	The spires of the Grand Palace from the river

The boat ride took us along a narrow channel past many Wats and locals homes built on stilts in the water. Because water is everywhere there is a lot of life happening on all the canals, from massive barges to water taxis to floating markets. And the canals are HEAVING with fish! I wonder if its frowned upon to catch them, because I never really expected so many (large) fish in such overcrowded channels.

Many poor houses sitting in the water	Presumably they collapse when their wooden legs rot away
The size of the engines on the longboats	Massive fish with massive appetites. Being fed next to a Wat

The whole boat trip I was thinking of the Bond movie involving a chase through similar waterways. It really did seem exactly the same as the movie which was made over 20 years ago. And that made me happy. This was authentic Bangkok. Every Wat we saw was in an incredibly good state and throughout the entire trip we never saw one run down. Many of them have monks who live on site and maintain the temples and grounds.

A few floating marketeers who’d broken away from the herd	Kids swimming and splashing next to their house
Some homes were a lot prettier and colourful	The Wats were evidently very well looked after

The boat trip ended at the docks by the Grand Palace where the Royal Family lived for hundreds of years. All holy places require covered legs and shoulders, so we had to carry clothes and put them on at the entrance. They’re geared for tourists, though, and offer sarongs and other coverings for those who haven’t got.

Everything in the palace is big, ornate, and covered in gold	The number of spikes on the roofs of buildings indicate the importance of that building
Impressive model of Angor Wat in Cambodia	Probably very disrespectful…

Equally frowned upon	Throne hall where ceremonies are still conducted
Serious guard duty at entrance to throne hall	One of the many gates into the restricted parts of the palace

The palace was definitely something to see, in spite of it heaving with tourists you can’t get away from. It is understandably the biggest tourist spot in Bangkok. Infinitely more impressive than Buckingham Palace

The gold paint on the murals looks like the palace is on fire
	Detailed mozaics cover many walls

A number of temple statues on random street corners through Bangkok. Locals passing by will buy incense sticks and have a quick prayer before moving on	Trying to look relaxed and not terrified in the back of a tuk-tuk sandwiched in amongst trucks, cars and vans