I arrived into Bangkok from Siem Reap, Cambodia. I had such a wonderful time in Cambodia that I knew Thailand had a lot to live up to.
We arrived on a flight with Bangkok Airways. It was a rickety old prop plane that had us questioning whether we would make it to Thailand or not. We touched down at about midday & made our way through customs to pick up our luggage. Making this trip would be me, Mel (girlfriend), David (my room mate).
We all crammed into a cab & headed for the Indra Regent Hotel. We decided to stay at this hotel because it was a good price with 3 of us staying there & I had sold it on most of the Bangkok packages I had sold for the two years prior. Once we arrived we made our way to the counter for the usual check in procedures & then dumped all our stuff in the room to hit the streets.
We decided to head to the Grand Palace but by the time we got there it had already closed. It shuts it's doors at 3:00pm every day & we happened to make it there by about 3:05pm. We wanted to see as much as possible in the first two days because in two days time the Thai people would be celebrating their New Years festival call Songkran. Not only would everything be closed but it would be a bad place for our camera's as they celebrate the three days of festivities with water & plaster being thrown at each other.
We headed for Wat Po & the Reclining Buddha which is just across the street from the Grand Palace. As we walked through the turnstile we were suddenly in view of the oversized golden Buddha. WOW, WOW & WOW. The Buddha is more than impressive, it's amazing. We circled the grand statue taking a few photo's before spinning the prayer wheels & heading for the door. For the rest of the day we just strolled around the streets & went for a walk through Pratunam markets admiring all the cheap knock offs that were available.
The next morning we got up nice & early & headed for the Grand Palace. We made our way through the stunning grounds with a local tour guide that we managed to pick up. Most of our time with in the walls was spent ogling "The Temple of the Emerald Buddha" & looking up at Phra Sri Rattana Chedi (the Golden Chedi) in amazement. The gold just manages to capture your attention making it hard to pull yourself away. The Emerald Buddha itself is actually quite small when you compare it to everything else. The Buddha sits atop a platform within the main temple. You can enter but you must remove your shoes & never show your back to the Buddha.
The next day we decided to go for a day trip out to "The River Kwai". This was one of the most interesting things I think we did whilst in Bangkok. On the journey out to the river we stopped off a the Death Railway Museum. This was a small little spot on the way through Kanchanaburi but well worth the stop. The museum lets you know about the participation in World War II as far as Thailand & South East Asia was concerned. The Japanese used to have numerous death camps within Thailand for English & Australian POW's. It also shows the deadly conditions that each prisoner had to endure which rarely resulted in survival. The Death Railway is the name given to the train tacks that the prisoners had to lay, joining Thailand & Burma and allowing better movement for the Japanese & ultimately help them on their quest to victory. Across from the museum is a well kept graveyard which is home to many of the prisoners of war.
The Bridge over the River Kwai was the next stop. The bridge which became known by most people through the movie with the same name is not the original bridge. The movie would have you believe that the bridge was blown up by one of the so called "good guys" falling onto the detonator & therefore saving the world from the Japanese invasion. But in truth the bridge was bombed by a few of the bomber runs which took place over the area during the war. There is nothing but a few pylons left from the original bridge which is actually located further down the river You can go for rides on the train across the bridge but we just opted to walk across & look at the small market under the bridge on the other side before strolling along the banks for some nice photo opportunities.
Before heading back to Bangkok we had one last stop. We travelled a little further down the road to stop off at Tiger Temple. This is a place in the middle of nowhere & it's run by several monks. It's a sanctuary for all kinds of animals but the main attraction here for visitors are the nine tigers. You get get up close & personal with the amazing creatures, having your photo taken with them by a monk.
Another Thailand/Bangkok adventure we decided to undertake was spending the morning on the Klongs. The Klongs is the name given to the narrow canals that Bangkok was built on. Bangkok has been called the Venice of the east before & this is where it got it's name from. A morning ride through these canals shows you the simple life that a lot of people still lead in this bustling metropolis. Today was one of the first days of the Songkran festival so the locals were shooting us with water from their water guns. There was nowhere safe. They would shoot at us from the banks, their homes, shops & even from other boats that passed us.
Once we had returned to our hotel we decided to head down to Khao San Road which is where most of the festivities were taking place for Songkran. We had no idea what we were in for. As we got closer the streets started to turn white from the water & plaster. The amount of people on the street began to increase rapidly & our taxi started to get hammered with buckets of water, water pistols & once again plaster. We wrapped up our cameras & headed into the thick of things. We began to get hit with little bits of water & then people began to get us with plaster. So I thought it's pay back time! I grabbed a plastic cup of water that lay near by & threw it at some people who had got us earlier. A man than came up & took the cup of me. Apparently it was one of his many cups that he was selling drinking water with. I said sorry & thought that was the end of it. Next thing I knew that same man came up behind me with ice water & drenched me all over with it whilst having a good laugh to himself. THAT'S IT! I went to the nearest seller of water guns & said give me the biggest, longest shooting gun you have. Lock & load it's on!
Mel & Dave also bought the same guns & we started our assault on Bangkok. Before we knew it we were all covered from head to toe with water & plaster. After a few hours of total fun & we decided to call it a day. We hopped in a Tuk Tuk to cruise back to the hotel. We opted for the Tuk Tuk because it was open air which allowed us to hit as many people as possible on the way home with water.
As we walked into the hotel I was hit with water one last time but this time it was by the door man. We made our way through the lobby getting laughs & looks from every person. Once in the room we looked at ourselves in the mirror & I must say there was barely a spot of skin that was not covered in plaster & water.
We never planned to hit Bangkok when the Songkran festival was on but it was one of the funnest days I've had overseas. I would highly recommend going to Thailand for this festival which runs yearly from the 13th of April for 3 days.
I hope to do more of Thailand in the future but for now I'm pretty content with the Thailand I have experienced.