Exciting Bangkok! (Holiday Resorts in Thailand in general)

Member Name: jayjolynn

Product:	Holiday Resorts in Thailand in general
Date:	01/11/06 (142 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Vibrant & Bustling!

Disadvantages: Some seedier sides too!

Bangkok

Day one in Bangkok was manic as we were trying to see as much as we could of this huge bustling City in the 2 days we were there, so we set our alarms for 7.30 am.

We asked the Hotel to get us a taxi to pick us up at 8,30am, and this is when we first met Woob, who would turn out to be our personal driver for the time we were in Bangkok. Taxis here are so cheap that you can literally hire them for hours without costing the earth!

First of all, we visited a tailoress who we had used before on a previous visit, and I was measured up for a dress which I had planned for weeks before arriving in Bangkok. She measured me, and assured me it would be ready for us leaving a couple of days later.

GRAND PALACE

First of all Woob took us to the Grand Palace, which had been first on our list and as you arrive here, straight away you know you won't be disappointed!

The Grand Palace is a complex, and the palace itself was once home to the Kings of Siam, but now not so much in use, apart for special occasions etc. The architecture is amazing, and mostly all in the Thai traditional style, though you could see some European design thrown in here and there, but a beautiful building that we could only stand and admire. It dates around the 18th century.

Also in this complex is the Wat Phra Kaeo, the home to one of the most revered Buddhas in Thailand. It is made out of one block of Jade, and stands on a gilded alter. As we entered this place through the doors which were inlaid with Mother of Pearls, you can only stand in awe, as this Buddha is regarded as the most sacred Buddha in Thailand, which makes it slightly intimidating, although not that large standing at about 2'2" high and about 20" across, but high up on its alter!
As we walked round this place, we could see the many paintings on the walls surrounding this, and I must say, it must take a lot of maintenance to keep all this history going! Very ornate and beautiful paintings are housed in this temple and it's a must to see!

I looked up the history of this Buddha, and there is no where anyone can point to, as to who made it originally, as it was uncovered in a temple hundreds of years ago, and has had quite a few moves through its life till it ended up here in Bangkok!

On either side of the high alter are screens which are used by royal family when visiting the temple, and to create a private area for them.
In front of the Emerald Buddha are several other Buddha images. The two lowest images were placed there by the present king. One in 1987 on his sixtieth birthday, and the other in 1988 when he became the longest reigning Thai monarch.

Unfortunately you are not allowed to take photographs inside this area, and you must take your shoes off to enter but it, but this is something that stays in your memory forever!

There are other buildings in this complex, all showing various parts of (Royal) Thai history, and the opulent architecture and the sights are terrific!

We really enjoyed this visit! You can actually take photos of the other interesting statues in this complex, so loads of wonderful pictures can be taken home with you!

I should mention that you cannot get entry should you be wearing shorts or sandals and you must cover your shoulders, but well worth covering up to experience this beautiful complex!

WAT PO

Neighbouring the Grand Palace is Wat Po, where we went to see the colossal reclining Buddha. This is a gilded statue in a reclining position and is 150 feet long, 50 feet high! This statue is so finely sculptured that you can pick out the fine features of its face quite clearly, and its feet are inlaid with mother of pearls, showing off 108 signs, which apparently is a sign that it's a true Buddha!

As we walked round this Buddha it is apparent that you can't really appreciate its enormity as the walls surrounding it just house it and no more, so you can't really stand far back and admire the full Buddha in all its glory!

The actual Temple itself dates back to the 17th century and this make it the oldest temple in Bangkok.
There is more to this place that this enormous Buddha and if you stroll about, there are numerous other statues and lots of other interesting thing to see here, but I think the main attraction is of course the Buddha itself, and it overshadows, sadly the other things to be seen here!

We were delighted with our visit to the Palace and Wat Po, and it has to be said, that its no surprise its one of the top tourist spots in Bangkok!

EATING WHERE THE LOCALS EAT

We were really hungry and Woob took us to a little cafe in the middle of his neighbourhood, and we asked him to choose anything he wanted for all 5 of us, so we could try out a 'real' Thai lunch in a 'real' Thai neighbourhood! Only thing I insisted on being included was Green curry! So when the meals came we just put them all in the middle of the table and tucked in! You know I can't remember every thing we had, but it was delicious, and it must have been one of the best lunches I had had in Thailand to date!

For five of us, with 5 main meals, 3 desserts, 3 bOttled waters & two beers, the bill was around £18!! Wow! Where can you eat like that for that sort of money?

We met Woobs wife and two children here. They were so lovely and invited us to their home, which we had do decline this day as we still had a few things to see. We sat and chatted with them for awhile, then asked Woob to drop us of at one of the many shopping centres. He did this, and do I regret it? Oh yes!

We waved Woob off after arranging for him to pick us up again the next morning, for our next adventure!

MBK SHOPPING CENTRE

This is the market style shopping centre, though there are lots of shopping centres in Bangkok, but Woob thought this would be the one which would appeal to us the most.This shopping complex is on 8 floors! One floor being just for mobile phones etc, one for furniture and a couple for fashion! It is enormous, and after about an hour, I couldn't take any more of the hustle and bustle of it, so I bowed out and went for a coffee, but not before getting a couple of T shirts for about £2!

This place is a hive of activity and many of the Thai people shop here for their bargains, so that gives You an idea that there are lots of bargains to be had in this enormous jungle of shops!

After the rest of the company returned, we decided to get the sky train back to our hotel, which was fast and only cost around 15B each.

PATPONG

This being 5.30pm by this time, we were exhausted but we had to keep on the go, as we had limited time to see everything, so we showered, got dressed and off we were again on our way to Patpong.

Now this is where Bangkoks red light district is, but it also has a very popular market here, so we spent a couple of hours wandering around here, buying a couple of household goods to take home with us. I wouldn't say this is a cheap market (still very cheap by our standards in UK though!) and it does have some nice stuff in it, but think you could find things cheaper elsewhere !

There are stalls everywhere selling jewellry, clothing, music and silks, and the stalls are littered along the sidewalks as well as the market itself.

It was really crowded and we were so tired, so after a couple of hours there, we looKed for somewhere to eat, and this is where we came over the red light area. Now we sat down in a somewhat seedy looking cafe and ordered a few things to eat and drink, and just watched the other side to Bangkok!

Our food came and yes, it was ok, but I think I was rather upset by what I saw here in Patpong, and I never really concentrated on what I was eating!

The cafe where we were sitting, overlooked a bar where loud music was pounding out onto the street, and pole dancers were doing their stuff, inside the open doors! Outside there were numerous young girls lined up. Every so often, a gentleman (mostly elderly) would approach one of them, then they would vanish for about 20 minutes, then the girl would re-appear and take her place back in the line up outside this seedy bar! These girls hardly looked a day over 14years old! I found this upsetting, but this is the 'down' side of this contradictory Thailand!

There were also about 6 or 7 'lady-boys' hanging around on the kerbs, heavily made up and figures you would die for! Now, perhaps I have been blinkered through my life, but I have never ever seen a blatant show of 'sex for sale' as in this place! Even the lady boys were getting business, and leaving with what I thought, looked like decent, respectable gents! Oh I must have been so naive up until my visit to Patpong!

I admit, this was on our itinery to come and see Patpong, and I'm glad I did it, just to see for myself if it was all true about this area, and yes, it is as bad as that!!
I do not regret coming to Patpong, as it let me experience every aspect of Bangkok, and not just the pretty places! It certainly is an eye opener, but don't go with young children! Not a nice thing for kids to see!

After we thought we had seen enough of this red light area, we chose to take a tuk tuk back to our hotel! Ha...that was a trip I will never forget! Our driver was so friendly, but he was an absolute maniac! He insisted on turning round all the time to show us his toothless grin and to joke and laugh with us, while trying to manoever in between the notorious traffic on these Bangkok streets! I don't know how many car drivers peeped their horns at this maniac! All he did was laugh at them, then carried on with his toothless conversation, which we could hardly make out, and since I was praying most of the time, I was'nt really concentrating on what he was saying! It was hysterical, and by the time we got back to our Hotel, we were giggling so much at this 'near death' situation, we had to have a stiff night cap at our sedate hotel bar and unwind from this colourful day!

Oh what a day it had been, but an eventful and interesting one!

DAMNOEN SADUAK FLOATING MARKET

Woob picked us up on day 2 at around 7am as it takes around 90 minutes to get to the floating market. It was a pleasant trip and we were enjoying seeing the countryside outside of Bangkok, when all of a sudden, he was waved down by a police patrol car. We sat in the taxi wondering what was going on and what in fact Woob had done to be stopped by the law!? The policeman looked round his somewhat 'seen better days' cab, and then through the mirror I could see Woob hand this policeman money!!!

After getting back into his taxi, Woob explained to us that these police just stop them for no real reason, but on this occasion accused Woob of going over a line! Woob explained to us that the police are quite corrupt in stopping you for no reason and it is expected of you to hand them a little money to let you go on your way! Well, another eye opener for me!

We reach our destination, and paid for our canal boat (a little like a poor mans gondola), then we get our photo taken (you know what's coming next) and before long we are drifting down the waterways which initially goes through thick foilage. We stopped at a small home and we were invited to go up and drink some coconut milk, then the woman showed us some of her wares, and as I am a fanatic for carved ornaments, I bought one from her, and bade her farewell!

Back onto our boat we approached the main water market, and the whole place just comes alive! At both sides of the waterway, there are hundreds of stalls, platforms, and other boats selling their wares! It is very busy and sometimes there is a 'traffic' jam with the boats all jammed next to each other! The women in the boats are mainly selling their fruit and vegetables, and offer you many samples! It is a wonderful place to try out all the unusual fruits!

The boat stops at most stalls or at least slows down till he knows you want to look at something, then he stops, and there you're haggling starts again! It is great fun, and so many things to buy!I got numerous carved ornaments, and T shirts here, and we got the chance to sample many fruits!

After about an hour on the boat we return. We were greeted with a bottle of water each, free, and the chance to buy, (remember they took our photo?) well, not a photograph, but a plate with our picture on it and the name of the market surrounding it!
Unbeknown to us, Woob had actually bought these for us!
Well, when we got back to our taxi and gave Woob our present to him (a fake polo shirt which we had just bought for him) we all vowed we would stay in touch, and yes, we have done just that over the last year!

We returned to our hotel to have a couple of drinks in our hotel and all agreed it was a great day out we had!

NIGHTIME

At night we decided to eat in a restaurant by the river. We had a window seat and it overlooked the river,

It was fun watching the working boats going by, piled up to the hilt with their wares, and also a few tourist boats, them being lit up and catering for the visitors who had booked dinner on these! The river looks stunning at night, and it is really quite something to sit at the edge just watching the activities here!

We ordered 4 various starters, again all mixed as we like to share everything from the middle of the table, 4 main meals, 2 bottles of wine, 3 beers, and a bottle of water and the cost was around £95 which is expensive by Thai standards, but the wine itself was about £12 a bottle (as Thailand is not really a wine producer, they import most of it!)

We enjoyed our meal, then spent the rest of the night wandering round the streets, browsing at the many smaller shops that sold everything ! Fake polo shirts which the men ended up taking home about 30 of, as these you can buy for about £3 each! Us girls picked up a few fake designer handbags at a cost of about £5-£15 each, so another few bargains we had to try and fix into the cases!
This truly Is a haven for shopaholics!

We walked until we could not walk anymore and returned to our Hotel exhausted after another great day in Bangkok!

OUR FINAL DAY

The next day we were departing, but before we did my outfit that I had ordered from the tailors, arrived at 10 am, to the hotel, as arranged. I hastily tried it on, and it was perfect in every way! Bearing in mind, in between all our outings, I had returned to the shop for final fittings etc....but this full length outfit in Thai silk only took the 2 days to complete, with a total cost (with bag to match) £80!
The tailors in Bangkok are numerous and all good in their own right, but the one that we chose, had been recommended by a friend years before, and we had used her a couple of times previously when in Bangkok, so we knew wouldn't be disappointed!

Woob had arranged for his friend to take us to Cha Am in his mini bus, as his car was too small for 4 of us and the numerous cases we had accumulated by this time!

By about 11 am we were on our way, having said goodbye to our wonderful new found friend, Woob, who met us at the hotel to say his goodbyes too!

Terrific time we had in Bangkok and look forward to returning!

It is a mixture of culture, fabulous shopping, great temples and palaces and the seedier sides too! It all adds up to Bangkok being an exciting place to explore!

SUMMARY

Our dear Woob, only charged about £15 for the first day, in which we had him for about 6 or 7 hours, and the next day, it was about £10, so make a deal with your taxi driver, and if you are as lucky as we were and get someone like Woob, he is your perfect guide too!

We gave him many presents, for his family, and we are still in touch by mail! We were lucky in finding him! He was perfect in every way!

Many of the places we visited can be booked through excursions, but the way we did it was much cheaper, and that way you are free to spend what amount of time you wish in each place!

Exhausting trip but had time to relax at our second destination!

Take an empty suitcase!!

This is a huge 'thank you' to our Woob!

Summary: Exciting in all aspects!