Bangkok Sights (24th November 2011)

Bangkok floods

This morning I’ve decided to get out of the tourist area and just go for a bit of a wander before getting the train later tonight.

I headed away from Khao San Road and immediately began to see evidence of the flooding.

Flooding

Where I am staying I’m not sure of the exact extent of the flooding at its height but right now the houses immediately on the river are under water but there are also several pumps pumping water somewhere. Something that was intriguing though was the effectiveness of sandbags, I know they’re used the world over and so therefore must be good in such a situation but I think it’s the first time I’ve seen with my own eyes just how effective they are. They’re able to be used to actually channel the water away from properties and into areas for pumping. Something else that I’ve noticed in the area I’m staying in and the areas around is that a lot of properties and shops have built walls outside their front entrance to stave off the water. They’ve even built steps either side so you can still get in! I’m not sure how effective this would actually be but by all accounts they, fortunately, haven’t had the chance to try it out.

The effectiveness of sandbags

The tourist areas have remained unscathed although I think purely because of topography rather than any other reason.

It’s amazing how all the little markets are still running amongst the water and that instead of appearing sad or annoyed by the flooding the Thais are, as always, smiling broadly at everyone they see.

Many many years ago, 16 to be precise, I came here on holiday and I hated it! It was the first time I had been further than Turkey and although we had just come from Hong Kong it was a real shock to the system. Hong Kong was a culture shock but it’s a small area and you can pretty much reach everywhere on foot, after that though to then arrive in Bangkok and its traffic nightmare I thought I’d died and gone to hell! For the five days that we were there each day was spent on an organised trip, the very thing that now I hate! It’s funny how life changes isn’t it? Today I like Bangkok and I love Thailand. ;-)

So I can remember a little of my trip here before, I know we would have visited all the major temples here but I’m not sure about the Royal Palace so I thought I’d go along and take a look. Thing is everything on the way was far more interesting and by the time I got to the palace it wasn’t really worth, time wise, going in today, perhaps on my return.

I think I’ve finally realized what it really is that I like about visiting other countries. Mick has asked me before and I say it’s the sights and the history and the environment but in actual fact I think it’s being able to be a part of people going about their everyday life. I’m interested in and fascinated by local markets, not usually things that I would be able to buy (not tourist things) but they are interesting. Take today, I stumbled across a market selling everything you could ever want in the Buddhist world, it was quite incredible, this is where the monks come to shop!

I carried on walking for a while before seeing a stunning temple across the river so took the ferry across to visit. The temple was Wat Arun and was very beautiful, you could climb quite a way up the temple and reminded me a little of Angkor in the steepness of the buildings.

Wat Arun

Back on the other side of the river I continued walking for a while and stumbled across Indian Town and then China Town. China town I remember from when I was here 7 or so years ago and it never ceases to amaze me the absolute crap the Chinese consistently buy! I know that’s a bit of a stereotype but was there is a lot of utter rubbish here! ;-)

Time was ticking on a bit and I needed to get back to get to the train station so hopped on the ferry to save my legs this time.

Bangkok river

Taking a night train is supposed to save on a nights accommodation but of course that would be too easy. The train is at 7.30pm and I really didn’t want to get on it all hot and sweaty and horrid from walking around town so in the end kept my room on till 6 having to pay a half days fee. Slightly irritating but it is meant to be a holiday after all right?

Anyway I’m glad I did because it meant I could have a shower before heading out.

I’ve opted for a 2^nd class a/c sleeper carriage and I’m really looking forward to it, the only other sleeper I’ve done was when I went to Sapa in Vietnam earlier this year and we arrived around 4am so not much sleeping going on, but this one is a 12 hour journey and I’m really excited.

At the station I stock up on supplies for the journey before finding my carriage and seat. The way the carriage is designed is that there are two seats either side of the aisle facing each other which are then made in to a bed with an upper bunk which is lowered down. I’d opted for a lower bunk, slightly more expensive but in the grand scheme of things…..!

We were supposed to depart at 7.30pm and with 5 minutes to go the carriage wasn’t even half full. I’d been told that these trains book out and so you have to book early but tonight it doesn’t seem to be the case. In my little area which has the potential for 4 bunks I’m the only person!

In the 4 in front are 4 Russians drinking neat vodka and behind there are a couple of tourists and a couple of Thais, certainly not busy.

Before we leave the obligatory drink sellers come through the carriages trying to get you to buy anything and then after an hour delay we headed off.

Less than half hour out of the station the steward came to make up the beds, you could tell hes been doing this for years, I even videoed him, poor guy! I was just so intrigued though! I feel like I’m on the Orient Express, this beats the buses any day.

I know it was dark when we set off and so technically we wouldn’t be able to see anything but about an hour out of Bangkok station you could definitely see evidence of the flooding. There was still so much water here. Houses were under water while cars and motorbikes were parked on the station platform out of the water and people were camped above the water in tents. We passed one area where people were camped in tents on the train platform and even managed to have their tv working. I guess you just have to adapt and get on with it huh?!

The journey to Phuket will take around 16-18 hours, by train it takes 12 hours and then another 4-6 hours by bus! I know what I’d rather do, even with the thought of the bus journey the other end.

Bangkok (23rd November 2011)

I’ll be surprised if I slept two hours solidly in the end. There was a lot of noise when I got into bed and it was just so hot, and then I think the noise started again at about 4am. What made my decision about this place originally, apart from the recommendations online, was the fact that they said they had free wifi and free breakfast (a rarity in Thailand it seems, the free breakfast not the wifi) it turns out though that the guesthouse is closing down next month and so have turned off their wifi and the breakfast is a couple of slices of toast which is totally good for me, what wasn’t so great though was the rat that kept coming out to wink at me as I was sitting in the garden. I mean he was kinda cute, if only he wasn’t a rat; it was the way he kept coming out to look at me that was so funny though!

Anyway I’ve already decided this immediate area really isn’t for me, at the end of the little lane is Subway, KFC, Burger King and Macdonalds! Nope definitely not my kinda thing. Thing is capital cities are a nightmare for decent accommodation at a reasonable price and when you’re on your own it suddenly seems like a lot of money. I don’t particularly even want to be in this area but I guess it’s just for one more night then I’m on my way again. When I come back at the end of my trip I’m going to try and find something a little nicer though.

I had a bit of a mad dash around looking for another place to stay because as well as trying to find somewhere else I also need to sort out my onward train and bus travel to Phuket.

Eventually I found a place that I decided to go with and in hindsight I actually have absolutely no idea why! The room was the price of the garden bungalow I had in Sukhothai and I actually think it was smaller than the cells on Alcatraz! But it’s only to sleep right?

From one guesthouse to the other is just under 1 km, which I know is no distance but in this heat…….I really wanted to get a ride as by now it was 12 pm and the hottest time to be carrying two backpacs around Bangkok but none of the tuk tulk drivers wanted to know, they all wanted double what I had paid last night to come from the railway station to here, I knew it shouldn’t cost that much, they just knew they could get a better fare if they hung on for another tourist so once again, this takes me back to a place in Vietnam, I end up walking a ridiculous distance in stupid heat for the sake of a couple of pounds and the principal of the thing.

The room I eventually took, as I say, was little more than the size of the bed with a fan above. I had things to charge up which was at the point I realised there were no sockets in the room. Lots of other similar situations on other trips suddenly come flooding back to me! Apparently I can charge all my things up at reception but after losing my iphone last time there’s no way I’m leaving that there. Bloody hell why didn’t I just stay where I was?! Oh and did I forget to mention the bathroom and shower were on a different floor? L

A double room with a/c and private bathroom was £10 more but after an internal battle on cost and comfort I gave in and asked to move rooms. I had seen one of the double rooms being cleaned and it looked quite nice actually, a million times nicer than the one I was in, which made me want to switch. The room I was given though was barely larger than the one I had come from although it did have a/c and a private bathroom and a TV! The lady at reception even said it had an outside window, yay! But of course no yay, it may be an outside window but 2 inches from the glass is a metal wall! Ok I give up now. It’s one night though, it’s going to cost me more than it should but it’s still only one night then I’m outta here. And besides I still have to sort out tomorrow’s trip south.

For tomorrow, from what I can make out, I need to get to the main train station again to book the ticket. This particular ticket you can’t book online and when I contacted a travel agent in Bangkok via email the other day they said there wasn’t enough time to sort it out!

In the GH though they of course have a travel agent and in the end I paid a little more to have them organise it for me, I’m pretty done with messing about at the moment so that was fine!

So tomorrow I take the 7.30pm sleeper train south to then get an a/c (we’ll see!) bus for 4-6 hours to Phuket.

I must say it’s going to be nice to get out of the city; it’s ridiculously hot here, way too hot for me. I just hope the beach is going to be a little cooler.

Journey to Bangkok (22nd November 2011)

So Bangkok bound I am. First though I have to get to Phitsanulok again to get the train. I’m kinda hoping there might be more trains going than what the website says, but I don’t think there will be.

So I left the very pretty guesthouse to find some kind of ride to the bus station. I’ve got that return journey to do again, tuk tuk to the bus station, bus to Phitsanulok and then tuk tuk to the train station. As we’re on the way to the bus station my driver asks where I’m going and I tell him Bangkok but by train and he seems amazed and a little concerned that I might be expecting him to drive me all the way to the train station. I dread to think how long that might take.

My tuk tuk driver from old Sukhothai to the bus station

But him asking me about my mode of transport did make me think, briefly, about the possibility of going by bus from here straight to Bangkok. The train I know doesn’t leave until 3pm and it would save me the hassle of getting to Phitsanulok . So when we got to the bus station I had a look around to see what was on offer. Two companies had 1^st class buses, which aren’t as great as they sound! One was leaving at 11.30 and claimed to take around 7 hours and the other was leaving at 10.15 and said it would take 9 hours or more! Apart from the fact the lady behind the counter really wasn’t interested in serving me there was just no way I could spend that long stuck on a bus. So went with my original plan of the train.

The bus I took the other day from Phitsanulok to Sukhothai was 45 Bht and the air conditioning consisted of open doors and windows, this morning the bus back is costing less and is like a 1^st class bus! I wonder if they saw me coming the other day.

Anyway in Phitsanulok I purchased my ticket only to be told that the train was going to take 9 hours instead of the 5 hours scheduled!!! And of course wasn’t leaving till 3pm! Aaaargh! That’s a long time on a train in just a seat but it’s too late now I guess. So I deposited my big bag at left luggage and headed into town for a bite to eat and to try and pick up some snacks for the journey.

Phitsanulok is a funny city and I was after somewhere that I could just sit down and chill for a couple of hours but I found nowhere. That’s not to say somewhere like that didn’t exist I just never found it.

Oh and of course once again I had no accommodation planned at the other end. See the thing is the train was originally getting in around 8pm so I thought plenty of time to just head to the accommodation areas and find somewhere to stay. Now though, getting in at midnight I wasn’t sure many places would even be manned then. So I now had the task of trying to locate some kind of internet café and see what I could find out. Finding an internet café in Phitsanulok was just as easy as finding somewhere to chill and as my last resort I headed to the Golden Grand Hotel (!) and used theirs.

In the middle of Bangkok accommodation isn’t that cheap but I think I’ve found somewhere nice and it was recommended on a couple of websites so we’ll see, I gave them a call and they seem quite happy I’ll be coming in late. As to how late now though is anyone’s guess.

Back at the train station I collect my bag and some snacks and sit and wait as 3 o’clock passes by! I knew it would. The other day I came in an hour late and true to form today it was an hour late as well.

When you buy a train ticket here you’re given a carriage and a seat number, save the potential of not enough seats I suppose, perhaps they should do that at home. I’ve read recently somewhere about statistically where the most fatalities occur in a train crash and its apparently the first and last carriages, so when I saw I was in carriage one I wasn’t filled with overwhelming joy but as I got on I was directed to what appears to be carriage 2, well that’s a relief, so I found my seat number and found a place for my bag and settled down. I ended up with the bulk head seat but by no means in a good way. I had a quarter of the leg room that everyone else had and no table or seat pocket. No great shakes though I mean it’s only for the next 9 hours right?!!!!!

So seconds before we’re about to start off the guard comes to check my ticket just to tell me I’m in the wrong carriage and darts off wanting me to follow him into the 1^st carriage! That’s the front one not 1^st class. Once again I have a bulk head seat but with marginally more leg room, yay! But now statistically I’m in the wrong carriage to survive a train crash! Fingers crossed huh?

I have another 9 hours to go and no book to read as I haven’t had a chance to trade mine in yet. I do have though an old copy of Hello given out from the flight over and the National Geographic from dad.

Each carriage has a hostess who mostly sits with her feet up reading magazines or talking on her phone until it’s time to serve us with a drink – coke, tea or coffee and give out a meal – vegetarian not an option! The meals I think they picked up pre-ordered from a market stall at a station as the meals were almost hot and came in polystyrene boxes multipacked in big sacks. The food was actually ok once I picked out the meat.

A little later our hostess even came round with a blanket for each of us and the toilets, despite the fact the contents go straight down onto the track actually have toilet roll! That was the biggest surprise and better than most British Rail experiences.

Time ticked by slowly to be honest, I think I read everything there was to possibly read in both Hello magazine and the National Geographic, I then even managed the Bangkok post.

When our hostess came around to collect the blankets literally 3 hours after she had given them out I was hopeful that perhaps we were almost there……..but no! We still had another hour to go. I got into Bangkok main station 4 and a half hours after I was supposed to.

Now to find my way to the accommodation. I managed to get a tuk tuk for not too much of an extortionate price amazingly and managed to wake up the night staff for the key to my room.

The location is not great at all, it’s right in the middle of the touristy night market area with loads and loads and loads of bars, at least the market side of it was just packing up as I arrived. I’m not sure about the bars though, I hope it’s not too noisy.

The room is nice enough but very very hot even with the fan full blast. But by this time I was beyond caring.

Hopefully this is a video of some of the flooding seen from the train trip - uploading video has never worked before though!

Sukhothai (21st November 2011)

This morning Pete and I have scheduled a video chat with him, Kim and the girls. The thing is it’s a 15 hour time difference so to try and work it when it’s not the middle of the night for them or way too early for me is a tough one.

We manage it though and with the delight of the iPhone and the fact I have managed to hold onto it this time means I can talk to them in the garden of the GH house, even being able to show the girls the Koi carp.

We had a lovely chat and after telling them about my meditation retreat Kate asked me what a monk was and in my best simplistic terms I tried to explain but I think it went a little over her head! Sometimes it goes over mine too! ;-)

Sukhothai

So I was then off to Sukhothai for the cultural and historical part of this part of my trip.

Sukhothai

The ancient city of Sukhothai is around 15km from the new city and to get there I needed to get a shared van ride. It was almost 9am (!) by now and I was a bit concerned that I could be the last person there and have to pay for a private ride once again. Fortunately though a French couple and a Dutch trio were also on a similar time zone to me and we all went together.

The journey to the old city took around 20 minutes and once we got there apparently the best way to see the sights of the sites is by pushbike, well that’s ok cause after all the rice, curries and fried noodles I’ve been eating lately I could really do with the exercise!

Sukhothai

The area is amazing, not too dissimilar to Angkor in Cambodia although in size, a massive difference. There were a handful of independent tourists travelling around on bikes and then there were large groups of French tourists being taken around all the sites in vans. The immediate area of the old city is on a bit of a cycle loop and annoyingly they seemed to have started at the same time as me and at each temple we arrived at the same time! I wouldn’t mind so much if I could speak French and had any idea of what they were saying, but I don’t!

Sukhothai

After we had all navigated the ancient city there was a whole extended surrounding area to be seen in our own way and in our own time.

As many of you may know I’m really not a major fan of cycling but I’ve had a lot of good food to work off! Stupidly though as I was so busy trying to sort out the video chat with Pete as well as getting ready to head out I somehow managed to forget to put on any sunscreen! A whole day cycling in 32 degrees of heat with no sunscreen! That really is asking for trouble! After the second wat I finally gave in and came across, once again, the Dutch trio and fortunately one of them had a little bit of face sunscreen, the rest of me might have to burn though…..I’ll let you know! But at least my face might survive the day’s cycle ride.

Feeding catfish!

I have to say, enjoyable though the day was, next time I swear I’m going to go for one with an engine!! It’s way too hot out here for too much physical exercise!

Back in New Sukhothai I attempt to make more forward plans before heading to the local street market for dinner.

Tomorrow, I’ve eventually decided, is going to be the train to Bangkok (hopefully, if I can get a ticket!) to then try and secure my onward travel to Phuket to meet Amanda and Erin. Annoyingly I can’t seem to book this journey online hence I’m heading straight to Bangkok to see what happens when I get there.

This is good, on a tree in a temple!