Back to Bangkok: Part 2

During my five bonus days in Bangkok, I did more than just browse malls and munch brunches. I was also a good tourist, and spent some of my time exploring parts of the city I had not yet made it to. Bangkok is so big that there is always more to see, but I am determined to see as much of it as I am able to on this trip.

My initial trip started out, as most trips in the historic old part of Bangkok do, by river.

The Rama VIII Bridge.

Well I briefly stopped on the way for some excellent iced coffee. It cost only 30B (£0.60) and is one of the best I’ve had in Thailand.

Best coffee in Bangkok.

My plan was to explore the parts of Banglamphu (the area north of the Royal Palace, around Khao San Road) that I had not managed to reach. I had attempted to explore this area the last time I was in Bangkok, but a tropical downpour left me stranded at the pier and forced to return home. 

Not this time. The sun was shining. I was hyped up on caffeine. I was ready for exploring. 

Strolling north from the pier at Phra Arthit, I first stumbled upon Pom Pra Sumen, one of the original fortresses built at the time of the founding of the city. It had deteriorated and been restored several times, and now stood unused in a small park by the Chao Phraya, but (from a distance) looked elegant and imposing.

Seemed almost European in style.

There was explanatory signage accompanying the sight, but much of the sense was lost in poor translation, so all I was able to gleam is that it dates from the city's foundation in the late 18th century.

Turning away from the river's banks, I soon find myself on a dusty, quiet road that seemed familiar to me.

Seems so familiar, yet so alien.

I soon realised that I was walking along Khao San Road, the epicentre of the backpacker ghetto that squats at the centre of Banglamphu district. But this was not the Khao San Rd. that I knew; there were few stalls or shops open, and fewer tourists.

I had realised that Bangkok felt quieter on that day than on others, and rightly attributed it to the Buddhist holiday of Vesak, which celebrates the Buddha's Birthday. It however had not been so noticeable before now.


It was only when I saw this sign that I understood what had happened.

This spelt death to Khao San!

Without copious and cheap alcohol, Khao San held no appeal to the bro-tanned teenagers and Superdry-soled Twats-on-tour, and so they had deserted it for other roads and other bars.


I actually found Khao San quite pleasant without the hoards and stalls. The shopkeepers and streetsellers were far less pushy, perhaps having given up on making money that today, and I could browse the remaining stalls at my relative ease. Tiring of the heat, I ended up skulking off for a massage, which for Khao San was surprisingly good.


Oh, if only I could go back to the days when I could afford massages! Damn you expensive, broken phone!


Feeling relaxed and cool, but also sleepy and lazy, I opted against seeing more of Banglamphu, and promised I'd return tomorrow to do and see more.



...



The next day, having spent a lazy morning in the MBK centre and nearby malls accompanied by Nick, I headed out to see something new. First on my list was Pratunam Market, a fabric and fashion marker, which through my wanderings had ended up nearby. 


I had no real expectations of what I was going to find. 


I found a lot of clothes, cramped alleyways, and busy intersections. 

Yet one more beautifully-chaotic Thai market.

So like any other Thai market really...

I wanted all of these shirts, if only for the inevitable compliments Kitty would give me :D

I had learnt from previous experience that no clothing in a South East Asian market will fit me (because in Asia I am Goliath), we headed onwards back to Banglamphu via the khlong ferry. 


Any excuse for the khlong ferry.

Somehow the little speed boat makes Bangkok's disgusting canals almost romantic.

Alighting at the final stop near the Golden Mount, we headed in search of something I had meticulously put four stars next to in my notes on Bangkok; the Mahakan Fort Community. Originally the community had established itself on the narrow sliver of land between the old city walls of royal Ratanakosin and the encompassing khlong that acted as the city's moat. The city had grown around them, but the inhabitants had retained their identity and traditions, and someone had funded informative signage to explain the history and culture of the area.


Walking through the arches of the city walls into the community felt like stepping back in time. It felt almost village-like, despite the presence of a four-lane carriageway roaring past it just behind the white-washed walls. The area was a knot of alley-ways, leading off at odd angles to dead-ends and communal courtyards shrouded in laundry. What was most astonishing was that the local people smiled and said 'Sa wat dii krap/ka' as you walked by, showing a friendliness and warmth I had not seen anywhere else in the city centre.

I went to the MFC and all I got were these crappy photos.

Sadly, despite all these welcoming faces and picturesquely dilapidated wooden houses, I only took pictures of some of the animals I encountered upon first walking through the wall arches. Perhaps I was too busy soaking up the atmosphere, or perhaps because Nick was taking so many photos I subconsciously thought I didn't need to. Either way, few photos were taken, for which I am sorry.


Our next target was the Sao Ching Cha (more on that in a moment) and I chose a route down a street which my map has labelled as 'Temple Supplies', just to see what was for sale. Seemingly, it was books, crimson robes, and Buddhas.


So many Buddhas.

At the end of the road, encircled by a roundabout, was Sao Ching Cha, which is essentially an imposingly-tall Chinese-style arch. Until the early-20th century, a long swing was attached to the top of the structure, and Buddhist devotees would attempt to swing as high as they could to demonstrate the strength of their faith. 

Obviously swinging from something so high led to high number of fatalities, so the tradition stopped, but the swing frame remains as a stark symbol of Buddhist devotion.


Sitting across from Sao Ching Cha is the sprawling Wat Suthat, a sprawling monastery complex once patronised by kings, as evidenced by the grand scale of the sanctuary and sim. 

Paintings of demons inside the sim.

As ever, under the eaves of the sanctuary walls there sat lines of Buddha, their bronze bodies gleaming in the dusky light.


As ever, I took photos of said Buddhas.

Tiring by now, and with plans to meet with Niko fast approaching, I left Nick and strolled through leafy Ratanakosin towards Tha Thien river ferry pier, and I end this blog how I started it: on the Chao Phraya river.

DSP


PS: Apologies for the formatting on this one; at some point whilst writing this the font style changed, and I've been unable to restore it correctly. So, this entry may look a little strange... :/

Back to Bangkok: Part 1

It is high time I got this blog up to date. I am sat on gorgeous tropical island with no-one for company. I have exhausted exploring, sated the need for swimming, and the one open restaurant on the island is expensive, so I have very few excuses to not do this.

Well, the view is a smidgen distracting ;)

FOCUS!!!!

In South East Asia, all roads seem to lead to Bangkok. It’s the biggest city in the region, and because of Thailand’s popularity with tourists, it is the most effective and cheapest hub for air travel. It is also just located right in the centre of the region, which basically means if, say, you want to travel from Laos in the north to Malaysia in the south, you need to change transport in Bangkok. Which is what I planned to do.

I also had the little problem of the broken phone, which again could only be fixed in Bangkok.

So by necessity I had to spend at least a day in Bangkok dealing with phone repairs and arranging onward transport.

I however ended up spending five days in the city. This was partly necessitated by needing to repair my busted phone, but was more because I simply enjoy spending time in Bangkok. It is a very easy city to spend time in as no-one really tries to rip you off anymore than they would a local. Taxis, though ran by the mafia, are plentiful; food is available everywhere, and is some of the cheapest you’ll find in Thailand; and there is always more sights to see and more areas to explore.

Also, after a few hectic weeks in Laos, I was happy to spend a few days just hanging around in malls and coffee shops, and shying away from organising future plans and transport.

The fact that Niko arrived in the city a day after me did not help my resolve, as he had made several promises to share his local food and drinking tips. It would have been foolish to ignore the offer of a near-local to share his hard-earned city tips.

So here’s what I did with five extra days in the city.

MBK Floor 3: Mobile Phones, Repairs, Accessories

I have spent more time in this part of Bangkok than I care to mention...

The mall is a beast, and a complete maze to navigate, but it also has the widest selection of goods under one roof. So it was here I kept returning.

...I repaired my phone here - VISITS x2

...I replaced my repaired phone here - VISIT x1

...I accompanied newly-met Couchsurfer Nick around the mall - VISITS x2

I believe I spent around seven hours in the mall over the five days I stayed in the city...it was not a waste of my time….but it does seem a shame to have spent so long in there!!

Siam Mall Exploring

I had attempted some exploring of the crazy mall complexes in Siam, Bangkok’s commercial centre, with Philip last month. However, he wasn’t interested, and I had places I wanted to see more urgently, so we only made a token twenty minute foray into the urban jungle.

This time however, I was determined to explore more, and was accompanied by equally-eager Nick.

I feel here I should explain here briefly how we met. I was catching the river ferry back to Bangrak from a wander around Khao San, and bumped into Nong, the host of the cycling event I went to last month in Bangkok, who was showing around her current surfer Nick. He mentionned that he needed to sort out a local SIM, and I offered to show him where to do that, and then we spent the afternoon exploring Siam and Banglamphu. He was good company, and as he was new to travelling, his curiosity and enthusiasm compelled me to actually see some more of Bangkok!!!

Siam is actually composed of around half a dozen huge, sprawling mall complexes that are connected to each other through the Siam BTS Skytrain station, meaning that you can walk for kilometres without actually setting foot outside. The nearest we have to the scale of the Thai malls is the Westfield centres in London; imagine five or six of these next to each other, connected by raised walkways, and with more glitz and extravagance. That is Siam.

There is even a Harrods in one of the malls, which serves afternoon tea for £25 per person. I was again sorely tempted, but I resisted and decided to see how much money I have when I return to Bangkok for my flight home.

Part of my reason for returning to the malls was to finally find the Marks and Spencers branch which I knew was I knew was in Siam somewhere. It took around fifteen minutes of consulting maps and asking security guards, but finally I stumbled upon it. It was nice to feel, at least for a minute, like I was back in the UK. It did however reinforce how glad I am to be travelling and not working there any longer.

Nearby to M&S there were several hallways filled with painted elephants, reminiscent of the collection of painted eggs which on display in Covent Garden a few Easters ago.

Eating and Drinking with Niko:

Previously, I had left Niko, my travel buddy for Laos, in Udon Thani, as I wanted to head on to Bangkok and resolve my phone issues. However, we realised that the hostel where he stays long-term is less than a kilometre from my Bangkok hostel in Bangrak, so we had no excuses for seeing each other.

Not that I need an excuse to continue seeing the awesome, ratchet-hot-mess that is the fabulous Niko.

So the day after I arrived in Bangkok, I hopped off the ferry a few stops short of my regular stop Saphan Taksin to meet up with Niko at Marine Pier and grab some food nearby. His initial suggestion of his favourite street food stall was scuppered by it being Vesak, or the Buddha’s Birthday. This meant much of Bangkok was shut down, and alcohol unavailable everywhere. See the next post for my exploration of surprisingly sober Khao San Road during Vesak.

Our saviour was nearby Chinatown, which is ever contrary and was not celebrating Vesak. This meant, despite the national ban on selling alcohol, it was being sold and consumed freely, and the district was generally running like normal, which for us meant plenty of street food.

Our first stop was a restaurant for some Roast Duck with noodles. It was only after our meal that we realised what we were sitting beside…

Yes, that is Shark Fin, and beside it is what we think is Bird’s Nest. It’s lovely to be sitting beside endangered animal products. Yummy! Sadly however, they are staple parts of Chinese cooking.

Horrifying animal products aside, I love Chinatown for its bright lights and sheer diversity of food available on the street.

After grabbing a few snacks on the street, I braved some Thai dessert. I usually stay well away from puddings in Asia; they are inevitably (if not fruit) sweet and sickly, and not my taste at all. But I thought I would be safe with some water chestnuts in coconut milk.

I like water chestnuts, and I like coconut milk.

However I do not like coconut milk with lumps of ice in. And I do not like water chestnuts that are half jelly, half crunchy. Think tapioca pearls with crunchy water chestnut in the centre. It was not nice.

It was horrible, and I do not want to ever eat anything like it again.

We parted ways after a while, and decided to try again tomorrow to find Niko’s favourite food stall.

Sure enough, tomorrow, the stall was reopened, and the papaya salad there was delicious. It was only later that we realised that the stall is actually ran by Laotians, not Thais, which gave us some faith back in Laos food, and what we had eaten whilst in Laos was nothing to write home about.

After food, we parted ways, but agreed to head out later for drinks.

One shower, and several hours of blogging later, we found ourselves in Silom soi 2, the centre of the gay district in Bangkok.

We had a drink.

We had another drink.

Then we had a few more.

At some point in the evening, I decided I was not drunk enough, so ordered three G&Ts at once to make up for this.

I don’t remember much after that.

We ended up in a club, where we did some fierce dancing. In the morning I found these pictures.

I reckon it was a good night. Niko had to send me home in a taxi….

;)

This is half of what I got up to in Bangkok. Check out Part 2 where I actually act like a tourist and wander around in the heat and humidity photographing forts and statues.

DSP

Useful Information:

• The MBK Centre is reached from the National Stadium BTS station. Taxi drivers will also recognise the name.
• For the major Siam malls, use the main Siam BTS Station.
• Chinatown’s street food stalls are concetrated along Yaowarat Rd, around 500 metres west from the Chinese Arch.
• Niko’s recommended street food can be easily found. Take the river ferry to Marine Pier (No.4), and walk out on the main road to a T-junction, where you should turn right. When you reach a small square with a 7/11, the food stall is on the right of the stall, with salt-baked fish featuring prominently.

Professor Stephen and the Case of the Broken Phone

On my last morning in Vang Vieng, I was walking along the main road with Niko to grab some breakfast at a bakery I had heard of, and as were walking, a break in the buildings revealed a lovely view of the misty, sharp mountains bordering Vang Vieng; a perfect photo opportunity.

As I took the photo, my phone slid out of my hands, and fell face-down, with a heart-stopping crunch, onto the gravel-strewn road.

Now, sadly, this photo is horrendous quality, and technically not actually accurate, as you will learn later. But it is the only photo I have of my damaged phone, so we’ll go with it.

I was annoyed at seeing my phone broke, but not unduly worried. Phone screens break all the time, and are repaired all the time. The phone still turned on and off, and even loyally backed-up the picture at the top of the blog, but the touchscreen had stopped working. It’ll just eat a whole in my budget, but it’s worth it to retain my phone that acts as my map, camera, and main method of communication to home (Chromebook may be my babe, but it cannot do Microsoft (sensibly) and therefore Skype (less sensible)). And we were intending to head to Vientiane that day anyway, so I may well be able to get it repaired the very same day.

So feeling more annoyed than anxious, I stomped off to the French-inspired bakery, and ordered the biggest, most unhealthy brownie they could bake, and spent the 2-3 hours before the bus arrived drinking tea from an actual teapot and browsing internets.

To clarify how this was possible, I had to crack out the back-up actual camera. I am used to how completely useless I am, so have backup cables, headphones, sunglasses, and camera. I have already lost two pairs of sunglasses, 3 USB cables, and apparently a phone….

When the surprisingly spacious bus arrived, we speeded off to Vientiane on quite a comfortable journey, and arrived three hours later. It still took that long to travel 150km, but never mind.

The bus arrived in the centre, and conveniently stopped next door to the hostel Niko had looked up, so we checked in to what turned out to be a fairly comfortable hostel with twenty-four hour AC. After dumping bags, we headed out to find a mobile phone store recommended on line.

My best bet was a store called ME Store, which I optimistically strolled into despite the huge white Apple logo erected over the door. The women stood at the desk smiled and greeted me as I walked in, but her face fell when she saw the phone.

“What phone model is this? LG?”

Me: “Yes, LG G3”

“Oh no, we can’t fix this here”

Me: “Oh, OK. Is there anywhere nearby that can fix it?”

ME Lady: “Erm…” She quickly consults with a colleague, before they both point towards the river, which doubles as the border, and say “Thailand”.

Feeling slightly anxious, I walked down the road and tried several other phone stores. All had similarly lacklustre responses and suggested ‘Thailand’ or ‘Bangkok’. I was slightly worried as every phone shop had banners or signs proudly proclaiming Samsung or Apple, but I didn’t see LG anywhere in the signage or phone stock inside. LG just seemingly doesn’t exist in Laos. A quick consulation of the LG website reveals they have a Thai webpage, and a Vietnamese webpage, and even a Tajikistani webpage, but no Laos. They did not sell phones in Laos, and therefore there were no replacement parts in Laos.

Annoying.

I decide there is no point shortening my stay in Vientiane, which turned out to be a nice, mid-sized city, but that I would skip southern Laos in favour of returning to Thailand to affect a repair, with the intention of proceeding onto Cambodia from an eastern Thai city somewhere close to the border.

Simple.

So, after a few days in the Laotian capital, which will be described in detail in a later blog, we both bought bus tickets to take us over the border to the nearest Thai city of Udon Thani.

I took the advantage of my last moments in Laos to buy a bag of the best crisps I had found in Laos: Dinosnacks. I don’t know what the actual name was, but they had a Dinosaur on, so they were Dinosnacks to me. They were delicious, and bizarrely, though they are made in Thailand, have so far proved to be elusive there.

We had to endure/enjoy the farce that was the Lao border checks. Of course there was a 10000K overtime customs charge as we passed through on a Saturday. Of course the fact that Niko’s passport didn’t scan properly needed the assistance of about six staff members, temporarily shutting down the border in the process. Of course I was able to walk back in Laos through customs to check where Niko was, and then walk back out of Laos, without anyone saying anything.

It’s Laos. No one cares as long as you’ve paid money.

Thai side was straight forward, and took five minutes. We did rush through though in order to get back onto the bus before the Chinese lady who was very vocal about Niko’s absence at the Laos border holding everyone else up. We made sure to look at her very impatiently when she got on the bus. Last.

As we pulled into the surprisingly-huge-and-bustling small Thai city of Udon Thani, we spotted a large mall, which we made a beeline for. I left Niko in his I-have-Wifi-and-AC bubble, and headed off to the phone floor of the mall.

Every Thai mall has a phone floor. They like phones.

Again, when I handed my phone over to the stall holders, their expressions said it all. “You need to go to Bangkok” was their standard responses. Eventually I found someone whose response was something different; “Wait a moment while we check”.

Success.

A teenager comes back after a few minutes, and after a quick whisper in Thai, the stallholder says “4000B (£80), and it will take seven days”.

Not success.

There was not a chance I was going to spend a week in Udon Thani, so I thanked him, and took my increasingly-expensive phone back to Niko, and headed to a hostel. I had decided I did not want to drag out this repair any longer, so I booked an overnight train that evening to Bangkok.

I was slightly sad about leaving Udon Thani, as I had a brilliant evening meal in the night market, and all of the snacks I bought for the train journey from the market were equally brilliant. But I just wanted my phone repaired, and my travels to be back on tracks.

After an comfortable train ride curled up with a book...well curled up with my Chromebook displaying an e-Book, I arrived in Bangkok once more.

It was so nice to be back in the city. The food was suddenly cheaper; the taxi drivers were fair; and the people were ambivalent about tourists rather than actively trying to take money from them. Heaven!

Reinstalled in my old hostel in the city, where they greeted me by name (I felt both impressed that they remembered, and concerned that I had spent so much time there), after a shower and some free cups of tea, I hopped in a taxi and headed to my best chance of affecting a cheap repair; the MBK mall.

Inside, there is a huge floor just filled with phone stalls and stores, so I had plenty of choice.

The quotes were all similar in price to that in Udon Thani, but the repair time was measured in hours rather than days. The store holders were also quick to reveal the reason behind the high cost of repair; in certain makes of LG the I settled on a stall that offered the repair for 3800B (a mere £76) and three hours.

I went off back to the hostel, to drink free tea and bask in AC. A few hours later, my laptop made a sound. I checked and I found a new photo had been synced from my phone.

I took this to mean my phone was now fixed, so I headed back to MBK to receive my phone, which was whole and functioning once more, albeit with a slightly discoloured patch of screen. But still, I was reunited!!!!

Now, you are probably wondering why there is no photo of me reunited joyfully with my new phone. Well, dear reader, that is because this story is not quite the end of the tale.

Sadly, two days later, I managed to break my phone screen…by biting it.

Let me explain. I had been on a night out, and when I got home, I decided to have a shower. A shower means I have to carry quite a few things, and when I was coming back from the shower, I ran out of hands, and put my phone in my mouth to hold it temporarily whilst I unlocked the door to the dorm. As i gripped my fairly heavy, large phone, I heard this crunch, and grabbed my phone only to realise with dismay that my canines had cracked and bitten through the glass….

I am fairly sure I couldn’t have done that with my original phone screen.

I blame the bloke with the awful facial tuft for using sub-standard products. It’s not as though I paid sub-standard prices…

Anyway, so I had to spend the next day back in MBK. I gave up on replacing the screen again, as if my teeth can break the glass, any small knock would do the same.

So I am now the proud owner of a Lenovo P70 - and it was so cheap at only 6990B. I may have to reassess my finances now I have spent £200+ on phones…..

Anyway, that is the long annoying story. It is boring. It is unnecessarily complex. But hey, if I have to live it, I’m going to share my misery with others.

DSP