DAY 3: Woke up a lot earlier, but still felt jetlagged. Because we wanted to pretend like we were locals for a few minutes, we wanted to experience all forms of public transport and local life. We took river taxis to Wat Arun Temple, where we climbed to the top up some steep stairs and got an awesome view. The (Buddhist) Temples here aren't simply just one building - they usually consist of many buildings, most of which u cant actually go inside. At Wat Arun, we got a blessing from a local monk, who threw water at us, chanted, and tied a string round our hands. Weirdly in the river taxi out of the premesis, the same monk was standing opposite us.
We then took the local skytrains up to town (which were surpringly easy to use) and just wondered around, which included two amazingly nice shopping centres which were like 9 floors (mainly just ate there). we also found a World Cup Football Fan Fest - just a random cordened off area where people were playing fifa and pro and playing all these games to win things (which were impossible and i dont think any1 actually won).Day 4: Woke up ridiculously early and took a trip to the Floating Market, a couple of hours from Bangkok. This is basically where u travel on little boats (or you can walk to some areas) and buy stuff from locals or set up little huts on the water. To me most of the stuff was utter shit, except, off course, the food. Had some amazing fruits with weird names, including mangoosteen (dont know how to spell it). it was then time to say BYE TO PREYAN.
Day 5-6: Started my organised tour (gapadventures.com - indochina encompassed). met the people, who turned out to be awesome, and of completed different ages and backgrounds. im not going to go through them, but what I will say is that I really didnt want old people. I walked in and sat opposite 2 old people. however that night, having drunk some beers, buckets of alcohol and more beers, it turned out that they were genuinely filled with awesomeness. Why? Simple: They are Irish. As you can probably tell by the fact they were old and consumed a similar amount of alcohol as me. It should also be noted that our tour leader seems to be a LEJ. he looks like nemanja vidic, but is a canadian who has lived all around the world for the last 15 years or something.
After a short nights rest, we visited the Wot Pho Temple, and then some of us went to the Grand Palace. In the first, the highlights were 3 differently positioned buddas - one was HUGE and recling, and the other 2 were standing and sitting. The Grand Palace's highlight was the Emerald Buddha, althought there were many beautiful shrines/temples here in acres of land.
We had to take a boat to get to Wot Pho, and we passed local villages and I guess what could only be described as slums. That being said, I have never felt more welcome outside my own home in my entire life. and that goes for the whole of my experience in bangkok (and chang mai where i am now writing from). during this particular boat visit, we passed a group of young teenage school kids. In London, if you drove past a council estate, the chances are you will be verbally (and possiblly physically) abused by CHAVS if you were a huge group of tourists passing by young school kids. In Thailand, they seemed to act similarly to the adults. Smiling, waving, and bowing their heads.
Just a quick note on the weather. Having come from snowy and frustratingly cold london, i hadnt seen any real sun until i got to chang mai (although it has been really hot). just cloudy and rainy. just like london for most of the year. Chang Mai is special, but mainly not even for the weather. Will talk about that next week, in what will be way shorter blogs because this is getting tiring and i probably wont have this much time again. i will also upload some photos on facebook at some point, although I am staying on a boat for 2 days this week and afterwards on a place with no electricity so may take a while.
Laters aligators.
My favourite food so far has defo been Chicken Pad Thai, which is like a lighter version of fried noodles. and at the stalls it sells for about 40p! and they make it in front of you. One of the things that caught my eye was the stalls selling cockroaches, scorpians, maggots and others insects for people to eat. they were really cheap. but in fairness the sellers probably just went into their back garden and threw whatever moved into their deep friers. i have to try at least 2 insects before i leave asia (I am going to be back here twice after this visit so have plenty of opportunities).
Another thing I immediately noted about bangkok was the way people crossed the road. it is expected that pedestrians just cross roads at any given point, so the drivers are alert and just stop when some1 needs to cross or is slightly in their path. without the slightest bit of frustration or complaint. in comparison, in london if you crossed the road in a similar manner, you would be hooted/hurled abuse at (or severely injured).
