Friday was my second night, and only full day, in Bangkok, so I decided to spend the day doing the usual tourist stuff. With most of the morning taken up sorting out my move down to koh phangan for the following day, I asked the lady at the travel office conveniently located inside the hotel what she recommended I do for the afternoon. She told me to check out the local temples and the Grand Palace, saying both were within easy walking distance and showing me where to go on the map. Those of you who know how bad my sense of direction is are probably worried already. I didn't get overly lost though, but what I did realise that easy walking distance is a relative concept in this heat and humidity. Over half an hour later, passing a couple of smaller temples, I made it to the Golden Mountain Temple, drenched in sweat and with my water bottle hot enough to make a cup of tea with. As the name of the place might indicate, the temple was high up on a hill (not quite a mountain thankfully!), but it was an interesting walk that covered some of the history of Bangkok.
Next I wanted to check out the Grand Palace, but at this point had no idea how to get there from where I was and even less inclination to walk around the city trying to find it. So taxi time it was. That was for the best, as it was quite a bit away and, of course, when you get there you are walking around the place anyway. The Palace was huge, with numerous buildings and museums (from the weapon museum to the somewhat less appealing textile museum), and took a good couple hours to get around most of it. At this point, I was pretty beat so I grabbed a tuk tuk back to the hotel for a nap.
Now it was time to check out the other side of Bangkok...don't worry, I'll keep it clean(ish)...
After a delicious massaman curry and a relaxing head, neck and shoulder massage (NOT the happy ending kind btw!!), a tuk tuk driver whisked me away to what he promised was one of the more entertaining "shows" in town. Of course, by this he meant the infamous 'Ping-Pong show.' When in Rome, I thought! It was a dingy little room, which seemed kinda appropriate, where a variety of ladies did interesting things with their bits. To be honest, it wasn't that great, but we all got a good laugh when one of the ladies fired a banana out of between her legs that managed to hit me square in the chest! Next on the list was Soi Cowboy, apparently named after the first person to open a bar there, an African-American dude who always wore a cowboy hat. It's a relatively short strip of 'go-go' bars, with a couple of more normal venues thrown in for good measure. For anyone who has been somewhere like this, you will understand what it's like to walk down a street and have countless scantily clad women try to tempt you into their establishment, sometimes even attempting to physically drag you in there. I'd been to a similar place when I visited Phuket in 2013, the infamous party area in the 'walking street' in Patong. I found Patong to be better in my opinion, but I guess it's all relative as then I was with a decent group of people celebrating my surviving my first muay thai fight.
Feeling peckish, I headed back to khao san road and grabbed some amazing street food (damn I love street food, so tasty and so friggin' cheap), and watched some more live music in the street with a few beers. I got talking to a couple of very drunk Fillipino lads, who kept repeating the statement "I AM FROM PHILLIPINES, AND I LIKE WOMEN!" No need to convince me mate, it's Bangkok, you can get whatever you want if you have the cash!
Saturday I'd arranged to meet a couple of people from the gym back in England who were in Bangkok, at the MBK shopping mall. On the way I had to make a quick detour, as the tuk tuk driver offered me a cheaper ride if I went into a particular suit shop on the way. This is pretty standard here, many of the drivers have deals with certain businesses were they get a commission for bringing people to them. No way was I buying anything, no point buying a suit now and dragging it round with me for the next 3 months. So I just flicked through their books, let the guy try to sell me a suit, then some shirts, then just a tie, before bugging out. MBK is friggin' huge, something like 8 levels with hundreds of shops and stalls. If you can't find something there, you don't need it. Again though, I didn't want to buy lots of stuff and have to lug it around with me, so I just picked up a couple bits I would use in the coming weeks. It was great to see some familiar faces too, even though it was just a few days into the trip.
Finally, it was back to khao san road for one last beer before collecting my luggage and heading off to the train station. Here began one seriously long, seriously tiring, and (besides the constant nagging doubt I was on the wrong train or bus) seriously boring journey. A 12 hour train ride from Bangkok to Surat Thani (though I managed to sleep through most of it as it was a sleeper train with pull out beds), a 1.5 hour bus ride to Donask pier, then a further 1.5 hours on the ferry, passing koh samui before reaching koh phangan. The only enjoyable part was the ferry, standing on the open air top deck watching the islands grow ever closer, the perfect blue-green sea lapping invitingly around them. Much more my style than the hustle and bustle of the city.
A final quick tuk tuk ride got me to the Diamond muay thai gym, where I was let into my room by a nice Thai lady working there called Em. I'll talk the gym, the surrounding area and the training in the next post.
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