Bangkok: 4th October 09

We arrived in Bangkok last night. This morning we went for a boat trip along the Nam Mae Chao Phraya River and through the back canals, stopping off at the Temple of Dawn. Bangkok is really hot and humid at the moment, so being on the water was a nice, cooling relief. The backwater canals were a nice surprise – lots of small houses on the water and lots of greenery.

The city as a whole is a also a complete surprise to us, we were expecting it to be a clash between tradition and modernity, and it is, but it’s also a lot cleaner and flashier than we’d envisaged. We like it a lot! Lots of shiny new buildings and clean streets, and loads of golden temples dotted around. Also, they love their royal family here and place big gaudy pics of them on the street corners and in front of all of the government buildings, which I love!

After the boat trip we took a taxi ride around some of the other main sights – taxis are a bargain here, the driver acted as a guide and charged only £4 an hour to drive us around all of the main temples and wait for us. We went to the temple of the golden Buddha, but unfortunately couldn’t get in as it’s ‘Buddha day’ today, the end of a three month festival, so only monks were allowed access. We fared better at the marble temple, which was beautiful, and at the temple of the standing Buddha – the Buddha is huge- the size of an eight story building all covered in gold!

We also stopped outside the parliament building and gave an offering of flowers and incense to the statue of King Rama V. Apparently this means our businesses will now flourish for ever more. Hmmm...wish I had a business!

After the temples we decided to check out Koh San road, the heart of the backpacker area, full of cheap bars and cafes. The food is amazing, we had great noodles and rice for under a fiver. We took a Tuk-Tuk back to our hotel – a half an hour ride. It didn’t feel particularly safe – no seat belts and razzing along at 60 miles an hour on what is essentially a three wheeler motorbike with a basket to sit on, but we got back unscathed!

We headed back to Ko San Road in the evening as it’s famous for its night time buzz and it was really cool - sat and had beers and watched the world go by, followed by more noodles. Yum!