April 1-2
So I was absolutely dreading this day as the travel day was going to be around 19 hours of hell. LOL. The first leg was on a boat from 12-6 pm which actually wasn't too bad because it wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be. Thank God. Once we got to the pier, we had an hour wait for the bus, and hopped on the night bus around 7:30 p.m. Kelly and I got on quickly and we got some pretty good seats. I also pictured the bus to have no air con (even though they always say it will) and it did, so I was pleasantly surprised!
I couldn't fall asleep for a while, and the Ireland boys encouraged me to go to the Pharmacy before I left to pick up some pills to help me sleep. Let's just say the pharmacies in Thailand are very different than back home. You don't need a prescription for anything really. Just tell them what you need and you get it. I walked in and said that I needed a pill to help me sleep and she wanted to sell me 10 Valium pills for $10!!!!! How funny is that! Anyway, I bought 2, and took one that night which knocked me right out. Worked like a charm. We arrived in Bangkok around 4 am and I'm glad the girls had already been here because they knew exactly where to go.
April 2nd
Kelly and I decided to go and visit the infamous King's Palace. As we were walking there, we kept asking for directions and 3 people told us that it was closed, either closed early on Fridays, or closed for a Thai celebration. Apparently, this 'trick' is done quite often. The tuk tuk drivers want to take you somewhere else to get your money so they tell you that something is closed. Such a scam. I was quite disgusted actually that so many local people would try to scam us like that.
It's sometimes difficult to see any charm in Bangkok as it is a dirty, loud city, with many people just wanting to get your money. But I definitely saw a beautiful part of Bangkok today. The palace was serene, peaceful and full of lush gardens. The only problem was the heat. When you're on the south coast the heat is bearable because you simply jump into the water when you get hot. But walking in this city was brutal.
Khoasan Road is a busy touristy street that we stayed on, so I literally could have sat in a bar the whole night people watching because there is so much going on: street vendors selling bugs, Thai ladies trying to lure Western men, clothing vendors, etc....
However, Kelly and I decided to venture out of our busy street to go to Patpong Road, where there is another night market and 'evening shows.' We got there safely but walking through these markets you get hastled so much with hearing the same thing, "Hello Lady, you wanna try, I sell you for goo' price." When you politely say, "no thank you" they mutter something in Thai under their breath. It's brutal. And after a while, you just get sick of it.
The main reason we went was to go see one of the 'famous Thai ping pong shows'.... the catch is that you can go in but you have to buy one drink, and nothing else. I made sure when I was wheeling and dealing with the guy that there was NO other HIDDEN prices to pay. He assured me there wasn't. LOL. After being there for about 10 minutes, these 3 butchy women came up to us, demanding that we pay 300 Baht each for sitting in their establishment. We said "no" several times but then they started to get loud and mean, so we coughed it up. We were totally scammed. I hate feeling like a sucker. Now looking back at it, I wish we would have simply gotten up and left, but I will chalk it up to an experience I guess.
We finally found a tuk tuk to take us back to our street... while driving down a main road there was a blockade with tons of police officers directing traffic, which was due to the protests. We have heard about these political protests and as a foreigner it's a bit scary to be in a country/city where you know there is some political unrest. We had been able to avoid the "protest" area completely until this moment. The tuk tuk driver pulled over and motioned for us to 'get out' and kept pointing and telling us that our hotel was 'just over there'.....of course he was pointing in the direction of the thousands of protesters dressed in red with red bandannas over their faces. In the background on a huge mega phone all I could hear was an angry Thai voice saying things, with all the protesters listening and then cheering. There was no way in hell I was getting out of the tuk tuk at this point. A not-so-friendly police man walked by and Kelly asked if it was safe for us to walk through the area. I don't think he really knew what she was asking him but he said no. We were livid and relieved when we got back to our hotel because he had pulled over another time too, telling us to get out. We had no clue where we were, in relation to our hotel. We insisted that he drive us back to Khosan Road and really, I think he was simply irritated that he had to drive us the longer route because of the protests. What a night! Ripped off at the Market and then almost literally thrown into a sea of Thai protesters.
Tomorrow I am off to Cambodia, a place I've always wanted to visit, so I'm really pumped!
So I was absolutely dreading this day as the travel day was going to be around 19 hours of hell. LOL. The first leg was on a boat from 12-6 pm which actually wasn't too bad because it wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be. Thank God. Once we got to the pier, we had an hour wait for the bus, and hopped on the night bus around 7:30 p.m. Kelly and I got on quickly and we got some pretty good seats. I also pictured the bus to have no air con (even though they always say it will) and it did, so I was pleasantly surprised!
I couldn't fall asleep for a while, and the Ireland boys encouraged me to go to the Pharmacy before I left to pick up some pills to help me sleep. Let's just say the pharmacies in Thailand are very different than back home. You don't need a prescription for anything really. Just tell them what you need and you get it. I walked in and said that I needed a pill to help me sleep and she wanted to sell me 10 Valium pills for $10!!!!! How funny is that! Anyway, I bought 2, and took one that night which knocked me right out. Worked like a charm. We arrived in Bangkok around 4 am and I'm glad the girls had already been here because they knew exactly where to go.
April 2nd
Kelly and I decided to go and visit the infamous King's Palace. As we were walking there, we kept asking for directions and 3 people told us that it was closed, either closed early on Fridays, or closed for a Thai celebration. Apparently, this 'trick' is done quite often. The tuk tuk drivers want to take you somewhere else to get your money so they tell you that something is closed. Such a scam. I was quite disgusted actually that so many local people would try to scam us like that.
It's sometimes difficult to see any charm in Bangkok as it is a dirty, loud city, with many people just wanting to get your money. But I definitely saw a beautiful part of Bangkok today. The palace was serene, peaceful and full of lush gardens. The only problem was the heat. When you're on the south coast the heat is bearable because you simply jump into the water when you get hot. But walking in this city was brutal.
Khoasan Road is a busy touristy street that we stayed on, so I literally could have sat in a bar the whole night people watching because there is so much going on: street vendors selling bugs, Thai ladies trying to lure Western men, clothing vendors, etc....
However, Kelly and I decided to venture out of our busy street to go to Patpong Road, where there is another night market and 'evening shows.' We got there safely but walking through these markets you get hastled so much with hearing the same thing, "Hello Lady, you wanna try, I sell you for goo' price." When you politely say, "no thank you" they mutter something in Thai under their breath. It's brutal. And after a while, you just get sick of it.
The main reason we went was to go see one of the 'famous Thai ping pong shows'.... the catch is that you can go in but you have to buy one drink, and nothing else. I made sure when I was wheeling and dealing with the guy that there was NO other HIDDEN prices to pay. He assured me there wasn't. LOL. After being there for about 10 minutes, these 3 butchy women came up to us, demanding that we pay 300 Baht each for sitting in their establishment. We said "no" several times but then they started to get loud and mean, so we coughed it up. We were totally scammed. I hate feeling like a sucker. Now looking back at it, I wish we would have simply gotten up and left, but I will chalk it up to an experience I guess.
We finally found a tuk tuk to take us back to our street... while driving down a main road there was a blockade with tons of police officers directing traffic, which was due to the protests. We have heard about these political protests and as a foreigner it's a bit scary to be in a country/city where you know there is some political unrest. We had been able to avoid the "protest" area completely until this moment. The tuk tuk driver pulled over and motioned for us to 'get out' and kept pointing and telling us that our hotel was 'just over there'.....of course he was pointing in the direction of the thousands of protesters dressed in red with red bandannas over their faces. In the background on a huge mega phone all I could hear was an angry Thai voice saying things, with all the protesters listening and then cheering. There was no way in hell I was getting out of the tuk tuk at this point. A not-so-friendly police man walked by and Kelly asked if it was safe for us to walk through the area. I don't think he really knew what she was asking him but he said no. We were livid and relieved when we got back to our hotel because he had pulled over another time too, telling us to get out. We had no clue where we were, in relation to our hotel. We insisted that he drive us back to Khosan Road and really, I think he was simply irritated that he had to drive us the longer route because of the protests. What a night! Ripped off at the Market and then almost literally thrown into a sea of Thai protesters.
Tomorrow I am off to Cambodia, a place I've always wanted to visit, so I'm really pumped!
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