A crazy day in Bangkok and then the night train to Chang Mai

We are still dealing with a bit of jet lag. Our first full day in Bangkok, once we found our Budget room, was pretty low key. We looked around the shops but we didn't want to buy anything because we knew we were coming back and we don't want to carry anything yet. We found our first noodle lady and ordered chicken noodle stuff and a spring roll.



Noodle ladies, so many to chose from



Our first street dinner, in progress

Needless to say, it lived up to expectations. I wasn't so sure about the chicken she pulled out of the paper bag but that's livin' on the edge. With Air. We are still dealing with a bit of jet lag so our first full day was actually more like 3/4 since we went to bed at about 8pm. 1st day intestinal fortitude: good.

The sleep that night was brutal. Apparently, I am the one whining about the hard bed. I must have woken up 7 times, wondering what the mattress could possibly be made of. Not wood or cement because it had about 2 mm give when you stood on it. But not anything soft like foam or fabric. I even looked in the morning but whatever magical new flexible steel-like material was covered with vinyl. Plus, that fifth floor didn't seem too bad at first but I guess the 10 times up and down in bare feet was more than my poor calfs could stand. Both Val and I woke up with aching legs. I know, we have all gone to the gym and survived but this was unbelievable. Two days later it still is unbelievable, every step up or down is a new experience in muscle pull. But we carried on to our day. We spent an hour or so birdwatching the tree outside of our room. There is one little green bird out there that apparently does not exist but we did get a few new ones. Once we were left with only pigeons to look at we set off for breakfast. We went western for that meal. Val had eggs and I had french toast. We get more adventurous as the trip progresses.

Our plan for the day was to walk to the Grand Palace and see what all the fuss is about. So off we go, no real idea other than 'go left at the corner' of how to get there.



A lovely set of bridges to cross to get to the Grand Palace

Again, we had much advise from many helpful men. They all said the same thing. Grand Palace is closed, go see the Reclining Buddha. Stubborn as we are, we just kept heading to the GP, we made it to the wall that surrounds it when another helpful man arrived. He didn't seem to be selling anything, he also said the GP was closed for a ceremony (we think the king was changing the jade Buddha's clothes, a tri-annual event) but he said because it is a national day of something or other, we can view the King's new palace for free and there are all sorts of festivities going on there. It is all very confusing but we ended up in a tuktuk.
A mini car like thing that is world famous as the symbol of Thailand (plus a death defying ride).



Our tuktuk driver



Val hanging on for dear life

Mr. TukTuk took us to a tiny wat (temple) which we looked at and then off we went to the 'House of Fashion' were we could have a suit made to order right then and there. I now understand how a certain young friend of mine ended up with a suit. We both made it out suitless but I did give in and buy a couple of very small gifts for a couple folks. Off we went to another unmemorable Wat and then off to the jewelery factory.



Our first wat was not too impressive



But a zoom lens helps see the details



Wat number 2 - getting better



Bell on the roof



Buddha is watching you

I have to say so that we don't sound like total rubes, we knew this was going to happen, but we figured it was a small price to pay for hours of TukTuk ride. Anyway, we bought cheap 'trip rings', that's what I am calling them because we bought the same ring by chance. After that, Mr. TukTuk didn't even bother with another Wat, we went straight to another fashion house. Some poor girl arrived at the same time as us and whispered 'did you ask to come here? Why are we here, I wanted to go to BlahBlah Wat". We told her to go with it, she would get there eventually. After that stop, we told Mr. TukTuk to take us back to the Grand Palace since it should now be open. We forgot about the festivities at the new palace. We did ask as we were leaving, if in fact, the Grand Palace was closed in the morning and it was so it wasn't a total scam. I have to say, it was fun.

Then we spent an hour or two in the GP and temple of the jade Buddha. For those of you who have been, you will totally understand that any pictures we took will not do this place any justice. There is enough decoration to make your head explode. Everything is tiles, painted, carved, gilded, groomed beyond belief. I have inadequate pictures for future reference.

So much gold







So many statues

And a million Buddhas



Fat Buddha



Skinny old Buddha



Young svelte Buddha



Spires and more spires

Spires everywhere


If it isn't gilded, it is so intricately detailed you have to do a close up. This entire building is covered with these tiny individually shaped and painted flowers

More detail than the brain can comprehend (I warned you this place was impossible to photograph)






A hand painted and gilded mural that ran hundreds of feet

It was so hot by now and we had to wear long pants and sleeves that we were dying. I have to say, the best part of the Palace was seeing the ridiculous pants and skirts they forced onto the poor unsuspecting shorts clad visitor. Many men in elephant print pants in varying shades of lavender and periwinkle. It was almost worth the heat stroke. Once we had seen pretty much all we could take we tried to leave. No easy feat, there is not signage and the paths are random and circular. We finally made it out but not before, in sight of the exit gate, we met Mr. Longboat. Clearly sun stoked and drunk on touristing, we agreed to a longboat tour of the canals. Again, it was fun and we saw parts of Bangkok that would have been completely inaccessible. Pictures forthwith.



Tours boat at dock



Blurry Val on the boat



Another, very similar boat



A house on the river



To be fair, there were lots of expensive houses too.



Monks at the river's edge.

Then back to the Khoa San Rd for a bite of dinner and to get our stuff. I bought a calamari plate that was so hot I could hardly eat it. Val tasted it and her whole face turned red. I had to follow it with half a pineapple and a beer before I could work my mouth properly. Note to self, ask to taste before buying food off of a wheeled buffet table in the middle of the road, especially if it is the exact same colour as hot chili paste. The Budget was storing our bags for us, so we picked up our stuff and hopped in a cab to the train station where we had booked the night train to Chang Mai for 7:30 PM.



hundreds of tourists waiting to leave Bangkok, there are not enough seats at the station



Leaving the Bangkok station



Waiting at the next station

Serious kudos to Missy here. She had advised us to get two bottom bunks across from each other as opposed to a bottom and top bunk. Brilliant for many reasons.
1. Bottom bunks seats face forward
2. bottom bunks have windows and more head room
3. who can climb the teeny tiny ladder to the top bunk with seized calfs



Forward facing top bunk seat

Only problem is that it was a full train so we had two other British girls in the top bunks. Proper tourist etiquette says one of us had to give up our forward facing seat to one of them so that they could sit together, oh well. We had dinner on the train, I had Red Curry with duck and some sort of chicken and cashew side dish and Val had some pork thing. It was OK but I will have to have red curry again since I am sure it can be better.



Val eating dinner on the train

Eventually a man came by and turned down our beds. By this time it was after 9 and I was pretty much beat. Intestinal fortitude that day: under consideration.



Ready for bed.

The train was so noisy. I kept thinking this must be what it is like to be a tiny person living in a wobbly wheeled shopping cart. There was screeching, banging, jolting, wire rattling. But surprisingly, we both slept pretty well. The bed was so much more comfortable that the Budget bed. We both woke up at about 6 AM (we are almost on Thai time).



Sunrise from the train window

They gave us breakfast of Rice soup, mine with prawns, Val's with chicken. It was yummy. The coffee was not. Then we bird watched from the train until we arrived in Chang Mai. A ride into town in what we think was some guys family minivan, and we wandered around for a bit, found the Rama Guesthouse (location unknown, I will only find my way back if Val stays near) and now have a room with earth made beds and only one flight up. Yeahhh. Only 6 bucks a night each. This time the big luxury was hot water instead of Air Conditioning. It is cooler here. Our hostess Lyn, is setting us up with all sorts of touristy things to do. Discount for us, shhhh, don't tell the other guests.

Tomorrow we are going to cooking school. I will save the rest of our plans for further action packed posts. intestinal fortitude today: under a practical nurses advise and medicinal care. Off to the night bazaar. Joanne.

We're here, we're hot

hey all. To start at the beginning of our adventure.



Waiting to go...

Lovely Chris got us to the airport at the crack 'o dawn and Air Canada did not screw up our flight. They did not give us any hard candy so I think that is proof positive that they are monitoring my blog.



Our view from the Vancouver Airport

Anyway, we had a few uneventful hours in the Vancouver airport where we spent a good 30 minutes annoying the Air Japan reception lady. first our bags were too heavy for carry on, we were both about 1.5 kilos over the limit. We sweet talked her into letting us through but she was full of dire warnings of the next gate/custom official/security taking our massive bags away from us. Needless to say that didn't happen. Once we had convinced her to let the bags through, we proceeded to have a Laurel and Hardy version of who's on the aisle, what's at the window. That poor woman spent 10's of minutes trying to accommodate our odd seating requests before she just stuck us in the emergency escape seats to shut us up. Lots of leg room but (is it irony or revenge?) there was nowhere to store our (too heavy) bags under the seat in front. So all of our stuff was over our heads, directly over our seat mate Mr. Chin. He let us knock his head around while we pulled our bags out of the overhead compartment way too many times. He found us amusing, I'm sure. He tried to teach us some Japanese words which Val may remember but it is all a blur to me.

Japan Air is nice but I don't think it beats KLM to Amsterdam. The movie selection was poor and started at random times. Remember when I was just excited to have the screen in the seat in front. Now I get all picky... Anyway, I watched a couple of movies and ate all of their Asian food which was very good.

We finally arrived in Narita, Tokyo Airport and wasted a few hours there.



What better analogy for spending time at a foreign airport than international clocks!

I saw one new bird, the long billed crow so my time in Japan was well spent and bird book documented. Our flight from Japan was endless. I slept a lot (same movie offers) . The food was even better than the previous flight. It is like going to Mom and Bill's, seafood in everything. They served a little cold seafood salad that had a prawn, scallop, calamari and an octopus cake that was too good for words.

After what seemed like days on the flight, in our tiny cramped seats and with a new seatmate who was way less fun than Mr. Chin but far more infectious, we made it to Bangkok. I actually don't really remember the airport much, there was a long line, I had to go to the bathroom and then we were out and in a cab. We had been up for over 24 hours at this point so it is a bit blurry. We arrived at the hotel. The hotel... Swank does not begin to describe our hotel. We were so grubby (did I mention that they took our picture at customs, that's going to be a beauty). But the receptionist let us in and gave us a room. What a waste the room was on us. It had fluffy duvets and fresh fruit, slippers and white robes, toiletries, and a huge tub that we were too exhausted to even consider using. So we went to our comfy beds all greasy and sweaty and slept like rocks.



A flower on the pillow? tossed aside in our exhausted efforts to get to bed



Fresh fruit that we took with us (at least we left the towels)



Our barely used Spa-like bathroom

When I was reading about the hotel, the guides mentioned the excellent breakfast buffet. Oh my god, what an understatement. It was incredible, phenomenal. I don't even know how to describe the offerings so I won't. But it was delish and I ate too much by far. We owe Nikki many scarves in payment for the opportunity to make ourselves sick on poached eggs, dim sum and tiki masala all on the same plate.

We reluctantly left the hotel but since our 'deal' was only for one night and we weren't prepared to pay $500/night no matter how good the breakfast. We cabbed it to a more meager and humble abode on Khao San Rd. It is crazy here with the guest houses, bars and gift shops - heaven.



Khoasan Rd - in the daytime it isn't so overwhelming

We are booked into the Budget Guesthouse (yes, that is actually it's name, not just an accurate description) across from the Khaosan Palace which I anticipate will be a hoppin' bar at night. Believe it or not, we actually shopped around and Budget was the nicest/cleanest room. It is only $14 for an airconditioned room (yes, we are getting old and need a bit more comfort - 2 extra bucks seemed worth it for the air).



Budget's sign. This place must be good!

We couldn't find a room with a private bath. Well, actually all of the rooms we looked at were on the 4th or 5th floor (no elevators) and my bag was getting so heavy that I told Val on the staircase of Budget that I didn't care what the room looked like, this was it. Fortunately, it is fine. The beds are hard as rocks, which I am happy about, but Val may disagree in future posts. Plus, we have to take our shoes off to enter the hotel (I have bare feet even in this internet cafe - start stocking up on the anti-fungal now).

Ok, off to buy many gifts for myself and a few for you guys. And beer, well, beer first, did I mention it is hot here. 35 degrees, according to one of our many new 'friends' on the strip.



Val with her first beer, showing remarkable restraint



Joanne with her first Thai beer, showing zero restraint (it was hot!)

Ok, time is almost up. Val and Joanne