Temple complex
Wat
inside the Chinese temple
Guard
Chinese temple
Some folk feeding the fish (and flying rats)
Some sort of shrine to the Cockrel
Buddha
decoration on a wat
Not sure what these were?
Wat
buddha
Boat we travelled down the river on
Church on the river banks
on the river
Ruins
Wat
Ruins
Buddha
Ruins
Stairs i climbed to get to the top of the wat
Don't look down
View from top of the Wat
Sunset on the river
Firstly, I'll have to apologise for the tags on these photos not being very accurate. We weren't told what anything about the Wats or other structures, and there was little information about anything in the park.
Bangkok
I arrived into Bangkok just before lunchtime after setting out at 10pm the earlier night from Brisbane. The flight was by Singapore airlines who insisted on waking up the whole plane when it was snack time, even if that mean at 2am in the morning. Nice.
The first thing to hit me about Bangkok was the humidity and how ugly the brand new airport was. A real monstrosity. I found my way to the shuttle bus and got on board. So far so good. The shuttle was really cheap and even had a tv. It dropped me off right outside my Hostel. I was staying in Sukhumvit which is about a 30 minute journey from the centre of Bangkok. There weren't many other hostels nearby and i didn't see many other tourists lurking about. The hostel was really nice and I had my own room. I have found out that in Thailand there isnt such a thing as a dorm room in the hostels. Only twins or double rooms, all with ensuite and varying other facilities. They are though really cheap and you can stay in a fan room for just over 2 pound a night!!! The hostel had a lovely feel to it as it was covered in carvings, pictures and ornaments. They even had a few water features splattered around the place.
The hostel was off the main Sukhumvit road. It was quite a dark and busy road (four lanes in either direction). The skytrain (elevated train) ran above the road and so almost enclosed the road from the top. It was really smoggy.
I met up with a few other lads that were staying at the hostel and we went out for a drink at Kao San Road, which is the main backpacker area, just minutes from the city centre attractions. We got there by a mixture of the Skytrain and Tuk-tuk (which are a cross between a motor bike and a peddle cab). They are fairly fast and dodge all the traffic. Haggling with tuk tuk drivers can take a while but they always say 300 or 400 baht for a 20 minute ride!!! You have to haggle them down to something reasonable like 60 baht. Kao San was pretty quite when we arrived (at around 11ish) and we had a few drinks in a few bars before having to move inside as bars are supposed to close at 1am in Thailand. After what felt like a few hours of playing pool with some locals we were being kicked out as it was actually 6am???? I blame the 'buckets of joy', or 'buckets' as everyone calls them. They are made from thai whisky (60 percent proof), red ball (which comes in a medicine bottle??), ice and coca-cola. They are really strong.
After sleeping the day away we all met up and went to one of the many huge shopping centres in Bangkok. It was huge and had floors dedicated to a particular theme. For instance, they had a whole floor dedicated to mobile phones, lots of small stalls selling every phone you could ever want.
We went out that night in search of the Thai Elvis. He played at a bar in pat-pong, which is one of the sleazier areas of Bangkok (if that means anything). We eventually found our way to the main street and as soon as we stepped foot into it, lots of people jumped out in our way and tried to get us to go into their girlie bar. A lot of them were prostitutes and they got quiet physical, trying to pull us in. One of our group even had salt thrown at him? We didn't find Thai Elvis but found a nice quiet, non girlie bar, and had some quiet buckets. We were chatting with some locals and the evening went without a hitch. I was planning to leave the day after and so all in all I didn't see much of Bangkok at all.
Ayyuthaya
One of the group, Mark was travelling up to Chiang Mai like me and so we travelled together to the next stop, a small historical town called Ayutthaya. Ayyuthaya was the former royal capital of the Siamese empire for over 400 years. Lonely planet says that Ayutthaya is not to be missed, and who am i to argue? We caught the train there and it took about an hour and a half. There was only third class seats on the train and so we travelled with our backpacks with the locals in the soring heat. The train was hot but comfortable and the locals were friendly, telling us where we needed to get off and offering us their food. The train stations have good facilities but the platforms aren't raised and so everyone walks across the tracks. Some even wait in between tracks as trains cross? On board the train, there are people selling food stuffs. They chant, rhythmically, as they walk up and down the train. Each would sell one particular item and these ranges from barbecued sausages to fruit. One of these sellers passed every few minutes!!
We arrived at our accommodation after haggling with a tuk tuk driver that tried to persuade us to charter his tuk tuk for the day to go sight seeing, after declining countless times we got away.
We booked an afternoon sightseeing around the historical complex. We would be travelling by long boat and being dropped off at various wats to explore. The historical complex is on an island formed where three rivers meet. Along the river and around the island people live in every form of accommodation, from shacks to villas and we had lots of people smiling at us along the way.
The temples were really amazing and we saw the Chinese temple, with its red and gold ornamentation, an older Ayutthaya style wat that had a huge golden buddha at its centre, and a ruined wat that had many stone Buddhas within the walls. At the centre of the ruins was a huge structure that had near vertical steps to access the temple at the top. The view from the top was amazing but climbing back down wasn't fun at all!!!
We went for a drink in evening and met up with some more people, who ended up travelling to Chiang Mai with us.
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