Bangkok - Thailand

May 28th - 31st, 2016

Bangkok was not quite as we expected it to be, All we've heard and seen to do with this city has led us to believe that it is completely non stop, that it is super crowded and frenetic, polluted, not particularly safe and a bit on the dark, grungy side of things. Now while that may be the case for small pockets, we found in general that it is a smart, modern city with great transport links, fairly clean streets and an amazing array of places to eat almost anything!

Our venture to the Chatuchak Weekend Market was most enjoyable. A huge, mostly undercover, 'open air' market with over 8000 stalls, it certainly was a bright and busy place to spend several hours wandering around. Hailed as Bangkok's most enjoyable shopping experience you can see why so many people flock here to browse, purchase, socialise and eat at any number of the fascinating stalls which you quite soon become lost amongst. The variety of different food and drinks available alone is enough to satisfy even the fussiest person and as for clothing, if you can't find it here, it probably doesn't exist! My favourite section was a large v shaped area that was home to the many amazing pieces of artwork produced by local people...I was very tempted by several pieces but they were all rather too large to fit in a rucksack and rather too pricey to risk sending home by post. So settling for iced coffees and trying Thailand's famous dessert, Mango and sticky rice, we browsed our way through the market for most of the day until the heat and claustrophobic atmosphere became too much and we went back to our hotel for a dip in the roof top pool before going next door to a handy little restaurant for dinner.

The next day we took a sightseeing boat along the Chao Phraya River which was the perfect way to get a good view of a lot of the main attractions, most of which turned out to be temples of varying sizes and states of restoration. Cruising along, a pleasant breeze was slightly marred by the amount of engine smoke in the air, mostly due to the sheer number of tourist boats, longboats and enormous barges that are constantly chugging along the river, somehow managing to avoid each other in something that resembled distinctly unorganised chaos!

Despite having had quite a fill of temples in Burma we decided we couldn't come all the way to Bangkok and not go to see the famous Emerald Buddha we've heard so much about and as the temple he is now housed in is part of a vast complex that also includes the Grand Palace, we thought we should make the effort. Effort is the right word, the insane number of people and especially large tour groups here made it an awful place to try and enjoy as much as it deserves. The intensity of colour in the statues, the dazzling mosaics covering the walls, the beauty and detail in the 1km of murals depicting the Ramayana, all this and more amidst the scent of burning incense makes the very hefty entrance fee worthwhile. We spent a couple of hours gazing at the brilliance of the Palace and temples here before heading to Chinatown to get some much craved for, delicious, dumplings before returning to our spacious hotel room to relax and prepare for the next day.