We get into Bangkok in the early hours of the morning and the first thing I notice is the audible change. Seven years ago the traffic communicated with each other using their horns. The more beeps of the horn signified the greater the potential danger of a collision. First time out of Europe, it was 2001, and I left Bangkok airport in a taxi to the centre. The noise of the car horns was my first memory and experience, a massive cacophony of beeping from everyone. Today though, it has all changed. The city's drivers have been subdued into silence with clearly painted white lines dividing the road and traffic lights on every junction. Even the taxis now have working meters, but they still need encouragement to turn them on.



We check back in to the same hostel I stayed in last time, P.S. Guest house. Nothing has changed here, same four prison walls, a bed, a window (which costs more) and a fan that blows the same hot air around the room. We ring my Uncle Guy and go our for dinner that evening. Its great to catch up with him and find out about he is still teaching in Bangkok and running a small farm in the North East. He is a great source of local and political information. He teaches English at a local school in the daytime. And in the evening to a police chief and one of the members of government, they meet to practice English over the days newspaper so Guy hears about some of inside gossip.



We arrange to visit his school the next morning and at 6:30am we are waiting for the bus. Almost 80% of the people are wearing the colour yellow, including Guy, its Monday and once on a Monday the King was seen wearing yellow, so all the people follow, and pick out their best yellow shirt. The school is a 30 minute bus ride away in a typical working class area. The kids here will leave school destined for jobs as taxi drivers and check out girls. Guy gives us a tour of all the classrooms, the kindergarten up to about age 14. We don't visit the older ones, 16 + 17 year olds as that part of the school can be dangerous.



We hang out in the falang staff room with some other American and English teachers. One of the teachers here brought his fake teaching degree certificate on the Ko San Road. Presented himself at the school and was given a job. He is in charge of an English program now. At eight am the megaphone crackles into life and we all rush over to the classrooms. The routine here is all the students must stand outside their classroom while the national anthem is played. Then in unison everyone prays out loud. Followed by two minutes of silent meditation. During this we get lots of excited looks at the students believe we are new teachers. Everyone is silent until a mobile phone goes off and the kids and I burst into giggles. Kat later confesses to automatically putting on her teacher face of stern anger at the mobile going on. Once a teacher always a....



We miss seeing Guy in action in the classroom as he has two free periods in the morning and we have to leave to catch the underground train over to the Indian embassy. We have to start the ball rolling with our visa application. It takes five days, three visits and seventy five quid to get 2 visa's for us to enter India. Its a ridiculous hassle of in one door and out another, over to counter six, now counter five, photocopy eight different forms, come back later, and on and on. The process is a test of Indian bureaucracy, if we can pass this charade then we get in!



We get some shopping done in Chatuchak market, a huge market, where the deeper you go in the weirder the stuff becomes. We haggle for some souvenirs and spend hours walking around, mainly lost. The next day we take the river taxi up the river to the Grand Palace, a serious contender for Austin Powers Goldmember. Before we enter the Palace a tuk tuk driver stands in our way and explains the Grand palace is shut today to foreigners. This is scam number three in the Lonely Planet guide to Bangkok scams. Its hilarious the tuk tuk drivers still try this scam out when behind them tourists are walking in to the Palace. Its hot and Gold as we walk around the palace, very beautiful with carved statues and glittering mosaics. Next door we walk to Wot Pho, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha (he is 26m long) and is the oldest and largest Buddhist temple in the city.



The next evening we met up with Amy Heap who is traveling with another couple of English girls. One of the girls had invited their Thai guide down from Chiang mai and the six of us went out for a night down the Ko San Road. Next we are heading North the next day to Chaing Mai to enroll on cooking classes.

Cooper Out

Love Dan & Kat