Bangkok and Chiang Mai

Arriving without any kind of plans for what to do in the city and not being able to check into my room until noon, I was lucky enough to overhear whilst sleeping on the couch, the plans of one of the female guests for her time in the city. These sounded pretty good to me and so after breakfast I introduced myself to Julie (that was her name) and asked if I could tag along.

My introduction to the city was actually quite a tame and cultural affair. We went to a park, one of the many (many, many) large shopping malls for some food then on to see a handful of smaller temples before taking a boat up the Phraya river to see the Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn), the Grand Palace and Wat Pho, the temple of the reclining Buddha. Starting with Wat Arun, it is a stunning building with its large prang (means pillar, I looked it up) dominating the view from the river and its four smaller prang surrounding it. The outside of the temple has been encrusted with a stone, metal or perhaps some kind of porcelin which reflects brillaintly in the sunlight and despite it being called The Temple of Dawn, I have read and well believe that it would look better at dusk when the sun sets behind the temple looking at it across the river. Wat Pho is also a nice temple to look at from the outside, not as spectacular as Wat Arun, but it is what is inside this temple that is special. Inside lies (literally) the worlds largest reclining Buddha statue measuring 15m high and 43m long from head to foot and glowing gold in the sunlight that seeps in through the windows and door. It is huge. So big that I couldnt even fit the whole of it into one of my camera's frames. The feet are also marvelous in themselves, 3mx4.5m they are patterned in wonderful mother of pearl decorations.

Unfortunately , by the time we had visited Buddha and walked around the Temples gardens for a bit, the Grand Palace was closed. The grounds are certainly very large and the walls themselves look very grand so I am sure that the palace itself is also.

A venture down to the infamous Khaosan Road brought with it the immense glow of neon light, the glowing signs of KFC, Subway and of course 7/11 (found on every single street corner-bar none) and the recognisable hum of westerners. Add to this the street food stands, the vast number of tuk tuk drivers, suit sellers and street hawkers attempting to push all matters of tacky goods in your direction and you have the ultimate tourist trap. It wasnt quite as I had expected however. I had this image of Khaosan Rd being awash with groups of young people lost in a world of booze and drugs, unable to control their bodily functions. Ladies of the night (or anytime as the case seems to be) proposing themselves on all and everyone. Bars and massage palors with bodies piling in and out of them, well oiled in all senses of the expression. This is what I had expected and had hoped for but in truth it was extremely tame. True it was still quite a reasonable hour when we arrived on the street but the bars were 'Monday night, just after Hogmanny' quiet, there wasn't the mass amount of parlors clambouring over themselves for your custom and I wasn't even propositioned once. I'm no Ryan Gosling but come on. All I got on the whole street was one offer of a ping pong show. I expected more.

The tuk tuks's in Bangkok certainly differ from those in India. We caught one from Khaosan Rd as Julie had never been in one before (tip-when in Bangkok get either the Skytrain/metro or get a taxi and insist they put it on the meter. It is a lot cheaper this way and if the first few guys say no, there will always be one that says yes). They are all flashing lights and music and actually have a lot more leg room than their Indian cousins. Of course this is very important. Went to check out the bar from the Hangover movie. Very cool. Its a stunning building and the views from the 60 somethingth floor were very nice. Bangkok is a huge city, in the region of 10million people I believe and it has a fair few skyscrapers dotted around it too. In fact, from the skybar you could easily mistake it for somewhere like Sydney, Seattle or downtown Miami. Its not quite New York or Tokyo in the amount of skyscrapers but its not far off. The bar is pretty pricey, 700 THB for two drinks (50THB=1GBP roughly) and you must buy a drink to take photos. It was worth it though I felt. I later discovered a few other skybars which were not quite as high but a lot cheaper and really the 47th floor of a building will still supply you with some pretty good views. (Cloud 47 was the name of that one)

Whilst in Bangkok, Julie and I visited a park 3 hours by bus to the north of the city. Khao Yai national park lies near the city of Pak Chong and it is easy to get a scooter and from there head into the park. The park is famous for being the home to one of the waterfalls from the film The Island with Di Caprio. Its a beautiful park with the road winding up the hills through lush rainforest past legions of macaques. If your lucky enough, there are herds of elephants which patrol the park also although I think you are more likely to see them on a walking tour than from the road. The waterfalls, not just the one from the movie, are all very pretty. The only thing was that you are not permitted to go swimming in any of them much to the disappointment of both Julie and myself. It was a really nice couple of days spent in the park and also provided both of us with our first experience of Thai buses. Pretty comfortable in my opinion but its the shows on the telly that are the best. Obviously I had no idea what was being said but it looked hilarious. There were clowns, men in drag, singing, dancing, oversized hammers, the works really.

From Bangkok it was north to the city of Chiang Mai. A much smaller and much, much quieter city than the capital. Its a good place to hang out though. Its a lot cheaper and the food there is very good. Also there are a number of different activities that you are able to do whilst based there. It borders some of Thailands least explored jungle and those who seek it are able to take a number of different treks into the forest to explore. There are walking treks, elephant treks and car and boat advertures. We began by exploring the city with our new friend from the bus, Ludo and I began to realise that once you have seen a few temples, they kind of start to lose their appeal.

As well as being home of temples, Thailand is of course the home of Muay Thai boxing and so of course I had to see a fight whilst here. Chiang Mai was the place and what a lot of fun it was too. Watching 4 bouts of skinny little Thai guys punching and kicking the living daylights out of each other whilst in between there was a fight between two kids and then, the best one, between 4 blindfolded guys. That was hilarious as any time they felt someone close to them they would start swinging. This meant the referee copped it a few times as well and he would just throw the offender to the ground. Yeah, good fun going to the boxing.

Whilst in Chiang Mai we took part in a number of the activities on offer. A half day trip to see some Asian Elephants was a lot of fun. We got to feed them, ride them and then bathe a mother and her calf. I got to ride the elephant on the back of her neck which was an experience. They have such large shoulders that every step she took, I felt like I was going to come off. They are magnificent creatures. Not as big as those in Africa but big enough and yet still gentle at the same time.

The second half of the day was spent at the Tiger Kingdom where Ludo and I were able to get in beside the adult tigers and get photos taken with them close up. It says that they are not drugged and that a Tiger is always sedate after feeding and during the daytime. I am not conviced as some of the antics of other people in the cage would certainly have pissed me off if I was a tiger. They are such beautiful animals as well. It really is a shame that there are so few left in the world. As well as the adult tigers, the Kingdom has juveniles and then cubs. The cubs, I must admit are very cute and a lot of fun.

I also took part in a cooking class whilst in Chiang Mai. It was a lot of fun, a lot more fun than I had thought a cooking class could be. We made 5 dishes each and of course got to eat each one in between cooking so it was money very well spent as well. Don't bother asking me to cook to any Thai food when I get home though as I am not very good and also don't fully remember everything. I would recommend this to anyone going actually, thats how good I found it.

So that's my introduction to Thailand. A fairly sedate entry into the country, especially Bangkok. If you were hoping like me for a little more then don't worry, it arrives. You'll just have to read my blog about the subsequent visits to the City of Sin...Granda, maybe you could give that one a miss though.