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17 May
We arrived in Bangkok at 09h00 and walked to the first guesthouse we could find, we bargained for a price and headed out to the city.
We had not even crossed the street when a very nice lady stopped us and showed us where to go on our map. She informed us that today was a Buddha holiday and there were special government tuk tuks (usually excessively expensive) that were only 10 Baht for the day, this was as cheap as they come considering two blocks with them they charge you 40! Our good luck that while we talked to her a government dressed Tuk Tuk driver sped past and turned around to meet us. The lady had already worked our an itinerary which included the 45m standing Buddha, Lucky Buddha, TIT (government information), some suit tailors, another Buddha and finally the golden mount. We headed for the standing Buddha, from down below 45 m is really high, what's amazing is the temples built around the Buddha's and how they are decorated. From there we went to the Lucky Buddha but declined to have our heads splashed by a monk for a small donation to receive Buddha's blessing of good luck.
At TIT we were greeted by Nok, a government agent, who was able to give us an amazing package deal including minibus to Kanchanaburi (Bridge over the river Kwai), overnight sleeper train from the ancient city of Authaya to Chang Mai, 3 day trek through the jungle, elephant riding, bamboo river rafting and 3 nights stay in Chang Mai. While there I enjoyed an early morning whiskey while Leanne opted for a coffee. It's amazing how friendly they are here compared to south Thailand.
From here it was to a suit tailor, 30 minutes of negotiating had merely dropped the price of a suit from 10 000 Baht to 7 800, which was too much. We headed on but unknowing to us the driver stopped at another suit tailor, "Image Collection," They dropped their prices from 10 000 to 5 000 for a Cashmere suit jacket, pants, a shirt and silk tie. This was more affordable being R 1 250, I left to draw money while Leanne paged through the catalogs looking for something for herself. On my return she too was being measure for a coat and I once more needed to return to the bank to draw money. The driver showing a little irritation as he weaved through the traffic making maneuvers that is not for the faint hearted.
10 000 Baht poorer we headed to another Buddha where we were told that the temple was closed because the monks were praying and would only open 30 minutes later. We sat down waiting with a Malaysian Lawyer working in London who traveled to Bangkok to make use of the trade expo opening. The trade expo according to him was a government jewelery company who only sold wholesale to other companies in the same industry, no private sales. The Thai government had, as an tourist initiative, decided to make a week a year available where sales can be made to private persons for a 20% discount. Not really believing the Malayan we asked the German who confirmed the Malayans story attesting that he to had bought and sold items purchased there on many times. Not wanting to purchase the more expensive items we decided to see if there was some inexpensive item which we could get at a discount considering Thailand's jewelry is cheap in world standards and they are the largest producers of rubies, sapphires and emeralds in the world (sales person's pitch).
As we walked in both of us instinctively knew we weren't going to purchase anything as it was like walking into Tiffanies in London. We were greeted warmly by the manager who started by telling us the exact story we had heard before, becoming more suspicious, we were shown items ranging R 45 000 to R 15 000. The cheapest ring was R 12 500, needless to say he summed us up when we entered and like us soon found that we were not to be his next clients.
We headed to our last stop with our now tired Tuk Tuk driver - the Golden Mount, a temple built on the only hill in Bangkok. We scaled the hill with its many steps but quickened our pace as it started to rain, I mean pour. We remained in the temple taking photos of the view of Bangkok before deciding to dart down in the rain. Wandering around below looking for our driver we finally met up and much to his pleasure informed him that we had seen enough for the day.
We arrived home at 16h00 and rested for two hours before heading to the boxing stadium to witness Thai boxing at its best. According to Nok, Saturdays and Sundays were the best days to view the sport with important matches organized for holidays. Being a holiday and a Sunday this was supposed to be a very good day for Thai boxing. We headed to the Stadium via taxi and were informed that the boxing was now no longer 800 but 1000 pp for third class seating. A little more expensive than we had envisioned we decided to fork out the funds considering we had already taken the taxi there. We met up with an American journalist and German tourist and sat with them for the duration of the 7 fights from 20h30 to 23h00, some shorter than others, one lasted 5 seconds with only one hit as the one fighter elbowed his opponent through the face, leaving him to slowly swivel forward. To the downed fighters credit, even though a stretcher was brought in and while semi unconscious, he would however not suffer the humiliation and fought with the officials forcing himself upright and swaggering to the ropes. The fights were however not as entertaining as previously witnessed on TV with only a few swivel kicks to the opponents head, how they remained afoot still intrigues me, most of the time kicks to the torso and some jabs.
We took a taxi with the other two and wandered around for 15 minutes to get our bearings (for some reason we've found it harder in Bangkok to get our direction straight) before walking into Kao San road. Knowing the way home from there, we weaved through the multitudes of tourists before arriving home at KS House.
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