We arrived in Bangkok quite late into the evening on the day of entrance into Thailand. The border crossing had been straightforward despite a few long queues at the border gates, and now in front of us stood the busy and hectic city centres of one of the tourism capitals of the world. Bright and noisy cafes and bars lined the streets on both sides of the road, interspaced between fast food chains and convenience stores. A stark contrast to many of the countries that we have visited on this journey so far. The street sellers that we have been famliar with in South East Asia so far remained, but of course sex shows were added to the usual list of sunglasses, bracelets and books that you are usually bombarded with. It is amazing yet alarming to realise that your automatic response to somebody saying "hello" is now to say "no thank you" even before you know what they want!
During the morning of our first full day in Bangkok, a number of the group decided to take a tour to see some of the floating markets that are around 90 minutes outside of the city. To an extent the markets both were and weren't what we expected at the same time. As we had expected there was plenty of food and the usual tacky souvenirs for sale (Nothing irritates me more than seeing a beautiful wooden carving ruined by somebody sticking the word "Thailand" on it in plastic lettering. I'm sure people are perfectly capable of remembering where it came from!), but a lot of the local culture was missing. There were barely any local people shopping at the market, but mainly boat loads of tourists (like ourselves I concede) being ferried around with the expectation that you will part with your money on some useless tat. By the accounts of people who had visited the market around 10 years ago, it never used to be like this with there being both more traders as well as the local people using it for their day to day living. That is really what we hoped we would see.
View down onto the floating markets just outside Bangkok
That evening we decided to embrace Bangkok's reputation as the sex capital of the world, and a group of us all went further into the city to see what we could find. A few hours later we made our way home having performed in a kareoke bar, been shot by some ping pong balls fired by a lady who wasn't using a gun or her hands (yep you guessed what), and me being groped by a guy up on stage at a drag show. Good job we'd had a few beers before hand!
The next day was a fairly quiet one for me as I woke up being sick in the morning (before you say it; not from the alcohol!) Vicky went out with some of the girls to see a few more of the sights around the city, while I stayed back at the hotel to recover. By mid-afternoon I was much improved, and by the evening I was able to go out to a vegetarian restaurant with Vicky and my vegetarian partner in crime Tim.
The next morning we waved farewell to Bangkok, although I think there was very little left to get out of the city anyway, and we made our way on the train down to Kanchanaburi where we would spend the next 3 nights in a flaoting hotel on the River Kwai.
The next morning 6 of the group including Vicky and I took a tour to see some of the highlights of the area, including learning about World War II and the construction of the Thailand to Burma railway and the Bridge Over the River Kwai. We were able to walk through the Hellfire Pass, where the rail system was dug into the hillside by prisoners of war and slaves using only manual tools and explosives. In some places the hillside had to be excavated as deep as 25 metres to reach the correct level for the track to be laid.
A tree grows in the "Hellfire Pass" where the track used to run
The brigde itself was actually in the itinerary of the tour later in the day, and we were able to take a train ride across it before walking back across it after the train had gone (walking on the train tracks here is perfectly legal and is actually required to get to a number of places. They do not use electric rails and you just have to know roughly when to expect a train!).
A monk riding the train on the bridge over the River Kwai
The next morning was Chris' birthday, and we decided to surprise him with a 15 person wake up call at 6am (the time where it would be turning midnight back in the UK). After making him drink a beer and open his presents we let him go back to sleep to prepare for the rest of the day. After a late breakfast, we all decided to hire a couple of long tail boats to race down the river which turned out to be excellent fun. We took a few drinks on board and had a race from the hotel to the Bridge over the Kwai. Following that we went for an early dinner, before Polly and Jaymo hosted a quiz they had made specially for Chris' birthday which was a good laugh.
Speeding down the River Kwai in a long tail boat
The following day we were on the move yet again, with us catching the sleeper train in the direction of the ferry port for Koh Samui. After arriving on the island however, Vicky and I decided that we would like to go and explore one of the other islands; Koh Tao, where Vicky is able to do a freediving course (diving without tanks of oxygen, but instead using yoga style techniques to hold your breath).
The beautiful coastline of Koh Tao
And so that is where we are now. Vicky is off diving and I am sat in a bamboo structured bar, writing this blog while looking out across the golden sands and the deep blue sea with a beer in my hand. Relaxing?....I think so!
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