This one time, in Bangkok...

Bangkok

Got in to Bangkok about 11pm local time. After preparing to be strip searched for drugs we ended up wandering straight past the customs dude and out onto the road! Straight away every Tom, Dick and Ting Tong are on you trying to get you to jump in their taxi or bus, ended up getting on a shuttle that took us straight to Khao San Rd where we planned to stay. Wandered for a bit and ended up checking in at a really nice place on a wee soi (like a street but smaller) which had a rooftop pool and our own shower/toilet in the room. Unpacked and went out to hit the town, yet by then it was about 2am and there wasnt a lot going on. Had a couple of drinks then seeing as we had been up for over 24 hours decided to call it a night.

Next day went out and had some rice for brekkie, sussed out the bus route to Ayathaya for the next day then decided to go and see the monorail in the centre of town. Flagged down a tuk-tuk and after extensive bargaining/argument with the driver got underway. Bangkok is awesome in the fact that going anywhere is an adventure. There is a blatent disregard for road rules or "health and safety" which is refreshing after coming from NZ. Basically if you're on the road and you see a gap you take it. The tuk-tuks change lanes without warning, buses and cars are everywhere and then the motorbikes (helmets optional and up to 4 people on the one bike) squeeze through the gaps (or up on to the footpath if there are no gaps on the road). Our tuk-tuk driver after a few minutes of swerving and trying to take us to his mate's shops decided that we needed to take a short-cut down a side-street. Only problem was that there were 3 lanes of traffic coming the other way, but no worries, there was a space of about 80cm so rammed the front of the tuk-tuk in and basically blocked the entire road until he got across.

So got to the monorail which had some cool views of the city and took it to the bridge over the main river. They have these barges I think full of rubbish which one small tug pulls about 4 with engine going full noise. Walked across the bridge and were amazed at the difference on the other side. It didnt smell like shit (as most of Bangkok does) and there was no-one trying to sell us anything. Sat there and watched some kids play soccer and then watched some guys playing takraw (like vollyball but you use feet and head only). Watched these guys for about 45 minutes, it was a cool environment someone was cranking some tunes in the background and they had some wicked skills to watch. Decided to head back and get on the tins so we walked home as it was rush hour traffic. Took us about an hour and a bit but highly entertaining walk. The traffic was even crazier. Stood on a bridge overlooking an intersection for ages watching the light changes. The motorcycles sit at a red light revving in anticipation for the green. As soon as the green lights up they all floor it, but on the other side there is still traffic trying to sneak through the red, so it ends up in a squeal of brakes and horns. To cap it all of in the middle of all this some dude with a bike/stall thingy cruises out to the middle of the intersection and starts setting up a food stall!

Went down Khao San Rd for a meal and a beer tower (3 litres in your own tower thingy) that night. Moved on from there to one of the street bars. Basically they all pull up in an old combi van which converts into a bar. From here they sell you "buckets" which are a litre or so of spirits mixed as a cocktail (long island ice tea etc). You grab some straws and everyone takes turn having a sip. They are pretty good value at abt $8NZ and an awesome concept.

Next morning feeling a bit hungover and short on baht we went to find some cheap brekkie, got some pad thai from a road side vendor for 20 baht which is about $0.85NZ. Had a swim in the guesthouse pool and then jumped on a local bus to get to the Northern bus station on the outskirts of the city. The bus driver must have been an ex tuk-tuk driver, he stopped only just enough to let people on and off the bus, as soon as this was done he put the foot to the floor and swerved back into the traffic weaving in and out of the lanes. The amazing thing about all this is that we haven't seen a single accident, it's a crazy system but it seems to work!

Ayathaya

We jumped on our bus, complete with reclining seats and air conditioning, to start our two hour journey to Ayathaya (one of the old capitals of Thailand). The ride cost a grand total of 50 baht each (a bit over NZ$2). It was a pretty uneventful ride compared with the other public transport so far. We saw a few massive factories for Western brands (Goodyear was probably the most well known) on the way but not much else to report.

As soon as we arrived in Ayathaya, it was obvious we were out of Bangkok. The people were friendlier, every bastard wasn't trying to sell you something and most of the stench was gone from the air. It's a bit of a shame about Bangkok really, as it ruins it a bit for the rest for Thailand. When someone comes up for a chat, you instantly assume they're trying to sell you something, since that what it's like in Bangkok. However, most of the people we've come across outside of Bangkok are incredibly friendly and quite genuine. One classic tuk-tuk driver, Mr. Winai, managed to offer us a decent enough fare for us to acquire his services from the bus stop. Upon arriving at our guest house of choice he, of course, had a sight seeing tour to offer us. However, the price wasn't too bad, he seemed like a pretty genuine guy and we had nothing else to do for the next four hours. It turned out to be a reasonable deal in the end, as he took us around several guest houses until we found one that wasn't booked and then took us on a great tour around the city to see the Wats (temples) and ruins.

Our tuk-tuk guide Mr Winai

After our tour we headed down to one of the night markets to get some dinner. These markets basically consist of several cooking stalls, with a bunch of tables and chairs out the front, all outdoors of course. Great place to have a tasty, cheap feed while enjoying the warm night air. We had fried noddle dishes for dinner and fresh fruit and coconut milk pancakes for dessert. All delicious and about the price of a beer at an NZ bar.

The following morning we booked our train tickets for Chiang Mai and played a bit of King spotting (see below). After a swim and a bit of lunch we rented some bikes. In this case we got what we paid for, they were about 30 years old, with baskets, brakes that squeaked, rather than stopped and handle bars that moved. Awesome. Ayathaya only has 80,000 people but it seems that most of them spend their time driving, as there were still plenty of madmen about on the extremely wide streets. So, out of our guest house, on to the street and first up is a three lane roundabout to negotitate. Piking out with a left turn was never really on the cards so we did what the locals do and floored it right round. What a way to start the ride! Once you get the hang of the traffic it's not actually that bad. The ordered chaos works surprisingly well. Throughout the course of the day we checked out a few sights and put in a few kms. Apparently not many tourists make it out to the expressway we were on at one point, because several people went passed honking, waving and laughing. Don't know what they were laughing at, there were four of them on one motorbike!

After dinner at our favourite spot in the night market we walked a few kms to get to the train station. During our wait, a young Thai guy (who's name turned out to be "Gob") that was sitting around with his mates plucked up the courage to try his broken English out on us. At first his mates were cracking up at him for giving it a go but before long they all wanted him to try asking us questions. So we had an hour long game of charades with a few words from each language to keep us entertained while we waited. As it turned out, we were lucky to have met him because we were about to jump on the North bound train that arrived at 7:21pm (our departure time), when he checked our tickets and told us to sit down. Of course he was right, our train ended up being about half an hour late, and him and his girlfriend waited round to make sure we got on the right one.

After getting on the train, we soon realised that we should have brought some booze on with us. There was a bit of a party atmosphere amongst the travellers (and one of the hostesses who was having a few). So we met some people from all over the place; Germany, Holland, Canada, Czech Republic, Oz and had a few drinks with them before heading off for some shut eye (we had sleeping berths). We got a pretty decent sleep, all things considered and got woken up about 6:30am, in time to sort out our stuff and jump off at Chiang Mai.

The King!

Thought we better make a special note here about the King of Thailand. This guy is the Mantis, the Mac Daddy of the country. You can't go 100m in a city without seeing the thai flag and the yellow flag with the king's crest. There's a picture of this guy up everywhere. They even chuck up massive billboards with his picture, no advertising just a pic of him. This is rather unfortunate cos he looks like an absolute dork, he has a little head and these massive glasses! I'm sure he's a nice guy as everyone loves him here. Was his birthday on Monday and half the population were wearing a yellow shirt with his crest in his honour.

We invented a game walking round Ayathaya called King Spotting. Basically if you see a picture of the king you get 1 point, 2 points for his missus who is a bit of a rarer find. Marcus took an early lead up 13-6, but then we had the power play which was a bridge in the middle of town palstered with pictures of the king and his wife which locked the scores up at 35-35 (this is in the space of about 15 minutes, I tell you he's everywhere!). Then I happened to be first to walk past a shop which sold pictures of the king! Game over pal!