Asia Holiday 2013, August 20 (Die Baht Die)

I got the canal again down to Panfa Leelard again, I think it costs 10 baht for the one-way trip that takes about 15 minutes, that's like 30 cents! Even walking the rest of the way across from the canal to the riverside, I think it still came out quicker than taking the skytrain all the way to the river and then getting on a ferry.

This is how much they value pedestrians.

The first place I visited was Wat Pho. I sort of knew my way around in general by now, but was still amazed by the lack of signs near the most popular of tourist attractions. These places are set on large grounds, and are surrounded by walls, so you'd think there would be at least one sign telling you which way the entrance was, so you didn't have to walk the whole way around. The local scammers try to take full advantage of this too (maybe they even take down the signs), numerous times when I'm minding my own business trying to get from one place to another you'll normally get one of two things shouted at you:

• Go this way (I might not know exactly where I'm going, but it's definitely not the place you are trying to send me to)
• TUK TUK! (no I don't want a fucking tuk tuk)

I finally found the entrance to Wat Pho, I think it cost like three or four dollars, no big deal. There was a lot of buildings on the grounds but the main attraction was the reclining buddha, which as the name suggests is this long reclining gold buddha statue, really just a good change from the standard buddha statue you see duplicated EVERYWHERE else.

Obstructed view at Wat Pho.

This is about the best you can get.

Lucky coin buckets.

Elsewhere inside Wat Pho.

The next street over was the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew, with the exact same problem of not knowing which of the four sides contained the entrance. I knew when I had found the entrance, as there was chaos with people changing clothes to meet the requirements of entry, generally no shorts or singlets it seemed. I'm not really sure if this was a real requirement, a total scam, or a bit of both. There seemed to be some booth right out the front handing out free pants (maybe) on loan, but other places across the street charging a fee and a deposit. I had shorts on and just tried to walk on through, but after ignoring the first guy there was a line of people trying to stop anyone getting past. No problem, as I had some pants in my backpack just in case. Once inside I couldn't really figure out where to go, maybe some parts were closed as everyone just seemed to be milling around and doing very little. At the back of the grounds was a line for some museum that cost 500 baht (about $15), which is about 500 baht more than I wanted to pay for a museum. So I just grabbed a few photos and kept going, I didn't really want to be stuck in pants any longer than necessary either...

Grand Palace and/or Wat Phra Kaew.

Wat Arun was the last place to visit, but it was across the other side of the river. No problem, there's a ferry shuttle to get you across and back again, but I hope you brought your wallet because it costs 3 baht (a whopping 10 cents). While waiting at the pier I found a small shop selling magnets, they weren't great but they were the only ones I had found so far. I'd say this "wat" was the best because there might not be much to see, but you get to climb all the way up to the top. And as a bonus, from there you can see across the river to all of the other places. The steps to get from the second level to the top were dangerously thin and steep, I was very worried going down, not that I'd trip and fall but that one of the people behind me would, and bring everyone else down with him. But it was ok, and nobody was killed while I was there...

The pier over at Wat Arun.

The entrance at Wat Arun.

The steps to get up Wat Arun.

And the steps to get down again...

A view from the top of Wat Arun.

Another view from the top of Wat Arun.

I reversed my morning route to get back to the hotel and drop off some stuff, then was back to walking around Siam. I stopped in at Pantip Plaza which is a mega IT shopping mall similar to the Singapore one. Anything you could ever want for a computer, phone or other technology, you could find it here. Much like the clothing stores, the prices seemed pretty average. I was only really on the lookout for any cool accessories, bags, collectibles, clothes, toys, that kind of thing, but didn't see a lot.

Pantip Plaza.

I wasn't sure what a Big C Supercenter it, but it turned out to be a giant supermarket, the highlight (if you could call it that) was donuts for 5 baht or a pack of 6 for 25 baht (that's less than a dollar!). I'd heard that Bangkok love donuts, now I can see why.

Traffic fun revisited.

Donut shopping revisited.

I took the skytrain again to make a few quick stops.

• Victory Monument - Another monument in the middle of an intersection
• Chong Nonsi - The robot (UOB Bank) building, although there was a rail overpass blocking the view
• Asok - Terminal 21 shopping centre, it was themed like an airport which was cool

Victory Monument.

Robot building.

My feet were in terrible pain by this stage of the day, but I just wanted to knock off the last place on my list, Benjakitti Park. It was a simple little park, but was really cool in that simplicity. There was no way I could walk around so I may have missed something, but it was generally a big lake in the middle, surrounded by a grass track and then a paved running track. Pretty cool and relaxing place, definitely my favourite.

Benjakitti Park.

Summary

• 6/10

Good

• Cheap food (and donuts)
• Excellent weather
• Parks with nice running tracks
• Train system seems ok for the areas it covers

Bad

• Annoying tuk tuk drivers and other locals near the tourist spots
• Lots of tourists
• No train to the DMK airport (until 2016)
• Really expensive clothes and shoes
• Rubbish bins almost impossible to find, and recycling doesn't seem to exist
• Temples a bit boring
• Terrible for pedestrians
• Way too much traffic on the roads

Missed Out (Planned)

• Asiatique Riverfront
• PTT Speed Way at RCA Plaza

Missed Out (Unplanned)

• Checking out the food street at Sukhumvit Soi 38
• Khao San Road at night
• More exploring around Silom and Sukhumvit areas (only really saw Siam)
• Running at all of the parks

STEP-O-METER: 45169 steps (15 minutes at the fitness centre)

Asia Holiday 2013, August 19 (Baht Of War)

The north, east and south side of Bangkok is pretty well served by the various train lines, even if there are two different systems requiring two different tickets. The west however, where a lot of the tourist attractions are, has nothing - I am not acknowledging the bus, taxi and tuk tuks. The quickest and best option I found was to take a canal boat down the Khlong Saen Saeb canal. It was a little rough but actually pretty fun, cheap and didn't take long. It gets you about half way to the western district before the canal ends at Panfa Leelard (I found it also being called Phan Fa Lilat, the English translations are terrible and inconsistent), but from there it is close enough to walk around to most places.

BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS.

Canal boat.

The closest place was called Golden Mount, sort of a temple place with this golden top. You get to climb up on to the roof and see what's around, which is alright. From Golden Mount I walked down to Yaowarat Road to see what China Town had to offer. Bad idea. The traffic in Bangkok is just horrendous. There is a never ending stream of traffic, few traffic lights and even fewer pedestrian crossings. They appear to have the markings where you have to give way to pedestrians, but they mean nothing at all. If you're on foot you just have to step out into oncoming traffic using your own judgement, and hope for the best. This might sound simple, but when some of these roads are several lanes wide and you've got a high number of crazy motorbikes and tuk tuks darting in and out, it's not so easy. I eventually made it to China Town and started to get an understanding of the road rules, but there wasn't much to see in the markets there. I bought a Fanta from a vendor on the side of the road, hoping I would get transferred into "Bag of Fanta" form, but all I got was a glass bottle :(

Golden Mount.

On top of Golden Mount.

Traffic fun.

As I was leaving China Town I found this underground mall which was amazing, hundreds of stores selling cheap counterfeit (assumedly) video games, mixed in with several stores selling guns and ammunition for some reason - not a good look for the video game industry. I didn't buy anything as I don't have a modified Xbox unfortunately, also no idea what language the games would have been in.

I walked by the Giant Swing next, which was really disappointing because it was pretty big, but looked nothing like any swing I've ever seen - you couldn't even ride it. Just in front of it was this really bizarre car crash, some guy had driven straight through a bunch of pot plants and into a pole. I wasn't sure if it was some kind of weird artwork piece or a real car crash, but it was gone the next day when I came past again, so I guess it was legitimate. I also walked by the Democracy Monument which is set up in the middle of a roundabout the next street over. Down one of the streets I bought this awesome banana pancake from a street vendor, you even get to watch him make it while you wait - and possibly become increasingly horrified by the lack of hygiene (this one seemed alright).

Car crash.

Also car crash.

The Giant Swing.

City Hall (maybe).

Democracy Monument.

Banana Pancake.

The finished product.

I had to do a bit more walking to get up to Wat Benchamabophit (The Marble Temple) next, since I was running a fair bit behind my schedule for the day I didn't purchase a ticket and go inside, but from what I could tell I wasn't missing out on much. The final stop on this side of the city today was Khao San Road, which apparently is popularised in the movie called The Beach (with Leo DeCaprio - it actually was quite a good movie but I don't remember this road specifically). Basically it's a super tourist street, lots of market shops, lots of tailors trying to get you in to buy some suits, some tattoo parlours (so you can remember your Bangkok visit forever!) and of course lots of bars and clubs. The downside of the street is so many tourists, the majority being young white males - not the kind of people I want to be around.

Wat Benchamabophit.

Welcome to Khao San Road.

Also Khao San Road.

Instead of walking all the way back to the canal I tried to get to the ferry pier, which carries much larger boats down the Chao Phraya river, the main river in Bangkok. It was almost impossible to find because there were no signs at all, it's not like thousands of tourists walk this route every day or anything... The ferry was supposed to be express, but was pretty damn slow, also the annoying attendant at the back of the boat kept blowing this loud whistle all the time whenever we were approaching and leaving a pier. I was also a bit surprised to see how much rundown "riverfront property" they had, only at the very end of the route just before getting to Central Pier (where the boat and the train meet up) did some high end real estate start to appear. The quality of the river was about as good as the Yarra River too.

Riverfront condo's.

I made a few stops on the train ride home since I had an all day ticket anyway. First stop was Silom where I stopped in at a McDonalds, I got a McParfait where you get to choose your own toppings (only three), which is like a poor man's self-serve frozen yoghurt, and got some donuts from Mister Donut! I also took a walk through Lumphini Park but it wasn't as good as Chatuchak Park, mostly because they had a bunch of stages setup for some event. There was again a surprising amount of runners out in the park, and I just got out before it was national anthem time again - I'm not sure if traffic has to stop for the national anthem as well...

It's the McINeverAskedForCornFlakes.

Mister Donut is back!

Silom.

Lumphini Park.

I got back on the train at Chit Lom, via the Central Chidlom shopping centre - again no idea why we have "Chidlom" and "Chit Lom". This place had a single department store as the tenant, so out of curiosity I checked out their sports section (some random Adidas shoes were $200 before a generous 20% discount) and their clothing section (boardshorts for like $80). I'm not sure how the average salary in Bangkok compares to Australia, but I can't imagine many locals being able to afford this. I got off the train one last time as Siam Exchange. I took a walk around Siam Square which I had not heard of, but was pleased to find out it was an open air mall situated in the streets behind the train line, such a welcome relief after all of the heavily airconditioned shopping centres I've had to deal with everywhere else. Also, it's pretty hard to stuff up a store directory when you only have a single level and real streets.

I revisited the MBK Centre again for dinner, I didn't go back to the international food hall from yesterday but there was another food square on the second top floor. This one seemed like a total scam though, you have to buy a special card (like a Myki or something) and put upfront credit on it, which is good for one day only. Then you go around to each of the stores and use your prepaid card to buy food, and hope not to run out of money. Once you've finished eating, you need to go and stand in another line to get a refund on any money you have left. I didn't want anything to do with that process so moved along. The other half of the floor was nothing but souvenir shops, all gathered together. While searching around, I found of these two items:

1. Any souvenir magnet
2. A rare collection of 1980's Nintendo Game & Watch

That's right, not a single magnet to be found in the whole place! I went up one more floor and found a restaurant called Curry Place selling some nice looking curries, which were decent and cheap - the clothes might be crazily overpriced, but the food and drinks are usually great value.

STEP-O-METER: 40616 steps (15 minutes at the fitness centre)

Asia Holiday 2013, August 18 (Baht Star)

In under an hour I walked from my hotel, to Hong Kong station, caught the airport express and completed check-in...and best of all, the plane wasn't delayed (actually it was by about 20 minutes but that's nothing by comparison). The airport 7-Eleven even had a slurpee machine! (but it was broken). As of April 2013 they no longer stamp passports when departing Hong Kong, which I found a little sad. Airports are one of the most depressing places in the world, so a little stamp is about the only reward for the hours of your life you lose there. I powered on my computer and connected to the free wifi while waiting at the gate...only for Windows Update to kick in. My computer was then stuck in the "installing updates, do not power off" right before boarding was about to begin. Who knows what bad stuff happens if you do power off, but I didn't have to find out today.

A small problem with flying Air Asia, which I didn't know at the time I made the bookings, is they often land in the old airports as part of their cost cutting exercise (maybe). This was a bit of a problem in Bangkok, because the old international airport doesn't have an express rail link. A funny story about the airport, they stopped using it for international travel when they opened the flash new airport in another part of the city (complete with rail link). Only the new airport became so congested with traffic they had to send some airlines back to the old airport and get it back in shape for international travel. I accidentally wandered into the wrong part of the terminal and it looks like an old abandoned warehouse, all dusty and broken down furniture and stuff. So anyway, I had three options to travel from the airport:

• Bus
• Taxi
• Train

I hate taxis even more than being stuck in airports, and the train only runs once an hour and is apparently slow and has an unreliable schedule, so my last option was the bus. The bus was a bit run down but otherwise uneventful, which was the best case scenario. It only goes as far as the train station at the end of the line, but the sooner I can get off a bus and onto a train the better. I reached the hotel without getting lost, which I discovered had an awesome electric blue color scheme in the hallways, and more free breakfasts!

Electric Blue.

I quickly unpacked and then got straight back onto the train, and right back to where I got on from the airport bus. On my way to the train station I just happened to come across a Nike store, which I figured would be super cheap in Thailand - wrong, the prices were the highest of any country I visited. The next stop was Chatuchak, which has a popular and well known weekend market. It was like QV market, only much, much bigger and with a lot more people - apparently Sunday afternoon is the worst time to go but I had no other choice. I couldn't really figure out where anything was in the place, so I just did a lap around the outside. Much of the stuff was quite repetitive, and similar to the type of things I had already seen in Hong Kong, although there were a few highlights:

• Crushed strawberry yoghurt stand
• Fake Nikes - probably STILL not available in my size
• Frozen banana stand! - with various toppings
• Magnets - not many, and not very good

But one big disappointment was that I did not find anywhere selling a bag of Fanta.

Too many people.

There's always money in the banana stand.

Across the street is Chatuchak Park which I walked through from one end to the other. It was quite large, with a few lakes with paddle boats for hire and a popular running track around the outside. At the end of the park I had to figure out how to cross the street, there were roads at street level going in several directions, as well as overpass bridges, but no pedestrian crossings at all. This would be a common theme in Bangkok, you have to hunt down the closest pedestrian bridge, which sometimes only serves one, two or three corners of the intersection. I continued along until I reached the Elephant Building! I think it's just a normal office building, only it's shaped like an elephant, brilliant!

Paddle boats at Chatuchak Park.

Not much of anything at Chatuchak Park.

Elephant Building in the distance.

Also Elephant Building.

I spotted a Tesco Lotus across the street (several UK franchises like Boots and Tesco in Bangkok for some reason). I went in with the faint hope of finding some English yum yums, but was unsuccessful. They were selling bags of five donuts for the low, low price of 320 baht (about $1.20). As I was making my way back through the park some music started playing at exactly 6pm, and everyone who was walking or running through the park stopped what they were doing and stood still for the duration. No idea what that was all about, but I figured it was the national anthem and just went with it.

Back in Siam, where I was staying, I went to the MBK Centre to search for some dinner, after having to pass a metal detector and bag check to get inside! There was STILL no vegetarian options at any of the regular fast food places like Burger King, KFC, McDonalds etc, but I found a nice international food hall on an upper level. I stupidly ordered a plate of nachos from the Mexican stand as it was the first thing I came across, before discovering a vegetarian stand that had a lot of great options - every stand has sample plates of all of their meals out in front, like they do in Japan, and like they should do everywhere.

Other elephants...

National Stadium.

Donut shopping.

Night at National Stadium.

Nachos!

Some additional thoughts on the hotel:

• Finally there is a small fitness room on the top floor
• (They have the machines lined up right next to the glass floor-to-ceiling windows, which is a little bit frightening)
• The top floor also has a nice garden balcony
• (But there's not much to see besides the national stadium, which is under construction, or reconstruction)
• The TV actually seems to have a few good channels for the first time

STEP-O-METER: 36170 steps (30 minutes at the fitness centre)