Cultural Must-Sees in Bangkok

I arrived back in BKK sometime during the morning - the bus ride had been ok, but still I felt tired and it was already hot again. With my heavy backpack I sat down at the bus station in between other tired looking Thais, mostly men, looking at me puzzled and probably wondering what I was doing here. Well - this was the only empty seat I had found. About every other minute I was asked, whether I needed a taxi ... no, I just wanted to sit here. Until I decided someone looked nicely enough to get into a car with ... Luckily I had booked a hotel in advance and when I got there, I could rest a bit, before meeting up with Martin and discovering the cultural highlights of Bangkok.

Which proofed not to be the easiest thing in the world:
- First no TukTuk wanted to take us to the Great Palace - Wat Phra Kaeo.
- Second every TukTuk driver told us, the palace was closed today.
- Third a guide took my travel guide and showed us on the map, where we should go instead (lucky buddha) - he took my pen as well and drew it into the map. But he would not lead us the way to the palace.
- Fourth the entrance we got to was closed, i.e. protected by some armed men.

Finally we got in and could enjoy all the beauty and the tons of gold:

Wat Arun

Wat Pho

Enjoying delicious street food in between

On the bus up north

I was off to leave Bangkok around 10 am. The supernice cab driver took me around a mini sightseeing tour (He was soooo proud of the king and everything) and then dropped me off at Chatuchak Busterminal. WOW. There were about 100 counters to get tickets... and about 200 stops for buses... all pretty much looking the same white and blue ... but then with slight differences... and all I could read (or more precise - could not read) was Thai. Awesome. Luckily I spotted a large "i" and the lady hardly understood what I wanted, but somehow managed to send me off to the right counter to buy a ticket to Sukhothai.

It seemed to take forever until we finally left BKK behind... but then the scenery got better with every kilometer further out. And every pitch of seemingly untouched land put a smile on my face. Although I had expected BKK to be like Saigon, it was much more relaxed - probably because there were not as many motorbikes around. On the bus I could feel the sense of this being an adventure coming back - all alone again (nice!!) with only my backpack and not an idea of where I would sleep tonight. And I felt perfectly fine to travel without having an actual plan. Travelling with the bus itself btw was more like travelling by plane. The driver came around and made sure we were ok, luggage was stored away, asked whether one needed a blanket, ... So comforting.

In Sukhothai a couple got off with me and we decided to share a cap and look for accomodation. Lonely Planet had recommended At-home-Sukhothai - and it was a nice, relaxing place with a lot of plants, a little pond (frogs however all night long making noise). After refreshing we decided to head down to the night market we had seen earlier. We tried all the different food from the food stands, answered all the questions of the school kids learning english, there was even a dance program (or should I say animation)

One night in Bangkok...

The last day in Vietnam had arrived (too soon). What was left to do was:

- picking up our tailor-made clothes

- going to the post-office to put the cards in the mail (ancient ... the guys lined up and had fun setting up an assembly line to put the stamps on the cards...
- lunch - eating is important and the food is sooo good
- getting a hammock - they were everywhere - I just could not resist and the idea of setting it up in my appartment and dreaming away seemed great
- going to the airport - where despite the fact we had booked a cheap airline everything went without chaos

Arriving in Bangkok confusion was even bigger. We needed a cab. Well make that zwo - given the amount of large suitcases... There were several lines for cabs and it wasn´t quite clear what the difference was. Anyway... we got in, told the drivers our hotel adress and they started driving... about 5 minutes later both of them stopped in the middle of the highway - to discuss which way to go!! Well I´m glad they figured it out somehow. 350 Baht/car seemed to be a reasonable price as well.

The hotel was one awesome and fantastic place. It looked like a wooden tree house, had a pool and was in a small quiet street not too far from Khao San Rd. Like a pagoda it seemed a quiet and elegant destination in this city of constant buzzzzz. Lamphu Tree House.

The receptionist recommended the Khinlom Chom Restaurant at the river for dinner and that´s where we went. This one again looked like paradise and I already liked it a lot.

From there we took a Tuk Tuk to Khao San Rd. WOW. I feel stunned - this is like Reeperbahn in Hamburg - why does one need to fly more than 11,000 km in order to see this!? But oh well - since we are here and everyone wants to party - why not. From a cooler on the side of the street we get a few Chang and get the night started. Cheap clothes, jewellery, shoes - you name it - it was all there in countless shops. Also you could get all kinds of fake ID cards, licences, etc. ... Jan and Dodo insisted on getting one of those Chang muscle shirts - and a pair of those not quite fashionable pants... So much fun for so little money... Finally we get a thai food massage - which is my very first massage over here but quite good. And after a few more drinks and dancing on the street we are ready for a club - forgot the name of it, free welcome drinks though, music electro, people average. It must have been around 4 when we left and really did not feel like walking home - so it had to be a Tuk Tuk again. What would be more fun though, I thought, would be to drive it myself. So Jan went off and started chatting away with the drivers whether I could try driving the Tuk Tuk. After a few unsuccessful tries he changed strategies, told them I was a famous race driver in Germany... now that worked. All the other drivers were pointing at us and laughing when we drove by - but it was totally worth it and the guy got a good tip for those few minutes of fun.

The hotel pool was closed already, but since we felt so hot we told the receptionists we have bad sunburns and needed to cool them :-) So they let us in :-) Great end to a great day.