Bangkok

On our first full day in Bangkok we got up and had breakfast and decided to try and see a bit of the city on foot, ferry and train.  We started by finding our way back to an information place we had spotted the night before.  It took us quite a bit longer than we expected, but we did get there in the end and managed to pick up a good map.  It turns out we pretty much took the longest way possible to get there, none the less we were on our way.

Our first stop was the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.  When we arrived, we discovered we were incorrectly dressed.  Long pants were required.  We could have stood around in the midday heat in a line to get some loaners, but while it looked very impressive from what we saw of it, we decided to keep moving.  We made our way to our next destination, a ferry stop on the river.  On the way we decided to go into "Wat Pho" where we got up close with some pretty elaborate buildings, and a massive (25m) reclining Buddha.  Many photos later we found the ferry stop and jumped on the Tourist ferry.  This turned out to be just like the regular ferry except there were less people and they made the announcements in English, which was good. 

We managed to get off at the right stop which connected with the Sky Train. Our first ticket purchasing attempt was quite funny.  We had only a very limited understanding on what we should buy (i.e. a lookup table) so we thought, the Ticket Office would be the safest bet...  as it turns out the "Ticket Office" only gave change.  We then had to queue up at the ticket machine to buy the actual ticket.  I guess labour must be cheap, I would have thought a change machine would have sufficed instead of hiring 3 - 4 Thais to do the same job???

We got off the Sky Train in the Silom area, famous for a couple of streets...  We found some lunch and started our journey to Lumpini, where we were hoping to checkout the Boxing Stadium there and if time permitted the massive park.  We walked down Phat Pong 1 and were only solicited 4 times.  I was dissapointed.  Perhaps the time of day had something to do with it (~3pm???)

We found our way to the Boxing Stadium, and as the time was getting close to the start of the first programme, we decided to hang around.  We bought ringside tickets and waited for the bouts to start.  I have to say, Muay Thai is really intense.  I don't know how it compares to regular boxing, but I would think with the use of legs, elbows and knees Muay Thai fighters would destroy regular boxers (will have to watch some UFC to find out).  We were treated to six bouts which unfortunately were pretty one sided.  James thought it was a bit of a scam, as there were very few locals present and the oldest fighter looked about 18.  I didn't think so at the time, but had to admit later it was a very good possability.  Regardless I enjoyed myself (especially when the Muay Thai WWF style guys came out to entertain at half time)

After the Muay Thai, we caught a Sky Train back to the ferry stop hoping to catch a ferry back to the Khao Sahn area.  Unfortunately after waiting for about 20mins, a kind local informed us the ferries stopped at 7 and we had missed it by some time.  We were given instructions to catch a couple of busses, but in the end decided to catch a taxi.  We found a good looking street vendor for some food and enjoyed some vegetarian Pad Thai.  We happened to be standing out infront of a bar with a local doing pub tunes on the guitar.  I suggested we go in for a beer and enjoy the tunes.  Quite a number of beers later, and a couple of changes of guitarist we decided to call it a night and staggered back to the Guest House.

The next day (our last day in Thailand) we decided to take it easy.  James was in the search for a Thai flag for his collection, so we started off by heading to the Chatuchak Weekend Markets by Sky Train which are reputed to be the largest market in Asia.  I would believe it too, it spans 35 acres.  We walked in and saw a shop selling things that looked like flags, but to me didn't look that promising, so we kept on going.  We wondered aimlessly for about an hour.  I was melting in the sun, and after the previous days walking effort, I really wanted to find that Cinema.  Dejectedly we decided to give up and head back to the Train.  We happnened to pass the same shop we had seen on first entering the markets, and James decided to ask.  Sure enough, there was a fairly large collection of flags hanging right at the front...

We trained it back to the Siam area, where James had spotted a couple of cinema.  I would have liked to have a bit of a look around as it was supposed to be ultra modern and awesome.  Unfortunately the red shirts (protestors) were making a nuisense of themselves so we made our way into one of the larger looking shopping complexes.  We had some lunch and found the cinema.  A good end to the trip in my opinion.

The next day, we were up early re-packing our backs (making sure someone hadn't slipped a kg of weed into our boogy board bag) and got to the airport.  It didn't take long before our flight was announced, we boarded the plane and made our way back to Brunei.   We had a 4.5 hour stop over in the Transit Lounge of boredom, so we were looking for an escape.  We discovered a city tour which managed to fill in the time very easily.  Bander Seri Begawan is a very clean looking city.  I think it would be a great city to live in, but probably not much for holidaying. 

With our stopover complete, we boarded our last plane.  It was an overnight trip which held a couple of unexpected surprises.  Firstly I had Video On Demand, which was very bad for my plans of sleeping through the flight.  This turned out to be lucky because the second surprise was an absolutely aweseme light show given by a massive thunderstorm which we passed to the side of.  Given it was pitch black outside and not much light inside, the view was terrific.

(photos to come later)