Bangkok Bound

On Friday afternoon, after a final morning of relaxation on the beach, we left paradise and started the long trek to Bangkok, which is the final stop on my month-long tour of Southeast Asia.

The first mode of transportation was a ferry boat from Ko Phi Phi to Krabi on the mainland. This took about 2 hours. It was a packed boat, but we managed to find a spot in the main cabin of the boat.



The second mode of transportation was a large air-conditioned bus from Krabi to Bangkok. This took about 13 hours. During that time, there were three stops: 1. Krabi bus terminal (we were picked up at the pier) to confirm tickets and use the toilet... 2. Surat Thani to drop off some people bound for Ko Samui, Ko Phangnan or Ko Tao. Also another toilet break and a chance to grab food... 3. some roadside stop along the way at 1am to - you guessed it - use the toilet and grab food. It was a long bus ride but I managed to sleep for most of it.


We arrived in Bangkok around 5am on Saturday morning and made our way to Khao San Road. Beau left me with the bags at the 24 hr. Burger King while he found us a cheap but decent hostel. He chose Green House, on the road parallel to Khao San Road. The road was full of hostels with terrace restaurants and travel agencies. It was close enough to the action but far enough for relative peace and quiet. As soon as we checked in, we had long showers, turned on the A/C and passed out until noon.


We spent the afternoon and evening walking around Khao San Road and scoping out the bargains, stopping in between for a beer at Mulligan's Irish Pub and to watch the South Africa vs. New Zealand Rugby Match (NZ won) and also for dinner at a nearby Indian Restaurant that was both inexpensive and delicious. The long travels finally caught up with us and we both went to bed early.



Sunday was our sightseeing day. We walked about 15 minutes to Chao Praya river and caught the river ferry to Wat Arun, also known as Temple of the Dawn. I didn't have enough time to visit this temple on my last visit to Bangkok nearly 4 years ago so it was high on my list. The ancient part of the temple was quite small in area, with 5 tall, intricately decorated spires, the tallest in the middle. You could climb up part of the middle spire and get a nice view of the city. The area surrounding the temple had many religious buildings and looked to be a Buddhist centre for learning.


From the temple we caught a taxi to a nearby railway station, then took the subway to Chatuchak Weekend Market. We had heard that it was "the mother of all markets" and decided to check it out and see what kinds of shopping we could find. The market reminded me a lot of Namdaemun Market in Seoul - very large and spread out in area, open-air but also some parts covered, and everything under the sun available for purchase. We walked around and shopped until we couldn't take the heat anymore, and caught a bus from the market back to Khao San Road.

That was it for sightseeing for me. I have been to Bangkok before and have already seen the Palace and the Emerald Buddha and some of the other sights. I didn't want to bog down my final day with running around exhausting myself. Beau and I will be parting ways tomorrow - me back home to Canada and him off to continue his travels in Laos and Vietnam. It'll be a while until we see each other again, so we wanted to spend some quality time together. We watched movies on my iPod Touch and chatted, we wandered the area, we sat down for a nice Thai dinner at a terrace restaurant with an acoustic musician. It was a nice evening.

The plan for the rest of the evening is not so calm. My flight leaves at 7am, and my airport bus leaves my hostel at 4am. The FIFA World Cup Final game of Netherlands vs. Spain is at 1:30am and already at dinner time we could see hoards of people out in the streets with their colours on, singing songs and blaring horns. The goal is to stay up for the game and then hop right onto the airport bus. Hopefully by not sleeping tonight, I will pass out on the long plane ride back to Canada. Hopefully...