With near enough 30 main attractions, feet can't carry you everywhere! We set off on foot, before being hunted down by what we thought was just another tuk tuk man - "just 10 baht! Where you go today lady?", however we were mistaken. We met a local, who genuinely wanted to give us his advice about where to visit in the city, and the price we should pay (somewhat lower than the prices given by the tuk tuk men) to get there. He then promptly flagged down a tuk tuk, agreed a price, and said farewell, leaving us to get into the tuk tuk. All was fine and dandy, bar the small problem that we didn't actually know where we were headed!
Arriving down a dodgy looking alley, with a boxing ring on our right, a handful of stray dogs and no one around, we eventually found ourselves being ushered into a gorgeous traditional handmade wooden boat, with just us (joined by two girls from the hostel) and an old man who clearly knew the ins and outs of the river like the back of his hand, and had been doing it for years.
After passing several other boats, we made two observations:
1) every other boat had at least four times the amount of people in, each sat shoulder to shoulder, and
2) everyone had life jackets on
We weren't concerned about the life jackets, and smiled and waved smugly at the other boats, knowng we got a great deal, and even more so knowing the position we found ourselves in was somewhat chance.
We had a great rest of the day looking round various temples (dampened by the fact that we somehow lost one of the girls we were with, resulting in a small search party, and only finding her once we were back at the hostel!), and planning our escape out of Bangkok.
That evening after relocating to a different hostel down the road, we returned to our previous one for what we'd read about as being a great highlight of many peoples trips to Bangkok: the famous city bike ride, led by Kevin, the hostel owner. It sure didn't disappoint!
It was a good THREE hours long, starting at 9 and finishing just gone midnight - a ride we figured our Fathers would be proud of. We covered every square inch of Bangkok by the end, and went to bed with sore bottoms - the seats weren't in the slightest bit comfortable - and exhausted.
The many observations, and mad happenings from the ride...
-Mair nearly falling into a canal, amongst seeing her life flash before her on two occasions
-One way streets were pointed out... Once we were on them, and travelling the wrong way up them!!
-We crossed several train tracks, carrying our bikes as we went
-We went straight through the middle of the Bangkok protests, alas with no violence we hasten to add, therefore making it to the other side unharmed
-Both having too many near death experiences, often with a tuk tuk on one side, and car on the other!
-Having no warning before crossing traffic and turning down small alleyways
Overall, with our lives in hand and a completely different view of a Bangkok in the dark experienced, it was brilliant, a definite must do for anyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment