DAY 2: Monday 22nd April 2013
"I awoke to thunder and lightning and rain, Oh my!! Bangkok is putting on a show for us. I slept well, it's heavenly not getting up to kids in the night. I'm feeling very relaxed. I spent my first night in a different country. I feel the same- just in a different place! haha, dont know what i was expecting. That some sort of 'different country cloud' would fall on me and i'd be transformed :)
I'm looking forard to exploring the streets and culture today. Hurry up and get in the shower Bec!"
It was lovely waking up to a storm but luckily the rain ended and things were looking bright for our day in Bangkok with my sisters. Well things were looking bright until 9am when Liv rang from the Bangkok airport saying that she has lost Ana! She thought maybe she was having VISA issues. My heart sank, they were suppose to meet us at our hotel at 8:30am and instead Ana was lost at the airport! They got separated cos Liv has a diplomat passport and can just go straight through, Ana had to line up with everyone else. I had visions of Ana being questioned in a little room and being put back onto a plane to Sri Lanka... haha Gosh I really shouldn't watch those airport shows!!!
Todd and i went for a walk while we waited:
"Toddy and I just went for a walk up the road. We saw MBK, The Siam Center, Siam Paragon- but none of them open till 10am. It's hot out there already, and it's only going to get hotter, i think I might die. Im already sweating and the humidity is making my hair frizzy and feral. Oh it's all part of the adventure. Now, I have to keep calm and hope my sisters get here really soon."
We headed to the Chao Phraya River, via the SkyTrain, it was so easy and cheap! Id read so many reviews that I knew exactly where to get off and how to find the Chao Phraya Tourist boat which we used to travel up and down the river to see the sights. All went to plan and I was feeling pretty pleased with myself :) The whole way there i kept saying, "We are in Bangkok, we are in Bangkok" like an excited little kid! Yeah i was definitely excited and it all felt so surreal!
The River is really dirty, im glad I didnt fall in :) Along the river there were little run down houses and next door there were huge, beautiful hotels. I call it the city of Contrasts. Here is an example of a house on the river. I love the plants!
The river is an excellent way to see Bangkok as all of the main tourist attractions ie, The Grand Palace and Temples are along or near the river, and the boats stop at each one. If we had more time in Bangkok we would have visited these places. My fave temple was Wat Arun, The Temple of Dawn. It is named this as it is lit up at Dawn and looks spectacular. Is is made of mosaics, amazing!!! You can also climb it, the steps are really steep! Here are a few photos I snapped of it on the way past :)
We got off the boat at Wang Lang Market. it was hot and really smelly. The walkways were narrow and claustrophobic, I didnt enjoy it. We were looking for some street food to eat but nothing looked appetizing. The only thing I bought was water from 7/11 Oh how heavenly is water in humidity like that!
After a little explore we got back on the tourist boat and got off at Chinatown. We discovered that Monday is not a good day to be looking for food in Bangkok. The street food is really hard to find as the streets are cleared for cleaning. We were so disappointed, we wanted street food and couldn't find any!! By this stage we were so hot that we decided to catch the boat and train back to Siam and go to Siam Paragon for lunch in the air-conditioning. What a good idea! We had a delicious lunch and i could cool down and un-'betroot' myself for a little while! Im still amazed at how easy it was to get around Bangkok, the boat and Skytrain system is amazing! Well done Bangkok!
"I had a moment- a good moment. We were standing on a crowded Skytrain and I just stopped and looked and really looked. Here I am, standing on a crowded Skytrain in Bangkok- WOW!! It was an amazing feeling, it was a surreal feeling. It made me happy. We tend to get so rushed and stressed about finding the way, changing money etc that we miss the surreal moments. Take time to stop and actually enjoy the moment"
After feasting on yummy Thai food we spent some time exploring Siam Paragon, Siam Center and MBK. These are the three main shopping malls in Bangkok. Siam Paragon is full of all the expensive brand name shops, some even had a dress code. They scared me and I felt so out of place in my shorts and havaianas. This complex was so posh and beautiful to experience, I loved it.
MBK looks pretty funky. (so do my legs)
An inside shot of MBK (not all of it)
MBK is the shopping mall with 2,000 shops on 8 levels. It's just like a market, you can bargain and get rip off t'shirts etc. I was so sick of walking around and so hot by this point that I couldn't even be bothered looking. I kept saying to myself, you are in Bangkok at MBK, you are meant to be shopping, but it was all a bit too much. I still wasnt comfortable with converting Baht to Aussie dollars at this point and it was all too much! I think we all felt the same, so off to the hotel we trotted for a swim in the pool!
"Our swim was so nice and relaxing and fun- we laughed SO much. I hadn't laughed that much in ages"
Our infinity pool overlooked the city. I'd been looking forward to swimming in this pool for months and it really did live up to my expectations. At this point it was the highlight of my day in Bangkok. We used the underwater camera for the first time which was fun! I was so sure it was going to die when i put it under water, but alas, it lived up to it's name and survived ;)
These photos make me so happy, this was such a precious time with Toddy and my sisters. I felt so peaceful, happy and without a care in the world. Time stood still while we joked, laughed and swam around like crazy people. Oh the BLISS! It was good for my soul!
Afterwards we sat by the pool bar and drank cocktails. Pina Colada time! Don't ya just love the guy in the background, he was very comfy in his speedos :)
This brings us to the evening, we took the free ferry over to Asiatique!
Asiatique is this awesome place along the river, it's newish so it's all modern and clean. There are restaurants, cute shops and of course, the Bangkok Eye, which for some reason I REALLY wanted to go on! If I ever go back to Bangkok I will spend an evening at Asiatique... we just didn't have time to explore it all this time.
We headed straight for the Bangkok eye. Ana and Liv didnt go in it cos Ana felt dizzy just looking up at it... i still didnt click that it would be high, that I'D be up really high. It wasnt until we started to move that I realised that I actually am scared of heights!! This led into a slight panic attack, man i was freaking out. I was so scared!!!!!! I didnt want to look down and Todd wasnt allowed to move cos that would rock the compartment we were sitting in. I told myself to breathe, in, out, in, out, in, out...and i got through the initial lap without screaming. I settled down after that first lap and enjoyed the rest of the ride. At least now I know I don't like heights. Im so happy that I went on it!
That night we arrived back at the hotel exhausted, feeling dehydrated and ready to collapse into bed. I had survived my first day in the heat, and although now resembling a beetroot, I think I did well. I had my grumpy, this place sucks moments, but the good moments far outweighed the bad. Now a month later I can hardly even remember the bad moments, and when I look at the photos I long to be back there, even though when I was in Bangkok I didnt care if I never did return. It was surreal but I was still me, I still got tired from walking and annoyed at the heat... life is the same no matter where you are.
The next day we met up with Liv and Ana at Siam paragon and had pretzels at Auntie Anne's, YUM! I found Starbucks which I was rather pleased about, although they didnt sell chai lattes which was sad. We took silly photos with a shark and just enjoyed our last moments together.
The goodbye was sad. I cried. Who knows when i will see Liv again, at least a year probably. Thankyou so much Liv and Ana for flying into Bangkok especially to see us. We appreciate it so much. And what a fun time we had. Remember that time in Bangkok when...
What an amazing experience Bangkok was. It is truly a city of contrasts. With the very poor, on the ground selling things in front of huge, bright dazzling billboards advertising the latest product on the market. Poor people wash their clothes in the dirty river, right next door to some amazing, grand hotels. The old and the new all in together, the big fancy shopping malls and the smelly lane ways where the people will do anything to get you to buy something from them so they can feed their families. What an experience.
Next stop PHUKET...
No comments:
Post a Comment