1st Day in BKK

1st day in the big smoke.  And what a lot of smoke (and noise and pollution and smell) there is.

Spent the morning crusing the Chao Phrya River that runs through Bangkok on a tourist express boat that backs up to the jettys so you can hop on and off as you please.  

We stopped at one stop to look at a temple, not sure which but it had a lot of giant gold buddhas.  We were stopped by a little Thai man that was pleased to practice his english on us and try and convince us to jump into a Tuk Tuk and visit various sights at the super deal he had bargained for us.  We were not so keen so fobbed him off to his dismay but were pleased he was able to show us around and take our photo although Si did watch him like a hawk when he had our camera.

Numerous 7 baht bottles of water later (about 30c) we made our way to the SkyTrain and stopped at a big fancy mall that had a lot of nice shops in.  It was a bit expensive and we weren't really shopping so didn't buy anything except deoderant (because it was about 35C and we were sticky and smelly) but it was good to get out of the heat.  

Hired a Tuk Tuk home but despite our best Thai, travelled aimlessly for awhile before finally arriving for tea relieved and exhausted and hot.




Bangkok is supposedly the city of smiles. It's also hot, sweaty, crowded, noisy, and extremely smelly.

There's a Bangkok that I really like and a Bangkok that I can't wait to leave. You can't walk down the street without being accosted by people trying to sell you things and drive you places. Seems I might finally learn how to say no!

The people are nice and everything is super cheap (i'm carrying round in my pocket a big wadd of what looks like Monopoly money), and I love the fact that it's not another cold Christchurch winter (ha ha Chch!). It's seriously so hot and muggy.

I'm not here to give you a geography lesson so let's just say that i saw some sights (seen one temple and you've seen them all) and cruising the river was fun. The tuk tuk ride from hell was a highlight, weaving like a bat out of hell through the crowded city streets.

Bring on tomorrow.

 More photos click here