Wednesday 17th November 2004
I met my "Bangkok Buddy" this morning at 9.30am. Her name is Oi!* that's great if I forget her name, she won't notice I'll just shout "Oi!" Anyway, she was really nice and turned out to be an excellent tour guide. We started off the tour with a walk to Wat Intharawihan, which has a very impressive Buddha statue 32 metres tall and about 150 years old. I found the visit to my first Temple in Asia to be very calming and gave me a sense of peace. Magic. Oi explained that we would catch a river boat into the centre of town, where I had the choice to include the modern shopping malls in our tour or not. I decided not to go shopping. I want to see some of the things I don't get a chance to see back home, which I think Oi was quite pleased to hear, we walked through the local markets selling live fish, turtles and frogs amongst a myriad of other things. The river boat was great and I think my favourite mode of transport in Bangkok**.
We alighted at Sathorn and joined the sky train at Saphan Taksin station where it was a short journey to National Stadium station. It was really busy in this part of town and Oi took me to a little restaurant tucked away for lunch. Oi recommended the coconut soup and that's what I had! It was delicious with lots of flavours all complimenting each other; Ginger, lime & lemongrass. I also had a large Singha beer, which was not a good idea as it, along with some jetlag gave me a splitting headache by the end of the day.
After lunch we visited Jim Thomson's house, hidden away in the centre of town. Jim Thomson was an American who built a huge traditional Thai house with gardens in Bangkok at the end of World War 2 and made Thai silk famous around the world. He is highly revered in Thailand. He went trekking in Malaysia in 1967 and was never seen again. His house is now a museum.
Then it was time to move on, so we took a khlong taxi (canal boat) through town back in the direction of Banglamphu to the Golden Mount, a large temple 321 steps to the top and great aerial views of Bangkok. Then a tuk tuk ride back to the hotel taking in the sight of the democracy monument on the way. It was quite sad saying goodbye to Oi because she felt more like a friend after our one-on-one tour, instead of just a guide. Still not too sad because we kept in touch and she is now a good friend. I visited the travel agency desk in the hotel and paid for a day tour tomorrow in Kanchanaburi province to see the River Kwai. I'll be without my passport too for a day because the agent is going to get my visa for Cambodia sorted out. The girl at the travel desk is very lovely too. Her name is Nong. All the girls in Thailand seem quite charming. It's a shame there are hardly any like this in England!
My headache is so bad I'm off to bed and it's only 8pm. I'm feeling too sick to even have any dinner.
* Oi is now a friend of mine. We keep in touch from time to time and we meet up whenever I visit Bangkok. She is now very busy working as a tour leader and leads tours, mainly around Kanchanaburi at present.
** The river boat provides a good opportunity to see much of everyday Bangkok life. The best boat to catch is the one with the guy standing on the back blowing a high-pitched whistle as the boat pulls into each stop. This is the local mode of river transport and it is much, much cheaper than the tourist boats. Despite what anyone tells you, you can buy your ticket on board for about 10 - 20 baht.
