We stayed for 3 nights in Bangkok at the supposedly "notorious" Malaysia Hotel - we only found out that it had this reputation per Lonely Planet after booking our accommodation, but it was very pleasant anyway and made for some highly interesting people watching. We also met up with Sarah, a friend of Caroline's from the UK, who would be travelling with us for the next 2 weeks before she heads off to New Zealand.
The three of us set off for a whirlwind tour of Bangkok Wats by day, and bars, markets and entertainment by night. There are over 300 Wats (Temples) in and around Bangkok and the first and unmissable stop was the Grand Palace - many Wats, galleries, Buddha statues etc of golden opulence that is quite stunning. Every view and angle begs to be photographed and simply cannot do it justice. We continued to tour further Wats interspersed with fabulous thai food and a bit of Market shopping until we were quite Watted out. We spent one evening at Patpong Road where many people are apparently table tennis experts and wanted to show us their skills and soaked up the bangkok nightlife and haggled away for cheap T-shirts and jewelery.
One thing that quite surprised us was how clean and relatively hassle free the city was - Gary recalled a previous visit to Thailand when it was famous for constant and persistent salesmen trying to get you on tours, in tuk tuks, buying cheap goods, stallside food or anything that can be shifted for a few Baht. It appears that perhaps sales techniques have changed, and we enjoyed the freedom to peruse the stalls etc relatively unhassled.
After having filled our quota of Wats we decided to take in some of the views from the canal and waterways of bangkok. You can hire a longboat for a few hours and after some expert haggling from 3,500 Baht down to 1,200 Baht for the boat (it would not be the only time someone tried to con us with an extortionate first quote)we enjoyed 2 hours meandering along the backstreets seeing the city from a different vantage point.
After the rather costly but enjoyable weeks in New Zealand it is highly comforting to see how far the Dollar still stretches in Thailand. Accommodation can vary from around $3 to $10 pp per night, fabulous food rarely cost us anything more than $10 for food and beer, and we've had some excellent main courses for less than $1.
With stunning temples on almost every corner, excellent cheap food and very friendly people - we think we are going to enjoy Thailand a lot.
