Monday 9 April – Hello Bangkok: night markets, a Royal funeral and a taxi driver
6.00pm: On the road to our boutique hotel in Bangkok and I see a number of big ads for Chang beer with
Manchester United and Chelsea players, also of the Red Bull Formula One team; a
beer promoting an energy drink of a different company, who would have thought
it. They are the biggest ads one can see, on billboards, on buildings and
hotels; and I mean BIG.
It is my first time in this famously crazy city and I am not sure what is
going to happen or what is out there to see – no, I haven’t done my homework.
9.00pm: We head out for dinner and find a local busy Night Market. Food
is not too expensive and I try some chicken meatballs.
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| Street food on the go - cheap and tasty |
We also quickly notice some bars and pubs are shut. It is a Monday
night but, come on, this is Bangkok – I say to myself. As we talk to a waitress
in a pub we find out that today took place the Funeral ceremony of the sister of the King. It was a big deal, and I mean BIG. So big that many
businesses have closed down as a sign of respect,
and others whilst open do not serve alcohol.
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| No alcohol tonight - respect |
She passed away back in July, last
year. It took them eight months to prepare the funeral... So here I am, having mixed feelings: on the one hand, I am
disappointed that on my first of the two nights in Bangkok it seems we are not
going to be able to party, not even a little. On the other hand, I also feel
disappointed for having missed the funeral ceremony, as from what we can now
see on TV news reports, it was a massive ceremony of the highest of profiles.
11.00pm: David has headed back to the hotel as he is feeling unwell
but I feel I want to explore some of the city. After googleing some places I
jump on a cab and ask him to take me to Nana
Plaza, famous for its nightlife. Same scenario: all shut, it looks like a lock down.
11.30pm: A young taxi driver
– I will call him Seb (as in
Sebastian Loeb, the 8-time world rally champion)- asks me if I want to go a
private club.
I do not hesitate and say yes. On
his pink coloured taxi –they are pink,
yellow, blue, red, orange... all colours- with a rally car
steering wheel off we go to this place.
I have no idea of where we are
going but we are going through some big avenues and he is speeding happily at
over 60mph or 100km/h. ‘Yes, this is
more like it’ – I say to myself- ‘bring it on’.
We arrive to an unbranded place
where the doorman, wearing a full black suit, nods to Seb and we get in easily.
The door opens and after a second door with some purple light on, we enter a
bar of about 60 square metres – like the posh ones in London, tiny. There are
men and girls, with no dancing on stage, and jazz-house music sounds from the speakers.
I look at Seb and nod at him. We sit around a high table and order two beers.
It doesn’t take long until a girl comes round to talk to us. Seb explains to me
that I have to get a drink to the girl, which I do. She is just chatty and
friendly.
After a few minutes talking chit
chat, I am thinking this is going nowhere and as I look around the place really
is going nowhere tonight.
I ask Seb if he knows other places with a bit more of
atmosphere and he does not hesitate. We jump on his pink cab and off we go to
another bar somewhere else.
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| BK traffic at night - meeeeentaaaaaaaalllll |
I am more excited about the driving and the speeds we are doing on
avenues and highways than actually going to another bar.
Given the funeral is present in
everyone’s mind from here on in the script is more or less as follows:
1. Arrive to next bar.
2. Get in, I take a look, there is
not much on.
3. I tell Seb to try somewhere else.
4. Off we go, speeding away – yay!
0. 10min later.
1. Arrive to next bar.
2. Get in, I take a look, there is not much on.
3. I tell Seb to try somewhere
else.
4. Off we go, speeding away – yay!
0. 10min later...
He takes me to about five or six
different bars all over Bangkok and I give him an ultimatum that I really am
looking for a party. He promises to deliver.
But he doesn’t and I ask him to
take me to my hotel – at least he tried and I really enjoyed the ride.
Surprisingly he does not want to charge me anything for the ride but only what
I feel I want; so I give him 200 Bhat (US$6.50).
Tuesday 10 April – Switchinternet, Gym, Pool, Tuk-tuk, Thai Massage
12.30am: Seb drops me by the night market not far away from our
hotel. Some of the bars that were
shut when we were here for dinner are now open.
I enter a few of them and have a couple of beers. If they are not dancing
tonight I wonder how things look on nights where there is no mourning. I head
back to the hotel after a while and think that was a good night all in all – I
even got a Swiss watch “made in Switchinternet”
for USD10. Note it should read “Switzerland”; it must be a typo, surely.
11.00am: I have a good workout at the hotel’s gym. David comes
later too. The view of Bangkok’s skyscrapers around us and, more
importantly, the hotel’s 20 metres pool
in this gloriously sunny day is quite encouraging.
I was not expecting any sunbathing
and swimming here and I take the opportunity with open arms. I love it.
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| I mean, I am sooooo stressed right now - really. I am... not. |
2.00pm: We head off to see the Sleeping
Buddha, a mighty golden statue of 50 metres long and up to 5 or 6 metres
high: it is ENORMOUS. Famous are his toes too where you can take a photo that
catches all of him. Marvellous – good thing they are not smelly either.
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| Sleeping Buddha - nobody has dared waking him up in years. |
We walk around the temple and in
the main site Buddhists monks are praying. It is a row of about 10 of
them, sat on a long podium in a long row side by side. The first one nearest to
the entrance is pulling a light white cord, which is held by all of them up to
the one nearest to the sitting Buddha at the back end of the hall.
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| Monks praying - calm, peace, religion, tradition. |
Visitors are allowed to sit down,
pray or take pictures. It is the first
time I have ever seen Buddhist monks praying, and the singing is quite
interesting to me.
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| Sleeping Dog - nobody has dared waking him up in hours |
Back outside it is quite a hot
afternoon and we walk around the site and take some more photos. They
definitely have their resources to be able to put this place for pray together,
in the centre of Bangkok, next to the Royal Palace.
We learn the Palace is shut today
all day as part of the two-day mourning. Unlike yesterday night, we are not
going to find exceptions to this rule.
3.00pm: A chatty tuk-tuk
driver takes us around to a number of sightseeing places for the agreed fee
equivalent of US$5. He is quite friendly and tells us that ‘today tuk-tuks no pay petrol, is free, so
tuk-tuk very cheap for you!’, which is always a bonus we think, and he
smiles broadly.
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| I'll have the third from left... No, the other left. Thanks |
As we visit the Golden Bell, the
lucky Buddha and some other places we also have a random stop at a tailor shop:
‘Yes you go there so I can get
free petrol, you don’t have buy anything!” and smiles again.
We enter the tailor shop – we are
wearing our usual cargo shorts, tshirts, trainers, rucksack and shades, clearly
NOT the typical outfit you wear when you are going to buy a suit or a shirt,
let alone tailor made. But we play along and are walked through to a small
office where the sales attendant shows us some Armani, Calvin Klein and other
famous labels men’s suits books.
“This is a bit random” I say to
David while pretending to be browsing. He does a good job at browsing and even
engages with the fellow about some of the suits and the price.
After about 3-4 long minutes of ‘get-me-out-of-here’ feeling, we agree
to move on and David confirms to the guy:
“Actually we are not going to buy
anything, we leave tomorrow, but thanks”.
We tell the tuk-tuk driver that we
didn’t buy anything –just in case he had not guessed- and he smiles again broadly.
As we set off somewhere else, I
take note that tuk-tuks here are SUPER powered
– a whole different level to those in Vietnam and Cambodia. They are like
go-karts but bigger, and we easily reach speeds of 40-50 mph or 70-80 km/h; I
think I’d love to drive one for a test.
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| Super powered Tuk tuk - they can fly, almost |
The city is full of flags of
Thailand of the Royal Family, both on streets and public buildings as well as
on flats, balconies and shops and bars. There are many posters of the king, and
of his sister, in what seems both a combination of public affection for the
King and a display of official support.
It is a scorching afternoon and as
the traffic starts to build up we are dropped at our final stop: a pier off the
main waterfront where we agree a tour of the old canal and back to the main
canal for about US$15. It turns out to be a good deal we think.
5.00pm: We are on the long
boat, just for us two, navigating through the old canal, and the old
Bangkok. It is clearly not Venice, or the floating islands in Vietnam, but it
is a good spectacle of houses on stilts, some temples, some schools and healthy
traffic of tourists boats and local trading boats.
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| It is not Venice - but it's got its own edge |
As we get back to the main canal
we see another HUGE white cloud in the distance. It looks particularly big just
as the sun starts to set and the white starts to give way to yellows and
oranges and reds – just like the one a couple of days ago in Cambodia. Mother
Nature.
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| Mother Nature - good to see you again. |
We see a number of high towers and
some skyscrapers whilst the broad river has a good number of tourists boats up
and down; similar to the Thames in London in a way, minus the Houses of
Parliament, or the Big Ben. Or the London Eye. Or Tower Bridge. As I say,
practically identical.
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| Canary Wharf, with an Eastern touch, sort of |
6.15pm: Walking on the pier we’ve just been dropped off at, in
front of a high tower of about 60 floors
which seems completely abandoned. As
we head towards the main traffic road, it is a combination of the Vietnam chaos
but with very few motorbikes and more cars and buses – all very colourful, pink, blue, yellow, orange
taxis, long red or yellow buses, white or green or black cars- just as on the
pathways there are many food places and other vendors.
We take the sky-train – Bangkok’s
overground, ultra air-conditioned, ultra-cool and ultra-cold urban rail system-
and head towards the main central park in the city.
I notice a funny poster ad of the
Angry Birds, promoting some sort of local discount with Visa. They really have done well, those birds...
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| Angry Birds make you a discount |
I see another adidas ad with
Lionel Messi, from FC Barcelona and Argentina. Global icon he is – I have not
seen one of Cristiano Ronaldo yet.
At the central park there is a public aerobics class where about 200
people are taking part. In no time I
have dropped my rucksack and join
the lot trying to catch up on the easy steps.
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| Aerobics - Bangkok - Me - Them - Loved it! |
I am clearly the tallest guy
around and some of the ladies taking part smile or laugh. Who would have thought I would be doing aerobics in a park in the
middle of Bangkok – madness. I hang out for about five minutes just as the
sweat breaks off and we continue our walk. That was fun.
A couple sit on a bench just off
the park’s lake, and in the distance we see some the financial area
skyscrapers, while some small rowing boats float on the lake. It is almost dark
and it is a lovely view and a quiet moment of peace in this crazily alive city.
7.00pm: We stop at a street food place. Surprisingly none of the
eight or so restaurants serve pad-thai. I mean, we are in Thailand’s capital, and they do not serve pad-thai – we
move on.
We arrive at a couple of big and
modern shopping malls, north side of the sky train; on the left there are
plenty of busy streets and small local markets. As I am taking a short clip, I
don’t notice there is a step and a fountain... where my foot goes deep until my
knee – you muppet; good thing I didn’t drop my phone too.
We opt for one the malls to have
dinner and choose a sushi type of place where we can eat all we want for about
US$10. We eat. A lot.
9.00pm: It is our second, and final night in Bangkok. We are
feeling tired and sleepy and I opt for a Thai
massage in a place near the hotel. For about US$8 I get a full one-hour
massage. It is a short little man who is going to virtually torture me for the following 60 minutes.
Here you take the massage wearing
a cotton loose t-shirt and loose trousers.
As I lay on my belly on a hard
mattress the little man starts to walk up and down my legs and my back, then
massaging with his hands pressing hard as in a deep tissue massage.
The pressure becomes pain but you know it is doing good for
you, or that’s what you tell yourself. So you just stay laid, not moving, breathing
deep and trying to enjoy it – but you can’t... so you just close your eyes and
get over it. He then takes me upwards and starts turning my back from one side
to another like I did not know I could do.
Crack.
Crack.
Crack.
‘Ouch, that was good’ I compliment
him – and it was, in a way.
I then am passed to a long comfy
chair where he starts a foot massage. Next to me lies a man, probably in his
late forties, also having a foot massage. He is also snoring of pleasure. As the little man starts working my legs I
understand why but cannot fall asleep. It makes for compelling viewing as I
didn’t know I could feel this pressure on my legs.
By the end of it I am so relaxed
and tired that I head back straight to the hotel for a good night sleep.
A great day in BK.
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