Tag Archives: Bangkok

Buddhas and boxing

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[NOTE: please check out the gallery and videos at the bottom of this post. Too much to squeeze in between the words!] Our first errand today was to pop back to the Vietnamese embassy and collect our passports with their shiny new visas in place. Expensive, but I love Vietnam so I knew they’d be worth every dollar.

More touristy stuff followed as we did the usual run of taking a boat up the river then hopping out at pier 8 to take in the Wat Po and Grand Palace. I won’t go into detail as I’ve covered both these places before. The main point of note was that we were fortunate enough to catch the start of some kind of parade at the Wat Po. Scores of people wearing traditional dress, a marching band and video cameras everywhere. All very impressive and I still have no idea what it was all about .

The Grand Palace has increased its price since I was last there and we did have to borrow leg coverings despite wearing 3/4-length shorts. This involved a refundable deposit so didn’t increase the cost of the visit.

Leah’s wilting in the heat wasn’t helped by the usual annoying morons who try to rip tourists off. I came across a new trick where they try to convince you that you can enter by one of the side gates. The security guards generally don’t speak English and simply bar your entry at which point the con artist apologises and says that the Palace must be closed today… and would you like him to show you a new place instead? The “Golden Buddha” seems to be the new one kicking around that has “just opened”.

I would recommend the following course of action: punch them in the face and walk off. The Palace is open 7 days a week, all year round. If it’s closed for some reason, believe me you’ll know about it as it’ll be in the news and your hostel/hotel will tell you in advance.

Dinner was in a glass-fronted air-conditioned place in the pier 9 building and was very good, though we did get charged for the nice cold towels they supplied when it was obvious that Leah was about to collapse. This is commonplace in some restaurants. And this time we were in time to catch the boat back down to the BTS station.

A quick change of clothes and a shower at the YHA and we made our way to Lumphini Stadium for our ringside Muay Thai tickets. The last time I watched Thai boxing was in Hua Hinh and that was amateur bouts in a tiny little place. This stadium was much bigger though just didn’t have the same atmosphere. The fighting was still entertaining and we had our photograph taken with the boxer who won the main bout. He’d been pulverised until late in the fourth round when he launched a fierce attack on his opponent, slamming a knee into his solar plexus. Ow. Down and out .

An entertaining night, and not too expensive. A quick KFC was called for on the way home to soak up the beer, and I picked up a dodgy copy of Ong Bak on DVD from one of the market stalls. When in Thailand, at least watch one Thai film!

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Being a tourist again at last

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Finally, some touristing. My eyes were a fair bit better though nagged slightly and I had to use a lot of artificial tears over the course of the day. No painkillers, though.

So today we decided to cover some places I’d not been before and do a little wandering. We picked a few random temples shown on one of the maps we had, caught a BTS to National Stadium and started walking. Bangkok has a lot more temples than just the major touristy ones and it’s retty much fine to walk into the grounds of any of them. Many are locked when not in use, but you can see the outsides.

One thing we noticed is how many are right next to primary schools. I doubt this is coincidence as the whole Buddhist way of life is pretty ingrained in the Thai population. The schools are usually decorated with really nice bright paintings. None of the security gates we’re seeing far too much of back home. Really, are they to keep the kids in or Gary Glitter out? Paranoia either way, frankly.

We also saw some pretty poor areas. At first glance we thought one area was purely filled with stray dogs until we realised that there was a small shanty “village” underneath one of the highway bridges. Essentially dogs, people and huge mounds of garbage. Not what you see walking along Silom or Sukhumvit.

After passing through a bustling outdoor market, we flagged down a tuk-tuk to take us to the Golden Mount. This is apparently one of the most major Buddhist monuments in Bangkok and took an incredible amount of time to build. There’s no charge to enter, though a donation box is at the entrance once you climb the stairs to the top. It’s a lovely view over that part of the city, and worth the visit if you’re after seeing all the tourist areas.

Back at ground level, we walked past the Democracy Monument (kind of plain, to be honest) and down to the Giant Swing – a huge wooden “pi” outside of another temple. We looked around this temple, too, and it really was lovely. I can’t recall the name of it, but as I said it’s right by the swing so very easy to find. A small charge is levied for foreigners, but for the token fee it’s worth the visit.

Another tuk-tuk zipped us to the riverside opposite the Wat Arun where we had dinner in a small restaurant at the pier. Food was good and service… interesting. The woman who served us was somewhat manic and great fun, bouncing around, shoving customers from seat to seat to ensure each group got the best view and enthusiastically teaching people some basic Thai (mainly “delicious” when they finished their meal).

As the sun set, we hopped on a ferry over the river but the Wat Arun was closed. Still, the views from just outside the gates were worth the quite paddle and we played with a couple of cats before getting the last ferry back to the east bank. We’d also missed the last boat downstream (they only run till around 6pm), so it was a tuk-tuk again to get us to Hua Lamphong. This is the main train station at this end of town and also a stop on the MRT (underground) line. Now, I’d never actually used the MRT before having been able to get everywhere I needed to by BTS, but definitely don’t forget it’s existence if you’re in Bangkok.

The journey prices are comparable to the BST and the ticket machines accept notes, though change is always in small coins. The trains are frequent, the stations enormous and the ride smooth and comfortable. A great way to travel. We hopped above ground at Silom (which connects to the Sala Daeng BTS station) and changed onto the BTS for Siam.

Film time again and this time we enjoyed the rather silly but quite graphically impressive Hellboy II. Normal tickets this time, so somewhat cheaper than our last visit. Beers once again were necessary so we stopped off at Pat Pong and went to a really cheap bar – only 69 Baht for a Tiger. So I had a jug.

The street entertainment tonight was more exciting with a couple of dozen lady-boys walking around, doing some dances and basically making a lot of people laugh while they enjoyed their drinks. After glugging away through my litre of beer, we walked to O’Reilley’s Irish bar on the corner. One overpriced (dinky) bottle of Brown Ale and two vodka and Coke’s later, we strolled back to the hostel.

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Lenses out!

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Today we started to be pro-active and dropped our passports off at the Vietnamese embassy to get our visas. Prices have most definitely gone up, and the waiting times have changed from my last visit here. The charges were 2500 Baht (£38) for next-day or 1800 Baht (£28) to wait till Monday. Ouch. Plans had already been changed due to my having PRK instead of LASIK, so we opted for the next-day option to ensure we could get out of Bangkok before the next week started to pass us by.

I gather the visas are cheaper in Cambodia, and can – in some places – be picked up same-day. We didn’t know what our schedule would be, though, so we had no choice other than to get them sorted here.

Back at TRSC I had the lenses removed – a blessed relief – and was given a change of medication. No more antobiotics, and increase in the steroid drops and some cream to put in my eyes before I went to sleep to stop them drying out, so I only use steroids like trenbolone to improve my physical abilities in sports. At this point, the cornea was healed, but “rough” so needed to be smoothed out. Blinking does this automatically so I was told to keep the eyes wet (using artificial tears as and when) and to blink a lot. My vision would come and go over the next week or so, blurring would be common and one eye could be better or worse than the other.

All fair warnings and I left with my wraparound shades well in place to prevent any diry getting in to my now-unprotected eyes. Oh, and I could shower now as well. Yay! No swimming for another week or so, and no diving until a month had passed though.

In the evening we strolled through Pat Pong, ignored all the cries of “You want to see ping-ping show?” and enjoyed a drink on a comfy sofa. Outdoors. I also finally bought some sandals which would hopefully save on the number of sweaty socks I was chucking into the laundry.

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Experience Bangkok – step by step

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Another short post as it was another day with little to do, again due to my sore eyes. The pain had subsided a lot compared to the second day – as I was told it would do – but the lenses were getting very uncomfortable. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to remove them, just pop in steril water drops to try and ease it.

We had lunch in McDonald’s which isn’t really noteworthy aside from one small thing that happened. Leah popped to the little stand to get some tomato sauce for her chips, but couldn’t find any paper cups. So she returned to the table sauce-less. Two minutes later, one of the staff walked over with two cups of sauce. He’d seen her, refilled the stand with cups, poured some and brought them to the table. Can you honestly tell me that’s something you’d not be amazed by in the UK? “Customer service” seems to have a different, and much more impressive, meaning here.

Any visit to Bangkok for the first time isn’t complete without experiencing the posh cinemas with their small number of reclining seats. Get Smart was on in one of these and we plopped down our 500 Baht each (pricey) for what turned out to be a very enjoyable film. If you’ve not seen it, then it’s recommended. Funnier than I expected and perfect casting.

Another essential experience is a massage. You won’t get a better one anywhere, so we popped by Miss Puke’s near the cinema for a Thai massage each. It was good to have some attention paid to the rest of my body so I could forget my eyes for a while. Plus, the dark room gave them a rest.

Experience three was a quick trip up to Soi Cowboy. The entertainment there is rather “adult”, but it was a giggle and Leah got to feed a baby elephant (not part of the adult stuff, I hasten to add). The prices for feeding them have definitely gone up (as has everything, to be fair) but she was well chuffed.

Our tuk-tuk driver back to the hostel was a complete maniac. Which for a tuk-tuk driver is a good thing! Fast, bouncy and fun – and a great character. The beer helped cushion my system as I dripped more drops into my eyes and taped on the spotty goggles.

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The pain! The pain!

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OK, today was uncomfortable. I woke up around 4am in a lot of pain as my eyes suddenly realised that having acid poured on them and lasers shone inside them isn’t natural. Ow. I mean really. OW.

So here’s a hint for those having this surgery: not the night following the operation, but the one after that – down all the painkillers you can, the sleeping pill and the Valium. That should get you through the night and into the next day. I did finally nod off again – a huge thank you once more to Leah who dealt with my childish whinging and helped me locate all the pills.

Over the course of the day, I thanked the chemists who came up with both paracetamol and ibuprofen, so that I could take tablets every two hours, not every four. I took more pills in that one day than I’d usually take in a calendar year. This is no exaggeration.

Donning my €4 sunglasses which covered my eyes remarkably well, we checked out of the Indra and into the YHA on Silom. Not a bad place and with lovely staff – all smiles and helpfulness. We ended up (after being shifted within five minutes of check-in) in a room on the ground floor. Snug, but with all you need in a room. Unless you’re into cat-swinging. Chatting to one of the staff, I found out that the real estate in the area is ridiculously expensive, hence why they cram as many people as they can into small rooms to maximise the turnover per unit area. Makes sense, and the rooms are comfy enough.

We didn’t do a lot today because my eyes were uncomfortable and painful. My daily check-up gave good results and a better-than-20/20 vision result. Good stuff, though I couldn’t keep my eyes open more than a few seconds. I treated myself to a chilled root beer from A&W, then we popped via a random bar so I could mix alcohol with my painkillers. Maybe not smart, but it sure as hell helped me sleep better.

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