Okay, time
to start my blog official travel start and first place on line is… Bangkok!
First of
all, my flight from Helsinki was super-super-awesome. I got an upgrade to
business class since the whole plane was fully booked and thus the whole flight
was with all comforts. However, those of you who know me well know that I
always sleep always when I travel and thus all these comforts past me, excluding the
welcoming sparkling wine and the super-nice bed from which I took the full
benefit.
I arrived
to Bangkok around 7 PM on New Year’s Eve and all the hazzle and dazzle on the
immigration lines and then waiting my bag to arrive took in total around one
hour. Already before my trip I had decided to stay at Khao San Road (=KSR) the
beginning of this journey. I know there are people who hate it and people who
absolutely love it. The area is full of travelers around the world and is even
called as the “Backbag traveller ghetto”. However it is also the best area to
find all the cheap train, bus and plain tickets and visas and trips to
everywhere in Asia. Of course the area is also full of bars, clubs and locals
are taking all opportunities here to get money from stupid Farangos (=us).
But back to
business, like said I arrived safely to the Bangkok airport and getting from there
to KSR was super easy, (even though the local taxi drivers tried to convince me
opposite). I took a free shuttle bus from my terminal to the public
transportation center where all the local busses leave and asked for advice
from the info desk. There I got a clear instructions to take a bus (actually a
mini-van but it with air con so didn’t really mind) number 551 to Victory
Monument and then changing into bus number 59 which went straight to KSR. The
first mini-van ride cost 40 TBH (~1 €) and the local bus 59 cost 20 TBH (~50
cents). The ride in total from airport to KSR was around 1 h 15 min. The taxi
would have cost around 400-500 TBH and took 40-50 min so I was quite happy with
my choice in the end. Also the change between busses was super easy since the
mini-van driver basically took my from my hand into right bus and told a driver
where to drop me J I guess I was looking a bit lost
there with my Thai-language abilities.
My hostel
was quite okay, Hello Hostel on Thanon Kraisri. I took it couple of block away
from KSR which turned out to be excellent idea due to the MASSIVE amount of
people there on NYE. I had reserved my hostel via Agoda since I had an idea
that due to the NYE there might be some shortage of free rooms available. Also
I found a great deal via Agoda; 3 nights in a room of 6 people with Air con,
own locker and hot (actually warm) shower in 16 €. And the room was clean also
although the hostel didn’t look that promising on the outside.
Since it
was the NYE and the clock was around 9.30 PM I quickly took a shower to get rid
of my travel tiredness, changed a dress on and joined for the NYE carnival on
KSR. And what a party it was! Honestly saying the road is around 200 m long and
there were THOUSANDS of people celebrating the upcoming year. It was actually
really hard to move there anywhere so in some point I just gave up, stepped
into a first bar next to me and ordered Piña Colada (which I had promised to
drink for Annika). Since there obviously wasn’t any table nor chairs left I was
standing first minute thinking where to go, then some English guys asked if I
wanted to join with them since they still had some free space left so I took
this offer. Turned out they weren’t all English, there was also some aussies,
americans and one from Mexico. I even found out that the girl from Australia
had also stayed in the same hostel as I was but didn’t book her continue of
staying early enough so got kicked out in the same morning. Anyway I had a
great time with these fellows and since all of them had been on the road
already quite a while, they gave me really good tips where to go and what to
do. And of course the NYE celebration went rather late.
Khao San Road on NYE
The countdown
Next
morning, 1.1.2013 passed me by totally because the previous evening. I woke up
around 3 PM and still was the first one awake in our room. Nonetheless I
decided to go bummeling around the city to see what is happening there. The
temperature is super hot for a hangoverish person, around 40 degrees, so I kept
in mind what was said in the travel books to drink around 5 l of water per day
(wasn’t even hard as long as I had water close by). So first day I took a long
walk in the down town area. I had a plan to go and see the Grand Palace but
since it was national holiday and the King himself went by with a parade (which
I luckily saw by accident) I decided to skip this visit and change it into next
time I’ll be in the city again (around mid-Feb) before my flight to Shanghai.
So I just
wondered the city criss&cross, saw the Democracy monument, the Giant Swing
and some temples (there are temples just everywhere in the city). Then I
continued my walking to the Memorial Bridge and took a boat back to KSR just
before the sunset. The reason for this was that the other travelers recommended
to do this to see the Wat Arun –temple (The name actually means temple of
Sunrise but I found it more convenient to see it at the dawn since dusk is
already at 6 AM) during the sunset. And it was totally worth it. Here are some pics about it also.
Democracy monument
Bridge next to our closest pier on KSR
Wat Arun -Temple
From the boat trip
After the
boat trip I was got tired already so decided to go back to hostel. just before
going to hostel I realized I hadn’t eaten anything in the whole day so turn
back and finding some place to eat. At the KSR area the best food is definitely
on the street kitchen. You can have a good meal with less than 1 € almost
everywhere in Thailand from the street. I decided to have pad thai with
chicken, so fried noodles with chicken and spices. The funny fact is that you
get your food from the chef and there always four different spices on the table
to make your food delicious; crushed nuts, fish sauce, chili and I guess it is
palm sugar and this is not only in street restaurants but everywhere. Anyway
then I bought some water from 7 eleven (which are located in every single
corner here) and got back into hostel to read, shower and relax.
The second
full day went with wondering around the city also but in the business district.
I went to see the Silom area which is kind of like Wall Street area of Bangkok.
Also I had to walk across the famous girl street from the Vietnam war, Patpong.
The area didn’t seem that bad and when I took a coffee in the area I heard from
the owner that actually the area has been cleaned a lot and now it is mostly
just one entertaining area for tourists but in the evening time there is still
lots of girl bars attracting tourists. After this enlightening visit I decided
to go and visit Lumpkini park for a moment of fresh air. The park was really
nice and like everywhere in Bangkok full of people. Walked across the park
since the temperature had still rising and decided to need a cooler place…
World Center! This was the aim of the whole day of walking, the 3rd
biggest shopping mall in the world with its 8 floors of stores. For now I was only snooping around what
stores there are since I didn’t want to raise the weight of my bag just yet
while I was still more or less in the beginning of the trip. But wait for my
next visit there! Then I won’t leave there with empty hands. Although I got a
best ice cream I have ever tasted from there; Cashew nuts and coconut.
Central World from the outside
Ice cream bar, try to pick only one from there!
Central World from the inside
After the
shopping mall it was already quite late, around 8 PM and since I had earlier
booked my tickets to Koh Tao for the next morning at 6 AM, I decided to risk my
life and take a Tuktuk-ride back to my hostel. This was definitely a one of a
kind experience which I have no need to re-take. Tuktuk is a 3-wheeled scooter
where customer sits on the back. These drivers are trying to make money with
every single tourist so it took a while to negotiate with the price. Of course
taxi would have been cheaper (around 2€) while this was around 3 € but hey,
this was indeed once in a lifetime blaa blaa. The ride was such a scary and
dirty that no need to do it again.
After this
took a “dinner” from the street like yesterday, made some snack shopping for
the next day ride and finally before going to hostel bought a coconut, sit back
on the street bench and enjoyed the life while drinking the coconut juice from
the coconut with a straw. Goodbye Bangkok, looking forward to meet you again!
My first climps of the turtle island
My place for the next week :)
Whaattt!?!?!??!?!!?
