|
Although we had stopped in Bangkok for a couple of
nights prior to flying to Hong Kong, we had stopped in the Central
Business District. We spent one more night there, before checking out and
moving to Silom Road, where the infamous Patpong is located.
The first day we just wandered around, getting used to
the humidity, well putting up with the humidity, and checking out local
eateries, etc. One particularly good place we found was Silom Village.
Here they have various different restaurants, shops and if you eat at the
central restaurant you even get a free cultural dance and music show. We
ate several times here because the food was so good and the beer was
pretty cheap if you bought it by the jug!
In between Silom Village and our hotel were dozens of
little market stalls. One guy who sold fresh Thai pineapple by the bagful
for twenty baht (thirty pence) made a fortune out of us as we stopped
almost everynight to get some. Thai pineapples are smaller than the
"normal" ones you see, the skin is more red and the fruit yellower. The
taste? Well, the pineapple that Hosias picked us in the Amazon was
definitely the juiciest we have ever eaten, but the flavour of these
pineapples is delicious!
The other stall that we regularly stopped and browsed
at was owned by a guy selling some really eye-catching photos of typical
Thai people. However, the reason we first stopped was to watch him making
a dragon out of a single piece of rope. Watching the detail of this
dragon develop over the next few nights was intriguing, so much so that
yes we bought it! It will, when we finally have a home again, take pride
of place somewhere prominent.
We foolishly made the mistake of booking a Thai Dinner
and Cultural Show through our hotel. They charged us double the actual
cost of the dinner show, but it included transport to the venue. The
venue was Silom Village! Our "driver" to the dinner turned up at the
hotel and asked if we minded walking as it was..."Yes, we know where Silom
Village is, we have eaten there the past two nights and paid half the cost
we have done for this evening!" Luckily for us at least it was in a
different part of the village to where we had eaten previously and the
show was spectacular. We did mention to the Tour East Booking Agent the
following day what had happened, but she obviously didn't care, well she
had already got her money! What she momentarily forgot was we had
provisionally booked several, much more expensive, trips with her and so
we nonchalantly cancelled them! Doh!
One of the trips we had booked was to go to Damnoen
Saduak Floating Market. In the end we hired a car and driver who took us
for slightly more than we would have paid to go on a group tour. Luckily
for us our driver, Montri, was what I would class as a typical
Thai-lander. Thailand is called the land/kingdom of smiles and if we were
more like the Thai people I swear to goodness there would be less trouble
in the world. There are always exceptions, but the vast majority of
people we have had the pleasure of meeting in Thailand are exceptionally
polite, friendly, helpful and always smiling. If I was to become actively
religious then Buddhism would be on top of my religions to consider list,
if Thai people are anything to go by.
Anyway, Montri drove us the hour and a half to Damnoen
Saduak, but before we got there he pulled over and gave us a couple of
options on how to get to the market. One, which is what the group tours
do, is to drive to the market and then wander around it, after which you
are put into a canoe, six to eight people at a time, to paddle around the
different stalls and canoes. The other option was that he could take us
to a village about half an hour down the canal from Damnoen Saduak where
we could hire a long-tailed speedboat to get there, but seeing how the
Thai people live along the river. Then when we get to the market we can
hire a canoe and/or wander around for as long as we like!
Although we paid for a car to take us to the market and
had to pay for the cost of the speedboat, the idea of seeing something a
little bit different really appealed and it was worth every penny. Also,
we had set off a couple of hours earlier than the bus tours so as to see
the market in as non-touristic conditions as possible. Seeing the network
of tightly woven waterways that lead to the market was incredible. We saw
boats stocking up ready to head to the market, men swimming up to their
necks in the water fishing with nets, people washing their clothes on the
canal banks and numerous children playing in the water stopping only so
they could wave, and of course beam a huge smile, at us as we passed. All
along the canal banks were ram-shackled, wooden homes on stilts, but every
so often, set back from the canal, an elaborate, beautifully ornate temple
would appear, even in the most remote parts of the countryside.
When we got to the market, Montri found a seat at a
local cafe and told us to take our time and that he would be waiting for
us. His final piece of advice was that if we did hire a canoe for someone
to paddle us around the market, "don't let them rip you off like tourists,
don't pay more than two hundred baht!" Due to the diversion to take the
speedboat we only managed to walk around half the market before the first
tour group appeared. During that time, we stood on the bridge connecting
the two sides of the village, gazing up and down river at the traders in
their canoes. We felt like we could have almost gone back to a time when
they hadn't ever seen a tourist and this was how they conducted their
lives, bartering with each other for the goods they needed. The colours,
smells and sounds of this place were amazing.
After we finished walking around the stalls along the
banks of the market, we hired a canoe to paddle us around the waterways
and amongst the market traders that were in canoes or had stalls facing
the waters edge. As we set off, just the two of us and our paddler, we
overheard a lady say, "Why have they got a canoe all to themselves when
there are six of us in this one?" The response from her tour guide was,
"They are probably not part of a tour group!"
The market-traders have hooks with which to pull you
towards their stalls and canoes and you do spend a long time saying no
thank you! Sometimes you have to wonder how such a huge number of boats
on such a narrow river all manage to navigate around each other! However,
the experience was incredible and one of the best things we managed to
find at the market were freshly fried bananas in coconut! The range of
food was huge, but nowadays, with the amount of tourists that go to the
market, the souvenir sellers far outweigh the food and produce sellers.
The night after we went to the floating market we
headed down to Patpong. For those of you who don't know what Patpong is
about, let's just say if you ever get chatted up by a girl in Patpong you
might want to apply the Crocodile Dundee handshake first! As we stepped
off the TucTuc we were immediately swamped with, "sex show, sir" offers
from left, right and centre. They have a huge market down the middle of
Patpong, which helps pull in the tourists and as soon as you even
glance at anyone they thrust a menu in your face offering everything from
peep shows to ping-pong shows to, well, pretty much everything!
We managed to find a bar that we could see into and
reckon it was the only bar on Patpong without naked lady-boys in! So,
after a couple of beers for courage we headed out again, but apart from
browsing the market stalls we headed straight to the other end. Here, we
managed to find another bar packed with other people who didn't have the
courage to go in the lady-boy bars! We got chatting to some mad
Icelanders and after several more beers we all decided that safety in
numbers was to be our motto and we headed back into the heart of Patpong.
Ninna then got accosted by a lady who promptly led us up some stairs to
see a ping-pong show! The only advice I can give you is don't get your
money out. Ninna did and she was swamped, she even tried to pay one girl
to leave her fella alone and that just brought more of them over. Angela
managed to perfect the get your body parts off my man look and therefore,
apart from buying a couple of beers, it didn't cost us a penny!
Eventually, the attention the Icelanders were getting was so bad we just
all basically held hands and marched towards were we thought the door
was! As far as the show goes, you wouldn't want to play table tennis with
the ping-pong balls these "girls" have! We managed to make our way to the
first bar that Angela and myself had been to and proceeded to drink vast
quantities of Thai beer until 3:00am! The following day Angela slept,
after throwing up for a couple of hours, all day! Light-weight! |