Bangkok

Days 67-70

We have arrived in bustling Bangkok. There is no doubt that it’s a busy city but its reputation as crowded and hectic is a little unjustified. It is a modernised and organised city and in comparison to an Indian city it is like a peaceful Pyrenean village. As well as seeing the traditional and modern of Bangkok we have been organising ourselves for our trip through Indochina and maintaining our cultural traditions on the far side of the world.

On Monday (29^th) morning a flock of hornbills converged on a tree in the Coco Lodge in Koh Mook to feast on its fruit and gave us a chance to see the exotic birds. It was like a final gathering to see us off from this beautiful place and with our hearts heavy we made for the jetty. After paying what I estimate to be five times the local price for our ferry and taxi back to the town of Trang we ended up stuck in the pack of a pickup truck along with the other backpackers as we sped our way to Trang. We had arrived in our predicament after the locals had quickly snatched up the seats in the air conditioned minibus.

For me it was like some dream come true, but far too late in life. When I was in my early to mid-teens the place to go for adolescents for miles around was the Beragh disco. It was a rather raw affair comprising of a DJ, a few (very large!) speakers, disco lights, a great big hall and lots of hormonally charged teenagers. It was before the days of designer jeans and flashy shirts and dresses, the standard attire was a t-shirt with a pair of Levis. The Carrickmore boys at least could always be relied upon to arrive in style thogh. They would arrive down to Beragh huddled in the back of pickups and looked like the militia of an African warlord as they jumped out of the pick-up bed to announce their arrival at the disco. How I longed for a group of lads from Beragh to do the same thing. That of course would have been impossible as living up the street from the disco I had only to saunter down to the hall and compounded by the fact that Beragh people are far to civilised to partake in such activity! But here I was now with my adolescent dream coming true in Thailand. Apart from being terribly uncomfortable on the rear end I can’t imagine hold cold it must have been for those lads in their t-shirts on a cold December night in Tyrone.

Cruelly my dream for this fantasy had long since evaporated though and I began to think how this would never have happened in India. The locals would never grab the first and best seats, they would make sure they were reserved for us as if we were some sort of Royalty. That was the thing in India, although everyone rudely wanted to take your photo and stare they made sure that you got the best seats and were treated much better than a local. My wife likened it to being a celebrity in the West.

Southern Thailand is no longer the rural backwater that I remember. The towns are clean, organised and well connected. But in no aspect has the increase in prosperity been reflected more than with the aforementioned Japanese pick-ups, which are for the most part new, shiny and numerous. These along with the popularity of cowboy hats give the town of Trang the comical feel of the American South.

Our train left in the late afternoon so we wiled away our day in a café opposite the station. Our train was quite expensive compared to India, but the standard is a world away. They are more spacious and clean - no mice or roaches, the tickets can be purchased on the same day, the stations aren’t a confusing mess and home to thousands of people (or rats!) and amazingly people even decline to use the tracks as a latrine. As we got rolling  though it was apparent that the Indian trains were a lot smoother on the tracks, so we clunked and swayed our way north. The train staff came around to make our beds and my wife discovered there was a dining cart. Great, I thought so we slipped down to have a late supper and a beer as the air roared about the open carriage and the full moon shone down silhouetting the mountains and trees. 

My night’s sleep was a little fitful but nothing I couldn’t live with, my wife on the other hand was longing for the smooth journeys of the Indian’s trains through the night as the shuddering prevented her from any worthy sleep at all. Overnight the landscape had become flatter and the Palm Tree and Latex Rubber Trees of the Malay Peninsula had given way to sugar cane and rice paddies of central Thailand. Banana trees are a constant in South East Asia often providing a border around plantations or planted in gardens, although I haven’t seen any exclusive banana groves like in India.

Off the train we grabbed a tuk-tuk to the centre of the backpacking Universe: Bangkok’s Khao San Road. With budget hotels and cheap clothing galore it screams alternative Western culture with braiding and tattoos available every few yards and of course the essentials of laundry and bookshops. The Khao San Road itself is more of a tourist haunt these days with the mid and high end holiday makers having a good nosey around as well. From my last visit here the solitary Burger King at the bottom of the Road now has company; I counted 2 each of: Burger King, McDonalds and KFC as well as numerous 7Elevens and a Starbucks. 10years ago the ghetto was starting to expand towards the top end of the Kho San Road, but now that area has been completely taken over by the dreads and flipflops.

Bangkok began life as a custom made capital for the rulers of Siam the Rattanakosin dynasty, after the preceding Ayutthaya rulers fell to the Burmese in 1782. They have ruled Siam since successfully maintaining independence through the colonial period by skillful diplomacy. Their supreme rule ended in a coup in 1932 with power being transferred into a constitutional monarchy. During WW2 the fledgling government maintained power but at the behest of the Japanese, whose troops moved freely through its borders. After the war the Siam became Thailand and the current King Rama IX began his extended reign. These days he is the world’s longest serving monarch at 66 years and is much loved throughout the country, certainly much more so than the politicians whose rule is constantly changing thanks to a staggering 11 successful coups.

After finding a suitable hotel, our first job was to get our Vietnam visa sorted out. Our plan is to work our way through Indochina before flying out of Hanoi back to Bangkok and our flight home. Now the best of buds, the Vietnam embassy snuggles up beside the heavily fortified American Embassy. Applying was a simple if painful process as it left us lighter in the pocket by 3600bhat (£73/$117) for both visas. But the most interesting thing was the journey there and back, which was a crawl through the famous traffic jams of Bangkok but it also meant we got to have a look at the city. The city as I remember has advanced unrecognisably, advancing relentlessly towards affluence and the future. All apparent in the office blocks being built, the new cars on the road and the skyrails heading connecting all parts of the city (except the Koh San Road!). 

On Wednesday (31^st) we headed to Wat Pho, which is the oldest and largest temple in Bangkok and contains a huge image of a reclining Buddha. It is 46m long and 15m high, and was made by shaping plaster around a brick base and finished off with Gold Leaf. The image of a reclining Buddha is his state just before he reaches Nirvana, I thought that he looked like he was watching TV! But I suppose it is possible, maybe he was watching the Sopranos?

Wednesday night was Halloween and being aware that it is not really celebrated vigorously worldwide I made sure that we were prepared by lugging around with me a rubber Halloween mask for this very night! The Thais in this part of town at least are keen on Halloween with the pubs, clubs and street vendors donning spooky costumes. The mask only spent about 10% of my face as it was ridiculously sweaty.  We wandered up and down the packed Khao San Road sipping freely from our beers bought from the numerous 7 Elevens and fending off the numerous offers to take us to the PingPong shows in Patpong. There was no potato pudding or toffee apples to be had, but we had a good number of peanuts and a few fried grasshoppers to compensate and we had as an enjoyable Halloween that we have had anywhere.

We have another day to kill in Bangkok before making our way to the Cambodian border, nursing a hangover in the tropics is not a great way to spend it but there is only one person to blame for that! The clock is now ticking on our journey and we are keen to get moving once again.