Culture fest (TOURIST DAY)
OK, only had a few beers in my festering fest here in Bangkok last night. Woke up at 7 bells cos a few people in my room were leaving so I saw them off and couldn’t sleep. Decided last night, I went to bed early for a reason. My day of culture! What a long, drawn out, enlightening and tiring day it was…
Started my day by going to the market to have some tofu soup with the locals (I’m staying in Thewet far enough away from the KSR freak show) and a Thai tea (more like a milkshake than tea).
Got the river boat, which is so conveniently located only a few mins from my hostel Took that down to Tha Chang and began my spiritual journey through the Grand Palace, the Emerald Buddha temple and then Wat po. Finally topping it off with my first ever shopping spree on KSR!
Off the boat and into the Grand Palace and emerald – or JADE as the guidebooks kindly confirm- Buddha temple. Really REALLY beautiful place. Cannot say how much of a pleasure the grass and greenery in general was as opposed to the toxic exhaust air that is Bangkok standard air. Beautiful scenery, buildings, art, sculpture and not so beautiful monks. OW, I feel really cultured now already! Really got into the tourist thing (Wasn’t hard, 99.99% of the people there were tourists anyway so I did not feel bad wandering around with my camera. BURNT the neck off myself. Ill feel it tomorrow. At the entrance the Guards threw a REALLY old German guy out because he was getting very VERY violent with the entrance gate staff because they wouldn’t let his wife in. She was wearing a pair of shorts and a sleeveless blouse and all he kept saying was “I don’t fucking understand…what’s wrong with her clothes?. They offered her some spare clothes but she wouldn’t war them. The whole city, including the tourists understood, why couldn’t he? Ignorance.
At about one I went for lunch , actually a big cold coconut, nice and refreshing and I met Pasha. The FIRST German from my dorm. What are the chances. went to see the Emerald Buddha and watched teh Thais meditating (In awe actually) in the full lotus. Learning a lot already about the religion here.
Really annoyed me though was the continued ignorance of the people sitting in the temples pointing their feet at the images of Buddah. crossed legs or away guys….comon, its Thailand 101! Next the ladies will be going up and embracing monks!
After the incredible heat torturing us for the afternoon, we went to Wat Po to see teh HUUUUGGGGEEEEEE (Huge) reclining Buddha. It is DEFINITELY the biggest one of those I ever saw!
Took loads of photos but the internet connection in Bangkok is as slow as Florrie typing a text message or….. Senthilnathan closing tickets or even …
Anyway, got the boat again, fell asleep and because Pasha was clueless, was woken up at the last stop….in the OPPOSITE direction back home. So we waited and just managed to get the last blue (ggh) boat back up. took ages. Got of at the wrong stop for KSR and walked another half hour or so. It was still hot and we were tired! :p
Bought myself two long sleeve t shirts and a money belt. Cambodia is supposed to be…. lets say not safe. I don’t want to judge them yet! how interesting is that! I’m telling the world what I got for my shopping for god sake. h got a bandanna too. 😉
Made my way back to my hostel and am here checking the status of my ATM card. Its now in PARIS for crying out loud. How is it meant to get from Paris to my hand in 14 hours?!? I’d like to see them try. Better get some money back! Next day delivery my bum. 🙂
On my travels today I was comparing my prices for a bus to Cambodia when i noticed that Visa electron was accepted by them! I can now pretty much fly everywhere around. But do you think I will? The answer is no. I have grown up enough already to appreciate the fine things that arise from an overcrowded, sweaty, 14 hour, non-A/C, stinky, wee bursting sleeplessfest that is Budget travelling overland. LOL Instead, I started to think about a 100 Euro (Which I would not be paying cos its electron) flight to TIBET (Look it up all you globally challenged people 😉 for a quick 2 week visit rather than go to Burma/Myanmar cos I don’t think I’ll get in anyway….
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Forgot my photos so said I wouldn’t post this yet. Its the next day and guess what? My ATM card arrived. I’m thrilled! Within 2 hours of receiving it, I got packed and went to the bus station but found that the Cambodia border crossing closes at half eight. So I have literally ONLY one more night in Bangkok. YEAY!
Anyway, went out with the lads last night. New guys in the dorm and from another guest house and one of them was the guy “Johnny” from “2 pints of lager and a packet of Crisps”! Nice guy, but has gotten quite fat and couldn’t handle his drink. Had a lads night out, went to the Irish bar to have a few and listen to some music. Met some more people I knew there and just had an all round fun night. The lads all went home at 3 bells, but I stayed with DA until 6.
Got home and I was in bed for 3 hours and I get a VERY rude wake up call. It was Karina (I’m spelling it right this time!) from last week. She came back because she didn’t like the islands. Nice to see her again, but I don’t think my last night can handle her madness. Ill let the other lads deal with her. Nutcase. 🙂
Anyway, just having a last night chill out session. Trying to get some photos uploaded but its taking forever.
Was going to book a minibus all the way to Cambodia, but I’ve decided I don’t trust the KSR companies (Which my guest house is actually recommending) in favour of getting a local bus to Poipet, walking over the border, getting my visa and hitching a ride with the locals into Siem Reap. (This way I wont be herded to shops along the way and I can actually CHOOSE my guest house. Bit scary, but remember that song “Sunscreen”? “Do something every day that scares you”. Holy S%#T I’m already scared, but if Angkor Wat is what I get to see as a result, I will be VERY happy. From there I’ll more on the river down to phnom penn to see the results of the Khmer Rouge atrocities. Plans for me keep changing, so I”ll probably never make it somewhere again….. who knows. My visa for Vietnam runs out in 2 weeks so I need to get in and out as soon as possible. My entry points are different so I anticipate trouble. Again, its not “Davesworldpackageholiday.com” is it? Come to think of it, its more like “DaveKeepsChangingHisMind.com” or “DaveINSouthEastAsia.com”…this could go on forever. I better stop typing now before I start talking pony and trap. 😉
I’ll cut this long story short.
hey dave,
excellent post…everything sounds amazing..except for that german guy..you should have given him a “what for?” to the jaw! anyway..pardon my ignorance but what exactly is KSR? great photos aswell mate..keep them coming!
check your signs,check your speed.
beans
xxx
Cheers man. KSR is “Khao San Road”. Its the “Backpacker central of thailand”. Really its just a tourist pit where first timers think theyre travellers and get drunk, buy overpriced stupid looking clothes and spend all their money on beer and prostitutes. I just had to experience the shopping part.
Thanks for the reply anyway, nice to hear from you. I should ahve given the German guy a swift Irish dose of anti-ignorance and pro semitism. 😉
Have lots of photos, just the internet is far too slow over here and I have to downsize and downsample server side so it took about two hours for the ones in this post. When I get home, Ill show you the large full size collection.
Give me some gossip will ya? I dont want to hear from swords-dublin.com about my local news!
Take care, mind yourself and mind your peers.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
story bulb,
sorry bout’ the lack of goss..these walls have ears.theres nothin’ much goin’ on anyway.
good friday today..the weather was glorious.went to the park for a game of football with mo and the lads from the harp..had a good game..bollixed now though..muscle seizure! how do you do the smiley faces like the one in your post above? anywho..nare a drop o’ gargle to sup on today so its a bit of a bummer.
finished the goblet of fire…eleventeen out of ten..cant bloomin’ well wait for the film to stall out.
loads of boy racers flyin round the estate now..during our game today..two little scummers flew across the pitch doin’ ninety on their scrambler..parkie was chasin’ them in his van..he didnt catch them though ..they scattered into the gallops. some poor youngfella got raped down in swords somewhere by two russians or summit..cant say for sure..im workin off rumours..but i think the POlice got the perps.
anywho,go and find a nice watering hole and watch the ireland v israel game tommorrow!
all zee best
beanser
xxx
p.s
rumour has it froggie has been seen down at the same spot in swords with his pants around his ankles..hoping that those two russians will be back
honestly..there’s just no helping some people
David,
Really getting the knack of this now, only takes me one hour instead of three. Weather here is really lovely, nice and bright and sunny. Getting ready for the big match today – hope Ireland win as im sure you do. Will you be able to see the match? Where abouts are ya now? Hope the Easter bunny finds you. Have a nice Easter where ever you are.
Talk to you soon
Love Marian 😛
Happy easter bunny boy!
The easter bunny left your egg here cause he didn’t know where you were.
Guess what we all forgot!? The clocks went forward.
Ireland drew yesterday in the match…feckin ejits!
KArl says hi and stuff.
On the wAY to NANA’s now.
watch that sunburn! take care lovexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxmamo
p.s. Buttons says hi, think I’ll give her her dreaded bath this week 🙂
hey dave
firstly, what beans said about the boy is true, it was 1 guy, either russian or latvian, that i cant remember, the incident happened down behind swords main street where that river is (near wise owls dirty backround area where you can turn right and head to castle shopping centre, police caught the scumbag, the boy was from a mainly travelling backround, most of his family came up to dublin and destroyed the house the russian was living in, rumour has it the pigs just oinked and said “have an alibi”. which is cool in a way.
eh a glorious day it was the other day, went to play footy in sinead greenans house (doctor greenans) and ended up playing on the trampoline, did a backflip, landed on my neck,heard a nice big crack and saw sparkly stars for about half an hour, its 2 days later, its still sore but it didnt stop me breaking it down on the dancefloor in the harp on saturday, no sir ee bob.
eh in other news ireland are muppett after losing to france then wales and throw away what was supposed to be the best year in irish rugby in a long time
ireland drew 1-1 with israel, i dont know how we do it but we throw away our best oportunities every time, though the goal by clinton morrison after just 5 minutes was quite a nice goal from an impossible angle ( i say impossible, it obviously was possible) quite the dark horse our clinton.
im playing in a snooker tournament this coming saturday, which should be a bit of fun
pc world is opening up in airside soon, no sign of work going on inside the area apppointed but apparentyl interviews for jobs now have a scheduled place and time. so i’ll probably move shops for a change of scene.
im also going to open a shop on goldenplec selling the CD’s and Singles of unsigned artists, im sure it will be terrible for the first while, but as soon as i figure everything out and the shop is launched i do believe we will have a unique thing onsite.
i think the work we did on the server cleared out most of the space, so we should be good from here on in, but id still like to know what the /usr is and why its percentage is so high, reply to my email so i can ensure you server stays in great health.
other than that its good times all round, im off to keep healing my neck, good to see your on the move from your almost permanent fixtures in thailand. i’ll keep you updated
story dave..
hopefully when you read this you will have made it to cambodia safe and sound.sound sound.
Git Davis gave me loads the other day for not coming down to her at all since you’ve been away! she thought i’d been ignorin’ her texts but turns oot she had me old ‘bile number. apologies Mamo Davis..i’ll be down for tea,scons..and maybe crumpets during the week!
did you get to see the ireland match?? Shylock Sensini equalised for the Israel in the 90th minute! Poxy!
I had 40 ducats on a one-nil win for Ireland.how come you’ve taken the backstage route into Cambodia anyway? you missed a great “reeling in the years” t’udder nite on tele..1993..you wud have luv’d it!
Dirk is heading off to france for good this week..how wud you fancy headin’ over to his hotel in september or summit? i told him were not coming over till he gets the pool built! pipes..ehh..ye know..pipes!(f.spencer..just in case you’ve forgotten).
da pea went to prague today with nicola…he’s still in bits from the football match the other day..chattin to him down the harp last nite..it was fuckin jammers..they let way too many people in..everyone was mouldy aswell..i felt like i was at a salvation army centre on methadone mornin’.anyway,,thats enuff bull outta me for the time being.
bonne chance mon amie!
beans
xxx
p.s haha@cuffy’s “dark horse” comment re; clinton morrison!