Messing about in boats

Friday February 14^th

It was pretty hard to get motivated to go sightseeing today, but we finally decided that we’d better make the most of our few days in Bangkok.  We found out that the breakfast in the hotel is really expensive, so we had a cup of tea and decided to find breakfast elsewhere.  As we walked down the road from the hotel, we came across some sort of Chinese ceremony.  We weren’t sure what was going on, but people were either making offerings or having their food blessed.  There was lots of bowing and gonging and chanting but we couldn’t work out what they were doing so we continued on in search of breakfast. 

Lots of food - but what's going on??

On the way, we found a massage place just around the corner that charges a fraction of the cost of the hotel’s massage service, so we’ve noted the location of that.  Then we found a really nice café (a Dutch themed café would you believe) a bit further up the road.  John had a huge toasted sandwich and I had the most delicious home-made baked beans (no, it didn’t bear any resemblance to Mr Heinz’s efforts).

Outdoor gym

Then, due to our lack of knowledge, we experienced our first rip-off in Bangkok.  We were unfamiliar with how the ferry system works and, even though we’d been told to catch the ferry on the other side of the river, we couldn’t work out how to get there, and we found a ferry pier on our side of the river.  What we didn’t realise was that this wasn’t the ‘commuter ferry’ which we had intended to catch, but was a private company.  When we tried to ask for information, the staff suddenly lost their ability to speak English.  The upshot was that we paid 100 baht for a ride that should have been 15 baht.  Silly tourists!  

The other consequence of getting on the wrong type of boat was that I couldn’t convince my semi-functioning right knee to overcome the huge step to get off the boat.  A kind stranger came along and pulled me up while John gave me a shove from behind.  Just as I was about to make it onto the pier, the boat suddenly rose then fell again, and I landed heavily on my previously fully functioning left knee.  Ouch!!

  

The good side of it was that we got to ride on an amazing skinny boat with a big noisy motor that put on thrilling bursts of speed and did take us where we wanted to go.  Due to the fact that the river water is chocolate coloured and full of garbage, I put my hands over my mouth and nose when we got hit by a bit of spray.

This is the kind of boat that took us up the river

Balcony gardens

Pagoda

Among the many modern buildings in today's Bangkok,
many old buildings remain

We then spent several hours wandering around through Chinatown (laughing at the expected lie from a tuk tuk driver that we were too early for the markets and it’s a holiday – he should have chosen only one of the common lies, not used both of them at once).  We ended up at the Golden Buddha, a huge solid gold statue which is apparently worth about $50 000 000.

You can buy anything in Chinatown, including
a skeleton who says 'let me out!'

Dried stuff

More dried stuff

I indulged again in my latest addiction, fresh pineapple, from a street vendor.  One of the interesting streets was just like one of the ‘trade’ streets in Hanoi.  Almost every shop was selling metal things (nuts and bolts, springs, rods, pipes etc.).  Much more interesting for John of course as this kind of thing seems to appeal to him for some reason.

Yes, dear, that was worth a photo

Chinese medicine - might be a few endangered species here, I think!

The Gold Buddha

By the time we’d finished our roaming we were pretty hot and bothered so we found our way to the ferry pier.  Easier said than done but at least this time we got on the right ferry which didn’t involve a commando manoeuvre to get off.

Our hotel

We found the way to get across the river via the bridge so we’ll be much the wiser when we go out for tomorrow’s jaunt.

Had a quick stop-off in our new favourite cafe

We decided to cool off in our airconditioned room for a while.  This idea lasted five minutes as the cleaning staff, who’d had all that time while we were out, arrived with much apologising to do their thing.

We went down to the foyer for a while and saw our third lady-boy (I forgot to mention the waiter at Lonely Beach, but he wasn’t dressed up and glamorous, just very camp).  The one today, who was taller than John, was wearing a long dress, lots of makeup and (sorry lady-boy) looked pretty hideous.

After being dislodged from our lodgings, we changed our minds and decided to go for a swim then read by the pool for a while.  Aaahhh, bliss!

Feeling rather lazy by then, we decided to eat in the hotel restaurant again.  They had a special (and very expensive) Valentine’s Day dinner but we opted to choose a few dishes from the menu and had a fabulous dinner.

After dinner we went for a stroll down the road from the hotel, in the opposite direction from our earlier walks.  As we went past the place where the Chinese ceremony was going on this morning, there were tables set and a stage with sets and curtains.  We stopped for a while for a sticky-beak but there wasn’t much action going on so we continued on our stroll.  There were many little cafes and street vendors and therefore some wonderful smells.  We went across the road using one of the crossover stairways and stopped halfway to watch the crazy traffic.  Although there was far more traffic when we were in Vietnam, I’d feel safer crossing the road there than here.  Everyone seems to be on a mission to win the race here.

On the way back to the hotel, the Chinese shindig was in full swing.  The actors were on the stage and the tables were covered in empty bowls.  It looked like a lot of eating went on in our absence.  Hardly anyone present was actually watching the show, but we watched for a while from the sidelines until a man said we could go in and watch.  The costumes and makeup were very elaborate but of course we didn’t know what the story was about.

Chinese theatre

John saw a western woman and went over to ask her what this was all about.  Mystery solved!  It’s the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations which apparently goes on for two weeks.  This was the last hoorah until next year.  It also might explain the fireworks that we saw when we were walking back this evening.

We’ve now planned our day for tomorrow and will hopefully get ourselves out of bed at a more respectable time for being tourists.

Hmm - how much is that hottie in the window?
I think he should shut his curtains!!