Bangkok

First day in Bangkok - March 4th


We arrived in Bangkok shortly after 10:00am after a fairly uneventful 45 minute flight. Since the airport is HUGE, we were transported to the terminal by a bus. We waited for our lugggage almost as long as the flight.. go figure.

We took a cab from the airport to our hotel. This is one BIG city! The horizon of the city was highlighted with SUPER SIZED bill boards, tall tall buildings and many cranes. You wonder, in a city this size, where they would put another building, but new construction seems to be flourishing.

We decided the driving wasn't too bad, well on the highway anyway. Cars/cabs seemed to be driving normal. That was until we got closer to our hotel and our driver took the wrong turn. We turned down the left side of our street instead of the right. Well let me tell you, I don't think there was enough space for another car to pass us on this street. There were vendors, mopeds and people walking. Talk about major traffic conjections. We continued around the block, got back on the main street and soon in front of our hotel, the Sawadee House -Dawn DeCourcey's ( Greg's Vice Principal) recommended place to stay.

HOLY CRAP! the street was basically one lane and we could hardly get out of the cab with all the people, vendors and tuk-tuks. (See picture of a tuk-tuk)

After settling in, we decided to do some exploring. No sooner had we started our walk, we were approached by one of the tuk-tuk drivers for a tour. Hey, this could be fun! He said he would take us to 3 locations (locations we wanted to see anyways). The cost 20 Baht (less than a dollar). See there is only one catch... a company pays them to take tourist to their store. But thanks to Dawn we knew this would happen and well it was still part of the adventure and well we wanted to try this store out anyway. The store is really a taylor where they make everything for you. Since we could NEVER afford clothes made to our size in Canada, we thought what the hell. So, two pairs of shorts, two shirts and a vest later we walked out of the store. Now we thought it was a good deal, mind you we did barter :) We go back on the 7th for the preliminary fitting.

On the way back the traffic was crazy, even though it is always crazy it seemed worst. Well it just so happens many streets were closed off because their Prince's motorcade was on route.

After our return to the hotel we finally had a chance to do some walking and exploring "our neighbourhood". We are right in the middle of a big market area with vendors selling pretty much anything you want. It is a great spot to people watch! We just spent the rest of the evening/night walking around. Oh Greg had to have this cool laser pointer. It can make a design in the air that looks like a disco ball kind of light or you can use it as a pointer. I think the pointer is strong enough to bring down a satellite. Dawn you might have to take this item away from him at school!
Ever have little fish eat the 'dead' skin off your feet? Some thing we might try.. Hope it doesn't tickle too much.

We were back in the room around 11:00 since we catch a plane north to Chiang Mai in the morning. We didn't think we would be able to sleep with all the street partying and music going on but, on the contrary, we slept quite peacefully.

We return too Bangkok in a few days to see more sites.