Return to Bangkok
More fun and less buddhas
December 1998

After returning from the islands just after Christmas, Lindsey and I had a few days in Bangkok again until she returned to Japan and from there to Scotland for a friends marriage. So sightseeing and a bit of shopping seemed to be in order.

Moving to a nice hotel just off the main backpacker area, we initially decided to visit Wat Arun, an ancient temple in Bangkok on the opposite (eastern) side of the Chao Phraya river from where we were staying.

To reach the Wat, we'd walked down to the river and taken one the ferries that constantly chug up and down the brown and murky-looking waters, careening into jetties to disgorge dozens of Thais and tourists. It was only a few stops up river to get parallel with the Wat, from where we could take one of the cross river boats to get to the eastern side, but we still managed to make a mess of it. Travelling one stop too far up river and then crossing over left us on the wrong side of an adjacent canal to the Wat.

Politely declining several longtailed boats drivers offers to give us a lift across the canal to the Wat, we debated the merits of walking along the canal until we reached a bridge when I noticed a ladder on the pylon of a set of gates set across the mouth of the canal. Quite why we did it I'm not sure, but my generally philosophy (and one day I imagine my epitaph) of "It seemed like a good idea at the time" kicked in and the pair of us wound up climbing up the side of the pylon and clambering over the metal walkway over the canal. Getting down proved a little interesting and getting out of the tiny back alley we wound up in involved walking through what appeared to be the extensions to peoples houses, but no one seemed to mind. It was rather fun smiling genially at the surprised looking faces of the locals, as you wandered past them eating, working or whatever...

Anyway we finally got to Wat Arun and walked in the entrance only to discover it was closed. Well, partially closed anyway. A sizeable chunk of it was getting some variety of maintenance and so was inaccessible, but the outer bits were open to walk around. The lower levels of the temple have fearsome statue guardians dotted around them which provide some good photo opportunities such as the one seen adjacent. Inevitable jokes about the terrifying figure and the statue next to it will be quickly glossed over. Lindsey may be 10,000 miles away right now, but jokes at her expense will be paid for when I return to Scotland.

After Wat Arun we also experimented with the canals, in particular the boats on them that we thought we would be able to take a tour on. Finding one of the stops hidden under a nearby bridge we tried to indicate to the driver that we wished to go for a ride and he motioned for us to sit, which we did. You can even see a shot of our view below right. And for a rather long time that was all the view we got.

I don't know if the boats are meant to run that infrequently but after perching on the wooden seats for a while with no one else, not even a driver on board we debated trying to hot-wire the boat ourselves. Possibly responding to our thoughts, the driver finally returned and the boat turned round and we headed away from the river. We puttered slowly westwards, picking up people and losing others as we threaded our way amongst various promontories, piers and possibly the extensions of people's houses.

One thing I remember from Bangkok is in many of the housing areas it's difficult to exactly establish where the buildings stop and the streets begin due to the confusion of carts, fences, awnings and furniture which seems to fill every available space. Anyway our little cruise didn't last long. We were indicated to alight at a stop near Rama IV road (about half a mile or so from where we'd started) so we got out a little confused and the boat went on without us. If we were meant to catch another boat we had no idea about where it might be, so we basically gave up on the idea...

The other things that occupied my time in Bangkok, aside from the Buddhas and museums mentioned earlier, included the infamous Thai boxing and playing pool in Buddy's, a bar on the Kao San road. Lindsey can be see in the restaurant part of the place having lunch above. They had a chalkboard where you could write your name up for a game of pool in the backroom, and it was here that I spent a number of evenings. If you defeated any comers for six games in a row then you got a free drink from the bar, and I have to say (with no small amount of personal pride) that I managed to do it.

Unfortunately I wish I could say that my pool-playing ability in Australia lived up to such feats...

Returning to the kickboxing though, I was a trifle disappointed. I was expecting two lean, mean blokes, thwacking and kicking sevens kinds of crap out of each other to the accompanying bellows of encouragement from foam-flecked fans, but I was only half right. The local crowds really got into the spirit of the thing, upheld by the improvised "soundtrack" provided by a live band of musicians.

However the fighters, although requisitely thin and wiry, were of an age when they should have been fighting with conkers, not boxing gloves. Throughout the night pair after pair of adolescent bruisers would try and "kick some arse" and in almost all cases barely managed to "prod buttock", fatigue setting in quickly and the pair inevitably hugging each other for support and trying to knee the other in the side. Usually the final bout or two would actually involve someone that had reached puberty, but the amount of kiddie-bashing you had to watch until you saw someone who could actually fight tended to diminish the thrill a bit.

And that was pretty much it for Thailand, at least picture-wise. Given I was there for the best part of a month, there is a lot I haven't covered here for reason of space or publishabilty (in the case of Patpong - Bangkok's seedier district famous for it's "shows"...).

Although pieces of my trip around Thailand were troublesome (most of them involving the transport that I took), in general I rather liked Thailand by the time it came for me to leave. One thing I definitely miss is the cuisine. After an initial paranoia about what I should eat and what not, I just gave in and was very glad of it.

Probably the best meal I had in Bangkok was from a tiny street restaurant down one of the backstreets that was so small the children of the cook acted as the waitresses... But in the end my visa expired and I moved down the length of Thailand to Malaysia , which despite being an adjacent neighbour was very different indeed...

© Barny Russell 2004