Asian Adventure: Bangkok

Bangkok-The city of Angels

Day: 1-2

Accommodation: Viengtai Hotel, overnight train (to Chaing Mai)

Contiki Tour Manager/Director: Emo

Local Guide: Teaya (aka. Mango)

Highlights: The Royal Palace

Bangkok is a city of senses. Every part of your being is engaged within it. You feel it from the moment you leave the cool interior of the air-conditioned airport into the humid, hot open air parking lot; you taste it in the food, smell it on the river, see it from the glitz and bright colours in every temple and shrine and you hear it in the bustling night life. The trip from the airport gives you the first taste of this uniquely Thai culture as well as the influence of globalisation. Billboards advertise familiar products with a foreign script, toll gates appear to be found universally, while taxies are pink Toyota Corollas and three wheeled tuk tuks.

A driver takes us to my cousin’s apartment. His flat is twenty-eight floors up but that makes it only half way up in one of Thailand’s massive skyscraper buildings. We then go on the cannels and see the beauty, wealth and poverty found in Bangkok. We quickly realise that in Bangkok’s spotless high raised buildings are seated next to shakes and dilapidated apartments. The poverty here is not hidden in townships, the opulent wealth does not segregate itself from the poor; rather they live side by side where the gap between them is often ignored by both the haves and haves not. Afterwards we attempt different traditional Thai dishes including mango and sticky rice (if you haven’t had it look it up!) and finally we finish the day off with a Thai massage. The evening brings our Contiki meet up!

The Veingtai hotel has two entrances. One is from a garage that opens up onto a seedy looking road; this entrance is a smallish door with a “no durian” sign on it. On the other hand the main entrance (that we only saw later) has a large spacious lobby, with clean tiles and many places to sit, eat and rest. The large entrance from the lobby opens up to a vibrant, bustling street full of tourists and travellers. This is the lobby that we meet our new “Contiki family” in. Our new family consists of several nationals including South Africans, Australians, New Zealanders (aka Kiwi’s), Canadians, Americans, Brazilians, a Brit and a woman from Germany. Our tour manager, also a Kiwi, is one of the most experienced tour managers/directors with Contiki. He explains the layout of the tour as well as the optional that we may take. We then hit the streets.

Taking a long table at a bar opposite the hotel the meets and greets begin. People try (or pretend to try) scorpions, women with bracelets offer to customise you your own bracelet in a few minutes, lights flash and the crowd roars when Arsenal or Manchester United make a goal. Eventually jet lag catches up with me so Shan and I take a quick look around the night market on our hotel’s street before retiring to bed.

The next morning we are packed and ready to go by 08:15. Members of our tour vary from well rested to exhausted. We discover that those with the energy last night (though clearly lacking it now) decided to venture out to some of Bangkok’s more ‘cultural’ shows while others were kept awake from the noise of Bangkok’s bustling night life. We take a ferry to the Royal Palace. This impressive complex of buildings glistens with imagined gems and real gold. The emerald (but jade stone) Buddha is worth the visit while the opulence of the palace/temple complex on its own is indescribable (therefore see the pictures below that only capture half it's beauty and magnificance).

The afternoon is finished off with spitting up and bonding in smaller groups. We decide to have lunch in a nice Thai resonant which is followed by exploring the streets and trying our hand a battering. To end the day off we meet back at the hotel and head on off to our overnight train to Chaing Mai.

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