Tag Archive
Airport Angkor Wat Babylon 5 Babylon 5 Watch Order Bangkok Beer Bored Bridge Bungalow Chiang Mai China Cold Culture First History India Ko Chang Lanta Laos Life Luang Prabang Markets News Old School Orbital Pai Quote Review Shakespeare Song South East Asia St. George's Day Star Trek Thailand The Beach Tiananmen Square Travel Trip TV Update Vang Vieng Video Vientiane Wat Youtube
Somewhere under the sea, or how I left Bangkok…
There I was, all checked out and starting a stupidly long wait before I needed to be at Hualamphong Train Station in Bangkok, when it occurred to me: Why not get a mouse for the net-book, which might solve the super-sensitive cursor issue? So off I head to the local pier to get a boat down to Saphan Thaksin, and low and behold I’m accosted by Jay and Silen – oh wait I mean Adam.
Apparently Adam being VERY hungover on Sunday had scrubbed their plans (made after advice from me) and remembering what I had said to them about tuk-tuk drivers, closed temples and the like, they too had decided to get a boat and go to the mall (imagine a typical US teen saying it!), before attempting Wat Pho again.
After wandering for a while through various malls and and only encountering hordes of screaming fan-girls (Apparently Thailand has boy-bands – that look suspiciously like The Beatles), we grabbed lunch and more importantly, beer for Jay, then went to Siam Ocean World to play tourist.
This place lays claim to being South East Asia’s BIGGEST indoor aquarium, and we could quite believe it, for an indoor centre there is so much going on and included in the 950bht price, from feeding’s, behind the scene’s and glass bottom boat tours, diving opportunities and beyond; However the star of the place has to be the chance to have “Doctor Fish” nibble at our feet – again included in the 950bht ticket (separately its 400bht) – which was really something different.
Rest of the afternoon was spent at Wat Pho seeing the Reclining Buddha again:
then having a quick large Chang before I had to shoot off and find a meter taxi (difficult, but doable in Bangkok, even in a traveller neighbourhood) to take me over to Hualamphong station. Taxi driver, when I got one was obsessed with sex and money, so no change there really regardless of wherever I go, unless I tend to attract the money loving nymphomaniac ones and the rest are all Bobby De Niro?
Hualamphong is a station in the classic Victorian style – large train shed with platforms, conductors, helpful station staff, plenty of places to grab supplies and so on. Easy enough to find your train too, and once on-board its a MASSIVE improvement to previous sleepers I’d been on, especially those in India. After a slight delay, we departed the station for our journey into the darkening Thai countryside…
