Being back in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Bangkok was weird at first but we adapted quickly. We headed straight for the Royal Hotel to drop our bags and relax after the trip the night before. Tonight was to be our final night as a group.
We all met up on the Ko Shan Road for a few drinks and then headed to a beautifully decorated restaurant just off the hectic Ko Shan Road. Dips and Priya rejoined us after meeting up with their new tour group that would take them all the way down to Singapore. They informed us that there was only one other guy in their new group and the rest were party girls! We had a brilliant meal and enjoyed a few beers before saying goodbyes’ in the rain to our tour guide Caroline. She had been a great guide so we gave her the traditional round of applause as she left! We headed into a pub called Gulliver’s Tavern and all played a game of pool with Gary beating a local who had been undefeated in over 10 matches. Great performance! After this we all hit the hay to rest before our big day of shopping in M.B.K tomorrow!
Before heading to the shopping centre we had to say our goodbye to Dips and Priya. We wish them well on their next adventure!
M.B.K. (Mah Boon Krong) is Bangkok’s most famous shopping centre with 8 floors packed with over 2,000 shops that sell everything you could think of! The cool thing about it is that in the shops pretty much any price is negotiable! After a few hours of shopping we headed to Pizza Hut for a break before saying more goodbyes to Phil, Renee and Rachel all of whom are heading to Australia.
We had heard before going to Thailand that the cinemas are supposed to be a unique experience over here and was one of the “Top 35” things to do according to our rough guide to South-East Asia so we said we’d give it a shot.
We ended up in the V.I.P section to watch “Law Abiding Citizen” and were shocked at how cold it was in the cinema. There was a blanket waiting for each of us on our reclining seats and we quickly wrapped up in it. We weren’t cocooned for too long though, we had to arise for a minute long tribute to the king of Thailand. It’s considered very disrespectful if you don’t stand up for it so we said we better not offend anyone!
The next day it was time to meet up with Priya(C) who had just arrived off her train to get Gary’s passport back. After breakfast we booked our flights to Phuket and then we headed to arrange a tuk-tuk to take us all over Bangkok to see all the main sites. We got the guy down to 20 baht (60cent) for the day including a stop or two, which we were happy to do for the guy.
Our first stop was at the 32 metre(100 foot) high Standing Buddha at Wat Intharawihan, which is an awesome sight. It used to be visible from any high vantage point in the city but is now hidden behind modern buildings.
Next we went to see a 700 year-old Buddha at Wat Traimit. It’s 15.9 feet high and weighs approximately 5 tons. It’s in a nice setting and is unrivalled in beauty! We visited a tailor’s next but we weren’t up for buying anything considering we bought a lot in Vietnam. I did a few freestyle tricks for them to pass the time.
Today was a Holy Day in Thailand so one or two of the temples we visited could not be entered. Finally we were brought to the Grand Palace. Outside it there was a crazy woman with about 100 birds trying to give us bird food. Gary took it and used bags and bags of it. The woman then tried to charge him 300 baht(6 euro) for it. He paid he 100 and left it at that.
On the way to Grand Palace we were shouted at locals to not enter the palace because we weren’t wearing long pants. We weren’t too bothered so we walked around it to Wat Pho, The Temple of the Reclining Buddha.
Wat Pho was built as a restoration of an earlier temple on the same site, Wat Phodharam, with work beginning in 1788. It was restored and extended in the reign of King Rama III (1824-51), and restored again in 1982. Wat Pho is also the birthplace of traditional Thai Massage. It shelters the largest Buddha image in Thailand: the Reclining Buddha (Phra Buddhasaiyas). Created as part of Rama III's restoration (1824-51), the Reclining Buddha is 46 meters long and 15 meters high. It really was an awesome sight and well worth going to see!
After this we were all Buddha’d out and made our way back the hotel to have dinner with Priya the last person we would say goodbye to from the tour! It has been a great journey on the tour the last 30 days and one we will never forget! So much has happened along the way from people getting punched to people leaving due to depression!
We had another great meal and said our goodbyes before packing our bags in preparation of our early morning start on our journey to Koi Phi Phi to see “The Beach”.
Mike
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