29^th December 2006 - Reverse culture shock!

Arriving at the shiny modern Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok, we had a strange feeling of returning to the West.  And it wasn't just that the airport was brand new, this weird sensation continued on the bus ride into Bangkok - where was all the dirt and chaos, why did all the people look so clean and healthy and, most importantly, why weren't all the drivers constantly hooting and cutting each other up???  After India, our overwhelming impression of Thailand was of a return to cleanliness and order, a country whose people were friendly and welcoming, but with a natural reserve that made a refreshing change from the overwhelming Indian curiosity.  In short, we loved it!

We stayed at Donna Guesthouse, a fantastic little place just off Khao San Road - a recommendation from Lonely Planet that turned out to be spot on.  We enjoyed the buzz of the crazy traveller ghetto that is Khao San Road, though we were glad to escape to our quiet guesthouse when we'd had enough.  We spent a fun couple of evenings catching up with Frauke and Robert, the German couple travelling on motorbikes who we'd met in Pakistan, and meeting some of their fellow motorbike travellers.  They had just flown their bikes from Kathmandu to Bangkok (the freedom to do this is a major advantage of travelling on a bike rather than in a Land Rover weighing over 2.5 tons!) and were about to head off around SE Asia on them.  We also spent some time hanging out with Angelo, from Bermuda, whom we met on the bus to Chatuchak weekend market.  We spent a pleasant afternoon wandering around the market, where items for sale range from the usual silks and woodcarvings to large chunks of carvings stolen from Angkor Wat (apparently they were removed before the site was legally protected, though we weren't sure this made it any better) to every kind of animal imaginable including cute puppies, rabbits and kittens, somewhat less cute ferrets and not cute at all snakes.  Angelo joined our party again that evening and after Frauke and Robert had called it a night, the three of us hopped in a taxi to check out the seamier side of Bangkok's nightlife.  We headed to Soi Cowboy, a street of strip bars originally opened by an American GI after the Vietnam war, and checked out a couple of the bars.  It was all fairly harmless stuff, though we were pretty impressed by some of the pole-dancing...

Just to prove that we are not total philistines, we did include some more refined cultural activities in our programme.  We spent a great afternoon exploring the various palaces, temples and monuments that make up the Grand Palace complex.  Although these were considerably more ornate than the Buddhist temples we had seen in India and Nepal, we were again impressed by the serene atmosphere in Buddhist places of worship.  Once more we found ourselves pondering the connection between this style of worship and the apparent natural serenity of the local people, whether Tibetan, Nepalese Buddhist or Thai.  Although Buddhism has many principles we do not subscribe to, it is the national religion that has most appealed to us in the countries we have visited on this trip.

As we only had 12 days in Thailand, we decided not to cram too much in and to confine our visit to Bangkok (4 days at the beginning and a further 3 days at the end) and the island of Ko Chang (5 days).  On Ko Chang, we stayed in a basic hut on Lonely Beach (not a very accurate description these days, though it may have been lonely once).  We fell in with a lively crowd of backpackers and had a very relaxing time, spending the days alternating between sitting on the beach and eating lots of delicious food and the evenings chilling out in the various bars along the beach.  No refined cultural experiences to report on Ko Chang, then...