Coping with the heat

People i met here, who contributed to and improved my trip: Juliana (Russia)

As the temperature reached +40, we tended to spend more time awake in the cool of the night, sleeping in the daytime. When we did venture out, it was necessary to drink plenty of fluids and try and keep in the shade as much as possible. To be quite honest, i didn't want to spend too much time in Bangkok regardless of the weather, but we had 10 days until our flight to Manila and everything was shut for Songkran, then i became ill and finally we needed our Phillipines visas.

My frustrations with Bangkok were also increased by a couple of incidents. Firstly the Phillipines embassy were not very nice, unlike the wonderful one in Laos, not only making us come up with all sorts of documentation, but also charging 25% more for exactly the same visa.

Secondly our hotel receptionist lost some of our clothes in the laundry and was adamant that it wasn't their responsibility, i'm also sure that if it was food poisoning that i had, it must have been from their restaurant. Thirdly i was refused entry to the royal palace because my shorts were not long enough. This seemed fair enough, but when i saw them letting in women in mini skirts and thai's with shorts half the size of mine, wearing open shoes, i got really annoyed. I sat and watched as they picked and chose who to refuse and then laughed about it. I decided that if that was the way they do things, then i'd rather keep my money and let Julia go in alone. Lastly we had to go to the police station, as a taxi driver took us on a merry go round tour of Bangkok, not realising we knew what he was doing. Thankfully the police sided with us and didn't make us pay the full fare. I keep telling myself its only a few people, but these incidences put a real dampener on your experience, especially after spending 2 hassle free months in Cambodia and Laos.

So what were the pluses of Bangkok... We took a couple of nice boat rides down the Mae nam Chao Phraya and saw Wat Arun on the banks and also Wat Traimit a few hundred metres from the river. The latter has an impressive golden buddha, which was only discovered when somebody accidentally dropped the buddha in transit, cracking the old protective stucco and revealing a real treasure inside! We also spent an hour or so looking around Wat Pho, which houses a beautiful 46m long and 15m high reclining Buddha, a really impressive sight.

We also took a couple of tiring walks along Sukhumvit street, going shopping in the Siam Square area, although buying a new camera, complete with underwater housing and tripod on Khao San Road... watch this space for pictures! Other things of interest included a trip on the sky train, a walk to the Independence Monument and a couple of late night walks to the Royal Palace, Phra Sumen Fort and down by the river. We spent several nights in the bars on Khao San Road and ate plenty of street side snacks, including Pad Thai, chocolate and banana pancakes and kebabs, but NO creepy crawlies! Its a really interesting city, but my third visit only confirmed my initial feelings, that it just isn't a city that i particularly like :( Maybe i will have better luck next time i come back :)