Bangkok pt 1
- Tara Larkai
- Sep 6, 2014
- 6 min read
My hubby and I had been planning this trip for several months now and we were thrilled that it was finally here. The getting to Bangkok was very smooth unlike my previous trips. Perhaps because we flew out of a different airport. We arrived in Bnagkok at 11p but you wouldn't be able to tell because the airport was still very lively. Immigration was a breeze! I was very pleased with the experience so far.
First impression of Bangkok out of the airport - Hot Damn!!! At that time of the night, it was way too hot and humid. We immediately started sweating while waiting for our car. I thought to myself, if it is this hot at night, it must be worse during the day when sunny. We were taken to our hotel by a private car that we had arranged with the hotel. We stayed at Baiyok Sky hotel- the tallest building in Bangkok with 360 views of the city. After checking in and getting situated it was 1am. We wanted to turn up but we also had an early tour the next day at 6am so we opted to have a thai dinner at the hotel instead of going out. Our first authentic thai food did not disappoint. It was quite good!
We had scheduled a day trip tour with a tour company to do some touristy staff like elephant ride, tiger temple etc for our first official full day in Bangkok. The plan was for them to pick us up at our hotel at 6.30am so after a quick breakfast in our hotel we were downstairs waiting for them but 6:30a turned into 7.30am without warning. Thai people are kind of like African people. They do not abide by the rules and are never on time. We were picked up in a full van that almost didn't have enough space for us. Curious to know why we were picked up that early, I asked the driver how long the ride was to our first stop. He said he had to take us to the office to switch transportation. After 15 minutes of riding in the van with our fellow tourists, we arrived on a busy street. He parked the van on the side of the street and asked us to get out into the van behind us. (That was the office he was referring to smh). There were several other vans parked on the street. More tourists were dropped off as we waited in our new van so we watched as people were taken to different vans. I think each van was a different tour or something. After what seemed like 30 minutes of watching the drivers running around like chickenheads matching people up with their tour vans, it was time to drive to our first destination, Kanchanaburi. The drive there was about 2 hours. Our first stop there was at the Kanchanaburi War cemetery. We did not care much about it so after a quick glimpse of it, we ditched our group and went shopping across the street.
After our allotted 30 minutes, it was time to move on to our next stop, River Kwai. Here, we took a tour of the Jeath War museum, River Kwai bridge and did some shopping from the many shops and street stalls.
The history behind the River Kwai bridge is very fascinating however I cannot say the same for the sight of the bridge. It is very small and underwhelming. What was interesting that really stood out to me was the fact that the bridge was also a railroad but the Thai people do not seem to care. Alot of food kiosks and stalls set up on the railroad/bridge and move each time a train has to travel. They get right back on the railroad as soon as the train passes. It seems like a lot of work to me but judging by the speed they move out of the way when the horn blows, i'm guessing they are used to it. Shopping here was so much fun as the items are very cheap and you can bargain almost everything but this only applies to the street stalls. Please do not bargain with the big stores as they get very offended by this. The food kiosks are a delight! You can enjoy stuff like fresh coconut juice, grilled or steam corn, sausages, fried rice etc. I think we sampled them all.
After this, we had to switch Vans again, smh. Our unofficial tour guide said our tour package was different from some of the people from our previous van so we had to switch. Our new Van was heading to the Elephant camp, tiger temple and waterfall. We were really looking forward to the second leg of our tour. They are the main reason for purchasing the package. After an hour of driving, we arrived at the Elephant camp. There were 5 people in our group. One Filipino couple and an Australian who was travelling solo. We were immediately greeted and put on the Elephants. We took a 30 minute trek on the Elephants near the camp. Initially, I was terrified because the ride was not smooth, very bumpy, it reminded me of a camel ride but i got over my fear a few minutes in. It was so much fun. Our guide charged us 100 baths to take pics of us on the elephant smh. He then tried to sell us some souvenirs telling us that they were made out of elephant bones. They are such Hustlers!
Next on our itinerary was...Bamboo rafting. We did this at the river by the elephant camp. We took a speed boat to the middle of the river where a bamboo raft was waiting for us and we all got on the very small raft with our life vests on of course. It was very relaxing once you ease your mind about what could go wrong. We enjoyed the view as we drifted slowly back to our starting point. It was a great experience.
We breaked for lunch which was included in our tour. We were taken to nearby outside restaurant for a "Very" basic lunch. We were given fried rice, chicken sauce, vegetables and omelets for lunch. Drinks were extra. It was lacking in taste and did not satisfy my appetite. We then headed to some waterfall. It was very disappointing to say the least. We tried to convince our driver to take us to the floating market instead but the man did not speak a lick of English and communicating with him was painful. Plus he was given strict instructions on where to take us according to the tour we purchased. The Thai people seemed to really enjoy the waterfalls. We saw people bathing and playing in it.
The finale was the tiger temple. More people joined us in our van from the waterfall place to the tiger temple. We each had to pay 600 bahts that was not included in our tour package for the tiger temple. It was a long walk from the gate to the temple or where the tigers were. Upon arrival, we quickly learned that the temple is ran by Australians. HOW? They gave us a quick guide on how to behave and the photo opportunity included in our package. We had to leave all our loose items behind that the tigers could possibly mistaken for a toy. We then got in line and waited our turn to take pictures with the tigers. There were more than 10 tigers total. Each person is led by a tiger temple worker who walks you to each tiger and takes a picture of you while you pose with the wild animals. The tigers were chained up and appeared very calm. I am assuming they were tranquilized because that is not normal tiger behavior. We then headed up to see the baby tigers play. They were soo cute. That temple is also a zoo, well that is what I call it because there are all sorts of animals there like pigs, cattles, ostrich, buffaloes, horses, bears, birds etc.
What an eventful day! The ride back to Bangkok was about 3 hours due to rain and thunderstorms. I thought the van was to take each person back to their hotels where they were picked up but we were all dropped off on Khoason road in Bangkok. I immediately turned into an angry black woman and cursed this driver out demanding him to take us to our hotel. The poor man did not understand anything i was saying and kept saying, "Khoason road here". He then called his supervisor, even with all my yelling and screaming the supervisor still said Khoasan road was our final destination. I was set on giving them a bad review and requesting for a refund but after reviewing our tour itinerary once more, I realized that I was wrong and were supposed to be dropped off at Khoason road. What a fool I acted! lol
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