Bangkok has been and gone and we have spent out first night at Railey beach near Krabi.... as anticipated, loads has happened since my last post.
We arrived in Bangkok on 4th Sep with two nights booked in a 4 star hotel called Hotel Asia which was a nice hotel connected to the sky train. On the first night we had a look out onto the streets of Bangkok where we tried to find a big market that I've visited before although we couldn't find it at all later to find out that it was the weekend market we'd been after.
We walked a fair way and decided to get a tuk tuk to one of the markets and decided to head for Pat Pong market after some bartering with the tuk tuk driver. We didn't know this but at Pat Pong is one of the main markets associated with the sex industry and every tom dick and harry was trying to get a piece of us - it was very funny but we ignored it all and headed down a more quiet street to get a beer. Half way through our beer we both noticed that there seemed to be quite a few men in couples and the waiter was a bit camp - so after all the lure of women and lady boys we'd walked straight into the gay scene which was funny. We even asked for a map off the waiter and we received the gayest map ever to be made, obviously we left this behind!!!
Swiftly moving on we went for a wander looking for that bloody market and we got accosted by a Thai chap called Dan. He asked us what we were looking for and we said we needed to get hold of a Thai sim card each so we could keep in tuch with our ladies back home. So off he wanders with us in tow looking for a mobile shop which we found instantly. We bought the sims and then said to Dan that we wanted a bite to eat, Thai food obviouisly and a couple of beers so he took us to a little street bar for some local food and beer.
Dan was a bit of a drinker, on us of course, so pretty soon we were a bit drunk but re-fueled on some good quality Thai street food. A bit jet lagged and tired we said we only wanted a couple more beers and followed Dan to another coule of bars. The next one was a kareoke bar which even though it was proper cheese, turned out to be a good laugh even though the owner was trying to fix us up with soe local working girls which we politely turned down. We sat outside the bar having a beer and a guy walked up to us with a small elephant and even though the poor thing was being exploited for tourism it was still a pretty cool thing to see - he kept blowing his trumpet when we gave him a stroke and some food!
Dan then dragged us to the gay scence again and we gave him the slip and went back to the hotel - he showed us some good local bars and he got free food and drink out of us so he did pretty well out of it. Back at the hotel, neither of us were tired so we played poker til god knows what time for whiskey. Kev is the luckiest man alive so I drank almost all of the whiskey and collapsed on my bed at about 4am I think. I woke with the worst hangover in history to the hotel phone ringing at about 5pm - 5pm!! Low and behold it was our friend Dan waiting in reception to exlpoit the tourists again. We had a shower and met Dan again for a couple of hours. Only a couple of hours though as we had to catch an 8am flight to Krabi on the next morning, Sat 6th Sep.
We went to a local Thai restarant and had Thai green curry which was awesome and took a look over to Ko San road. That was a pretty cool experience as it was really busy with tourists and locals and I took some good videos and pics. Next we decided to see a Ping Pong show, if you don't know what that is use your imagination - think sticky vicky with Thai girls (and lady boys). We went back to Pat Pong market and went in a bar called 'Super Pussy'. I have to say that it was the most uncomfortable exerience ever and after one beer and our pockets being emptied we decided to take a b-line for the door - not my idea of a good time but I guess we had to do it in Bangkok.
Next door was a bar with a boxing ring inside and some people on the door were trying to lure us in to watch some Thai Boxing. Having been ripped off for about 25 pounds in the last bar we were very wary but found out it was 100 Baht for a beer which is miles cheaper at about 1 pound 50. Inside there were still a lot of working girls but we just ignored them and waited for the boxing. We thought It'd be just a show but once it started we reailsed it wasn't as two young Thai guys started beating the shit out of each other - it was unreal. I've caught most of it on video and some of the punches were landed hard, one of them was caught clean on the chin and we saw the whites of his eyes as he hit the floor!! The atmosphere was electric and we watched two fights in total before the ring was removed and the bar turned into a pole dancing club!! Fortunately the girls were just dancing on tables unlike the last bar where they were going for our pockets so it was less intimidating. Both tired, we decided to head back to the hotel as we had an early flight to catch. We paid Dan a nominal fee, which is wasn't entirely happy with, and we got a taxi back to the hotel.
Our body clocks were screwed and neither of us were tired so we decided to have a couple more beers in the rock bar opposite the hotel. This was at about 1am and considering we had to leave the hotel at 6am we headed back to the hotel for a bit.... neither of us were tired so we headed downstairs for some food and checked out without having any sleep. The taxi ride to the airport was pretty relaxing as the sun was coming up behind us although the driver was a bit too hapy with his brakes!
Thai Airways to Krabi was a pleasure and we landed in sunny Krabi just after 9am and caught a taxi to Ao Nang where where we were to catch a long boat to Tonsai Beach resort on the west side of Railey beach. We met two young travellers, James and James, who we caught a long boat with and we got dropped off about 100m from our resort. The sun was out and it was a lush boat trip and we got a good chance to take in the beautiful scenery along the way - what a contrast to Bangkok!!
We checked in to our beach hut, really small and simple but at 12 pounds per night we weren't complaing - although there is only one bed which I guess we're going to have to get used to. We also found out that there is no electricty until 5pm, which means no hot water, and that the internet cafe isn't open until 6pm so we had a bite to eat and caught a long boat to the main part of Railey Beach. I was here last year and to say that it's changed would be an understatement - I hardly recognised anything and the west side looks like it has been hit by a hurricane or something.
Later on we found out that it's development for tourists! We found this out after talking to an English guy called Terry - an absolutely nuts guy who's been in Thailand for 8 years - he told us some stories that we can't reallt repeat on here! We drank with Terry and some locals until about 6pm when we went for the last long boat. Still having had no sleep since the first night in Bangkok, we headed back and caught a couple of beers near our resort and had the longest game of checkers in history - we're both stubborn and competitive, determined not to lose and we ended up calling it a draw :0).
We woke to gailforce winds today and too much rain for sunbathing so we stayed in bed until about 3pm and have been waiting around for the internet cafe to open. Kev's getting stressed out as the speed is horrendous and the woman working here looks like she has only just been introduced to PC's. We're working out what to do next, deciding that we can't be arsed with Phuket as we've just found out it's worse that Bangkok for the sex industry. There's a half moon Party in Ko Phang Yang next Sunday so I think we're going to aim for that.
The Elephant, Thai Boxing and Terry have been the highlights for me so far but I'm hoping that some sunshine and a bit of Kayaking will overtake that tomorrow.
LeeBangkok has been and gone and we have spent out first night at Railey beach near Krabi.... as anticipated, loads has happened since my last post.
We arrived in Bangkok on 4th Sep with two nights booked in a 4 star hotel called Hotel Asia which was a nice hotel connected to the sky train. On the first night we had a look out onto the streets of Bangkok where we tried to find a big market that I've visited before although we couldn't find it at all later to find out that it was the weekend market we'd been after.
We walked a fair way and decided to get a tuk tuk to one of the markets and decided to head for Pat Pong market after some bartering with the tuk tuk driver. We didn't know this but at Pat Pong is one of the main markets associated with the sex industry and every tom dick and harry was trying to get a piece of us - it was very funny but we ignored it all and headed down a more quiet street to get a beer. Half way through our beer we both noticed that there seemed to be quite a few men in couples and the waiter was a bit camp - so after all the lure of women and lady boys we'd walked straight into the gay scene which was funny. We even asked for a map off the waiter and we received the gayest map ever to be made, obviously we left this behind!!!
Swiftly moving on we went for a wander looking for that bloody market and we got accosted by a Thai chap called Dan. He asked us what we were looking for and we said we needed to get hold of a Thai sim card each so we could keep in tuch with our ladies back home. So off he wanders with us in tow looking for a mobile shop which we found instantly. We bought the sims and then said to Dan that we wanted a bite to eat, Thai food obviouisly and a couple of beers so he took us to a little street bar for some local food and beer.
Dan was a bit of a drinker, on us of course, so pretty soon we were a bit drunk but re-fueled on some good quality Thai street food. A bit jet lagged and tired we said we only wanted a couple more beers and followed Dan to another coule of bars. The next one was a kareoke bar which even though it was proper cheese, turned out to be a good laugh even though the owner was trying to fix us up with soe local working girls which we politely turned down. We sat outside the bar having a beer and a guy walked up to us with a small elephant and even though the poor thing was being exploited for tourism it was still a pretty cool thing to see - he kept blowing his trumpet when we gave him a stroke and some food!
Dan then dragged us to the gay scence again and we gave him the slip and went back to the hotel - he showed us some good local bars and he got free food and drink out of us so he did pretty well out of it. Back at the hotel, neither of us were tired so we played poker til god knows what time for whiskey. Kev is the luckiest man alive so I drank almost all of the whiskey and collapsed on my bed at about 4am I think. I woke with the worst hangover in history to the hotel phone ringing at about 5pm - 5pm!! Low and behold it was our friend Dan waiting in reception to exlpoit the tourists again. We had a shower and met Dan again for a couple of hours. Only a couple of hours though as we had to catch an 8am flight to Krabi on the next morning, Sat 6th Sep.
We went to a local Thai restarant and had Thai green curry which was awesome and took a look over to Ko San road. That was a pretty cool experience as it was really busy with tourists and locals and I took some good videos and pics. Next we decided to see a Ping Pong show, if you don't know what that is use your imagination - think sticky vicky with Thai girls (and lady boys). We went back to Pat Pong market and went in a bar called 'Super Pussy'. I have to say that it was the most uncomfortable exerience ever and after one beer and our pockets being emptied we decided to take a b-line for the door - not my idea of a good time but I guess we had to do it in Bangkok.
Next door was a bar with a boxing ring inside and some people on the door were trying to lure us in to watch some Thai Boxing. Having been ripped off for about 25 pounds in the last bar we were very wary but found out it was 100 Baht for a beer which is miles cheaper at about 1 pound 50. Inside there were still a lot of working girls but we just ignored them and waited for the boxing. We thought It'd be just a show but once it started we reailsed it wasn't as two young Thai guys started beating the shit out of each other - it was unreal. I've caught most of it on video and some of the punches were landed hard, one of them was caught clean on the chin and we saw the whites of his eyes as he hit the floor!! The atmosphere was electric and we watched two fights in total before the ring was removed and the bar turned into a pole dancing club!! Fortunately the girls were just dancing on tables unlike the last bar where they were going for our pockets so it was less intimidating. Both tired, we decided to head back to the hotel as we had an early flight to catch. We paid Dan a nominal fee, which is wasn't entirely happy with, and we got a taxi back to the hotel.
Our body clocks were screwed and neither of us were tired so we decided to have a couple more beers in the rock bar opposite the hotel. This was at about 1am and considering we had to leave the hotel at 6am we headed back to the hotel for a bit.... neither of us were tired so we headed downstairs for some food and checked out without having any sleep. The taxi ride to the airport was pretty relaxing as the sun was coming up behind us although the driver was a bit too hapy with his brakes!
Thai Airways to Krabi was a pleasure and we landed in sunny Krabi just after 9am and caught a taxi to Ao Nang where where we were to catch a long boat to Tonsai Beach resort on the west side of Railey beach. We met two young travellers, James and James, who we caught a long boat with and we got dropped off about 100m from our resort. The sun was out and it was a lush boat trip and we got a good chance to take in the beautiful scenery along the way - what a contrast to Bangkok!!
We checked in to our beach hut, really small and simple but at 12 pounds per night we weren't complaing - although there is only one bed which I guess we're going to have to get used to. We also found out that there is no electricty until 5pm, which means no hot water, and that the internet cafe isn't open until 6pm so we had a bite to eat and caught a long boat to the main part of Railey Beach. I was here last year and to say that it's changed would be an understatement - I hardly recognised anything and the west side looks like it has been hit by a hurricane or something.
Later on we found out that it's development for tourists! We found this out after talking to an English guy called Terry - an absolutely nuts guy who's been in Thailand for 8 years - he told us some stories that we can't reallt repeat on here! We drank with Terry and some locals until about 6pm when we went for the last long boat. Still having had no sleep since the first night in Bangkok, we headed back and caught a couple of beers near our resort and had the longest game of checkers in history - we're both stubborn and competitive, determined not to lose and we ended up calling it a draw :0).
We woke to gailforce winds today and too much rain for sunbathing so we stayed in bed until about 3pm and have been waiting around for the internet cafe to open. Kev's getting stressed out as the speed is horrendous and the woman working here looks like she has only just been introduced to PC's. We're working out what to do next, deciding that we can't be arsed with Phuket as we've just found out it's worse that Bangkok for the sex industry. There's a half moon Party in Ko Phang Yang next Sunday so I think we're going to aim for that.
The Elephant, Thai Boxing and Terry have been the highlights for me so far but I'm hoping that some sunshine and a bit of Kayaking will overtake that tomorrow.
Lee
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