Bangkok - the final chapter -

Having made the overnight train journey down to Bangkok we revisited the Khao San road area for a 3rd time on our trip. After having to stay a night in our last choice guest house we managed to get in at our favourite... New Siam II. This is a great place to stay and nearly always full. It was a good location as it wasn't right in the main backpacker area but just on the edge so you weren't out of things.

Our feelings were mixed as we entered Bangkok for the final time - from Vanessa's excitement at the possibility of a shopping extravaganza to the low and realisation of our last week of close to 5 months travelling and to the anticipation of finally being able to settle and start to build a new life in / back in Oz. We didn't have extensive plans for our final week but did want to try and see some of the sites that we didn't have time for in our previous visits as well as some of the nightlife that had been recommended by others we'd met on our travels. To begin with we took a trip on the river. The river was surprisingly choppy but our guide soon took us along the backwaters of the city and we uncovered the quieter Bangkok life of inhabitants living on or next to the water. It was by no means spectacular but still nice to see the variety of houses and the verandas that each seemed to have for guests or just sitting and relaxing.

Following this trip, the next day we visited the Grand Palace. Here we had to hire short sleeve shirts and long trousers out of respect for the Buddhist religion. We ended up looking like - along with everyone else - MC Hammer lookalikes! The palace itself was pretty impressive. Lots of decorative gold leaf, but also a fusion of styles introduced by the various Kings of Thailand over the years. We saw 3 stupah's on the upper terrace dedicated to Cambodia (in the style of Angkor), Thailand and a gold stupah similar to those we had visited in Sri Lanka. Our guide was very informative, but also very strict which we found quite funny but unfortunately he didn't really reciprocate our good humour. The paintings / murals around the walls of the palace were also really interesting to see and were similar to those we'd seen in Angkor and even in India. This wasn't surprising however, due to the link with Buddhism in India and throughout SE Asia. The more modern parts of the Palace were strange with obvious influences from France and England. Indeed one of the building's was designed by a British architect and was very English but with a thai roof...in fact apart from that it looked remarkedly similar to Kings Cross station!

Our night time activities centred around the area around Chatuchak night markets. The markets themselves were great with everything on offer, including all the latest films at the cinema on dodgy Thai DVD. We also bought our first proper art piece here. A nice bright and vibrant oil painting. It was actually the first one we both looked at and immediately both liked. Once you'd had enough of shopping the markets also played host to great food and entertainment with lots of food and beer stalls surrounding tables and at one end a live band with dancing girls overlooked by a huge screen showing Premiership football, Perfect! The Thais successfully catered to both of us...

Our second night around Chatuchak took us to the nearby Thai boxing (Muay Thai) stadium - Lumpini stadium. The tickets cost a mint (ok for ringside seats) but we had to see it. We weren't disappointed and saw 6 matches in the 3 hours we were there. The Thai people were very passionate and the boxers very skilled but also very light. The heaviest we saw were around 115 lbs. Before each match the boxers would participate in a preparation ritual which involved praying / bowing in each corner of the ring and then performing a kind of dance around each other in the centre. The fighting was full on and a few times we saw blood being spilt. We didn't see any knockouts or towels thrown in though and the fights were decided by the number and quality of direct hits connecting with the opponent using fist, elbow, thigh or foot. The atmosphere was electric as the 4th / 5th rounds came on and the Thai's started betting frantically.

For our final 3 nights we decided to treat ourselves for the final time by checking into a proper hotel so we booked the Asia Hotel which was handily located next to a Sky Train station. Still, didn't really matter as Taxi's were so cheap and easy to come by that we used them to get around usually. We had a big comfortable room with cable TV and comparatively more grandeur than usual.

We treated ourselves by visiting two of the highest points in Bangkok for a drink and dinner. Sirocco is probably the most amazing bar we've both been to. On the 64th floor of the State Tower we were drinking at an open air bar that had spectacular views across Bangkok's night life. Drinks were pricey but the experience was worth it. The bar changed different fluorescent colours and a jazz band played on a platform to the side of it. From there we made our way to the Baiyoke Sky tower where we had an all you can eat buffet meal. Unfortunately, this was far from the exclusiveness we had experienced at Sirocco and the views weren't quite as good, but still we'd lived it up pretty well.

The shopping around our hotel - the Siam area was also pretty amazing. The shopping centres were numerous, from the electronics complex of Pantip Plaza to the bargain MBK Centre and the Siam Square and Siam Discovery centre. All of these were at least 6 storey's high and a good few hundred metres wide. We watched Memoirs of a Geisha in comfy sofas in the MBK cinema (6.5/10 Vanessa, 3/10 Andy) and picked up plenty of pairs of the cheapest Diesel and Replay jeans as well as t-shirts and more DVD's. However, all of these places were eclipsed by the amazing Siam Paragon shopping centre with immaculate designer shops and the best quality food court we'd seen. We picked up a few bargains in the sale...

The final day came upon us and we were now slightly over budget after all the shopping....even though I'd decided against a new PS2, footy boots, video iPod and Armani jacket. Amazingly, we managed to cram all our purchases into our existing luggage (plus one extra bag we had to buy) and were just inside the Emirates limit. We headed to the airport with our final mad taxi driver...who had verbal diarrhoea and kept talking and laughing the whole way. A fitting final journey after many other similar mad journeys over the past 5 months.

We had an amazing 5 months. There are plenty of happy and fantastic memories to take with us to our new life in Australia as well as some invaluable life lessons and appreciation for everything that we have. We're fortunately able to have just peeked into some of the poverty that exists in the places that we've visited rather than actually have to live it day to day. But to see how happy people were with so little and how kids can make a game out of a plastic bag and rolled up paper it really does raise the question of do we really need everything that we have? Of course we're already talking of flats looking over the harbour and plasma screen TV's but hopefully we won't forget and will try and help out those we've met on our travels. We're now looking forward to the next phase - for Vanessa finally returning home and for Andy starting a new career and new life in a country with more sport on TV than anywhere else he's been! ;-) Wish us luck...
Andy Wright and Vanessa Toutounji
Andy Wright and Vanessa Toutounji
Andy Wright and Vanessa Toutounji
Andy Wright and Vanessa Toutounji