Entering Thailand: Bangkok

Apart from sitting at either end of the plane from each other, the flight over from Kathmandu to Bangkok (via good old Delhi) was pretty harmless. Shabby food, mediocre film, but the most incredible views over the Himalayas and the mighty Mt. Everest.

I will admit straight away that I was pretty worried about our arrival into Bangkok. Hearing stories about the hussle, the dirt, the traffic and Kao San road led me to think that we wouldn’t enjoy our stay…maybe we could just stop over in the city for one night then move on. It would turn out that I couldn’t have been further wrong about the place. This is a common problem I have with travelling and pre-reading about our future stops. It’s so easy to skip all the positive reviews and weight too much influence on the negative comments. When booking a hotel, we would often flick past the ‘good’ reviews and read the negative ones, thinking for some reason that they carry more truth. It’s a crazy idea. Follow these rules and we’d end up sleeping on the streets, which obviously we don’t! I suppose its a way to try and get the best value for our money…but those negative reviews, be it for a hotel, restaurant, a tour, a temple: you name it, negativity isn’t hard to find, you just to take those comments with a rather large pinch of salt.

We arrived into the airport, struggled with our visas for a little while then grabbed our bags and headed for the taxi rank. There were no tuk tuks, no bicycle rickshaws and no vehicles that appeared to have more than 50k on their clocks: where were we? All the taxi’s, with gleaming yellow and green paint jobs, had full leather upholsteries, A/C as standard and most ran on chrome alloys; we were confused, but on the inside, a little happy! Our ticket was punched in and our taxi driver met us at the ticket counter to ‘guide’ us to his car. This car in fact turned out to be the only pink painted car in the entire underground parking lot…it was getting better and better!

The ride into the city was taken in silence, just like our first experience of Delhi 6 months previous, but for completely different reasons. We were starring at pure wealth. Cars worth more than the average house in the UK and skyscrapers draped with huge digital screens offering the latest in technology. A mere 3 hour flight from Delhi had delivered us into yet another world.

By the time we hit town, it was already in full flow. Bright lights lined the streets, blinding tourists from bar to bar. Each bar that we passed blared out various genres of music, from jazz to hip hop, classical to death metal, it was all such a mash up, like a menagerie without a theme. But it was fun, and in the nights to come, Malene and I would fully dive into the craziness that is Bangkok.

On our first day in Bangkok, we visited a lovely little art gallery and met the 2 artists whose material was on show. It was all quite surreal as we watched their art being fixed to the gallery’s walls and chatted to them about their ideas. Outside the gallery, there was an interesting array of food on offer, but we had just eaten breakfast and politely turned down the offer to try it out…

As insignificant as it may sound, one of the beauties of Bangkok, and certainly a way in which it differs from India and Nepal, is it’s use of pavements. Of course they exist in the aforementioned countries, but the difference here is that you can actually walk on them: shock horror! In Nepal, the pavement area is used as an extension to shops, or for parking, which makes walking on them impossible. In India there weren’t any, but thats India. Well done Bangkok, another thumbs up from us.

The Grand Palace is kind of a ‘must do’ for those visiting Bangkok. After the initial shock of the price and Malene had hired a pink shirt to cover her arms and chest, we waded through the hundreds of people as we gazed at the impressive temples. True, by this point of our trip, we had already seen what felt like a million temples and were running risk of what’s known as ‘temple burn-out’, but it was still an interesting area. The various monuments all surround the huge Temple of Emerald Buddha which houses a beautiful green sitting Buddha. It was particularly wonderful to listen to the chanting monks and locals which can easily entrance you as you walk around the tightly packed grounds.

Malene and I were trying to get used to the heat, which was different to Nepal and reminded us of what it was like when we first entered India in mid-September. As the midday sun roared down on us, we dived between covered markets and occasionally into air conditioned shopping centers. The only problem with the later, is your body quickly gets used to the cool temperature, and returning back into the sun feels like stepping back into an uncontrollable oven.

Moving around the city is a breeze, especially by tuk tuk, most of which come fully equipped with huge, big-bore exhausts and sub-woofers to match. One lesson we learnt quickly was the various prices for using these tuk tuks. If you didn’t mind a stop off in one or two suit shops, then the price of the journey would be minimal, sometimes free as the driver would get a token for free fuel out of it. If you didn’t want a stop off then the price goes up…a lot! We tried a couple of suit shops, pretended we were interested, maybe mentioned that we would come back another day, but it’s no fun, plus you’re wasting the sellers time, and your own as well.

On the final night, Malene and I travelled across the city to one of its biggest theatres: the Siam Niramit Here we saw an incredible show of dance, music and theatrical play. In the most amazing theatre I have ever been in, we were treated to a show that we’ll never forget. The show included the history and culture of Thailand and even had a river flowing through it. With fireworks, floating candles, elephants, rain and, well, a river: it’s a night we’ll never forget.

On this last evening, we ended up miles from our hotel and found a parked taxi. Thinking it would be wildly expensive, we in fact got a good shock. I was barely more expensive than a tuk tuk and that’s without any stops…perfect, another thumbs up for Bangkok.

We of course tried Sao Kan road for an evening out. It was definitely as wild as everyone makes it out to be. With a huge mixture of people, young and old, tourists and locals all were crammed down the street. ‘Lively’ doesn’t do it justice. With live music in every other bar, we sat down, ordered a bucket and let the street entertain us. They was even a trio of break dancers whose backflips, head spins and turtle walking had everyone in awe.

‘In awe’, kind of sums up Bangkok. The biker groups that perform wheelies down the streets at night, the local police riding around on pink scooters, the beautiful floating houses, the impressive 18 meter tall gold standing Buddha, all add intrigue and great reasons to visit this amazing city. My worries beforehand came from too much reading and too many other peoples negative responses to the city. Personally, I couldn’t recommend it highly enough. True, it is catered for tourists and the prices are double compared to India and Nepal, but for a trip back into ‘normal’ life, Bangkok ticked far more boxes than we ever imagined possible.

P.S. What do you think of the new layout? Photos within the text; fancy I know. Did you prefer the old style, making it easy to skip all the waffle and straight to the pics?

Never too old…

Surely one of the greatest things about being a helper in an orphanage come school come home of 30 children is playtime. It’s so easy back at home to stick on the TV or switch the computer on. Here, those options aren’t available…excellent! Although the resources maybe a little limited, the imagination is here in bundles and the result; an endless variety of games. I will try and guide you through a few of them, but to be honest, we’re still new at all this, much to the amusement of the children.

There is a real buzz of excitement when school finishes and the games come out. There is also a hierarchy of games which becomes apparent as the children scramble over each other for the most desirable Lego, or the most used playing cards. Of course, the popularity of these games changes on a near daily basis. Trying to keep up with the latest ‘games fashion’ here in India proves impossible. One game that seems to be a favourite amongst all ages is marbles. It’s also a game that is far more technical than I had ever imagined. The children battle it out to claim victory and ultimately possession over each others marbles; a far more important currency than money! There appear to be 2 main techniques used. Firstly the traditional throw from a pre-determined line towards the target of other marbles. The second technique requires far more skill as a marble is flicked using the 1st finger of one hand creating quite immense back spin. The children are incredibly accurate, I just have to try and use my long arms to an advantage.

Of course cricket is very popular here. It’s so good to get the children involved in a team game and again, all ages seem to love taking part. When we first arrived, we used a flat piece of wood and a large orange plastic ball which would make a big hollow sound every time someone got a good connection. We’re lucky enough now to have a couple of ‘real’ bats and some stumps, but in fairness, the excitement is the same.

A new game here is volley ball. Someone kindly donated the ball and whilst we have the use of a harvested field, the children love the ease at which they can hit the ball. There is always a whirlpool of excitement as any object is hurled into the air, be it a cricket ball, volley ball or any other object. I think it’s partly the danger of being struck by the falling ball and partly the challenge of seeing who can reach the highest heights.

I shouldn’t go any further without mentioning cards. Normal playing cards, picture cards, even ABC cards are hugely popular here. In a lot of the small communities here, the adults play cards under big trees in the evening and the children can but watch over their shoulders. However, in school, they have their own cards, their own games and rules. They feel that they are playing a serious game, normally only played by adults. It’s great fun teaching them new variations and games and they are incredibly quick to soak up new rules. ‘Go Fish’ is a particular favorite right now and often played by Malene with her nursery class during school.

An old favorite, and another game for all ages is skipping. For an instant rush of adrenaline, the children love playing this simple game. Be it on their own with a short rope or in groups of 4,5,6 or more with a long rope! It’s great fun seeing who can go the longest or fastest or even do the craziest tricks. Again, not so popular back home any more, but for simplicity and fun, this is a winner for me. One song/video I think they will enjoy is by DJ Fresh – Gold dust – YouTube this for a good skipping song.

Malene and I brought a frisbee over which is one of their favorites at the moment. Again, making the frisbee spin as high as possible is great fun for the children and there are always many hands running after it. Of course the older boys get a size advantage with this game, but by making it a team sport, the smaller ones stand more of a chance of having a couple of throws themselves. The only issue we occasionally have is loosing the frisbee in the rice field. Finding it doesn’t normally provide a challenge, but everyone knows about the snakes that live in the fields, so it’s best to steer clear when possible.

A new addition to the games ensemble is chess. Although only a few of the older ones are learning to play, this really is a lovely game for just sitting down and relaxing. Often when the midday sun is blazing, it’s nice to come inside and cool down – of course whilst playing a game that is. I love playing chess with the children as it gives a perfect opportunity to get to know them a little better. We both feel that the one thing these children miss, is a big brother or big sister to look up to and ask questions. A lot of them are going through difficult times in their lives and its a privilege when they come to us for advice.

Being the fine dancer that she is, Malene is teaching some of the children traditional dance which is a huge hit, especially with the older ones. Although they’re still a little shy to dance with each other, they often eagerly queue up to dance with either Malene or myself. The fact that I was born with 2 left feet doesn’t help, but we all have immense fun, often to the sound of “1…2… Cha Cha Cha”.

Bowling or ‘skittles’ as the children call it is also great fun. We use old water bottles with a little water in to keep them standing. Downstairs the polished floor makes for a perfect bowling alley. It gets quiet crazy this game and keeping score is a bit of a challenge, but all of the children love hurtling the orange balls down as fast as they can. My job is to simply replace the fallen bottles and watch them all cheering.

There are so many games played here, most of which I wouldn’t know how to describe. Some appear to have a million rules whereas others have none. One thing they all have in common is the energy used to play them with. The children also love when we have ideas of new games for them. For example, hop-skotch is a favorite with the girls whilst the simple idea of a running race is great for the boys. If anyone reading this has any ideas of fun games to play, please leave us a comment and we’ll be sure to try it out. The only thing we need to do, is try to keep up with the children, a true challenge!

I hope you enjoyed reading about some of the games we play over here. It really makes us feel very young again which is great, the only thing we need is more ideas. It’s lovely seeing the children playing out our childhood games and its clear to see they love it too.