Thailand Photos – Excuse the bad ones…

Things have been better since the last post! I spent my first day relaxing / eating, after going without food after I left Melbourne as I refused to pay Jet Star extra for meals on the plane.

Started the day with a very Thai breakfast; scrambled eggs and coffee, with an English guy who’s been travelling here for a couple months. Spent some time at the hostel I’m staying at, NapPark Hostel, which is by far the nicest hostel I’ve ever stayed at/seen in my life. Each bed is separated by dividers and your bed is made daily, you’re given fresh towels, a free locker, your own power-points next to the bed and even a mini TV attached to the wall next to each bed, all for $17/night. The bathrooms are also incredibly nice, and downstairs there’s a huge communal area both inside and outside.

After going for a walk with some other guys from the hostel, a few of us went to a Muay Thai Kick-boxing match. It was a little pricey because we decided to be ballers and spend 2000THB ($65) on ring-side seats, but we felt like kings for a few hours so it was worth it.

It was pretty much 4 hours of 15-year-old Thai kids beating the shit out of each other- so basically: awesome. An American we were with and I were betting on each match, with the loser buying the other a bear. Even though it was really only $2 a match, I was getting very emotionally involved, screaming at the boxers who were losing me my money and beer, and then lecturing their coaches on Muay Thai strategy. The photo of the kid knocked out is one of those responsible for me ending down 3 beers, but I’m 90% sure the matches were fixed so I shouldn’t really complain. Oh I should mention that on the way to the match, our taxi driver was enjoying showing us his Muay Thai skills so much that he hit a dog by accident (I hope), but don’t worry, the dog was okay. He was a little more concerned about the damage to his car, and seemed pretty sad about it afterwards.

Today the American and I went to the Grand Palace and Reclining Buddah, as he had also just flown into Thailand. Besides for him getting swindled out of 600THB ($20) it was a pretty good, although extremely tiring, day. The size of these places and the detail put into them is breath-taking, and it really makes you question why such beauty is only find abroad and not in our own country, where we seem to be too focused on expansion and wealth, rather then the things that really matter.

Oh and by the way, there is seriously no flooding issues in most of Bangkok. We even went down to the river and it was half full. Every shop has barricades up though as it was a problem a couple weeks ago, but now it is pretty much non-existent, at least in the areas I’ve been.

Anyway before I finish this long post up, I feel I should mention how amazing the food is here. Pad Thai, $1.50. Chicken Fried Rice, $1. Beef and Sticky Rice, $1.50. And I haven’t even ventured more than 2 minutes from the hostel yet.

More to come as I head up to Chiang Mai tomorrow night, but as the flooding is still bad up north, I may have to fly in order to get there quicker.

Well after a few delays and hiccups I’ve finally arrived at the hostel I’m staying at tonight.

After finding out the bus I was planning to catch has been cancelled for the past few months, I got shoved into the next taxi. Fortunately for me the driver didn’t speak a word of English and even after I made it clear that I knew no Thai, he continued to talk to me in Thai and it seemed like he was having the conversation of his life.

The hostel had given directions saying that when I made it to the Khoa San Rd. area (main backpacker’s area), that I just needed to find the street with the 7/11 on the corner and head down there. Easy enough. So after a very long taxi ride he said we were near Khoa San Rd., and after a couple minutes we were on a corner with a 7/11. Me being the idiot I am, told him to stop here as I figured this MUST be the 7/11 the hostel was referencing. After he’d driven off I realised that this was just one 7/11 out of the 1000s in Thailand and not the one I needed to find. 10 minutes of walking later (and after being hassled by the same number of tuktuk drivers), I made it to the hostel.

I’ll be back in a few days with a proper post and hopefully some good pictures.

Bryce