Bangkok
Posted by Rebecca Lynch on Sunday, July 1, 2012
Me and Francesca arrived in Bangkok on the 29th, where we were eventually joined by Becky, after her flight was delayed by two hours. It was great seeing Becky again since weve not seen each other since the winter traveling in Guilin. Once we were all together we got our bags and headed for the hostel. The train sysem in Bangkok was rather easy to use, after we made the mistake of staying on the train at the end and then realising we started heading back in the direction we had come from. Once at our stop we then realised we had no idea how to get to the hostel from the station, so squeezed into a tiny tuck-tuck with our three huge rucksacks and bags, and luckily the driver knew where we were heading, (although he decided to take us the long road round and charge us more than tripple what it should have been). So after thinking we would arrive around 4ish, we got there about 8.30pm.
First night there we decided to head into Bangkok to the backpacker hub street Kalsan Road. We got there, and everywhere we looked, there was foreigner after foreigner. The street was made up of cheap clothes stalls selling tops of all colours with all designs, traveler styled jewelry, street art, stalls of paintings in florescent colours, bars, clubs, kebab stands ... everything the young traveler looks for! It was amazing! I had some delicious crispy spring rolls, then we stopped by this little bar which had its seats and tables out the door, it looked like there was no room for us, but as soon as the waiter saw us stop, room was instantly made and we squeezed in among the most foreigners we have seen in a long time. A beer and cocktail later, it was of to the first club we came across, which was done up like an old warehouse, with high roofs, a huge dance floor, flashy neon light rays and a human disco ball. It was great!
The next day we went back to the street to have a proper look at the stalls, where we each bought a couple of the paintings from one guy who in half his paintings used golds and coppers to paint giant Buddha heads, and in the other half of his works he used neon paints on black velvet canvases to paint close up of elephants heads, capturing the eyes and texture to the elephant. They were all so pretty and nothing like what I've seen before, it was so hard picking which ones I wanted, in the end i went for a small one of each.
That afternoon in the hostel we heard other travelers talking about the rooftop bar where The Hangover 2 was filmed and they were saying that they'd been to see it, so that was that evening sorted for us. We dressed up in our nicest clothes, which is hard when your traveling as we don't have very many 'nice' evening clothes, and we headed for the Sky Bar. We knew we were at the right hotel when we went to the lift area and there was a billboard saying 'Hangover 2 film location'. We went up in the same lift they used in the film, and came out in the rooftop restaurant where the set up of Chen takes place. A Berry-Tini later we were aloud outside to see the view across Bangkok and get our pictures of the Domed rooftop seen in the film.
The next day me and Becky went a little 'Hangover 2' crazy, watching the film and then heading to the china town market place area used in many of the scenes, whilst Francesca went of to the shopping district. We were aiming to find all the bars they used, (including the ones in the red light district, after all when you think of Bngkok thats one of the first things that comes into your head) but only came across the market streets, although we did get very close to the bars, it was a bit of a packed maze to find them. Our highlight of our little trip though had to be the iced drink in a bag! We rummaged through the market stalls until we eventually found a little lady on the corner who could give us our juice in a bag, it made our day, and topped of our 'Hangover 2' tour through Bangkok. I must say, it was a very good way to experience the city and see lots of different areas, we got a rue feel to Bangkok doing it that way.
I liked Bangkok, but it was very much go, go, go, everyone was constantly on the go, part of Bangkok's charm is its busyness, but after a few days it did get a bit much. From Bangkok me and Becky split from Francesca as she headed up north to Chiangmai and we headed south to Koh Phangnan for the Full Moon Party!
First night there we decided to head into Bangkok to the backpacker hub street Kalsan Road. We got there, and everywhere we looked, there was foreigner after foreigner. The street was made up of cheap clothes stalls selling tops of all colours with all designs, traveler styled jewelry, street art, stalls of paintings in florescent colours, bars, clubs, kebab stands ... everything the young traveler looks for! It was amazing! I had some delicious crispy spring rolls, then we stopped by this little bar which had its seats and tables out the door, it looked like there was no room for us, but as soon as the waiter saw us stop, room was instantly made and we squeezed in among the most foreigners we have seen in a long time. A beer and cocktail later, it was of to the first club we came across, which was done up like an old warehouse, with high roofs, a huge dance floor, flashy neon light rays and a human disco ball. It was great!
The next day we went back to the street to have a proper look at the stalls, where we each bought a couple of the paintings from one guy who in half his paintings used golds and coppers to paint giant Buddha heads, and in the other half of his works he used neon paints on black velvet canvases to paint close up of elephants heads, capturing the eyes and texture to the elephant. They were all so pretty and nothing like what I've seen before, it was so hard picking which ones I wanted, in the end i went for a small one of each.
That afternoon in the hostel we heard other travelers talking about the rooftop bar where The Hangover 2 was filmed and they were saying that they'd been to see it, so that was that evening sorted for us. We dressed up in our nicest clothes, which is hard when your traveling as we don't have very many 'nice' evening clothes, and we headed for the Sky Bar. We knew we were at the right hotel when we went to the lift area and there was a billboard saying 'Hangover 2 film location'. We went up in the same lift they used in the film, and came out in the rooftop restaurant where the set up of Chen takes place. A Berry-Tini later we were aloud outside to see the view across Bangkok and get our pictures of the Domed rooftop seen in the film.
The next day me and Becky went a little 'Hangover 2' crazy, watching the film and then heading to the china town market place area used in many of the scenes, whilst Francesca went of to the shopping district. We were aiming to find all the bars they used, (including the ones in the red light district, after all when you think of Bngkok thats one of the first things that comes into your head) but only came across the market streets, although we did get very close to the bars, it was a bit of a packed maze to find them. Our highlight of our little trip though had to be the iced drink in a bag! We rummaged through the market stalls until we eventually found a little lady on the corner who could give us our juice in a bag, it made our day, and topped of our 'Hangover 2' tour through Bangkok. I must say, it was a very good way to experience the city and see lots of different areas, we got a rue feel to Bangkok doing it that way.
I liked Bangkok, but it was very much go, go, go, everyone was constantly on the go, part of Bangkok's charm is its busyness, but after a few days it did get a bit much. From Bangkok me and Becky split from Francesca as she headed up north to Chiangmai and we headed south to Koh Phangnan for the Full Moon Party!