After our sojourn into the jungle we were glad to get back to the hotel to have a hot shower and spend the day lounging by the pool. I was bitten/mauled by mosquitoes and other insects in the jungle and only once we left the jungle the number of bites came up in full. One particular beauty came up like a little malteser sized balloon on the side of my leg...pretty disgusting, the thing would not go away despite bursting it a few ties (sorry for graphics), Although, you'll be relieved to hear, the malteser bite, which admittedly did start to shrivel and look like a sundried date on my leg is now gone...I accidentally kicked it off whilst scratching my leg at dinner so no weird bubble scar for me!
After our day by the pool in Chiang Mai it was time to set off for Bangkok again. Nicola and I (same with most of our tour group too) were not really keen on Bangkok, so having to spend another two days there was not something we were looking forward to, we really just wanted to head straight down south. Anyways, we piled onto the sleeper train and had another relatively decent night sleep. Fortunately, our hotel (the Bangkok Centre hotel) is located just outside the Hua Lumphong Station (Bangkok station) so we did not have to travel far to drop our bags off.
Uncertain of how to spend an entire day in Bangkok, we decided to behave like teenage Thai's and headed to MBK, the massive shopping mall in Bangkok. It was HUGE. Seven floors crammed full of shops selling pretty much everything you can think of (except a map of Bangkok which is what I was after following the disappearance of our Lonely Planet guide to Bangkok).
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We spent a few hours looking through MBK, there were some strange restaurants (see below) and we were told off by a stall holder for looking through his selection of t-shirts. Apparently, we were only allowed to look at the ones on the wall, and not the ones on the islands dotted through his shop (even though they were different), needles to say, with literally hundreds of shops we said goodbye to him and I needlessly haggled for my third beer t-shirt elsewhere.
We should mention that we had a pretty eventful ride over to MBK. We were initially told by a tuk tuk driver that the distance from our hotel to MBK was 1.5km, which would take us over 2 hours apparently (in their attempts to take money from Western cash cows, it appears that tuk tuk drivers are oblivious to the fact that people in the West actually walk anywhere and/or are not too stupid to realise 1.5km would only take 2 hours to walk if we broke our leg en route).
We said no to tuk tuk man no.1 and said yes to tuk tuk man no.2 (as he offered us the ride for 10baht as opposed to tuk tuk man no.1's offer of 40baht). However, the condition for the 10baht ride was that we made a stop first. Nicola was not keen on the stop however I, smelling a bargain, opted to make the stop anyway and Nicola reluctantly agreed. So we were first of all taken to a suit shop so the tuk tuk man would get a free petrol stamp or something. Anyways, we were taken over to this suit shop and were told to head inside and "just look, if you buy, I get more petrol". I had no intention of buying a suit but the stop had meant a cheaper ride to MBK. We got inside and were soon fending off a man trying to sell me a suit, the conversation went something like this:
"Sir, you buy suit?"
"No thanks, just looking"
"Ah where you from?"
"Wales, UK"
"Ah Giggsy, so good, no?"
"Yeah, pretty good"
"Handsome man, men in UK where suits yeah, so smart. These suits, so smart so cheap, good quality"
"How long you in Bangkok? Suit ready, made to measure, two days"
"We are leaving tomorrow and wont be back in time"
"You go back to UK? We deliver"
"No thanks, we are not going back to UK"
"Where are you going, sir?"
"Australia"
"Ah, I think men in Australia where suits, very fashionable out there"
"No thank you, I will be working outdoors in Australia, I won't be working in an office, no need for a suit working in a field"
"Ah...maybe just a shirt then? Very comfortable"
Can't blame a guy for trying to flog his wares I guess!
We left the shop after a few minutes in order to get back on our way to MBK and climbed into the tuk tuk. Our driver, who on the way over was very chatty and friendly soon returned looking pretty annoyed and didn't say a word to us. Nicola and I shrugged and thought a peaceful tuk tuk ride would make a nice change, however, we started to get a bit worried when we were driven down alleyways and through the back of apartment blocks. I kept thinking he was going to stop and his friends would pile out and mug us (as a number looked like dead ends until the driver pulled through small side streets/alleys). I began to have a change of heart about opting for the super cheap tuk tuk's and began to get a bit nervous...until we finally burst out onto the bustling streets outside of MBK to our great relief!
On a side note, we walked the 1.5km back from MBK and it took us only 20 minutes and we stopped for some photos...
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| You can see the shriveled malteser bite, Nicola didn't want a photo of the juicy, swollen bite |
Uncertain of how to spend an entire day in Bangkok, we decided to behave like teenage Thai's and headed to MBK, the massive shopping mall in Bangkok. It was HUGE. Seven floors crammed full of shops selling pretty much everything you can think of (except a map of Bangkok which is what I was after following the disappearance of our Lonely Planet guide to Bangkok).
.JPG)
We spent a few hours looking through MBK, there were some strange restaurants (see below) and we were told off by a stall holder for looking through his selection of t-shirts. Apparently, we were only allowed to look at the ones on the wall, and not the ones on the islands dotted through his shop (even though they were different), needles to say, with literally hundreds of shops we said goodbye to him and I needlessly haggled for my third beer t-shirt elsewhere.
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| Anyone for dessert...toast? |
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| So this is what Santa does when he is not prepping for Christmas |
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| Lacquered food...stuck to the wall...only in Asia |
We should mention that we had a pretty eventful ride over to MBK. We were initially told by a tuk tuk driver that the distance from our hotel to MBK was 1.5km, which would take us over 2 hours apparently (in their attempts to take money from Western cash cows, it appears that tuk tuk drivers are oblivious to the fact that people in the West actually walk anywhere and/or are not too stupid to realise 1.5km would only take 2 hours to walk if we broke our leg en route).
We said no to tuk tuk man no.1 and said yes to tuk tuk man no.2 (as he offered us the ride for 10baht as opposed to tuk tuk man no.1's offer of 40baht). However, the condition for the 10baht ride was that we made a stop first. Nicola was not keen on the stop however I, smelling a bargain, opted to make the stop anyway and Nicola reluctantly agreed. So we were first of all taken to a suit shop so the tuk tuk man would get a free petrol stamp or something. Anyways, we were taken over to this suit shop and were told to head inside and "just look, if you buy, I get more petrol". I had no intention of buying a suit but the stop had meant a cheaper ride to MBK. We got inside and were soon fending off a man trying to sell me a suit, the conversation went something like this:
"Sir, you buy suit?"
"No thanks, just looking"
"Ah where you from?"
"Wales, UK"
"Ah Giggsy, so good, no?"
"Yeah, pretty good"
"Handsome man, men in UK where suits yeah, so smart. These suits, so smart so cheap, good quality"
"How long you in Bangkok? Suit ready, made to measure, two days"
"We are leaving tomorrow and wont be back in time"
"You go back to UK? We deliver"
"No thanks, we are not going back to UK"
"Where are you going, sir?"
"Australia"
"Ah, I think men in Australia where suits, very fashionable out there"
"No thank you, I will be working outdoors in Australia, I won't be working in an office, no need for a suit working in a field"
"Ah...maybe just a shirt then? Very comfortable"
Can't blame a guy for trying to flog his wares I guess!
We left the shop after a few minutes in order to get back on our way to MBK and climbed into the tuk tuk. Our driver, who on the way over was very chatty and friendly soon returned looking pretty annoyed and didn't say a word to us. Nicola and I shrugged and thought a peaceful tuk tuk ride would make a nice change, however, we started to get a bit worried when we were driven down alleyways and through the back of apartment blocks. I kept thinking he was going to stop and his friends would pile out and mug us (as a number looked like dead ends until the driver pulled through small side streets/alleys). I began to have a change of heart about opting for the super cheap tuk tuk's and began to get a bit nervous...until we finally burst out onto the bustling streets outside of MBK to our great relief!
On a side note, we walked the 1.5km back from MBK and it took us only 20 minutes and we stopped for some photos...
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