Bangkok

20/2/2013 - 28/2/2013

8 Days were spent in Thailand with the family. It has been a while since the trip so I have to remember what happened.

Bangkok

Very interesting place with lots to explore and do. So we went to Soi Cowboy Thursday night which is a street with strip clubs, what a nice family outing! Definitely not like any strip club in Australia. We also had another family outing in Nana Plaza which is also very similar to Soi Cowboy, this also offered very interesting things.

A couple of afternoons were spent at Jacks Bar. My parents found out about this place when they went to it with one of their friends (Allan) the first time they were in Bangkok. There is a picture in the photo tab of the view from Jacks Bar which was very nice.

Jacks Bar

Flower markets

While in Bangkok we did many things which included visiting some flower markets. At the market there are millions of flowers everyday. They all looked perfect and were nice and cheap. 

We all traveled in a long boat for one hour on the Chao Phraya, which is the river running through Bangkok. It was quite interesting as you got to see all the different sides of Bangkok including seeing a sub station sitting next to the river. Hmmm wonder if that is safe?

Long boat with a turbo diesel

All of the long boats had turbo diesel engines attached to them which you can see in the picture to the right. 

So at the end of it all to catch up with the family for a late Christmas get together was very good and it all went some what smoothly.

Bangkok Traffic

River Kwai Tour (Sat, Sun and Mon)

Thanks mum for organizing this tour. It was a trip travelling to the west of Bangkok. Here you could see what Thailand was like away from the massive city that is Bangkok. One of the main attractions of the tour was learning about the Japanese and what they had done during world war 2. So essentially they also were 

trying to take over the world and wanted to build a railway through Burma for various reasons, it is known as "Death Railway". During the construction around 100,000 people died as a result of poor conditions during the construction. It was around 50% of the total work force. On the Saturday (Bridge over Mae Klong River) and Sunday (Hell Fire Pass) we visited some memorials dedicated to the people that were involved in the railway construction.

Hell Fire Pass

The family also visited the tiger temple on Sunday. It was a bit skeptical as to whether the tigers were actually drugged or not. The way the workers put the tigers head or your lap it was a wonder why they didn't wake up. We did have a tour guide for this day who showed us around as there was also a temple and lots of other animals in the same park.

The family at the tiger temple

Food

Thai food is always amazing and I could never get sick of it unlike the rest of the family. Some of the food that was consumed includes: Green and Red Curry, probably something like intestines, bbq chicken on side of road (so good), soft shell crab and vegetables in oyster sauce. There was lot of other tasty food consumed. None of the family got sick from anything which is a bonus.

Getting intestines on side of road mmm, oh and pineapple.

Accommodation 

While in Bangkok mum had organised something through Airbnb. It was a 3 bedroom apartment I think which was hard to find, but quite central to some of Bangkok. There is no city center as such but a couple of areas where particular things happen.

The accommodation was very cool and quite interesting for the River Kwai tour. So Saturdays was essentially house boats that were all connected together. There was no power and so it was very romantic on the Sat night eating by candle light.

Accommodation Saturday Evening

On Sunday it was a bit more upper class as there was power which meant you could have a warm shower. Rachelle was talking a little to some French people and a few drinks were had that evening (not unlike any other one).

Sunday Night Accommodation