Friday, February 1, 2013

A journey into Thailand - Part 2

So, lets continue the journey, shall we? I am sorry I couldn't post the second part soon. But if you had missed the first part, you can find it here

Well, the next morning we got up around 10 AM and headed out. We did not have any fixed idea in mind, no particular place to see. This, for two reasons - first being, to visit any typical tourist spot, you ought to have shit loads of money. We were short on that, being students. Secondly, both my cousin and I were particular about exploring the "real" Bangkok. So, having checked the maps first, we decided to go to the place where the Grand Palace was located. This was because the major tourist attractions were around the palace. So once we go there, we could always enquire at a tourist information centre about what things were not so expensive in Bangkok, and what to do off-beat.

We decided to take the local transport. Luckily, there was one BTS station close to the place where we stayed. BTS is basically the sky-train in Bangkok that goes, in a lot of places, between high raise buildings and is really creepy in a sense.
This picture is a bit blurred, but the text actually reads 'Please offer this seat to monks'. And we crib about offering the seats to the needy.

So we took the train and headed out to a station called Victory Monument. From there, we were supposed to take a bus. And we took the bus. Only then we realized we hadn't checked the bus stop where we were supposed to get down. And the conductor did not know English. Thankfully, a Thai Paati helped us out and spoke to the conductor. Now, the Thai buses are no different from our very own MTC buses, except that most of them are air conditioned. Apart from that, everything else was mostly same.

This picture is just a small sample of the Thai Language. Some of the characters resemble Hindi right?

So a half hour journey in the bus, we reached the stop. Opposite to us was the Bangkok National Museum. Our very own Ganesha welcomed us to the gates. Yes, was quite surprised to see a Ganesha poster outside the museum.
Right opposite to the museum was a small hawker centre, quite different from the ones I see here in Singapore. It was more of a roadside eat out kind of place, the Thai version of kayendhi bhavan
Outside the museum, we bumped into a tourist guide, who spoke amazing English. He was our tourist information centre for the day. We got all the details from him, as to what to do and where to go. He patiently gave us a schedule, even called one of the tuk-tuks, bargained a charge of 100 baht to cover some 4-5 places.

So what are tuk-tuks? Quite simply put, they are one of the two lifelines of Bangkok. Tuk tuks are the Thai autos. Only, a lot more spacious than our own autos.

And here's our tuk-tuk-wala. One helluva driver he was.

 So where did this guy take us? The next post would contain only the pictures and captions of all the places he took us. Until then.....

8 comments:

  1. thai paati hahahah!! now part 3 ku evallo naal wait panna vekka pore! :)

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    1. Haha :D Will definitely try to post it tomorrow or maximum by Monday. Thai paati promise :D

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  2. Ha Ha I liked the Thai paati! Another part :( You are one lucky guy. I want to go too :)

    Shall await Thai returns, Part 3.

    Joy always,
    Susan

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    1. Susan, perhaps the CBC can organize one such trip? ;)

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  3. Thai paati! :) Super po... I wanna visit this place too :) Post the third one soon...

    Cheers,
    Anand.
    Life's like that

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  4. you ought to write longer Tlogs...

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    Replies
    1. True. Its just that within the available time, I try to squeeze maximum possible info

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