Bangkok Day 2. Wat a Day!

Day 2 started so much better as we headed back to the river, this time with a map!
We boarded the water taxi and headed up river to Tha Thien - although the Chao Phraya Express seemed expensive in comparison to the Star ferry at 65p each!

Hungry?

Stilt houses on banks of Chao Phraya

A short walk through the local traders selling everything from pirate DVDs (as in illegal not 'of the Caribbean' sort) to second hand 1980s Bakelite phones to guns to fake Guccy(!!!) handbags brought us to Wat Phra Kaew, 'wat' being the Thai word for temple.


What a place! Amazing.
Well it was after Amy had to go and hire a sarong as her leggings she wore especially to be 'respectful' were deemed 'too tight'! 

The disrespectful one

The amount of gold and jewels adorning the temples and chedi was breathtaking.

More bling than Mr T

The main attraction in Wat Phra Kaew is the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. This is one of the most venerated sites in Thailand and brings just as many Thais to the site as tourists. The Emerald Buddha is in fact made of jade and stands (or in fact sits) just 45cm tall.  He was discovered in the 15th century and was brought to Wat Phra Kaew in the late 18th century by King Rama I.
And being the sacred Buddhist Temple in Thailand means no cameras, so if you want to see the little Big Man - google it!

Officially not good enough

Behind Wat Phra Kaew is the Grand Palace complex including Borom Phiman Mansion the official home to the King of Thailand (currently Rama IX). But he doesn't like it so lives elsewhere.

I would too - far too small.

Reasonable party venue

Next door is the Chakri Maha Prasat, where King Rama IX hosts official state functions, and the Dusit Maha Prasit Hall which is used for the annual Coronation Day celebrations and for Royals to lay in state.  Lots of stone guards patrol the complex - it seemed rude not to...

Hard guard

We left the little big man, the bling, the guard statues and the sarong behind and headed to Wat Po.

Big big man

Wat Po is home to the largest reclining Buddha in the world at 160ft long, as well as hundreds of other golden Buddhas, decorative chedi and peculiar statues.

More bling

Boo

If anyone is still reading, then to make this a little more fun, here is a spot the difference competition. 

Answers on a postcard.  The prize is a trip to Bangkok courtesy of yourself. 

The day ended in rain - really heavy rain, so to keep dry we shopped!
Nightmare!

PS  - sorry we are a bit behind!!

Bangkok!

Anyone who is after 30c muggy heat which makes your fingers swell like bratwurst, fancies a long walk around grubby streets swamped with luminous pink taxis and smelly tuk tuks, and back alleys full of people gutting live fish and threading bearded women then get yourself to Chinatown, Bangkok!

Probably not the best introduction to Thailand, especially when you head out with no map, have no idea where you are or where you want to go, and pick somewhere that no-one speaks or understands English!

So, we think we made it to Chinatown, but that's only because the roads were filled with gold shops, street food vendors, dried fish wholesalers and neon signs!

Unperturbed, we put our best foot forward and headed back towards town. I'm not sure why there are so many scrap metal dealers, engine strippers, mechanics and sewing machine repairers in Bangkok, but we have seen most of them!

We soon felt less out of place when we finally reached the Chao Phraya river courtesy of an iPhone map, and settled down with a beer on the waterfront to recover.  

The bar was awesome - it even had a stuffed moose on the wall.
Here it is just for you Iain.

The sun set and we headed off for the nearest MTR station back to the hotel to get ready for our first Thai meal.

An hour of walking later, we still hadn't found a MTR station nor had we even seen a Thai restaurant! We had found the State Tower though - famous thanks to Hangover 2. At least we know how to get there on Friday for a cocktail in the Sky Bar!

Finally, and within sight of an MTR station, we found a Thai restaurant! Amy ordered our starters of chicken satay and crispy golden rice with chilli.

The satay were lovely; the crispy golden rice with chilli sauce was.....has anyone had snack-a-jacks before? Mmmm cold rice cakes - at least the dipping sauce was good!
The thai curry and pad thai more than made up for that though!


PS. Happy birthday to Emma M for 5th. Hope you have a good one x

The Last Day In Hong Kong

To indulge our love of public transport in Hong Kong we jumped on the No 6 bus to Stanley, a small town on the south east coast of Hong Kong Island. Stanley has two main attractions - a market selling everything you neither want nor need, and a promenade full of bars and restaurants.





Stanley waterfront



Murray House & Blake Pier

Murray House and Blake Pier were both originally situated in Central, Hong Kong, but were recently moved brick by brick to Stanley. Although Stanley was picturesque and the history interesting, the highlight of our trip was....

... a poodle in a Brazil shirt and Converse All Star boots!

 

We headed back to Hong Kong and crossed the river to Mong Kok, Kowloon.  This place was seriously busy with local shoppers and tourists snapping up the latest gadgets in the electrical shops or more of what you don't need in the Ladies Market.

To get out of the way we headed off down Tung Choi Street - locally known as the Goldfish Market.  We passed many pet shops selling all sorts of dogs from Dachshunds to Huskies and everything in between (who would want a 'tea cup poodle' - literally the size of your hand?!)

The busiest shops of all though were the goldfish shops.  Literally thousands of bags of fish lined up on the street, each bag costing between a few pence to a couple of pounds.

Amy was getting hungry and for some reason wanted sushi, but we decided to treat ourselves to afternoon tea at the opulent Peninsula Hotel instead.  As did 5 bus loads of Japanese tourists in their fetching UV visors! We walked through the lobby and as nice as it was, the wait of 'over 2 hours in this queue' didn't really float our boat.

Boat - great idea! We headed back to Hong Kong on our favourite Star Ferry but sat downstairs (due to using a different pier entrance) and only had to pay 17p! Result, but I wonder why this business makes a loss each year?

As it was our last night we headed to our favourite restaurant for more roast duck and pork.





We ♥ Wah Fung!



Cheers Hong Kong; a great first taste of the East.

Happy New Year!

HNY to you all, here's to a happy and healthy 2012.

Went to see the big man yesterday, and by that I mean the bronze Buddha, not David!

The Big Buddha, who is the tallest seated outdoor bronze Buddha in the world, sits 35m high and judging by how we felt when we got to the top, he sits above 500 steps (realistically its about 120 steps!). Here is the big man and Amy

 

We took a 25 minute ride on the glass bottomed Ngong Ping Crystal Gondola to get there, anyone afraid of heights should give it a miss, especially in the mist!

To end 2011 we spoilt ourselves with a classy Pizza Hut dinner in Tung Chung before heading to the Kowloon waterfront for New Year fireworks. 

The countdown (in Cantonese) started at 60 and then at midnight the mainly local crowd banged their  blow up sticks together, the hundreds of boats blasted their horns and the fireworks started. Although impressive and at a cost of £15m, they were so quiet!!!

With hundreds of thousands of people heading back to the one and only local underground station, we headed in the other direction like two lost salmon back to our beloved 21p ferry crossing - but as with many other things on New Year's Eve the price had increased - to 24p!

Our New Year's Day started a little later than planned but we headed off to Central Hong Kong Island to watch the Dragon & Lion Dance Extravaganza - a Guinness World Record attempt for the biggest gathering of lions & dragons at any one time. Very colorful and pretty impressive considering some of them measured over 300ft long!

Next stop was The Peak. The main attraction being the ride on the world's steepest funicular railway to get there, so we took a taxi!! (and avoided the 2 hour queue)

Views would have been amazing if it wasn't for the thin layer of mist that seems to linger at the top!

And just so we've made the most of all of the public transport on offer in Hong Kong, we took a 15 minute bus ride home for a whole 80p for both of us! Anything to save our tired feet....

PS - Happy Birthday Mike Cox!

First Stop - Hong Kong

After checking in and being separated for 12 hours on the flight to Hong Kong, we were reunited and hopped on the shuttle bus to our hotel.

Being 8 hours ahead, it was already 5pm on Thursday as we made our way into Central Hong Kong passed the 5 million dried seafood warehouses selling everything from crusty mussels and wrinkly cockles to shark fins - smells as good as it sounds!

Our first stop was Temple Street Night Market in Kowloon - great if you want to buy fake clothes, headphones or angry birds memorabilia! We didn't.

When in Rome (or Hong Kong) we decided to try some 'local' food in a 'local' restaurant - Sino Vegetarian Restaurant to be precise.  It was the best 'vegetarian' sesame chicken and noodles I've ever had. Guess it was lost translation as no-one there spoke English.

We wandered back down Nathan Road to Tsim Sha Tsai looking at the Christmas lights before crashing out for the night.

We woke up bright not early and headed for HSBC head office in Central to touch the paw of the lion for good luck - lets hope it works!

I now have a new favourite mode of public transport; the Star Ferry to Kowloon -  a 10 min cruise over the harbour for less than 21p! So good we did it twice!

Walking down Avenue of the Stars it was good to see that Hong Kong knows what an athlete I am

I also fought Bruce
(and won - he's not as quick as he used to be)

After lunch we headed up the longest escalator in the world to the Mid Levels - then had to walk all the way back down again as its only one way.
After a brief wander around the worlds only free zoo, we needed coffee so headed off to the 10 storey Times Square mall in Causeway Bay. Once there it seemed rude not to shop - so we did!

Another trip over to Kowloon, this time for Symphony Of Lights - awesome!
more photos to come of this after the New Year fireworks tomorrow!

To round off the evening, we ate at Wah Fung Roast Meats with the obligatory green tea - we could live in this city for the food alone!

All Packed!

Passport - check. Credit card - check. Clothes - hmmmm not really enough for 4 months but I have much less than Amy! It's a great opportunity to go shopping!
Off to T5!

Itinerary confirmed!

Only 5 sleeps to go until we head off on our venture. This is where we'll be going....

Hong Kong
Bangkok, Thailand
Hanoi, Vietnam
Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam
Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia
Singapore
Perth, Australia
Port Douglas, Australia
Melbourne, Australia
Sydney, Australia
New Zealand
Hawaii
Los Angeles, USA

We would be breaking a tradition if we said we were organised, so the next few days are going to be a little frantic!

Hopefully the next update will be from Hong Kong, we'll add some photos too!

x