We travel around Bangkok using all possible means of transportation. The easiest is to ride the subway and overground rail (skytrain). The hardest is to ride taxis and tuk-tuks. And is impossible for tourist to ride the city bus without knowledge of Thai language. Every taxi driver won't turn meter on and treats you as a walking wallet. When you tell them where you want to ride, they nodding his head in understanding and then the problems begin. Everyone knows where you want to ride but after a few meters of driving they start to inquire "about details "and you realize that they have no idea where to go. English they do not know at all. Geographical names do not tell them anything. Maybe our pronunciation is wrong or they do not know the topography of Bangkok.
The heat is terrible, about 30°C (86°F) and humidity close to 100% (this is the end of January).
Monuments knocks our socks off - all the temples are just beautiful. Even modest temple in the middle of nowhere make impress on us. Everything is so different and refined down to the smallest detail.
We're riding the SkyTrain and subway to the train station Hualamphong. Then we walk along the street Yaowarat (about 500 meters) and reach Wat Traimit (20THB - everytime I give the price of admission for one person - the price may be out of date - the data on this are from 2010).
During crossing the street Yaowarat we realize how much we have to learn here. Trying to pass the road for unfamiliar with this subject european people, is a big challenge. Nobody here cares for pedestrian crossings priority. At first glance, you can see the fresh whites standing on the edge of the road and watching Thai people crossing the road, deftly weaving between vehicles. Over time, however, a man learns this difficult skill. At the beginning I suggest you just go behind a native, and do not to try any sudden movements. Drivers very smoothly omits us on all sides, and no one will be hurt. In the middle of the road going you to feel like in the middle of the river current :-)
In the temple of Wat Traimit we admire the golden statue of the Buddha. We do not see anything special about this statue - also the temple is not exceptionally beautiful.
Then we walk on Chinatown and when we are bored e between the stalls, catch a tuk-tuk and ride to Wat Saket (The Golden Mount) (10THB). From the top of the temple is a nice view of the surroundings.
This is the end of the tour today. We're back in the hotel.
I'm afraid to eat the famous Thai food from stalls on the street. So we are going to Tesco for dinner and try the local cuisine in one of the restaurants. Prices are higher than on the street (about 100THB dinner per person) but at least it does not feel the smell of old oil. What about the health, you will know when you'll get another journal written in the toilet :-)
After dinner, we bought a prepaid SIM card "One Two Call" (770THB) - the card is cool - make it in the card you got 360 minutes free internet connection via GPRS.
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