Arriving by train into the big, bussling capital of Thailand was a bit of a culture shock.
We got in touch with our 'warm showers' host,
but we were a day early and he was busy so we
got ourselves down to the infamous backpacker ghetto area known as the Khao San Rd. It was
everything we expected it to be...throngs of tourists, overpriced cafes, bars and restaurants
and the only thais in sight are the ones pushing ping pong shows and shisha bars. And all the
accomodation we could find was really expensive box rooms with paper walls.We were pushing our bikes around slightly confused about what to do when...Alice and Charlie to the rescue! Not sure whos stalking who but we met in Sihanoukville and then again on the Angkor Wat temple sundowners so it was pretty funny to randomly meet again. They totally sorted us out by finding us a room near where they were staying which was a bit away from the Khao San Rd madness. We checked in then went for a wander and sat on the street drinking a can of Chang. (A pound for a beer in a bar? Extortion! :))
By a stroke of luck we were staying almost next door to a highly recommended bike shop, so we took our poorly, tired bikes in for some restorative measures. Between us we needed 2 new chains, 2 new rear sprockets, a new chainwheel, new derailleur jockey wheels, new rear rack, new toe straps, and a new tyre. And luckily VeloThailand had all this and more. The bike mechanic there was a star and spent about 5 hours doing loads of work on the bikes and wouldn't accept anything for his time. With our bikes running much smoother, but the day nearly over we grabbed some food and headed to the other end of town where our 'warm showers' host lived.
We were warmly welcomed into his appartment which has amazing views over downtown Bangkok, and chatted
about our trip and a similar tour he will be making from Bangkok to France. His appartment is in an
area that used to be the Khao San Rd of the city, and still has quite a few cafes and guest houses.
And the clientelle of the area all seem to be travellers who came to Thailand when this was the place
to be, ie they are all over 40!We were also close to a big park with a lake where we hung out drnking ice coffee and watching terrapins and a big lizard thing before heading back to the bike shop, Probike this time, to sort out the headset on Claires bike. I won't go into the boring details, but it also ended up taking the best part of the day.
We had only planned on staying in Bangkok for 2 days, but having spent almost the entire time fixing bikes we decided to give ourselves another day. Our warm showers host had to leave town for work for a few days so we checked into a closeby family guest house down a really cute narrow Soi (alleyway in Thai).
Our day of Bangkok sightseeing started at the mother of all markets in the north of the city where we wandered around admiring funky one-of-a-kind clothes, second hand converse shoes, yummy snacks (which we admired and then ate!) and other items. It was a total expanse of rabbit warren like aisles and when it was time to leave we couldn't figure out where we left our bikes! The market was about 10kms away and cycling in Bangkok is a lot like cycling in London, ie weaving in and out of cars stuck in traffic jams.
Next on the itinary was Little Arabia, an area where many Arabic people have settled in Bangkok, and where you can buy food from Egypt, Persia, Lebanon and other places. Our mission after we had a wander around was to buy falafel. While asking around we met an amazing family originally from Sri Lanka. Mama Fatima fed us her family recipe Chai tea whilst we chatted to her and her two daughters and son. When we left she gave us bags of the tasty tea to take away. The family was so friendly it was really touching, so we wished them best of luck with the tea venture and found a place selling falafel they reccomended. First hummus in a while!
Having visited Little Arabia we decided we would partake in some more intercontinental travel and visit China Town. It covers a pretty big area in central Bangkok, and consists of a main road with bright neon signs in Chinese down all the buidings, and numerous alleyways with Chinese markets and street food, infact almost whole restaurants set out on the pavements.