Talks with Thai Teenagers
Bangkok -> Nakhon Pathom -> Damnoen Saduak, 1st April 2002
Early start today, I went to the post office to post some of my
stuff back home. I've got a big pile of stuff that I'm carrying,
that I don't need, (e.g. souvenirs, used films, spare trousers) so
there's no point carrying it around.
The process of posting things here is a little different to the
other countries I've been to. You aren't allowed to box up a parcel
yourself. You have to give all the items to a guy working there, who
will then box it up for you, for about 30B (50p). You then have to
take it to a different counter to get the stamps & postage all
sorted. Posting actually worked out about the same as it did in
other countries. The parcel cost an excessive 1400B (about 25
pounds) to send. That was a shock to the budget, but it's easier
than carrying around an excessively heavy bag.
After that was all sorted, I got my stuff together and tried to
catch a bus to the train station, which proved difficult. After a
long wait, the bus I wanted hadn't passed, so I grabbed a different
one that goes fairly close to the station. Boarding the bus was a
pain, because of my rucksack hitting people. When I tried to sit
down, the man on the other seat deliberately spread out a bit to
take up more room, when I turned to apologise about the bag, he just
looked at me with disdain and waved me away with a heavily gold
laden (tacky jewellery) hand. I just turned away, holding in the
temptation to shout 'Bite Me!' at him.
The bus journey was followed by a long, hard walk around some of
Bangkok's streets. The roads weren't marked on my poor maps, and the
combination of heat & pollution made walking with my bags really
hard work. My stress levels climbing, and almost tempted to sit in
the middle of the roads, cross-legged, and huff, I eventually found
a road on the map. By following instinct, I eventually found the
station. As I sat inside eating an ice-cream, my stress (and
excessive heat) drained away. Ahhh, ice-cream, the answer to all
problems in hot countries.
I had a bit of trouble explaining where I wanted to go. I kept
saying 'NAK-ON PATH-OM' but the ticket guy had no idea. Eventually I
realised it's because the 'H' is silent, so I said 'NAK-ON PAT-OM',
a subtle but essential difference. He understood and soon enough, I
was on my train, heading towards Nakhon PAT-OM.
On the train, a group of 4 teenage guys were sat on the chairs next
to me. After a while, I attempted some Thai phrases that I'd learnt.
When meeting local people, trying their local language is a great
ice-breaker. We were soon chatting away about loads of things. They
wanted to know about England and I wanted to know about Thailand!
Luckily they spoke fairly good English, so we could understand each
other. Even though they didn't understand 'KOE SAMUII', because I
discovered its pronounced 'KAW SAMUII'. Picky!
They also bought a few of the snacks from the people who get on the
train at the stops. They shared them with me and I learnt a bit
about what the different things were. After a few hours, I reached
Nakhon where I jumped off, waving goodbye to the guys I'd met.
I left my bag at the station (free again) and went to check out the
wat. Not hard to find due to the absolutely enormous Chedi (spike)
sticking high into the sky! It's not just tall, it's quite...fat
too! I had a quick walk around it, and took a few photos before
going back to the station to grab my bags. The Chedi is the only
attraction worth seeing in Nakhon.
 I
wanted to catch a bus to Damnoen Saduak, but it took a bit of hard
work. The rough guide said the bus passes the Nakhon Inn Hotel, then
it gave a vague description where it was. But as there was no map, I
had a bit of trouble finding it. After lugging my bag twice around
the huge Chedi, a helpful motorcycle driver pointed me in the right
direction. He also told me the number of the bus I needed, which
helped. The bus soon arrived and after about an hour I reached
Damnoen Saduak.
There's only one hotel in Damnoen, and it's clearly signposted. It's
a huge place, quite clean but crumbling around the edges. Very cheap
too, surprising as there's no competition! After leaving my bags in
the room, I had a quick walk around the town, which took about 5
minutes because it's so tiny!
I couldn't find any restaurants in town, just a few dodgy looking
stalls that I couldn't risk in case they were using fish (I can't
eat fish). Luckily there was a 7-11 store (they're everywhere in
Thailand) so I grabbed something there.
The rest of the evening passed quietly. The town was absolutely
dead, so I just sat in my room and read the papers, catching up on
the news.
Next Diary Entry >>
|
