Flashpacking around Bangkok

We'd arranged to meet our Dad, Dennis, in Bangkok. The plan was to spend some quality father/sons time checking out the surrounding provinces.

We were picked up from the airport and whisked away to check out the Damnoen Saduak floating market. Most of the locals live densely along both sides of the canal. Everyday the floating market is packed full of hundreds of vendors exchanging goods in small boats.


Watching the confusion you can see how once upon a time it would have made sense for the locals to meet via the water to trade. Now with lots of sweaty tourists in the mix it's a bit of a spectacle but very entertaining none the less.


The next day it was off to Kanchanaburi, home to the River Kwai and the death railway. The river was made famous by the movie The Bridge on the River Kwai. The short story of the death railway is that in 1942, Japanese forces invaded Burma from Thailand and conquered it from Britain. To maintain their forces in Burma, the Japanese needed a railway. Using forced labour, about 60,000 Allied POW's were put to work (about 38 prisoners for every km of railway).

Nowadays the river and the area around it is very picturesque. Cafes and restaurants line the banks and there is a train you can ride across the bridge for a small fee - very cool indeed.


Next up was Pattaya, a lively beach city famous for having everything that Thailand is notorious for. Dad put us up at the nicest accommodation we've stayed in since leaving New Zealand, the Palm Grove Resort. We quickly transformed from backpackers into 'flashpackers' at this very nice accommodation.


One night we fulfilled Dads life long dream of going to watch the Tiffany Show. Tiffany's is an all transvestite cabaret show. Our expectations were low as we imagined poorly rehearsed dance and song routines starring women with adams apples and barely concealed body hair.

The performance was amazing. The sets were gigantic in size and elaborate in detail. The performers were "beautiful" in their own special transvestite way and to start with we were sure some were actually female - we now blame this on being seated too far away from the stage.

Afterwards you can meet the performers outside and take photo's. Much to Dads disgust we both chickened out - but so did he.


The next stop was Rayong, a small and laid back beach city. The beach was the best we've had outside of New Zealand. Long and stone free with a gentle slope, our only complaint was that there wasn't any surf. For a few baht you can hire a sun chair and laze about whilst you are waited on.

Random Fact: Your ability to get away with things in Thailand is a direct reflection of your social status. Traffic fines and other mundane things are for the 'common' folk.

Highlights:
- Meeting up with your father overseas. It's really interesting comparing your way of doing things to how someone a bit older operates. It's safe to say that experienced mature travelers have a better way of negotiating.
- Suckling on the parental teet. We got our fill - that's for sure.
- Living nicely. It was great to stay somewhere luxurious and enjoy a better way of life, if only for a short time - you can't beat beers by the pool.

Lessons Learned:
- The Vietnamese currency 'Dong' is useless outside of Vietnam - despite being told that Dong and USD are "same same".
- It's not bribery, it's 'giving him pleasure'.