Hey everyone, We made it safe and sound.
The flights were a killer, 6:35 followed by a 2 hour gap min Bahrain and then another 6:35. Arrived in Bangkok at 7 in the evening. No problems getting a taxi and getting to our hotel, which is down the darkess, smelliest alley ever, but its really nice, clean etc and very close to Koh San Road, job done. That night we went to Koh San Road and had a nice meal and a pint before crashing out in order to be ready for a full day of Banging Kok the next day. Unfortunately the jet lag meant we could sleep until about 7am and then we got up at 8am, pretty tired. Met some really nice people at breakfast and went out to find the wonders of the city. We made it ten yards before a teacher from the local school accosted us and gave us a whole load of things to do, shoved us in a tok tok and we were off! We were so lucky, it was a crazy holiday thing yesterday and most things were open to the public and free! We met a monk in the temple of Blue Buddha who taught us to pray and told us some stories, we went to some mental tailors and jewelers were they tried to get loads of money out of us, perfect! We spent all our money in the tourist info centre with Oven (hero) booking loads of future adventures that you'll hear about soon!! Then we went to the Great Palace, which is amazing and beautiful. I'll put up some pictures soon. We then went on a boat trip around the rivers of the city before getting grabbed by another crazy man who told us about some other stuff to see, so bundled in another tuk tuk and and saw another Temple before becoming the biggest suckers ever by buying to ridiculous soap for 6 quid just to get a token for the driver, yes we are idiots. We then went to a place with loads of Government type buildings surrounded by guys with Assault rifles which was fairly intimidating! Unfortunately the reason we were there is that there was apparently a festival on, but it would appear there wasn't. Nevermind though, cos we found a zoo and saw some cool animals, like panthers, lions and tigers, we compared the meercats but the bears were sleeping. When I got back to the room I had to unblock all my cards (first day, impressive). We then went back to Koh San Road and met some awesome characters, like a pair of Swiss ladies who's English, although better than our swiss, was comedy. We had a good laugh about 'Kitchen Box' where you keep clothes apparently and then we met some girls from England who dropped the bomb that we weren't actually at Koh San Road and that it was the next road over, Whoops! We got on the buckets, Adrian lost 100 Baht in a thumb war with an 8 year old girl, serious! and we met yet more nutters. All in all an amazing day, with so much packed in is was unbelievable. We slept like babies and then have had a chilled day today. The plan for this evening is to go to Pat Pong with some friends we met last night, see a ping pong show and then we are going to the floating Market tomorrow morning before getting the bus to Chiang Mai. busy busy busy!
Its super hot, beautiful weather and we are having an amazing time. Hope you are all well and I'll get some pictures up soon and post again once we have more to tell. Cheers to Tones for saying to make a diary, we both already have written loads and had great fun reminising about yesterday, so in 4 months it'll be unbelievably good.
Ed
The flights were a killer, 6:35 followed by a 2 hour gap min Bahrain and then another 6:35. Arrived in Bangkok at 7 in the evening. No problems getting a taxi and getting to our hotel, which is down the darkess, smelliest alley ever, but its really nice, clean etc and very close to Koh San Road, job done. That night we went to Koh San Road and had a nice meal and a pint before crashing out in order to be ready for a full day of Banging Kok the next day. Unfortunately the jet lag meant we could sleep until about 7am and then we got up at 8am, pretty tired. Met some really nice people at breakfast and went out to find the wonders of the city. We made it ten yards before a teacher from the local school accosted us and gave us a whole load of things to do, shoved us in a tok tok and we were off! We were so lucky, it was a crazy holiday thing yesterday and most things were open to the public and free! We met a monk in the temple of Blue Buddha who taught us to pray and told us some stories, we went to some mental tailors and jewelers were they tried to get loads of money out of us, perfect! We spent all our money in the tourist info centre with Oven (hero) booking loads of future adventures that you'll hear about soon!! Then we went to the Great Palace, which is amazing and beautiful. I'll put up some pictures soon. We then went on a boat trip around the rivers of the city before getting grabbed by another crazy man who told us about some other stuff to see, so bundled in another tuk tuk and and saw another Temple before becoming the biggest suckers ever by buying to ridiculous soap for 6 quid just to get a token for the driver, yes we are idiots. We then went to a place with loads of Government type buildings surrounded by guys with Assault rifles which was fairly intimidating! Unfortunately the reason we were there is that there was apparently a festival on, but it would appear there wasn't. Nevermind though, cos we found a zoo and saw some cool animals, like panthers, lions and tigers, we compared the meercats but the bears were sleeping. When I got back to the room I had to unblock all my cards (first day, impressive). We then went back to Koh San Road and met some awesome characters, like a pair of Swiss ladies who's English, although better than our swiss, was comedy. We had a good laugh about 'Kitchen Box' where you keep clothes apparently and then we met some girls from England who dropped the bomb that we weren't actually at Koh San Road and that it was the next road over, Whoops! We got on the buckets, Adrian lost 100 Baht in a thumb war with an 8 year old girl, serious! and we met yet more nutters. All in all an amazing day, with so much packed in is was unbelievable. We slept like babies and then have had a chilled day today. The plan for this evening is to go to Pat Pong with some friends we met last night, see a ping pong show and then we are going to the floating Market tomorrow morning before getting the bus to Chiang Mai. busy busy busy!
Its super hot, beautiful weather and we are having an amazing time. Hope you are all well and I'll get some pictures up soon and post again once we have more to tell. Cheers to Tones for saying to make a diary, we both already have written loads and had great fun reminising about yesterday, so in 4 months it'll be unbelievably good.
Ed
Hey Ed I have some unfortunate news - my departure to Oz has been postponed, currently until March/April. Unfortunately that means I may not be quite as settled out there as I'd have hoped when you arrive. However assuming I have a box to sleep in you are more than welcome to come join me on the beach.
ReplyDeleteHave you discovered Tiger Balm yet? BUY LOTS and bring some home if you can... I never did make it to the floating market in Bangkok - was scammed into a 3hr temple tour by tuk-tuk instead! Was it worth it?
ReplyDeleteTake care to both of you! xx