We arrived into Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport, which at its full capacity will be the largest airport in Asia! I was a bit gutted, as last time I was in Bangkok, I saw a person play golf between the runways!!! Only in Asia! We had booked a hotel over the internet, so ordered the taxi to it. We arrived at the Royal, which was a throwback to the 1930's! We got to the reception, and gave them our booking confirmation, only to be told we were not booked in. After much debate and argument, we concluded that although we had got a confirmation, the agency had allegedly e-mailed us to say the booking was incorrect, even though we didn't get the e-mail telling us this! All a bit stressy, but now we know that even if you have booked off the net, and get a confirmation number, it doesn't always mean room confirmation!! We decided to call up some alternative hotels in the area, and got a room at the Trang Hotel. First impressions of the Trang was what a bargain we got at this swish establishment. Slick reception, nice pool and a very cool restaurant, however just as the lonely planet said, the cheaper rooms were on a different building, which was where our room was, and it was far from slick or cool! Budget at its Bangkok best!
Not letting any grass grow under our feet we headed straight out to the Chatuchak market. Just as the taxi pulled up the heavens literally opened up and it started to pour with rain. We were laughing our heads off as we had been in so much heat for so long, we couldn't believe that as soon as we wanted to have a leisurely wonder round the market it was teeming with rain.
We ran to the nearest entrance walked 5 yards but the whole gang way was flooded we walked back to the entrance, there was all this screaming, I looked round as there was a nasty cockroach on Mufajels neck.....................urghh I was so brave I just leant over and knocked it off ( well I think that constitutes as brave. I looked at Mufajel and pointed to all the screaming Thais, apparently a previous cockroach had fallen on him and he'd kicked it in their direction........................the commotion was all a bit bizarre as we had heard they are meant to eat cockroach as a specialty.
As the market was drenched and we are far too old we decided to head for the malls. I was bold over they have a huge mall for just for designer and another for all main stream, I spent our months budget on travelling clothes in mango, and another mall with fab food and Asian fashion. We were so knackered that when we saw the sign for the cinema we thought we would take the weight off our feet before heading out for the evening.
There were only 2 girly films showing in English ......................no debate there thehehe, but we were really shocked when they charged us £7.50. This is Asia after all. The film had started and the cinema was dark, as our eyes adjusted to the dark, we could see there were only 20 double seats.........................the most puffy , comfy red leather two seats sofas we had ever seen, we then found a bag on the seat with a blanket and a pillow, we then found the remote control button which flipped us back and gave us leg support ..................the best £7.50 ever spent. J J J
The next few days we spent exploring Bangkok. We loved the vibe there and really enjoyed being in the city after beach life, We spent a lot of time at the infamous Ko san road, we loved the road parallel for good food and relaxing drinks, good food and interesting food .That is where Mufajel was taking pictures of all the food stalls and street life when he focused closely on the lens because something didn't add up and then he realized he was photographing fried locust, beetles, and grubs owaghhhh !!. The grand palace and especially the Wat Phra Kaew ( The temple of the emerald Buddah )was amazing, we have seen many religious buildings in our time but have never seen so much gold, it is very stunning, very beautiful .
We also managed to go to the other cultural sights of Bangkok, in the area known as Pat Pong. Those of you who have been you will know what we mean.....very interesting things with everyday objects!
On our last afternoon after much sightseeing we decided to go for a beer and do some people watching on Ko San road, it is a bit like Camden market. Just a few as we had to be up at 6.00 am as we had bought tickets to go to Cambodia. Somehow two tigers turned into over 10 tigers ( we could tell this because of our bar bill not because we were composmentas). We accosted Mr Thailand and got him to drink with us, this guy we had seen all week cycling up and down on a white rickshaw with a sign saying Mr Thailand with a ghetto blaster. When I first saw him I said how embarrassing you would make a point of not getting in his rickshaw and after a few I was riding up and down in it for the hell of ! We then made friends with the hill tribes people. These people are dressed in colour full costumes selling the most ridiculous brightly coloured hats . We said to each other who in their right mind would wear one of those hats. We recognized who they were when we first arrived as the hill tribes people are featured on globe trekker as you can do a trip from Vietnam where you go out to do a home stay with the villagers. They are really beautiful people and very friendly not pushy sellers. After going to a club with Mr Thailand we then managed to make friends with people other than the locals. And joined a group of Ozzies on the street for nasty cocktails, the bars all shut at 2.00 am due to a long standing law but then all these little stalls open up selling booze and everyone party's on the street..............................and at some point we bought a hat ;-)
It's 6.00 am and I can hear a voice calling my name and all I can think of is I am not moving, I am led flat down on the bed my skirt and top up around my head holding onto the bed as if I am rock climbing. We have a knack of always getting wasted the night before we have to do a long journey, like in India when it was new years eve and we went out from 4 to 4 and then got straight on the plane for a 48 hour journey as we had a 7 hour wait in Mumbai ..............gross.
It was nice for once to think I'm travelling I don't have to be anywhere so we made it to the bus the following morning ;-)
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