I gi you good price

Trip Start Nov 26, 2007
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Trip End Mar 01, 2009


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Flag of Thailand  ,
Wednesday, February 6, 2008

We have finally arrived in Asia!  We are amid the hustle and bustle of Bangkok and loving it!  We are staying in the infamous Khos San Road and are right in the thick of it with our hotel right on the street.  Its a little noisy at night but we asked for a top floor after reading the rough guide/lonely planet advice and can sleep well.  But for only 15 pound each a night, who's complaining - ok it's a bit steep for backpackers and Thailand, but its really nice and you get a good room for the money with a rooftop pool, just what you need after a sweaty days site seeing!

At first we were very wary of everything, this being the first non-speaking english country (Fiji doesnt really count - they all speak english there!)... but the Thais are very friendly (well at least when they think they are going to get your money - but Im hoping thats a Bangkok thing).  We have taken a few TukTuks to various places (little motorbike taxis) which are great fun if a little hairy on those bends and when you zip in front of cars Singapore Airport
Singapore Airport
 ! 

You may have read on facebook that we received our visas?  What a relief and we have a start date too for Japan - 24th March, so we are hoping to arrive in Tokyo around the 20th , although we havent changed our flights yet.  We had to go the the embassy here in Bangkok to change the paper for an actual visa in our passport and have to collect our passports tomorrow.  So with that in mind, we had to stay in Bangkok rather than leave straight away to explore.  We are planning on leaving for the north on friday on our way up to Chiang Mai and the hilltribes. 

Today we spent the day mainly looking around the Grand Palace, and grand it certainly is, all I can say is Wow!  Covered in gold, gilt, glass, porceline, in fact anything decorative you can think of all thrown together with great workmanship, a definite must see.  I have to say its the first time that after only 2 hours of walking around and barely able to walk another step we realised that we were suffering from heat exhaustion.  But it was well worth it, so we headed back to our hotel and stayed by the pool for the afternoon before heading onto Khos San Road for some food, yummy shrimps - you should see the size of the them!- amazing, didnt realised they came that big!

We are both shocked by how cheap it is, especially coming from NZ and Oz, the pound goes further here for sure... a meal for 2 with 2 beers, plus sprite for a whole 4 pounds!!  Weve been putting our bartering skills to the test and have come away with a few goodies already!  Although when we walk down the street I have to keep my arm on Jonathan as he keeps getting asked about ping pong shows and im suspecting theres no table tennis involved!
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