Honk Kong- Bangkok (Day 18-23)

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Day 18

We decided to head to Hong Kong Island (we were staying in Mong Kok, Kowloon) and found Hong Kong Park (yes we seem to love our parks over here!). The park was really interesting, with water fountains, a small Olympic arena where a fitness session was going on (Lee, its called route 25!) a big bird sanctuary and a nice cafe where we had lunch. We then headed to the promenade where you could see Kowloon and went to go to the brand new promenade (we had seen on our map) only to discover it was still being built!

In the evening we went to the Avenue of Stars (Kowloon promenade) to watch the "Spectaular, exciting and unmissable light show" (again from our map) which turned out to be a bit naf! Prior to that we had started to watch a dance off (Britains got talent type of show) on the street before eating in "Serenade" which looked a really posh restaurant...you could say we were underdressed, but hey we are "Club World" passengers don't forget!

Day 19 (from rags to riches)

We relaxed in yet another park before it was time to leave our box room in Hong Kong and head to the airport for only our second flight of the trip. We got the airport express (which looked close on our wonderful map) which took longer than we expected and had Mandy worrying it was going to be another close call to get our flight...it was fine and to our surprise we had a three course meal on the short flight to Bangkok, Thailand.

We arrived in Bangkok around 8.30pm (an hour behind China) tired but excited to see the hotel our friends had arranged for us.

As soon as we got off the plane, we were greeted by someone who showed us where to get our baggage etc and where to get a metered taxi. After a twenty minute journey we arrived outside the Amari Watergate (5 Star Hotel!) and were treated like royalty...we were greeted by around three people (the Thai way, hands together). the poor porter man struggled with both our backpacks, whilst we were escorted up to the 32nd floor (the executive lounge with a private reception), where we sat by a window looking over Bangkok and were given a drink. We were told that breakfast and pre dinner canopies were complimentary in the executive lounge before being shown to our executive room. The room as you can imagine was amazing (especially compared to our previous box room!), we had petels in the sink, fresh flowers all around in fact, a comfy sofa and on the table was a posh looking platter...we ate the food and went to bed grinning!!!

Day 20

We started the day having our breakfast buffet, which after struggling to find anything for breakfast in Hong Kong, was heaven. We had our first yogurt, fresh fruit, fresh bread, made to order eggs and cakes...Brett stated "I could literally sit here alll day". After the feast we headed down to Khao San Road (probably the most famous backpacker road in Asia!). We got there by a river taxi, which was a new experience in itself, and the area was of course filled with backpackers as well as a whole host of locals asking you if you wanted tuk-tuk's, clothes, food or a tailor made suits!!! Of course there was also a load of bars, restaurants, internet cafe's and tour operators.

We made sure we were back in time for the "pre dinner canopies" where we had free drinks and lovely food (you could quite easily have these instead of dinner!). We then decided to treat ourselves at one of the Hotels restaurants. "Thai on 4" (on level 4!), where the menu had been created by some Thai chef legend, was so yummy and instantly made us fall in love with Thai food.

Day 21

As well as breakfast we decided to make use of the outdoor swimming pool in the morning before heading off to check out the city shops (we were based in the main shopping area). We went to the "Mah Boon Krong" (MBK) which has a clothes market indoors and basically has floors and rows of shops selling wholesale or basically fake goods...from football shirts to prada, from dvds to shoes you can get it all here at stupid prices!!! Those who haven't been to Thailand etc, the idea when shopping is that the seller gives you a really high price (for Thai prices) and you have to bargain your way down!

After a bit of shopping (not that we can buy much to fit in our bags!) we had a Vietnamese lunch and played some strange Thai game...it was called Ten Pin Bowling!!!

In the evening we met with our friend (who works at the hotel) whilst we had Canopies and he said he would book us in for an extra two nights (yes we have been spoilt in Bangkok!). After that we headed down to Khao San Road to experience the backpacker life, where we had some street food and a few drinks.

Day 22

We had decided to head towards the Summer Palace (the main attraction in of the city) and book a tour for tomorrow. But on the way to the Palace we were told by a couple of different touts that it was shut today because of the queens birthday the folllowing day (which we could understand), we weren't very happy but Brett said to head there anyway! To our surprise it was actually open (the touts had tried to get us to go somewhere else instead!) and Mandy had to put on a special dress to cover up her body! We spent some time looking round the buildings (the grounds are huge) before Mandy had had enough due to being so hot (for some reason she didn't take off her other clothes and had been wearing the dress as an extra!!!)

We had booked to go on a river cruise but with it not booked til 8pm we didnt want to miss out on our canopies and we had the most delicious pieces of beef ever!!! The time went by and we were soon on our romantic river cruise. We sat at a candle lit table (there were only about 8 other table's) on a tradional Thai river boat with traditional Thai music & dancing taking place in front of us and the owner (Some posh British guy) giving us a robotic tour commentary throughout the journey (you could hear him saying the exact same thing to each table!). For two hours we were fed food after food and soon realised the canopies had been a mistake as we waddled off the boat at the end!!! It was a lovely evening though and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Day 23

It was an early start as we heading off on a tour with the backpacker scruffs from Khao San Road and we only just managed to squeeze in some breakfast as we were picked up at 6.30am. We were taken to Khao San Road, driven round a bit, picked up some other people and headed back to the same spot! (some things are just random out here!).

We finally headed off on the long journey to Kanchanaburi where we went to the Floating Markets. You go round on a canoe and are offered things to buy, such as fruit and souviners, by the local people before going round the river village seeing where the local people live. Although it was very touristy and the only thing we bought was poor quality and overpriced, it was a really cool experience.

The tour bus then took us for some lunch before we arrived at the Bridge over the River Kwai. You could walk along the bridge although there was no rails and there were huge gaps (not one mum Boniface would enjoy!). People were also getting their photo taken with a leopard nearby...although it was cool to see one it was all tied up and didn't look too happy, so we didnt really like that.

In saying that though we felt slightly hypocritical as we headed to the last destination of our tour...the Tiger Temple!!! It wasn't quite as we were told or expected with the tigers tied up and people queuing up to have their picture taken. But to be fair the idea that we sat next to around 8 different tigers and had our picture taken with them, was an incredible thing! It all seemed quite rushed and before we knew it the volunteers were telling us all to line up ready to walk with the biggest tiger, the other tigers had been sleepy (this is the only time you can have pictures with them) but the big tiger had been pacing up and down, the time came and we all had a picture taken walking next to the tiger whilst the monk walked him back! We then had a chance to have our picture taken with him again as he sat down...whilst this was going on a herd of other animals including bulls, horse's and wild boar, were being fed nearby which was quite crazy.

After all this we headed back to Bangkok feeling quite tired...we sat and had dinner at a cheap and cheerful restaurant whilst a host of fireworks took place to celebrate the Queen of Thailand's birthday. A good end to the day.

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