Day 1: Bangkok

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We touched down in Bangkok at 6pm and wasted no time to get ourselves onto what we thought was Khao San Road which turned out to be a random but very similar street. The problem with Bangkok is all the streets here look identical so getting lost has proven to be easy. We’ve found that most of the locals are extremely attentive and helpful as it’s evident by our sun deprived skin and 3 scribbly maps that we are beginner backpackers new to Thailand. Thai women have laughed and called at us, “oh you! So white!”, it’s hilarious. The humidity here is overwhelming; 30 degrees at night is almost unbearable, especially coming straight from -5 degrees in Yorkshire. The roads are organised chaos. ‘Take a chance and walk across with your finger crossed and pray you don’t get hit’ is how we think it works. Despite dripping in sweat and hitting the wrong strip, our first night was undeniably awesome. It consisted of lots of Chang Beer and singing along to Dean and our new friend Lamma playing Bob Marley classics at a querky little bar called Bangkok Home Stay. However only four beers later I was paying over 560 baht for 2 T-shirts; in other words, my bartering skills need some serious work. With a hideously painful hangover, today we trekked into the city and came across a few tuk-tuks to give us a tour of a few of Bangkok’s stunning Temples. He said “100 baht” (which is about £2), we thought that was great... until a local told us you should never pay more than 40 baht for a tuk-tuk ride. They’re known by locals as the ‘tuk-tuk mafia’. It feels like we’ve learnt so much already yet we have barely touched this extraordinary country.
As Dean puts it, Bangkok has already “bent us over and bashed us in the arse”.
Bangkok 1, Sophie and Dean, 0.

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