Bangkok

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And so we arrived in Bangkok at 6am after a 14 hour bus journey from Phuket. The city was quiet as we began our search for a hostel in the famous Khao San Road area - popular with backpackers and all manner of other waifs and strays.

After being turned away at numerous hostels we eventually found one and it wasn't too bad.

Bangkok is a bustling city of 9million. 80% of all cars in Thailand can be found in Bangkok. It was no metro system. Needless to say, it is an extremely polluted and gridlocked city. However, Chris and Liam were reaquainted with our preferred mode of transport from India, the tuk-tuk! And they are a lot faster in Bangkok, even if the driving is a little more sensible. On the down side, the lack of windows on a tuk-tuk does mean that you inhale about half a kilo of carbon on even the shortest of journeys around the city.

After spending so much time on the beach recently, we were keen to reimmerse ourselves in some culture and, over the following days, visited numerous temples, palaces and markets. Of note were the Grand Palace - a huge walled city in itself, containing a stately home, gardens and many temples. We also visited the 'Big Buddha', a huge statue (approx. 20m in height) covered from head to foot in gold leaf. Over sized buddhas seem to be the thing in Bangkok, no temple is complete without one (and associated gold leaf). More impressive was the famed 'Reclining Buddha' at Wat Pho, even bigger than the big Buddha!

After a couple of days in the city, we decided to get out and visit the floating market. Essentially you get paddled around a network of canals lined with market stalls selling everything from fruit to fridge magnets. Other boats selling food and drink weave between the tourists in a very relaxed atmosphere of buying, selling and paddling.

It doesn't really feel like we're breaking new ground here though, package holidays have made Bangkok a well worn tourist trail and everything is set up to extract as much of the tourist dollar as possible. Having said that, many of the locals are really friendly and genuine with a wicked sense of humour.

Hope its not toooooo cold at home, its a sunny 34C here!!

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Photos

The Big Buddha
As the name says.....

The Golden Mount
Monk looks out over the city from the Golden Mount

The Grand Palace
Its bigger than it looks!

The Grand Palace
3 wise men....?

Wat Pho
The impressive Reclining Buddha

Floating Market 2
A very peaceful way to shop

Floating Market 3
Between the 3 of us we bought....... some bananas and a fridge magnet.