The land of Wats

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So we are in Thailand! The flight over here was pretty normal - ate some plastic food and watched a whole bunch of movies. Thought the transition at the other side might be a bit dodgy but nothing could be further from the truth. THey didnt bat an eyelid when we walked in and we didn't even have to use our fake ticket!! Then, with thoughts Shappelle Corby and Bangkok Hilton in mind I was picturing big dogs and men with guns, but customs was just a corridor..... right outside... crazy. The bus was easy to find and dropped us right on the corner of Khao San Rd so easy to find our hostel.

The hostel was ok, the balcony had a view of some trees in which we spotted squirrels!!! It was good being close to Khao San so we could easily get cheap food and whatnot, but our room was pretty quiet considering. We spent our few days in Bangkok checking out the city and getting into the feel of things. We have applied for our first visa (fingers crossed) and I successfully used my British passport to change travellers cheques which is good since our kiwi passports are with the Chinese Embassy!

We did the sight seeing thing - checking out the Grand Palace, Emerald Buddha, Wat Po (huge, and pretty cool), and the thieves market in Chinatown. Our favourite was probably catching the river taxi to and fro - cheap, fast, and a nice breeze, though corb (andrew) ketp hitting his head 😞 Seems he is somewhat of a giant over here. I quite like that things are kelly sized 😊

We also went to visit some of the giant shopping malls that asia is famous for - thailand's newest, The Paragon is HUGE! They have best supermarket I've seen, it even had 3D TVs!!!! It was definitely nice to wander around in the airconditioned cool for a while 😊

The best part of Bangkok was the food. We found some little side streets nearby the hostel where we ate almost every meal. We had coconut puddings, a savoury breakfast rice porridge, all sorts of noodles and curries and broths - all delicious!! They also have fresh fruit everywhere - the pineapple is to die for 😊 Our favourite meal so far has been Som Tam - a spicy papaya salad, mmmmm. Nice and light to ease my tummy into Asian styles.

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