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After the short but very enjoyable stay in Siem Riep and a new tattoo in tow it was off to Bangkok and the much anticipated arrival of Papa Brough. As Kieran and the rest of the gang will tell you I had been looking forward to seeing my Dad for so long and knew that the departure of Cambodia and arrival of Thailand meant that I was going to be seeing him very soon-I was so excited! We searched (as we always do) around all the travel companies and bus companies in Siem Riep for the cheapest price to Bangkok. We finally settled on booking it through the hostel we had stayed at as they picked us up from the hostel and there'd be no lugging round the rucksacks which made things a hell of a lot easier. Thats was possibly the easiest part of what turned out to be (we'll add it to the list) a rather difficult journey.
We left for the border on a bus and arrrived about 11am-excellent we thought we were making good time. We queued up and passed through the border and onto the familiar turf of Thailand. However when we crossed the border
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Our first view of Thailand (after being in Cambodia) we were then told that the company that picked us up in Thailand was a different company to that in Cambodia and that we had to wait until 3 pm to get on the next bus!!!!! HOWEVER, if we wanted to get to Bangkok earlier we could pay an additional charge on top of what we'd already paid to get into a minivan-what a rip off! We felt well and truly done over but didn't have any cash on us to pay the extra so spent our last bit of money on a club sandwich and waited for our bus.
When we had the go ahead that our bus was outside, we got our rucksacks and headed to what we thought would be a bog standard crappy bus that we've had pretty much the whole way round South East Asia. However, what we were blessed with was more like something out of Pimp My Bus (brightly coloured, and a back seat that was more like something out of a very old and tired limosine-a big, pink rounded leather back seat all to ourselves!!) I hadn't been feeling very well all day and the toilet on the bus took the
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The biggest reptile Ive ever seen next to a river in Bangkok. I think it had been genetically mutated brunt of it unfortunately...and after a very long 3 hours on and off the toilet joined by a big cockroach to keep me company I was more than welcoming to the bottom of the Ko Shan Road!!!
We headed straight to the Swadsee House that we had stayed in previously but they were much more expensive as we were now in peak season and the prices had rocketed! We were on a tighter budget now and needed somewhere cheap. So Kieran sat a very miserable and not very well Kate down with the rucksacks and headed off on his horse (aka havana flip flops) in shining armour to find us a cheap bed to stay in. In between this time and Kieran arriving back with some prices I had deteriated and had visited the toilet over ten times so knew I was in a bad way. I went to the pharmacy and spent 30 pounds on medicine and headed with Keiran to the cheapest place to stay. Obviously in Bangkok the cheapest rooms are always going to be the worst but we actually found this one o.k, other than the very thin mattress and constant knocking on the door
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Kate doing her midnight workout though the night.
The next day we decided to move to another place called Joe's Guesthouse. It was just off the Kho San Road and had a really nice communal area and the rooms were much better. I still wasn't feeling great but we decided, as per our original plan when we arrived back in back in Bangkok, to go shopping. We went to the MBK shopping centre that consisted of 7 floors of shops-perfect. After there we headed to the Sun Luim night bazaar. We bought what was on our shopping list-triainers, bikini's t shirts etc and headed back after I was sick AGAIN at the market so still wasn't 100%.
Dad was arriving very early the next morning after travelling on a night bus, he had text to say that we were not to get up that early and he would keep busy till 9 am and would come to our hostel. Of course as I was sssssssssooooooooo excited to see him I could barely sleep anyway and had told reception that my Dad would be arriving with rucksack in tow. So bright and early I went down to reception who told me that my Dad
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Me showing kate how its done just droppped off his rucksack and headed out for a walk. So I walked up and down the Ko San Road, to Swadee house to see if he was there, round the back alleys of Bangkok (dangerous I know but I was a girl on a mission) and after realising that I was never going to find him headed back to our hostel. As I walked round the corner there he was sat in the restaurant of our hostel having a coffee and some breakfast. As anyone reading this can imagine it was quite emotional seeing my Dad for the first time since leaving the UK 3 months earlier and after alot of hugging and smiling I sat down and we talked about my travels and Dad's travels over the last 3 weeks. For anyone that didn't know, my Dad had travelled north Thailand and Laos before meeting up with us in Bangkok to head South for 10 days.
After taking a walk around with Dad for an hour, Kieran was now up and we all went out for breakfast. We decided, as Dad had already been to Bangkok earlier in his trip and ourselves now 3 times, that
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More shopping at Sun Lum Night Bazaar we would be leaving the next day so Kieran and I booked all 3 of us onto the night train at 6pm for the South Islands. So we lazed around the pool at Dang Derm and shopped a little on the Kho San Road.
After stocking up on the standard beers and food for the night train we left Bangkok for the beautlful Railey beach and Phi Phi. The night train was one not to forget (again!)- whilst on the train we met a couple called Kiki and Sharon from Holland. They were a really nice couple who had just started their travels of SEA so after giving them a few hints on where to go and stay etc. We all headed to the drinking carrage and sang renditions of Whitney Housten and Shakira with the very, very, very camp host called Frank! A great night but I still wasn't feeling the best so had an earlyish night and left Kieran and Dad to it
K&K
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