Khao San Road

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We were awake a little after 9 and went to breakfast which was buffet style and really quite nice. It was strange to see chicken jalfeizi and noodle soup as a breakfast option though! We mainly had croissants and muffins and had a really nice omlette made. We'd definitely eaten too much and had to have a good lay down before we checked out. It seems we've bought so much already, i.e trousers, dresses-i hope we can manage to lug it all around with us for the next 3 weeks! We got a cab to the next hotel. It's quite basic and definitely not as plush as the one we'd just stayed in, but it was clean and served it's purpose. Along with the obligatory holy bible in the bedside draw, was the book ' The teachings of Buddha' which Sam got her head stuck into.
We got a map from reception, and the bellboy pointed us in the direction of the river boat stop. We walked along a kind of canal, with little huts built along the sides. The smell of bins was quite pungent and i found myself with my hand over my face quite a few times until we made it to the boat stop. We waited on the pontoon in a weird little place, that looked a bit like a secondhand shop with bits of pottery and ornaments dotted arond. The boat was easy to work out and we passed some lovely temples on the way. The guy at the front of the boat with the microphone pointed lots of things out on the way such as Wat Arun temple, some Catholic churches and China town.
When we got off at our stop, we had to buy a drink- it was so hot and humid. There were loads of pavement markets here as well, some selling false teeth of all things- not the kind of thing you really want go have secondhand....
We made our way to the Grand Palace,  narrowly avoiding the manic traffic at the crossings,and paid our 400baht entry fee. It was lovely to look around and we got plenty of pictures. We had to take our shoes off to go see the Emerald Buddha, but the cool tiles on my feet felt lovely as they still seemed a bit swollen from the heat and humidity. We sat in there for a while just people watching, and observing the monks as they prayed. Outside there were loads of people dipping lotus flowers into some water and splashing it on their faces and heads. We had a go too, although I'm not too sure what it was for- but if anything, it helped to cool us down. Further down people were burning incense and praying to some more statues. We had our pictures taken with the guards- nowhere near as impressive as ours back home, but hey, its the touristy thing to do. Part of the palace was closed off for a funeral, it was king ram a III granddaughter?
Back on the boat we took some more pictures of wat arun and got a crazy tuktuk ride back to the hotel.
We showered and changed before heading to the lobby to meet the rest of the 'wolf pack'  we were to be spending the next 14 days and nights with. Our tour leader seems really nice. She's called Boom ( as in boomerang) and she talked us through the itinerary of the trip. It turns out that we wouldn't be able to rent hiking gear up in Chaing Mai, so the plan for us having a meal had changed and with most of the group, we headed to khao San road to buy some cheap trainers. We could only find one stall, and they were really cheap nasty looking things. The only ones that they had in my size were the colourful Nike trainer boots that looked like something out of run DMC video, and they were about 1200baht- no way was I paying that, or wearing them to hike in, though I do think it would have made for a funny photo- stood in the hills of northern Thailand wearing luminous knock off pumps.
We made a decision to stick to wearing our hiking sandals, and headed off for food. We found a nice place just off Khao San and ordered a lovely Thai green curry and rice and swished it down with a couple of bottles of Beer Laos. I think i definitely prefer this to the thai beer 'Chaing'  I ended up sitting next to the German guy, whom I found to be a bit odd within about 10 minutes, and vowed not to get into a conversation with him again unless I could help it- otherwise I'd learn nothing on this trip apart from the ins and outs of German law.....
We parted, agreeing to meet at 2330, and Sam and I set out to have a massage. We got slightly distracted by one of the street vendors making crepes they looked and smelled so wonderful, we just had to have some. The only place to sit was next door to the crepe vender but in order to do so you had to buy a drink. Whilst I was busy ordering food, Sam went to get the drinks. I said I'd have a Pina Colada- she bought a bucket of it- imagine small child on Scarborough beach kind of size of bucket- yep, it was one of them full of ice and cocktails. It went down pretty well, with the banana and chocolate crepes, and we slumped in the recliners a little further down the road ready for our foot and leg massage. It wasn't as good as the previous massages I'd had, the pressure wasn't as firm, until she got to my back, and once again I was twisted and contorted into all sorts of positions. Still, afterwards, I felt nice and relaxed, though that could have been down to that small Childs bucket of Pina Colada.....
We headed back to meet the others at Khao San, but found most of them sitting outside a bar just down the road, so we joined them for more cocktails. We decided that we'd probably stay out a little later than 1130, so told the others not to wait for us. I don't know if this was a good move or a bad move, as it turned into quite a good night with two of the other girls in the group. We got talking to a couple of Irish people, and the night ended up with Us 2 & 3 Germans on the back of a tuktuk, still with mojito in hand and not a care in the world-the perfect ingredients for next days hangover.....
  

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