The long and winding (khao San) road.

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We set the alarm for 9 with the intention of getting up to go to tiger temple. We pressed snooze, and next thing we knew it was almost 1 pm- hmmm- maybe we were jet lagged after all. We had a shower and decided to get a cab to Khao San road where apparently most of the action happens, and all the backpacks hang out. We got totally ripped off by a cab; 300baht, which I kind of knew was too much to pay, but felt a bit stuck and not too confident to protest as it was all still quite new to me. Turns out it should only be about 70 baht, and we should have asked him to put the meter on...
Anyway, we got dropped off, and this was what I was expecting of Thailand , a crazy street with loads of street cooking and markets going on. Within seconds Sam had been yaffled by a mozzy and in our haste to get out and about had forgotten to put bug spray on. We found a chemist and bought and coated ourselves in deet in hope we wouldn't get bitten anymore.
Although we said we were going to put off buying stuff until later on in the trip to save carrying it all around, we found ourselves the proud bartering owners of harem / Aladdin pants- totally rocking the travel look now indeed! We found a nice little eatery and ordered what else? Thai green curry. It was lovely, though still not used to the humidity, it was a tad spicy and made my already damp hair even damper and stuck to my head- not a good advert for deodorant(!)
We wandered aimlessly around the streets just taking stuff in and sucking up the atmosphere, and found ourselves at a Muay Thai training school which we sat and watched for a while. Now, one thing I'm not so keen on about Bangkok, is the smell of the bins. That coupled with the heat doesn't make for a pleasant aroma- in fact I'm doing a good job on the old gag reflex front in not wrenching every time I walk past a bin. Sitting here now though watching the training, all I could smell was Tiger balm and it was lovely. I tell a lie actually, the incense that you smell in-between the bins is also growing on me- but seriously, the bins at home have nothing on the ones here- so think on next time you ring the council.
Anyway, we stopped at a bar and ordered a bottle of Chang- the Thai beer. It wasn't as nice as the Beer Laos we'd had the night before, a bit gassy, but it was ok. We didn't have much of a choice after that as the skies opened and the rain thundered down heavier than I could ever of imagined. Still- there were worse places in the world to be rained in than a bar in Bangkok. When it eased off, we found a place for a massage and decided on a full body oil massage. It was lovely, but I couldn't fully switch off due to the number of people in the room- there's.no private treatment rooms here like the UK. It was still really good anyway and cheap as chips.
It was pretty much dark when we emerged all oily and relaxed, so had another stroll down the road, buying local 'Pad Thai' for tea. I'm glad to say that my sod it attitude paid off and it didn't leave me with food poisoning?
We got a cab back to the hotel- with a drive who didn't have a clue where he was going. I had more of an idea and it was only my second night here. We ended up jumping out at a street near the hotel and walking the rest of the way. Back at the hotel, we raided the mini bar of the toblerones which even by Thai standards was far too expensive- but it was chocolate, and we were on holiday- having the time of our lives.

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