Second and last day in Bangkok....

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Well after a very much needed long sleep i woke up and decided to head out for breakfast in the hope that I could find something to do to occupy myself for the day. I was in a good mood as I had been speaking to Joe who had informed me that he had booked flights to come and visit me in 2 weeks time - I was so excited to share this experience with him!

I headed down Ko Sang Road (mainly as this was the only road that I knew) and went for breakfast in a resturant which served a mixture of thai dishes and english/american dishes. I decided to be a typical tourist and have bacon and eggs on toast for breakfast. To be fair I didnt know what else to have.




Out came the breakfast and the Eggs were heart shaped and this made me smile. I enjoyed my breakfast in peace as I read the Thailand Lonely Planet (Traveller's Bible). I had a nice breakfast and sat there comfortably for over an hour reading and wondering what I could do with the rest of my day.




Around Midday I decided to take a walk and look through all of the stalls down Ko Sang Road, most stalls were similar selling clothes, jewellery or food. I was then grabbed by a tuk tuk driver who offered me a tour around Bangkok for 50baht. I refused and attempted to walk on but this guy was persistant and said he would take me to 3 places for 5baht. I told him that I wanted to look up the road and I would come back in the hope that this would get rid of him, however this guy followed me all the way and said he would wait at the end of the road for me.




I continued to walk up the road and got stuck with another guy wanting to predict the future for me. I did not want to have lies told to me but have not quiet learned the ability to say no without feeling rude (typical english). I went with him to sit down and he was telling me how I would be back in bangkok in 2014 with the love of my life. I laughed a lot as he was so in- accurate however he did write a number down and put it in my hand before saying "pick a number between 1 and 12", I picked 7 and sure enough the number 7 was written on the peice of paper in my hand. Anyway, I gave him a small tip and continued with my browsing; all of a sudden the Tuk Tuk guy approached me again, he had waited all that time for me - I thought he must have been desperate and I decided I needed to do something so I let him take me.




We drove around and the first stop was the Golden Buddha. I got out of the Tuk Tuk and walked around looking at this very odd building with lots of building work going on around it, I continued to walk and saw a man with a good luck sign charging what would have been £1 to release some birds from a cage to give good luck. This made me laugh as I was pretty impressed with the different ideas the Thai had to make a small bit of change.




I had a brief look around but there was not too much to see, although the Golden Buddha and its surroundings were pretty. I headed back to the Tuk Tuk and we went on to our next destination. The driver asked me where I wanted to go in Thailand and what my plans were, I explained that I needed to go and speak to one of the tourist information places about it and so he offered to take me to a local one that he knew, I agreed and we went to the centre.




I spoke to a nice Thai guy who spoke fluent English and who booked me a 12 day tour going from Bangkok departing from my hotel lobby and heading to the floating Market, Tiger Temple and Brawan Waterfall over 1 night and 2 days.




I would then head back to Bangkok and get the over train to Ayouthaya where I would stay for a night and then continue to travel up north by train to Chang Mai. Once in Chang Mai I would do a 3 day and 2 night trekking tour before then heading to see the Longnecks in Chiang Rai and from there I would get a speed boat to Luang Pha Bang in Laos. Once in Laos I would stay in Vangvieng for a couple of days before heading back down to Bangkok via train just in time to meet Joe from the airport.




I was pretty impressed that this trip only cost me £500! I decided to go for it as then I would get to see things and keep occupied for the next few days and then hopefully start meeting people. I was asked to head back to the Travel Centre later to collect my documents for departure the next morning. I agreed I would go back around 6pm.




The Tuk Tuk guy then said to me that he was going to take me to a Tailors and that I just had to walk in and walk back out so that they would give him a fuel voucher. I was bombarded as soon as I walked into the shop and they managed to convince me to buy a handmade dress fitted to size and to be delivered to my hotel this evening. I paid 2,750 Baht for it which is approx £55, and I had managed to haggle them dowm from 3,500 baht.




I then left the shop and headed back to the Tuk Tuk and the driver informed me that the temple (next part of trip) closed at 3pm and it was after that time so I asked the driver to take me back to Ko Sang Road.




I headed back to my place of stay and on the way I decided I would treat myself to a Thai Massage as it was only 150 Baht (around £3). I had a half an hour back massage that included sculp and neck. I headed upstairs and once I began having this massage I thought "what the hell am I doing!" The guy was so heavy handed and this was far from a relaxing massage.




There were a few points where I wanted to scream out f**k at the top of my lungs and there was one moment when I thought I might cry. After 30 long minutes the guy said do I want a foot massage and as he was still massaging me at this point I couldnt say no incase he decided to hurt me even more! At one point one of the other massus's (sorry for the poor spelling mum) anyway; one of the other guys started laughing at me as he could see by my face how much pain I was in!!!




I then sat down for my foot massage and this was sooooo much more relaxing, less painful and more of a massage. I enjoyed my half an hour foot massage and tried hard not to laugh as it felt like he was tickling my feet.




After I had left the massage place I decided I would walk back to the guest house. On the way through the alley to get there I passed a place that was offering a pedicure for 150 baht and so I decided to get a french manicure - might as well treat my feet as they are out all the time now and they had taken me on an adventure today......




I then went back to the hotel for a short stop before heading back out to find the Travel Centre to pick up my confirmation.




I headed back to Ko Sang Road in the hope that I could get a Tuk Tuk there, but nobody would take me as the distance to this place was short apparently. I walked around asking for directions from the Thai people and all they said was "down there" pointing towards the main traffic. I walked up and down the road for about 20 minutes trying to hopelessly find my way, passing a homeless guy who kept ratteling his money pot at me when I walked past.




I started to get really fed up and felt like my money was going to be wasted as I was never going to get back to this place to get my tickets. I kept my head up and continued the search....




I eventually got some decent directions from a lady in the street and I started walking there. I got to the Travel Centre only 45mins late and collected my documents for my adventure tour tomorrow!




I am now sitting enjoying another beer and some more thai food with a rice and chicken stirfry....

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