Blogs from Bangkok, Central Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 695

Our plane touches down at 10.27pm and we are through customs and on our way into big, beautiful Bangkok by 10.42pm. We had heard of a little known but, apparently, very authentic area in which to stay. The old Thai shaman who imparted the information was anxious that we would never share the location of this magical spot with anyone. I think there may have even been a curse involved as he handed me the ancient parchment on which the address was written. Opening it carefully - fearful that it might disintegrate at any moment - I gazed on the barely decipherable script. "Khoa San Road", it read, and we head there immediately. We dump our bags at the Royal Hotel - possibly one of the King's old palaces - and venture down the mysterious Khoa ... read more

Well, on the 7th we arrived in this great nation's capital at 6am on an overnight bus from Krabi. "Super VIP" obviously means something different in Thai - perhaps "five changes of bus, not allowed to recline your seat because of luggage piled up behind you and plunged into pitch black with no option of a reading at 8 pm", We really should get an up-to-date phrase book. We've been staying in a hostel dorm run by an Aussi who calls himself Big John in the East part of town. Bangkok is bloody massive! I don't why that came as such a suprise to us, London is not exactly a fishing village, but it has been taking us forever to get from one side of town to the other. We ride the sky train when we ... read more

Hello again viewers! Today started nervously as I swatted up for my TEFL interview over breakfast. Refreshing myself with the grammatical exercises that I completed back in October and preparing questions that I wanted to ask of them. (this may sound dull but it gets better hopefully....I shouldn't be writing on an empty stomach). I then headed to the Siam Square district which is quite Western with lots of great shops & eateries and some huge shopping centres. I hope that you're proud of me as I didn't actually buy anything! I had fresh fruit & a lemon tea at "Mango Tango" and had a look in "Boots" (which has some really neat stuff that we don't get in the UK - no, not just in the family planning section...although that did too!). My interview was ... read more

Hello! Well I've technically only had one night in Bangkok but feel like I've been here ages. The flight took over 11 hours from Heathrow. I did sit next to a good guy on the plane who works in the North Sea and has his home in Thailand. He gave me some good advice about Thailand. I arrived at the place that I''d booked over the t'internet, to find that it was minging. The Lonely Planet was a little off the mark with this one, which I''m really surprised at. It said that the place gets a lot of return business; maybe from ther cockroaches! A strange aroma filled the room (that I don't even want to try and identify) and it was on the fourth floor and four times as hot as anywhere else. I ... read more

Wow. It's two months, happy birthday, trip. And a happy new year. I haven't been doing much during these last 2 weeks. Christmas on Pangkor in Malaysia, a fever on Langkawi, then back up to Hat Ton Sai, Thailand. I had planned to stay there just for New Year's, even struggling to do that, because backtracking seemed a waste of time in a world where so much is yet to be seen. Well, I ended up spending 10 days on Ton Sai, don't ask how it happened. Must have been the comfort of our tents, the need to recover from my food-poisoning, and the genuine friendliness of our hosts Chai and Hanny, who were running the bar, amongst other reasons... And my travelmates, of course: Corey, the American with a King Kong watch; Tobi, the Heidelberg ... read more