Bangkok

Well as you can see our plan of writing a blog a day has already fallen by the way side (and we are only 2 weeks into our 9 month trip)!! We have been in Bangkok a few days now, and I think thats me just beginning to settle into the backpacking way of life!! (Oh I miss that hotel in Hong Kong!!!)

So far we have experienced a couple of hostels. Our first hostel was extremely clean and well maintained with air conditioning, satelite TV and a roof top swimming pool!! Although we were very happy there we decided that we would save some pennies and try a cheaper hostel!! The first hostel we tried, was fully booked so we continued around the road to 'My House' a hostel which we had read about in our guide book but neither of us could remember much about!! We decided to give it a try!! They no longer had double rooms available so we agreed on a twin room with a toilet and shower - perhaps this was where we went wrong!!! The room was very basic but clean so we agreed to the room for the night! On closer inspection the room was much more basic that we had originally thought (no electric points at all - where was I going to plug in my straightners!! hehe) however that really wasnt a problem, it was the smell that came from the "toilet/shower" room that left us wishing we were back in our original hostel. Never mind we kept telling ourselves its only for one night and its an experience!!! It was worse during the night though as due to its size, it became extremely stuffy and hot with a lot of noise coming in. Combined with the smell, we never ended up having a great deal of sleep. Although an experience, we checked out first thing in the morning and headed back to our familiar retreat for a nice shower!!!

Throughout the few days in Bangkok we managed to visit a number of really gorgeous temples. We were advised to go to the Tourist Agency of Thailand (TAT). That we did and ended up booking a trip to Chiang Mai and a treck which included elephant rides, bamboo rafting and meeting a tribe. Although it cost a fair bit we agreed and signed on the dotted line......(more to come on that later).

After a nice walk up and down Khao San Road, looking at the various market stalls, we headed into the much heard about Gullivers for a quick drink before heading back to the hostel!! The night started off very quiet and just as we were about to head we got talking to a rather drunk australian man, followed by a few Japanese allowing us to practice our very limited Japanese language skills (I think they were rather impressed to be honest). Many cocktails later and our memories started to fade and it was with a sore head we awoke the next day back in the hostel.

I was beginning to think that Gary was getting withdrawl symptoms from the cinema (even though a lot of pubs had big screen DVD showings every night) so one night when we headed into Siam square we saw there was a close by cinema!! After being tempted by many shops (why is it these cinemas are always on the top floor of a shopping centre?), we made our way to the foyer. Although Gary was slightly dissappointed that there was no VIP tickets available which a sign had promised, we settled down on the reclyning chairs to enjoy "The Invasion".

We also went for a walk one day to the Grand Palace which we thought was near by. After having trouble crossing the busy roads, we somehow ended up in a University campus watching students graduate!! After making our way to the Palace (finally), it turned out we weren't allowed in as we didn't have the correct dress code. We walked all the way back with our tails between our legs.

All in all a very exciting and memorable few days in Bangkok!!

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