Thailand part one

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21 hours after leaving penang we arrived in Bangkok, with instructions from Rosie's friend Becky to find a hostel in a certain area of town. Becky was meeting us that evening with a guidebook to help us get around, so for the first morning we were lonely planetless and a little lost. After speaking to someone on the train we decided to get a taxi with him to the hostel he'd been recommended. When we arrived there and consulted a map, something we probably should have done before setting off, we realised we were at comlpetely the opposite end of town from where we needed to be. So a short journey on the monorail and yet another taxi ride and we arrive at Khoa San Road. Our next task was to find a hostel in the area, still without a guide book. We decided that, as with most things, going to the pub might help us with our task. Leaving our bags in the pub we scouted out a few places before deciding which one to stay in. The first couple of places were not promising, being either too expensive or full. The 4th place was a definite no, having a list on the wall giving room prices by the hour. Finally found an acceptable place at the end of the street and went to retreive our bags, and obviously have another drink. The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping in the street market before meeting Becky in the evening. Went out for a few beers and got acquainted with Thai food.

Next morning we saw Becky onto a bus bound for the airport and then shopped some more. In the evening we got a river boat to the centre of town in search of a night market. Despite now having a lonely planet complete with maps, we were unable to find said market so came all the way back to our area of town empty handed.

Last day in Bangkok we got an overnight train to Chumpon in order to catch a ferry to Ko Tao. We'll be back in Bangkok again at least once more, so plenty of time to do some actual sightseeing then.

In Ko Tao our plans consisted of mostly diving and possibly completing some of our advanced PADI course. We did 6 dives altogether, one of which was a deep dive which lets us dive where the sharks swim. We also did a night dive which was amazing, much more fun than regular daytime diving. We didn't do much else whilst we were here as we were too tired from diving most days and the monsoon was starting to kick in.

Leaving the island we made the reverse trip to how we'd got there, arriving back in Bangkok early in the morning, and left again straight away heading for the Cambodian border.

Next stop Cambodia

more soon

Neil and Rosie
xx

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