Oh Chaing Mai! Wat the Bangkok?!

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This country certainly has felt like i am strapped in to a rollercoaster blindfolded, where you have a minute to get used to one twist before you are thrown into a turn and then tumbled upside down and come screaming downhill to a very calm, relaxed stop, and everybody's looking at me as i get off- knees shaking, head spinning and wondering what the hell just happened but wanting to do it all over again!

It started at the airport where it was all meant to be easy... airport transfer straight to hotel etc. etc. All good except Philippine airlines were late and when I arrived there was no transfer. Eventually i found the person who supposedly had been waiting for me (she wasnt) and then got told by the taxi driver that I took a long time and he had to wait. Well this put me in a foul mood as it absolutely wasnt my fault and here i learned a valuable lesson- i took a breath shook it off and promised myself that i wouldnt let this frustration spoil my experience of Bangkok or of Thailand. Luckily when I did get to the hotel there was a welcome drink, an airconditioned room and an elephant on my bed. All would be well.

A note on Bangkok's weather this time of year... hot steamy and more than a little bit wet! During my shopping expedition (to find a cheap phone) and my lie in a park and read expedition I got drenched by torrential down pours- no matter it eventually stops, the sun comes out and you start sweating all over again. Thank goodness for my AW Vater poncho or the poor monk at the bus stop would have seen much more of me than he bargained for or that would have been entirely proper.

So did Bangkok- the Grand Palace, reclining Buddha and a couple of temples, ridiculously extravagant shopping centres (like with a Madame Tussaud's at the top and an aquarium at the bottom), Khao San Road (dodged the ping pong shows, oh and extremely disappointed as yet have not seen a lady boy)pad thai pad thai pad thai, Lumphini Park (complete with water monitor/crocodile) street food and tuk tuks. Then boarded a bus (it was meant to be a train but the floods prevented this) to settle in for a 12 hour journey to Chiang Mai. That was that, or so i thought! Turns out the bus had reclining chairs, foot rest, MASSAGE, and food! Awesome, even managed to scrape in a few hours sleep.

Chiang Mai came and went in the blink of a cooking class and a wander through the night market, as now with Gecko tour group there was to be a lot of long haul travel and quick stops to get to out major destination- Laos. See next blog and photos to come.

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