The days before that awful trip.

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Bangkok - day 2



Now this, was a brilliant day. We rose early, as per usual and headed over the road for our favourite "eggs and facon". At about 8 o'clock we boarded another minibus to the floating markets. These were truly surreal. After quite a 'short' (hour and a half) journey, we had arrived and immediately embarked on the floating part of our journey, by stepping onto a small river boat and heading down the most narrow canal/river towards the floating markets - we couldn't see over the top of the boat until we stopped and I am still convinced that the person 'motoring' the boat couldn't either, but his guessing of where the turnings were and when other boats were approaching was exquisite. I say 'motoring' because the guy put something like a small rotary blade found inside an electric fan into the water and that was it. It was an extremely powerful fan though, don't get me wrong.



After soaring down the river for about 5 minutes, we arrived at what looked like a market. Emma and I both jumped off the boat, looked at each other and we knew what we were both thinking: "this market is hardly floating... We've been ripped off by the bloody travel agent again... But the boat ride was fun, so let's remain happy. That's what we do best."



Not before long we had processed that this was only the beginning of the tour we had been taken on; walking round the corner we soon realised that there were more boats to get in and of course there were further charges for this but who cares.. So we got on and finally experienced the floating markets we were there to experience. The river was cramped with boats selling the most random ornaments and jewellery and food. We felt like it was time to by something that we could remember Thailand for... So we got a coconut to drink from and some mango. Terrific!



All in all, the floating markets was a great experience and one not to be missed if you go out to Thailand.



We got back to Central Bangkok (Khao San road) at about 1pm so we still had the rest of the day spare luckily. We jumped into the swimming pool for a quick cool-down and then crossed the road for another Pad Thai - consistently amazing. And we discovered CHANG Beer, a beer which is genuinely nice and very nice to have with a good ol' Paddy T.



I have tried to keep my revision going as much as possible and have seriously questioned whether becoming a doctor is worth ruining my holiday to work at random times in the day, and I have concluded that it is, so I must power on.



We headed out for a 'volcanic chicken' (chicken on fire) down the road and shortly afterwards I was stopped on the road by none other than Arjun Kholi (a mate from MTs) and his Australian mate David. The four of us ended up spending the evening together on the roads, casually getting lightly drunk to the point where we all tried SCORPION that they were randomly selling on the street. It wasn't thaaaaat gross but definitely gave me a stomach bug the next day.



Oh and I forgot, Emma and I also got a head, shoulders and back massage for half an hour for £3. It was painful and relaxing at the same time. I think the woman was tying to inflict serious pain but she forgot my impeccable physique and yet again... I prevailed.







Friday



Friday morning, we got up extremely early again to go and see the golden palace! Now this is something that is not to be missed, whoever you are. It is truly, magnificently, beautiful and cannot be described in any other way. Photos of this are being processed... We went there in our first tuk-tuk which is basically a motorbike turned into a people carrier; one of the most enjoyable and worrying experiences of my life. I couldn't understand how we stayed inside it and how we never crashed, as in these parts people don't look at all for oncoming traffic they simply go and expect other vehicles to give way, which in fairness they usually do. Everyone seems to be very polite on the road in fact. Very, very interesting. But the fact of the day was that 3 people got killed on the road every day in Bangkok and Phnom Penh. Banter.



During our time at the golden palace, emma was extremely patient with me as I was constantly moaning about stomach cramps and headaches which were results of the antics of the previous night and probably the bloody scorpion. Nevertheless, we carried on taking photo after photo and finally arrived at the temple of the emerald Buddha which was the greatest thing of all time. This room was stunning and had the most calm atmosphere of all time. My pain vanished and I felt at one with the Great Buddha. GB and I chatted for a while in my head concluding that Buddhism was not the right path for me as I cannot keep still or keep my mouth shut for more than a minute. So I am still Jewish. Oy veh, that was a close one.



Emma and I then decided that before we met up with the others, it was time to have a nice romantic evening. We deserved it to be honest. All that schlapping. We dressed up a bit and headed to the more built up side of Bangkok to a Rooftop Bar in this unbelievable hotel (forgotten the name) called "Moon Bar", recommended superbly by Sue, Emma's Mum. The view from the bar was insane. We could see for miles. It was a shame that we missed sunset, but hopefully we can head back there before the end of our trip. We both thought that it was necessary to have cocktails with the name 'moon' in it, so I got a melon flavoured 'Moon Romance' that had pieces of melon crystallised in liquid nitrogen in it, so the drink was smoking - the best cocktail I have ever had - and Emma had the 'Moon Lover', which was obviously not as nice as mine but tasty nonetheless. A really lovely evening.



The heat has been taking its toll though on both of us and we have had little arguments here and there. Just little things, unnecessary things, that don't mean anything but get turned into serious things and at one point, when we were in our hotel in Bangkok we really felt like we we're drifting away from one another. But luckily we were in the swimming pool so we just swam towards each other and met in the middle. Hahahaha. All that background to just crack a joke. The things I do for a laugh. But seriously, just in case you're confused, we haven't actually argued and all things are good 😊



And then came the worst journey ever the day after this... And how naïve we were at this point.





Now, it is Monday night and we have just finished our first day at the orphanage. I shall keep you all updated on this with plenty of stories to come.



Love you all. Stay smiling and laughing, it's good exercise.



Love Tobes xxxx



And Ems of course xxxx

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Comments

[Charles]

love it
Sounds insane...love the blog - keep up the good work x