Hot weather at last!

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We landed in Thailand on Monday afternoon and we caught the bus from the airport to Khao San Road. Walking around trying to find some where to stay in hot weather is exhausting, especially with a backpack as full as mine. As you can imagine we were both quite tired and hungry so went out for something to eat and drink and had a relatively early night.

First thing Tuesday morning we headed out to get our Vietnam Visas as we have heard that they can be a bit fussy at the border. It turned out to be the King's birthday so the embassy was closed but we managed to get the at a tour operator instead. Next we traveled up the river on a long boat which did a detour via several canals (I had done a similar thing last year but it was good fun to do again and Erica really enjoyed it). We got to see the floating market and the only way we could get rid of this lady was to buy something, so we got a beer each! Whilst we were waiting for the boat we saw a large lizard sat on some leaves on the river, suddenly it pounced and started thrashing about, it turned out it had caught a frog and swallowed it whole. We tried to find The Museum of Forensic Medicine, we knew that we were in the right area but after searching for 30 mins we gave up.
In the evening we booked coach and ferry tickets to go to Koh Samet, which is an Island East of Bangkok and then went shopping down Khao San Road. We actually went back after tea and did some more... oops!

On Wednesday (which was not a public holiday) we went to Wat Po, which is a large reclining Buddha. I had wanted to see this last year but it unfortunately it was closed. It was fantastic, in the grounds there were lots of beautiful buildings which one coin in each in each pot, there must have been about forty of them. We aren't really sure why you do it, but I imagine it is to bring you either good luck or good fortune. Our next stop was The Grand Palace but it wasn't open to the public until 2.30pm. We went back at 3.30pm to find it had now closed for the day, it must have only been open an hour.
In the evening we had an early night as we have to be up at 7am tomorrow to head to Koh Samet.

On Thursday we got up and by 7.30 am we were waiting for our bus, which never came. APPAENTLY it had broke down so we are now going tomorrow instead. But as our mothers taught us we expressed our annoyance of not being told that the bus would not be coming and having to wait for an hour and a half after getting up early plus we also have no accommodation. The result was a free room for the night, all be it not as posh as where we had been staying but we have stayed in worse! After breakfast we headed out (again) to the Grand Palace and this time managed to get in! It is truly beautiful and definitely worth seeing, you can understand why they call it grand. Then we decided a lazy afternoon was called for and headed to the swimming pool (of our previous accommodation) to relax and catch a few rays.

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