First Impressions.

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Arrived fine with all my legs and arms in the right place, though a little jaded due to no sleep on the plane but stilled fill with enthusiasm. I was lucky enough to meet a girl from Norway on the plane, plus a guy from Canada outside the airport. So we all jumped into a taxi together and headed for the Khao San Road area. We checked into a nice place which the Norweign girl adviced since she had been to Bangkok a few times before. After settling in we headed straight down Khao San Road to take in the vibe which I had expected to feel a lil over whelming and a daunting expirence, but even in my jaded state after no sleep in over 20hours it wasnt. The street was filled with tourist and young Thais there for the whole atmosphere. The road is stuffed full of stalls for tourist to buy things such as clothes and other stuff which i couldnt be bothered to look at since I dont have room with six months lying ahead.

On my first full day i wasnt sure what to do but after wandering down Khao San Road there wasnt much that appealed to me and is very much geared towards selling westernised clothes and items to travellers. So i decided to go on a boat tour which I knew nothing about at all or even where I had to go. After getting ripped off by a tuk tuk driver I arrived at the docks for a boat tour. There was some tourist there already so i tagged along with them. The tour was good since it was my first chance to see Thai people at there general day to day life from the comfort of the boat whilst getting to know the other people on the boat (5 of us in total) plus there was alot of Wats to see on the way and some nice scenery. The boat stopped near to the grand palace and wat Pho also know to tourist as the reclining buddha which i think is the biggest buddha momument in the world. So me and two girls from the boat jumped off to go look around the Wat Pho and planned to go to the Grand Palace but instead oppted for some food since it cost alot to visit and we just took photos from the entrance.

Spent that night drinking with the guy from Canada which was fun and my first dose of night life in Bangkok, we spent alot of time in one bar which was a lil expensive but looked amazing like nothing i had seen before back home and was very nice place to chill and relax upstairs on the terrace or listen to load music downstairs. The place shut at around 2:00 so we decided to head back down Khao San Road which to my suprise also starts to shut around this time.

Alot of small places do stay open and serve alcohol and we got chatting to some British guys who had been living in Bangkok by selling stuff on E-bay. I got the impression it was illegal to serve alcohol at these hours since they started to serve it in plastic cups and acted very warry when the police went past. Once we had pasted a point off no return we stumble back to the hostel at about 5:00 am to sleep off the alcohol. My next day in Bangkok was spent catching up on some sleep which didnt go too well. I think in about 5 days i had only slept a max of 17hours and done alot of travelling on the plane. I tried to sleep but just couldnt.

At the moment I am in Chaing Mai and will write my next blog once I have been on my trekk and have a lil more to say. I havent done much yet since Bangkok is just a city and all cities across the world tend to be similar, doesnt feel like my travels have properly began yet hopefully the trekk tomorrow will help. As for bangkok it didnt really appeal to me and attracts every type of tourist including those here for just booze and a chance to party. ( You do get quite a few tourist not being respectful of the Thai culture and ways, which i find a lil embarrasing).

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