Tourists In Bangkok

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We checked out of our 'luxury' room and managed to find a guesthouse called 'New Samui' that had basic rooms for 380 baht a night, it had a fan (can't afford air con) and shared bathrooms but at least it had a shower with hot water and can't really complain for 2 pounds each.

Are doing our sight seeing of Bangkok today so that we can relax when we come back from the islands.

After jumping on the funky riverboat again, we headed to Wat Po, famous for its famous massive gold reclining budda that is 80 foot long!

Then we wandered over to the King's Palace, they love their King over here and you can actually get imprisoned if you are heard calling him in anyway - thats loyalty for you!

Being the Palace, you had to wear 'proper attire' to enter the grounds which meant covering your shoulders and ankles. Luckily they hired out clothes to people like us and after donning rather attractive shirts we paid our entrace fee (250 baht - he's expensive) and was allowed to enter.

There was loads of Wats and shrines in the grounds, including the famous emerald budda which you wern't allowed to even take pictures of (that is why mine are blurred as I had to try and take them from outside the shrine). The place was packed and certainly the most touristy we have been to yet here in Thailand.

After our little exploration we left and headed to the Amulet Market, they believe that the Amulets bring them luck.

Feelling peckish we then got some spicy snacks (like a potato fritter but full of Jalpeno peppers - nice) then headed back to our hostel to get ready for the night.

An old friend of Diane's who is travelling at the moment is in Bangkok and we are meeting up with them tonight for food and some drinks.

After a refreshing cold shower by choice (it's so muggy and hot here, your sweating again before you've even dryed) we headed to Kho San Road.

Carolyn and her friend Ruth are pretty cool and it was so nice mixing with people again. We had dinner in a bar and we're just enjoying having a drink when some weird Swedish guys came over trying to chat us up. To try and get rid of them we told them Diane had 5 children at home, the weirdest one believed us and was calling Diane a bad mother - soo funny as he was getting really worked up!

We finally got rid of them and for a laugh we decided to go to Phatpong - Bangkok's equvalent of the Red Light District. On the way we got hassled by scouts on the street trying to get us to a 'Ping Pong' show - Di thought it was a game of table tennis until Carolyn explained that it was a show that had women shooting ping pongs out of a very unusual place!

We had a jug of beer in a 'tame place', then dared to go further into the streets. There is everything here, from ladyboys to prostitutes and it's so funny seeing them all come onto Western men - the men are clearly loving it.

Somehow we managed to find quite a funky bar with a decent live band and had a really good time, dancing the night away and watching the sights. The band even got Carolyn and Ruth on stage to sing with them.

Feeling quite merry we left the bar at about 3am and made it back to our room.

Planning an early day tomorrow, we have decided to go to a place called 'lopburi' which is 3 hours north of Bangkok on another happy bus journey.

The place is famous for having wild monkeys roaming the streets and living in the Wat ruins - sounds fun!

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Photos

Looking Good
With my attrative new shirt

Statues on the shrines
They detail is amazing

Blessing myself
Outside the hall of the Emerald budda

The Emerald Budda
Was the best I could get, need a better zoom!

His residence
Behind the locked gates of course!