One night (well actually more than that) in Bangkok

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- FOOD: Street stall food all so good (and lots of it all so hot); good, proper hotel breakfast; bitter apple type fruit with hot chili sugar dip; fried locusts and fried maggots (yum); nice (but HOT) Thai green curry (my fave).

- AREA: Mix of modern, mad, poor, rich with nice aromas of spices mixed with nasty ones of pollution; very wide lanes with MUCH traffic but calm alleys off them; Buddha statues in the middle of the madness; confusing road names; posh, multi level shopping centres at Siam Square with 'Boots'!; bright and bustly Khao San Road - backpacker heaven (although a midnight curfew of alcohol sales); LOTS of travel agents; Toni and Guy!

- PEOPLE: They seem a bit on the rude side but friendly enough; taxi touts with real London cabs; smiley people doing the 'Wai' greeting; lots of beggars; lots of sellars; lots of lady boys; lots of tuk-tuk drivers.

- ACCOMMODATION: Nice hotel room with a few luxuries but a hard bed and pillow; prison cell hostel room without windows or sheets; nice overnight bus with a/c and space.

- WEATHER: Very hot sun but torrential downpours at night.


Thur 15th Sep: It took me ages to get through immigration at Bangkok airport and then ages to get past all the taxi touts (there's even guys with London cabs!!). I made my way outside and joined the big queue for taxis, amazed at the lack of hassle I had and fascinated by the Thai alphabet.
I had a taxi man who hardly spoke any English so communication was a bit hard but we managed to talk about the rain that was pouring down!
I was surprised at how nicely everyone was driving as I was expecting a version of Cairo traffic. The roads were wide and numerous with 8 lanes of traffic, but with lots of calm 'Soi's' coming off them.

We found my Soi and NICE hotel (but expensive at ooh, 7 pounds 50). The receptionist was really sweet, taught me some Thai and kept giving me the prayer like 'Wai' greeting. I got the cheapest room which only had a fan rather than a/c but had a newly fitted bathroom, a hairdryer, shower cap and pulley curtains!!! The bed was rock solid though.
For dinner I jumped in the deep end and went to the street stalls where I feasted on sausage (with very hot sauce), chicken, sweetcorn, watermelon - all only 25p each! I felt homesick for my Mum for a while as 'Calender Girls' was on the TV so didn't watch it all and just went to bed.


Fri 16th: In amongst lying on a hard bed, listening to cats screeching all night, a sound like a strong wind blowing and lots of big bangs, I got some sleep. Breakfast was a good 'hotel' style one - real coffee, eggs, bacon and toast.
Then I set out to explore some of the 'City of Angels' (the Thai people call it Krung Thep (this is a VERY short version of the official name) which means that. It's the foreigners that name it Bangkok). Bangkok became the capital in 1782 and has a population of 6 million (Thailand's population is 62 million, phew, no wonder there are so many lanes of traffic). Thailand means 'Land of the Free' - it's never been colonised unlike most other South East Asian countries. 75% of the population are ethnic Thai.

I walked to Siam Square under the very hot sun and up and down walkways which cross the big roads. I passed a couple of Buddha statues along the way, just there in the middle of all the madness! 95% of the population are Buddhists - all males are expected to be monks at some point. They seem to find time in the middle of rushing around to stop at these statues for a bit of worship and proof that this happens is the many stalls selling orchid garlands (national flower).

The road names are a bit confusing and different to the guide or map names sometimes but I found my way to the Vietnam embassy easily enough. It was a lot cheaper here to get my visa sorted but I had to leave my passport behind.
I seemed to give money or food to every person begging that I passed. There are lots of stalls selling food so I tried an apple type fruit that was really bitter. I tried dipping it in the sugar given to me to sweeten it although was suspicious by the sugar's orange colour. I had every reason to be - it was orange because it was mixed with chillis making it very hot!

Siam Square shopping centres have many levels and are expensive but full of temptation. I was excited to find Diesel jeans that were only a tenner... Ahem, I miscalulated the currency - they were actually 100 pounds (no, I didn't buy them).
The best find of all though was Boots - anyone who knows my obsession with the shop will understand my excitement at finding it. But maybe because I've been travelling for long enough now without vanity products and have realised that you simply don't need all this stuff, or maybe because my money priorities are different, I didn't buy up half the shop like I usually do.
However, I did buy my next batch of malaria tablets over the counter - 2 months worth for only a tenner! I won't ever bother going through all the doctor/prescription hassle again back home!
The second best find was a Toni and Guy hairdresser. Perfect - a good haircut for less than a tenner (although they're not quite sure how to cut hair that isn't dead straight!)

I feasted on street food again on the way back to the hostel - chicken balls and sausage in filo pastry - with the obligatory hot sauce.
I didn't do too well with the whole metered taxi business. First the taxi man couldn't understand English, then he turned the meter off and laughed at me when I asked him to turn it back on. He kept saying something over and over - I got the gist that he was offering me a 'special deal'. He still wouldn't put the meter on so I gave up and sat in the back sulking and not trusting him. He kept talking about some other guest house so I thought he was going to take me to his mates one. I insisted on going to the one I'd asked for as Laura was there. He kept asking me to get my mobile out and when I kept repeating that I didn't have one, he made me speak to someone on his.
Bless him, there was me mistrusting him and what had happened was that there are 3 road names very similar to the one I'd given him and he didn't know where to go so was phoning his friend who speaks English!

No-one had heard of the hostel, not even the 20 other taxi drivers he asked. It was raining and getting ridiculous so I just got him to drop me at any old hostel. I got my money's worth anyway the amount of time he was driving around! He of course tried to get another 100 baht out of me but once a deal is done, it's done.
The hostel I chose had tiny rooms like prison cells with no windows or sheets but it was clean and only 70 baht. I emailed Laura to find out where the hell she was and then set to wandering around Khao San Road and it's surrounding streets to try to find her.

Quite a mad street - full of lights, stalls, tourists, locals, sellers, lady boys. A good feel though and Laura found me ok. Hooray! We went for some food, beer and catch up since I last saw her in New Zealand. I had another insect eating experience but this time they were dead. I tried a locust type thing much to Laura's fascinated disgust which tasted fine - a bit like crackling. We also had some little maggot things which Laura said tasted of fried cheese.

We were surprised that they wouldn't serve us beer after midnight and that the street had really calmed down - I was expecting a 24hour party scene. However, we've heard the police here are corrupt and we saw them in action trying to bust someone or other for selling alcohol after midnight. I also think everyone was drunk enough by then - we saw lots of sorry states.


Sat 17th: I went to sleep with the sound of someone being very sick and woke up to it too (hope it wasn't the same person!). I met Laura and we faffed around the trillions of stalls and travel agencies and ended up just choosing one that offered bus trips further South. They're not all credible so it was pot luck and instinct really. I avoided the tuk tuk drivers and women selling wooden frogs that 'croak' when a stick is run along their raised back and lighters the size of a brick and instead found an optician.
For a great deal cheaper than the UK I got a free eye test and chose new glasses, with some free sunglasses chucked in too (although they may well be the fake ones that are sold on the street).

Laura had met her friend Clare at the airport and we all had some food before getting the overnight bus to Surat Thani. A Thai green curry - so hot but so nice. We started to think we'd chosen one of the dodgy agencies when everyone else got on a bus except about 6 of us who were made to walk all over the place to find another. After a bit of a nightmare we got on a lovely, spacious, air conditioned bus that had a film showing (even though it was crap).

Well, so far I'm liking Thailand - it's a mixture of modern, mad, poor and rich with nice aromas of spices and food mixed with nasty ones of shit and pollution. The Thai people seem quite rude to me but maybe they're just the ones that have to deal with all us backpacker types (don't blame them for being rude!).
I slept on and off and was pleased to find the squat loos where we stopped at for food were ok.

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