Day 2 - Bangkok

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Today started really early for me. Got out of bed at 5:45am. I went to bed so early that I couldn't sleep any longer than that. So, I had my shower. I felt like a giant. I got into the shower bath and, I kid you not, my head was almost touching ceiling. Clearly it's made for shorter people.
After that I potted around my room trying to find more than the two powerpoints that the tv and fridge were plugged into (there is only those, isn't even one in the bathroom!) I dried my hair, did my face and headed down for my free buffet breakfast.
I had my vegemite toast and some fruit and juice. While I was eating, Anne and Jamie came down and joined me, we went over how to spend our day. They had to finish getting ready so I went and sat in the sun by the pool for about 30mins before we headed out to discover more of the weird and wonderful Bangkok. Little did I know what lay ahead.
We started on our walk up to the standing Buddha. On the way we pulled out the map and a local came over to help and recommend a few things to see. So we jumped in a Tuk Tuk, made an arranged price of 10Baht each and we were on our way to our first stop Wat Intharawihan
One of the main features is a 32-metre high, 10-meter wide standing Buddha referred to as Luang Pho To or Phrasiariyametri. It took over 60 years to complete beginning in 1867 during the reign of King Rama IV. It is made of brick and is decorated in glass mosaics and 24-carat gold. The topknot of the Buddha image contains a relic of Lord Buddha brought from Sri Lanka. Very impressive.
After this, we headed to some temple, The Lucky Temple apparently.
I think it was just a temple but whatever. We went in and there was a guy there that said he was a teacher at the school next door and told us how to 'pray to buddha'. We were here for about 5minutes before we headed back to our tuk tuk. After this we went to some other temple but one of the guys outside got angry and said i was "wearing disco-tech shorts" and that Anne was "fat" so we left. Rude bastard.
Last stop was Wak Saket or 'The Golden Mount'.
We had our first coconut here for only 20Baht. They cut the top off it for us, put in a straw and we were 'happy little vegemites' with our super fresh coconut milk.
So, The Golden Mount. This is a man made lookout that has about 400 steps. Doing those steps in 32 degree heat is a joke, but we did it. On the way up there was all these bells to ring that supposedly is good luck. We finally made it to the top for our 360degree view. There is a temple up there to pray at too, if that's what your into. It was funny, because normally your supposed to take your shoes off to go into a temple but there is a sign up there that says "PLEASE DO NOT TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES" and yet, in front of it was a whole bunch of pairs of shoes. Funny.
We took some photos and headed down the 400 steps to the bottom. We jumped in a different tuk tuk to head out to Chatuchak Market, the weekend market.
Covering 35 acres of land with over 15,000 stalls and more than 200,000 visitors every Saturday and Sunday, Chatuchak Weekend Market in Bangkok is the mother of all markets - and possibly one of the biggest and most famous in the world. Everything you could want, was here. We walked around in the blistering heat before deciding on some lunch. I had chick fried rice, the first 'risk' I'd taken since I'd been here (food wise). It was good.
After lunch we walked some more and then it was time to leave, it was just way too hot to stay any longer. It was at this point that I realised my purse was gone from my bag; panic took over.
Thank goodness I was there with Jamie and Anne. I think if I'd been there on my own you'd find me still in the gutter, curled up, rocking myself backwards and forwards. We had a quick look round in case I'd dropped it (I hadn't) before deciding it was a pointless exercise because it was never lost, it was stolen.
We went to the Visitor Centre, which was inconveniently closed so it was time to do something about it. I got on my mobile and made the very expensive call home to get Dad to cancel my four cards and try and work out what to do from there.
After the call, and some brief sobbing, we got in a tuk tuk back to the hotel where we went in search of Dean, our Contiki Tour manager. We knocked on his door, introduced ourselves (as Contiki didn't even start until that night) and explained the situation. He said not to stress, it would have been a problem if had been my passport but money was easy as long as I'd cancelled my cards.
Feeling a bit better, we went back to the rooms, got cleaned up a bit and made our way to the breakfast area for our Contiki meeting. All it was basically was a rundown of trip, some brief introductions between a few of us then we had the opportunity to meet back later to head to a bar for some drinks.
Myself, Anne, Jackie and Jamie headed in search of the Police Station so I could get a police report for my purse to claim it on travel insurance. When we found it I was told that I had to go and see the Tourist Police. There was a guy there that told me roughly where it was, he knew because he'd been there today when everything he had (bag, laptop, camera, wallet...everything) had been stolen. Poor guy, all he had was the clothes on his back basically. I didn't feel so bad about just having my purse pinched then. We walked back to the hotel but on the way stopped off for a 'fish pedicaure'.
This is where u put your feet in a fish tank up to about 15cm below your knees and all these cat fish type fish start chomping all the dead skin off your feet and legs. It felt like a bubble foot spa; a strangly nice kind of feeling.
It was 150Baht for 15minutes (so about $5) but because people were walking past and we were telling them to try it they let us stay for 30minutes for free.
After, we headed back to the hotel, but we were too late to meet the group there so we made our way round to Kho San Road to the rooftop bar where they were.
We all sat round getting to know each other, having a few bevvies before we decided, by about 10:30pm that it had been a long, exhausting day and Jackie and I decided to head back to the hotel, stopping on the way to take some photos.
My roommate Lucy was staying at the bar so she said she'd knock when she got back so I could let her in. I'd got changed into my pjs and was writing up my postcards and she was already knocking on the door. She was with Steph, Jules and Matt. They were looking for one of the other guys, Luke who had gone missing from the bar. I politely advised that he wouldn't be found here so all of them, bar Lucy, left. We chatted for a while and I couldn't get to sleep until about 3:30am when the music and noise ceased on the street below the hotel. What a completely exhausting day.

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