Bangkok

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Hello! So we're currently sat on a night bus (luxury with wifi and A/C) after the first 3 days of our trip. When we arrived in Bangkok we were somewhat bedraggled and relieved after having to stop over in Cologne for 5 and a half hours. The first thing that hit us both was the heat! We managed to share a taxi to our hostel "Green House Bangkok" which was just off Khoasan Road with a Dutch girl who was travelling alone.

We got there around 8:30-9am, dumped our bags after checking in and headed out. The hostel was decent, lovely leafy restaurant with bar and pool tables and low down comfy seating. Our £10 a night bought us a double room with en-suite, not quite up to the English standards but it was amazing value for money and suited us down to the ground. On route to the grand palace we were told by locals that it was a special Buddha holy day and for one day the Buddha temples were free entry so we changed plans, hopped in a tuk tuk with our driver who we think was called Dan, and went on a half day tour around all the Buddha temples for 10 baht each! The only catch was that Jack had to pretend to be interested in buying a suit so Dan could get his tourist fuel card. We saw a few Buddha Temples which included in Wat Intharawihan a 32 metre tall golden Buddha, a sacred Monk worshiping platform which Jack managed to step on, much to the dismay of the local who ushered him off and explained that it was a 'monk only zone'. We also did a ritual of walking round a dome 3 times clockwise and then bowing 3 times as per the advice from Driver Dan - hopefully it will give us luck during the trip!

After this we headed to 2 tourist information centres to try and organise our trip to Kho Tao and Kho Phangan as well as our Open Water Diving. The first Thai woman we went to was pushy to say the least! Char did well to diffuse the situation as this woman was ready to book our whole trip across Asia! After running out of there to Dan we went to a different place on his recommendation (he's turning into a superstar) we managed to find a good price which included transfers to all of the islands with open tickets, 4 nights accommodation, bus trip from Bangkok to Kho Tao and our Kho Phangan accommodation for the full moon party (whoop whoop). That night we tried our first street food pad Thai - delicious, jack even added extra spice onto his, then picked up some Chang from 7 eleven and went to play cards on the hostel balcony. As we sat down we noticed someone dancing nude in the hotel opposite, lights on, dong out, not a care in the world, we dubbed this person "naked man". Soon we were joined by two lads from Singapore and bonded over the mutual amusement of naked man and played cards until the early hours.

As we had a ridiculously long first day we were shattered and ended up sleeping 12 straight hours and woke up at 2pm. We didn't really do a lot but during the day, we took a tuk tuk (say that 3 times fast) to Chinatown which was amazing at first but then went to the market which was filled with knock off brands and with the heat was almost unbearable so we headed back. That night we got to another bar and watched an amazing singer banging out classic rock songs. So about 4 large Changs each later we were ready to hit the infamous Khoasan Road and we weren't disappointed with a packed random street party outside a bar. Today was a day of firsts for char, firing out of both ends and off her food, so this is what everyone means by Delhi belly... we also had our first Thai Massage which was amazing and have looked into getting a tattoo each at some point so visited a few shops for inspiration - don't worry nothing has been organised..... yet.

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