Blogs from Bangkok, Central Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 712

Hi guys - hope you are all OK. Well so far the trip has been fantastic and even though it's only day 4, I feel like I know Bangkok like the back of my hand!! It's an amazing city and Koh Sahn Road where I'm staying is buzzing with life 24 hours a day. The hostel is like a little oasis of calm in the middle of bedlem and the staff really go out of their way to make you feel at home which is lovely. So far, I've taken a trip to the Grand Palace, Wat Poh, the massage palour at Wat Poh (which is a must!) and the National Musuem. I've also met a whole host of people from holiday makers to hardcore travellers, some of whom are back in Bangkok for the 5th ... read more

Eggs 1 & 2 We ended up staying in Bangkok for three days and 4 nights, and really enjoyed it. A number of folks go there and have not a lot of good things to say - focussing on the pollution, the noise, the traffic etc - and it's true, these exist in excess. However, being the awkward b'tards that we are, we quite took to the place. On our second day, we visited the Grand Palace ( which was under repair with lots of scaffolding unfortunately, but grand indeed nonetheless), Wat Po, and the other Wat we cant remember the name of today (duh - tongue in chin). The sun was shining with not a cloud in the sky and we had a great time, wandering and pondering the fabulous sights. We've added some of ... read more

Visited Countries Map As some of you may know, we originally planned on going to India. We had some visa issues and couldn't go there, so we had to find somewhere east of Greece and west of Australia that didn't have any visa requirements AND that Delta or one of its partners flew AND they had seats available for us in the time frame that we needed. As I told Doug, "things happen for a reason" and we were able to find seats to Thailand, albeit in coach. We have been so spoiled flying in business class, that we considered not going, and during the third flight of the day that itself was 10.5 hours, we weren't the happiest of campers, BUT it would have been a huge mistake to skip it because we love ... read more

Egg #2 We finally made it out of the UK after hanging around for weeks on end getting in everyone's way! Having travelled for about 18 hours we checked into our hotel at local time 5pm and went to sleep for 12 hours. We're staying in this place called the Royal Hotel - bit old and run down but very clean and has a nice wee pool, very close to the Grand Palace and Khao San Road where all the serious travellers hang out. Got up at 5am - breakfast buffet at 5:30am (hello - what happened there- up before 12 noon?! Call the cops!) Anyway - went for a walk about round the sights and got stopped loads by tourist touts masquerading as friendly Thai passers by - just helping us Farangs (foreigners) out. Took ... read more

Today we do the tourist thing, as Kev is feeling a bit better so we catch the boat up the river, which is the colour of mud to the Grand Palace. On the way there, we're told by several 'helpful' people that the Grand Palace is actually closed this morning and that we should be going to the Thai Export Factory instead. We chose to ignore them and find ourselves at the Grand Palace. It's doing good business for somewhere that is closed and there are thousands of tourists milling around, looking bewildered and lost like us, it's sprawling! It's also extremely hot and you have to cover up from head to toe, no exposed arms, ankles or bellies! It is extremely beautiful though and we view the Emerald Buddah, the most important and revered Buddah ... read more