Bangkok

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Last night we arrived in Bangkok. We managed to navigate ourselves from the airport to a shuttle bus which took us all the way to Khao San Road. It took about an hour and cost us about 150 Baht which is approx 2.70GBP!! Bargain!

It was so interesting driving there on the bus - we passed a lot of very poor areas with children roaming around barefoot and lots of people sitting homeless on the streets.

When we arrived at Khao San Road, it was packed with travellers - there were market stalls all down the strip selling all sorts of food (some of it edible looking, some of it... er not so much) and loads of clothes and jewellery stalls. A lot of it was exactly the sort of stuff you'd find in Monsoon or Accessorise.

We found a hostel after a lot of trailing around in the heat, dumped our bags and headed back out. It was just so amazing! So much to see! The Pea (Fee) headed straight for the clothes markets and within minutes had bargained her way into getting 2 dresses and 3 T- shirts...

There were stray cats and dogs everywhere (and some very cute kittens) but I (Anna) managed to restrain from petting them as I hadn't had my rabies jab so God knows what I could've picked up.

The contrasts between the different sights were very odd: There were 3 'Boots' shops on the strip intermingled with all the Thai people's own stands - amongst children walking around selling flowers, and elderly blind people sitting in the streets asking for money. It was quite shocking to see such poverty amongst all the more wealthy travallers.

We found a nice place to eat (we didn't fancy food from a street vendor just yet) and relaxed with a Thai beer.

We stayed out til quite late and then headed back to the room where we once again lubed up with the old mosquito lotion (which is horrible!) before gingerly slipping into our equally as revolting sleeping bags...

The next morning we got up and headed out into the heat to have an explore around Bangkok. It was very hot as we had to cover our legs and arms, and couldn't wear flip flops if we were going to head to the Grand Palace which was originally the plan. We all felt pretty 'special' in a full body suit with the old trekking trainers on in the sweltering heat. Fee managed to pull off a pretty funky look in her outfit - Bean also managed a respectable look in her white vest and linen trousers, where as I looked really quite hideous in an entirely black outfit, big walking socks and full on walking trainers... Mmmmm hot!!

We didn't actually make it to the Palace but had a good look around, and booked an overnight bus up to Chang Mai and also a hilltribe trek for the following week.

We were approached by a lot of tuk tuk drivers trying to take us to places, but we didn't go anywhere in them as sometimes they can be a bit of a scam.

We have found all the Thai people to be very friendly, hospitable and helpful. Plenty of people have shown us where to go on our maps and have chatted to us about our plans. Of course, some will be trying to get us to go to places where they might get commission but they are still very eager to help.

We are going out to some bars tonight and will head to the Grand Palace tomorrow morning before getting an overnight train to Chang Mai tomorrow evening.

We are having a really super time!!!!

Lots of love from Sooty, Sweep and Sue!!!

xxxxx

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Comments

[bex]

isn't sweating great!
hey guys...looks like ur having a fab and very busy time! its great to hear about Thailand, we're going there at the end of June and i've heard its gonna be boiling!!! i don't think ive ever sweated so much in Fiji so i'll probably just melt there. keep having the time of ur lives lots of love bex xxxxxxx (lil)