Country number 6......and it doesn't start too well, for We arrive the evening before the King's 80th birthday. The Thai's love their King in a BIG way, so of course there will be the odd celebration or two.....these celebrations brought Bangkok's traffic to a complete standstill and we were stuck right in the middle of it!! It took us 3 hours to get our hotel (should normally take one)!!! :o(
Bangkok isn't as bad as I remember - of course there are still the infamous tuk-tuk's (taxi's aren't much better) trying to rip you off at every opportunity, telling you something is closed before proceeding to take you off to several tailor shops (just to have a look around)!!
Then of course there is Khao San Road (the mecca for all backpacker's), which isn't quite as crazy as I remember. It's still full of shops selling rip-off DVDs, t-shirts, henna tattoos, tours etc. We also spotted, on more than one occasion, backpackers that looked as though they had been there for a little too long - long hair, beards, hippy clothing!! Very sad!!
Anyway, we eventually managed to see the Grand Palace, the world's largest Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho and Wat Arun (The Temple of Dawn - not the Temple of Doom as I keep wanting to call it)!
We didn't get to see much else - a trip to Patpong (to see a "ping pong" show) went wrong because our dodgy taxi driver insisted on taking us to a club where he would get commission for bringing us, and it was miles away from the main area where all the clubs and bars are (and where we thought he'd take us)! We ended up walking there instead. (Please note that we also had far less smutty reasons for going to Patpong - Ali wanted to go to a hospital so that his insect bite could be looked at. See photos)!