The journey from Koh Chang to Bangkok was tedious, made worse by a dodgy stomach and a NGV (natural gas vehicle). For one reason or another our driver decided to adopt a 'little and often' approach to refuelling. Which, to us, seemed like a ridiculous concept, especially when the NGV stations have the longest queues and filling just half a tank on one takes at least ten minutes!
Subsequently we arrived into Bangkok later than we'd predicted. Our arrival was somewhat familiar as the hotel we turned up at was the 'AETAS Lumphini Hotel' - the first hotel Amelia and I stayed in after leaving home. The five star hotel, with its rooftop pool and king sized beds certainly was a welcomed sight after our endless journey from the 'elephant island'!
'Tealicious' was booked a few days prior to our return to the capital, so after a freshen up we flagged down a taxi to take us there. It was good to finally introduce our favourite Thai restaurant to Jo and Ron. We'd raved a lot about the place so we were pleased to see they enjoyed the food. Unfortunately, like me, Jo was still feeling a little ropey so we shared a main and asked them to go easy on the spice! Ron had their recommended red curry with prawns and need I say what Amelia had..
The rooftop bar from 'Hangover Part II' was just across the street from Tealicious. It's somewhere Amelia and I have visited before, and thought it was worth showing her mum and Ron, even if it was just for the view. It turned out the 63rd floor was far too windy to enjoy a fancy cocktail or two, so we returned to street level and hailed down a taxi to take us back.

It appeared it would be our last chance to shop at MBK - the place to buy anything and everything! Ron decided he'd meet us later though, as he'd done enough shopping in Pai to make him cringe at the thought of more. I knew it'd be a far from quick browse shopping with Jo and Amelia, but agreed nonetheless.
I ended up purchasing a few things to send home to my family, while Amelia bought an entire new outfit and handbag with purse to suit!
By the time we returned to the hotel, it was time to get the glad rags on and wait in the lobby for an ex colleague of Ron's. Barry, does a lot of business in SEA and lives in Bangkok. He told Ron that he wanted to take us all out for a 'traditional Thai evening'.
Barry picked the four of us up in the early evening and drove us out of town to see his gated compound and meet his Thai wife and young daughter. It's fair to say the evening wasn't what we expected.. Unless I'm mistaken, a traditional Thai evening wouldn't typically consist of drinking beer in an British expat 'pub' and eating in a Swiss restaurant! Nevertheless it was an enjoyable evening and it was interesting to meet Ron's ex colleague who had a lot of stories to share.

Once again Amelia was having to say some tearful goodbyes to her mum. Ron and Jo left for the airport just after breakfast, so after the emotional start, Amelia and I started planning the next part of our adventure. Having visited nine out of the ten ASEAN countries, we decided it was time to part ways and head west.
We decided to leave our future in the hands of SkyScanner, a site that searches flights across the globe. A few options came to light, but we made a mutual agreement that the best option was Sri Lanka.
As I was well overdue a haircut, I went to the trusted hair dressers nearby, whilst Amelia got stuck into doing what she loves.. planning!
With my hair chopped, Amelia and I spent the rest of our daylight hours by the pool planning and catching up on the blog.
We'd had a productive day, so decided to reward ourselves with a walk around a festival across the road at Lumphini Park. The event was called 'Thailand Tourism Festival' and it was basically a showcase of Thailand's diverse land and culture. The festival looked like a hit and included ethnic tribal dances and a variety of foods. Needless to say our favourite part was making our way through the dozens of food stands and sharing a few things to eat. None of what we had was new to us, but we enjoyed it and even took some chicken skewers, grilled pork and sticky rice back to the hotel for supper!

There was one thing Amelia and I had been meaning to visit since we first stepped foot in Thailand, and that was to visit possibly one of the world's most dangerous markets.
To the locals in 'Mae Klong', the market is known as 'Talad Rom Hoop', which roughly translates to 'closing umbrella/awning’. The market, with its awnings, is situated slap bang in the middle of a railway, which is where the 'talad rom hoop' comes into play! Regrettably, due to track maintenance, we didn't get to see the chaotic scenes of death wish market vendors playing chicken with locomotives.
Even without the train it was an intriguing visit. But I would imagine it would've been a completely different atmosphere with the risk of a train trundling through the dozens of stalls!
Before leaving Mae Klong, we decided to visit another famous market nearby called 'Tha Kha Floating Market'. As the name states it's a floating market, which is located along a narrow river.
Unfortunately luck was not on our side that day. To get to the floating market was by no means an easy feat, so it's fair to say we were a little peeved when we arrived by local songthaew to see there was no floating market!
It wasn't a great way to end our time in Thailand, but we didn't let it leave a bitter taste. So with our chins up we returned the hour or so by minibus and went straight to our hotel to sort out things for an early departure the next day.

We had mixed feelings the morning we left. Part of us was unhappy to leave what was probably our favourite city and country, but as backpackers we were also very excited about exploring a new country...