I'm 5 hours into a 13 hour sleeper train from Bangkok - Chiang Mai and people have started going to bed so I thought I could catch up on my travel blog tings.

FRIDAY :

We decided to stay in Friday and have a bit of a rest and cash-in on our free Thai massage. Lewis and Ben went in first and when they emerged after 30 minutes looking victorious and satisfied, I could tell this was going to be good...

The room was earthy coloured, smelled of incense candles and was dec'd out in 'boudoir' four-poster beds. All I could think was 'Brothel! Brothel! Brothel!"

After the initial nerves, it was pretty relaxing. She pulled one move on me that cracked my back in around 16 different places. It was nice but she also destroyed my shoulder blades with several sharp elbow shots. Not cool.

Back into the hotel room and chaos ensued with "Hotel Room World Cup Football". I'm not gonna lie, it got topless. And sweaty. And awesome.

SATURDAY:

I woke up at around 3am to find Lewis and Ben had disappeared and I was alone in the room. 1.5 hours later they retured with tales of a trip to 7/11 and an hour long conversation with the two Thai receptionnists on duty. The conversation ended with a 5-way date to a Ping Pong show! 'Citing!

We needed to change some travellers cheques and we were directed to a shopping mall about 3km outside of Bangkok Centre. It was pretty impressive. Very big, maybe 6 floors. Teh best part was was the Pro Evo booths for 20p-a-game! Sweeeede!

Wait, No! The best part was the Bar-B-Q! We spotted a great restaurant and ventured in... They serve raw meats, veg and noodles and provide a stove/cooking station for you to play and cook your own stuff! Lazy on their part, but badass on ours! 20 slices of steak 160 Baht. Value. But we did have to re-order more meats. A few times haha.

That night was the first time we met our fellow trek travellers. The first meeting was mainly filling in forms and all talk no action.

We had arranged to meet our Thai receptionnists for the Ping Pong show so we couldnt join the group for dinner. However, when the Ping Pong show fell through, we met back up with the group to properly meet 'n' greet and be sociable. We took them to Khaosan Road for Sangsom and fun times...

It was a really good, fun night and we've particularly clicked with two Candian girls, Emma & Hannah, and two English girls, Issy & Charlotte.

SUNDAY: (Dragon fruit - nom nom)

We woke up, packed our bags and headed out early for a Long Boat Canal Tour which was brilliant, included several Giant Monitor Lizard sightings but was fecking boiling. And second standing still or direct sunlight reduced me to a dripping, sweaty mess. I'm glad to be leaving the Bangkok humidity!

After the canal tour we headed to the Grand Palace which is the residence of the King of Thailand.

Very grandiose, jewel covered, goald smothered Temples, Statues, Buildings, Drawings, Artefacts. It's also home to the Emerald Buddha (made of Jade). It 'famously' 'wears' different gold bling + clothes to correspond with the 3 Thai seasons ; Summer, Winter and Rainy.... Winter?? It's 35 degrees!

At 6pm we were to leave Bangkok but for a technical problem we were left dormant on the train tracks in the station until 7.30pm. Apparently, we should arrive at 9am, but Thai trains regularly run late so it may even be 10am or closer to 11am. Raaame

On the train so far, had alot of fun getting to know (and teasing) Issy & Charlotte. Will have some good times with these two and the Candian ladies too me tinks.

Now I must sleep and listen to my music, which I've missed! Maybe something different?? Aaah Muse. Why disappoint?