Phuket and Bangkok

So I arrived into Phuket in the evening after a boring journey from Langkawi, Kimberley had invited me to visit her dad as he was holidaying with his wife in the south of Thailand and when I gladly accepted we made our way to his hotel where he had kindly booked both of us a room, it wasn't until our taxi pulled into the resort that I realized what I was in for.Kimberley's dad doesn't do anything by halves and so had put us up in a 5 star Sheriton hotel, we were all staying together in a 2 bedroom apartment and my jaw dropped the minute we walked in.The hotel had space everywhere, it was decorated entirely in creams, golds and the odd accent colour and there wasn't a speck of dust or dirt to be seen, the hotel covered acres with large cream buildings housing the guests along with the amenities and in between were blue pools of water surrounded by green grass and palm trees … swish or what?!.As I walked in with my ali baba trousers, T—shirt that had a stain on the front, hair like a yeti and my huge backpack which has seen better days I instantly felt out of place, no matter how welcoming the staff were (taking my bag off me and giving me a cold wet towel and some grape juice) I still wanted to run the opposite way.We were taken to the bar where kims dad Kevin and his wife Marion were waiting for us, as soon as I saw them all of my insecurities about being in the hotel left, they both made me feel at complete ease and 100% welcome.The next few days where spent enjoying the finer things in life such the main pool having small streams of water snaking off one of which came to my balcony - so I could just jump out of bed into the water without a care in the world.I also enjoyed free cocktails and snacks (which were amazing!) at dusk, complimentary everything and sitting in the sun with Kimberley, Marion and Kevin reading my book and feeling more relaxed than ever before. On the evenings we would leave the free cocktails and head to a restaurant where Kevin would order me the biggest and nicest king prawns and I would feel sick after getting too greedy whilst we all chatted about everything under the sun.One night we went to Patong beach in the centre of Phuket were we ate seafood, watched gogo dancers and bought a copy of the Michael Jackson movie "This Is It" which we watched when we got home.I thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with Kimberley's dad and his wife and couldn't have been more grateful at their generosity and then to top it off Kevin asked if I would like to join them in Bangkok as well? I didn't want to over stay my welcome but with Kim in agreement I gladly accepted and off to Bangkok we went. On the plane over there again Kevin went above and beyond to make sure we had a great time, he upgraded our tickets to business class! I have never flown business class before and had a blast making my seat go flat, using my remote to work my telly and putting the partition up and down between me and kim - a little bit childish to play with all the buttons and gadgets but I didn't care.

Bangkok is a big city! Like most cities it bustling loud and filled with loads of mini communities of which I got to see a couple of.Again we stayed at the Sheriton whos staff kindly picked us up from the airport and drove us to the hotel allowing Kevin to check us in whilst in the car.The hotel obviously wasn't as spacious as the one in phuket as its in the middle of the city but it still maintained the high standards and I was still bowled over by the luxury of it all.Again mine and kims room was beautiful and spacious and the bathroom was as big as my house.My time with Kevin and Marion in Bangkok was mainly spent shopping during the day and then dining and drinking at night - we went to MBK the massive shopping centre where unlike me I didn't spend a penny, no really I didnt …. Ok I spent a couple of pennies, ok alright a couple of pounds, oh I bought a lap top ok? but that was all I swear. We had a couple of great nights in Bangkok starting with the evening after shopping when we all went to a restaurant just down the road named "Cabbages and Condoms" which promotes safe sex and gives a big portion of its profits to charities aiding the working street women around Bangkok.The restaurant was great with a Christmas tree decorated with and a santa claus made out of … wait for it .. you guessed it .. condoms! There was a sign which said "sorry we have run out of mints but please take a condom" it was all very tastefully done though and in actual fact the restaurant was beautiful with a courtyard shaded by willow trees and lit up with hundreds of fairy lights.The food was tastey, the surroundings beautiful and the company great and all of that was topped off with a little humour.

Another great night followed when Kevin bought us tickets to go to a cabaret show, apparently a very famous one at a club called Calypso and as soon as the show started I could see why it had managed to get a name for itself - the lady boys were beautiful! It was so difficult to imagine them as men they just looked like regardless of how they started out in life they were destined to be women.Some of the songs that they mimed to were serious and dramatic others were love songs, there were 2 songs which stood out - a comedy version of a Barbara Streisand song which had me laughing uncontrollably and a girl band one where they mimed to a popular Thai girl band song, I had the song in my head for days and me and Kimberley looked it up on you tube afterwards and danced around our hotel room singing the chorus "I want no body, no body, but you".Me and Marion had a blast at the cabaret show singing along and playing to all of the reactions they were hoping to get it was so much fun. After our evening at the cabaret we were all in great moods and suitably tipsy so we headed for one of the seediest streets in Bangkok - Soy Cowboy, a road filled with strip joints and plastered with hookers waiting for a lovely older white man to come and pay to spend the evening with them.As we obviously weren't trying to pick them up we had a great time hanging out with the girls, drinking, dancing and then eventually doing karaoke with a live band behind us. It turned out to be a very funny night and one that all of us enjoyed. I still find it weird to see the older white men sleazing all over their young Thai girls, it's like they really think the girl wants to spend time with them, delusional old gits - a lot of the men look like something from a wanted add and creep me out in general but to then see the poor girl that has to put up with them just makes you want to run over and give them a hug.

Bangkok with Kim, Kevin and Marion was really fun and a great escape from the backpacking lifestyle I had strictly followed for more than 2 months.I mean to have not only my own bed, a hot shower, a clean space to put my bag down and water that was drinkable but to be in such a luxurious setting which meant we could call room service for ice to go in our drinks instead of drinking them luke warm regardless, be able to relax have a shower and then just throw on a big fluffy white bathrobe instead of being in a dorm which meant getting dressed whilst soaking wet in the shower.All this adds up to one hell of a holiday within our trip so far, after the seriousness of India to come and stay in a 5 star hotel with all the comforts I don't even get at home was just pure bliss and thanking Kevin was almost impossible as I couldn't sum it up into words.

But eventually it was time to leave and get back onto the backpacker trail and we were going to throw ourselves straight into one of the most infamous back packer hang outs - Koh San Road in Bangkok's old town, renowned for its crazy crazy times - I couldn't wait.