11 February 2009

We arrived in Bangkok last night and as started to melt as soon as we got off the plane! It had been about 25 degrees in Hong Kong but in the pilot said it was around 33 in Bangkok - very hot for us. We got dropped off at the top of Khaosan Road and for the first time felt like proper travellers as the road was filled with backpackers, market stalls and bars, so the typical 'travelling' image. We got to our hotel and unfortunately we got what we paid for (about 6 pounds a night) as the room was tiny and just about fit us and the backpacks in! Jessica had said on the plane 'maybe we'll have a bath' but that was definately being too hopeful! Luckily as we only had a few days in Bangkok we knew we wouldn't be in the room too much.

Today we decided to visit the Grand Palace. We knew that shoulders and legs would need to be covered so we wore shirt/cardigan over our dresses with leggings (wouldn't have been our choice of outfit on a 35 degree day...). However when we got there the guard pointed to a 'no tight trousers' sign so we couldn't go in in leggings. We had to borrow a wrap thing whilst we were there instead to cover our legs. After the palace we went to see the reclining Buddha. This was a 125 metre buddha in a reclining position, and was worth seeing.

This afternoon and evening we went back to Khaosan Road and had some food and drinks and browsed the markets. We had a bucket of vodka redbull and were very surprised when it came in an actual bucket like you'd see at the seaside! We also booked a day tour for tomorrow with our hotel which was started at 7am.

12 February 2009

Our first stop on our tour was the floating market. It took about 2 hours to get there so we were glad we'd booked the tour and not tried to find it ourselves. We took a boat around the markets for about an hour which was a really different experience. It was quite rocky so we were really scared about falling in. When we'd finished we bought a plate with our photo on, probably not the best idea considering they have to travel round the world in our backpacks!

Around lunchtime we went to the River Kwai bridge. The bridge was quite scary as there was nothing to hold on to and if someone came the other way you had to step onto a wooden plank on the side! I didn't feel particulary safe in flip flops carrying a heavy bag.

We then went to Tiger Temple. We had a bit of trouble getting our tickets as Jess was wearing a pink dress (apparently the tigers don't like pink red or orange!) so the woman said she couldn't come in. After some clothes swapping and rearranging we managed to hide the pink though and were let in. (Jess was quite scared that the tigers were going to attack her though!). When we got down to the tiger canyon we saw lots of tigers lying down and queued to get our photo taken with them. It was quite a strange system, where the person working there would hold your hand and take you to the tiger, then after your photo hold your hand and walk you to the next one. We had lots of photos taken though so that was good.

Later this evening we went out for a drink on Khaosan road with some Irish boys we'd met during the day. We went to a cocktail bar on the street which was actually just some plastic stools and a portable bar. The sign said 'very strong cocktails. we don't check ID cards' - so not the most reputable place but the cheapest! At one point we all had to move when the police came and they had to pack all the stools away. The cocktails were nice though and we had a good night. We were leaving at 11am tomorrow for our flight to Phuket, and were very happy to be checking out of our hostel!