Hello from Bangkok!

As we didn't write the blog in Bangkok before, we just thought we would let you know what we did here before we left for Koh Chang island! We became acquainted with the Bangkok Skytrain which is a great idea and really cheap and literally built overground throughout the city. It costs about 60p each for a one way ticket in to Siam which is the main area of Bangkok. We went there on the first day and just walked around to get a feel for the city - there are street vendors everywhere selling all sorts of delicious food and it's so cheap - we were in heaven! The best vendors sell fresh fruit which is chilled on ice and you choose the fruit you want (usually watermelon or rock melon for us) and they cut it up and put it in a bag and give you a stick so you can stab it and eat it as you walk around. Soooo nice! That evening we went to one of the night markets called 'Patpong Market' - this was recommended by our guesthouse. We think they were having a right old laugh at us innocents - it was a great market but FULL of strip clubs and 'ping pong shows' (I refuse to describe what this is, use your imagination!). We of course know this is what Bangkok is famous for and were prepared to be open minded but it is so in your face you have to be very strong minded not to be offended (Vicks, you would have HATED IT!). These guys kept running up to Matt with a 'sex menu' so he could choose what he wanted - he kept laughing and pointing at me as if to say "I have a girlfriend" but they just handed me the menu so that I could choose! We were just giggling like kids the whole time, after a while it just gets funny and it was an experience just to walk past some of the bars and see all the saddos in there drooling over the girls. There were SO many western men with young Thai girls wherever we looked it was disgusting - apparently that is quite a tame area compared to some where it is really in your face, and we only saw a few ladyboys (I was disappointed, Matt was relieved!). We bought some cool things from the market including some board shorts for Matt and some cool t-shirts and dresses for the beach. We became quite good at bargaining with the people on the stalls - some of them were quite harsh when you tried to get it cheaper and would point at their baby and say "this is for my baby, you must give me more" and one woman even shouted "f*&% you" at Matt when he didn't want to buy something, but overall it was a fun evening and we enjoyed it! At about 11pm when we were exhausted from all the wandering and bargaining, we came across a Thai massage place which was still open, and for 4 pounds each we got the most amazing foot and leg massage for 45 minutes. Ahhhh, it was bliss. They use this really nice coconut oil to massage your feet and legs and stretch you all out - we felt amazing afterwards. Then we headed back to our guesthouse and got ready for our weeks break in Koh Chang island!

After Koh Chang....

We arrived back here early Tuesday morning after our 10 hour 'VIP' bus ride from Ranong and didn't get any sleep (like before!). When we got to the bus station we had to get a taxi to our guesthouse (the same one that we stayed in in Bangkok before) - it was 5.45am and the taxi driver tried to charge us 360 baht (about 8 pounds) before we got in. Matt was quite firm and kept saying 'meter' and pointing to the meter and the man actually sucked his teeth at us before getting in to the taxi and driving us to our destination. He kept clicking his teeth in annoyance at us the whole time and when we actually got to the guesthouse the meter said 150baht (about 3 pounds!). So we were quite happy that we didn't fall for his little scam although we are sure that he was cursing us in Thai! We were too early to check in so dumped our bags and crashed out on the sofas. We were joined by two cute little dogs that live at the guesthouse, we aren't sure what type of dog they are but they are so tiiny and sweet. Even Matt has fallen in love with them (I captured him cuddling up to one on camera and have of course added it to the blog!). I was very unfortunate and got completely EATEN by mozzies, I have HUGE blotches covering my legs and arms they really did go to town on me. At about 7am we checked in to our room and crashed out for a few hours before getting up fresh and ready to go for a day in Bangkok!

On the first day we decided to go to a shopping mall and just spend the day there. Probably quite a shallow thing to do but after 9 days on a deserted island we pretty much felt that we needed some 'normality'! We went to a huge shopping mall called the Paragon in the center for Bangkok which is huge and reminds us a lot of the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai. There is a massive food court at the bottom of the mall that we wandered around for ages trying to decide what food we fancied and it was really cheap too! We opted for ice cream afterwards and they had an ice cream shop where you pick your flavour and topping and they kind of mash up the ice cream with the topping for you to eat it - this was one of our favourite things in Dubai so we were really excited to find it again - small things please small minds! We then went to the cinema and saw 'The Watchmen' which was absolute rubbish but it was still the cinema and the popcorn was really good. It was nice to see a film at the cinema after so long. That evening, we grabbed some street food for dinner and went to bed early - we were still really tired after the bus journey.

The next day we went straight to the train station to book our train tickets to Chiang Mai. We do like Bangkok but it's just another city to us and after seeing so many cities in China we are weary of them! There isn't a huge amount of things to do here either so we wanted to ensure that we could get out of here on Friday. We booked a sleeper train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai which cost about 30 pounds for both of us and we have also arranged accommodation in Chiang Mai when we arrive. Once that was done, we headed back in to Siam which is the main area of Bangkok and went to yet another shopping mall (called MBK) to try and find Matt some decent shorts. The poor boy only has one pair of boardies and his big heavy combat trousers. He just can't find any nice ones that fit him properly. It's quite frustrating shopping here too, there are 'normal' shops but they tend to be quite expensive so we tend to head to the markets. We are quite good at bartering but in the shopping malls they don't want to barter with you and give you a really high price for crap knock off clothes and when you try and get it for lower they scowl at you and tell you it's a 'fixed price'! It just frustrates us so much so we only spent an hour or so there and then had to leave before we got in to a fight with someone! We managed to find another food court in MBK which was even better than the previous day - you take a card as you enter and then wander around loads of different areas where they serve every type of food you can imagine. I headed off to the Veggie section where they had the most amazing fresh veggie salads and really nice fresh tofu dishes and Matt went straight to the fish section and got a massive bowl of seafood soup which he has got really in to. When you order your food, they swipe your card and then you pay at the end - quite a good way of doing it really but it's quite dangerous as you end up getting more than you wanted as the food is just all so amazing!

After we finished at MBK (and had a Starbucks, we couldn't resist!) we headed towards Lumphini Park which is one of Bangkok's many parks within the city. It was so peaceful and green in the middle of the city and we were so pleased to find somewhere like that because this place is just so crazy! There are taxis and tuk tuk's everywhere, crossing the road is nearly impossible (even at a zebera crossing!) and the pollution and noise can really get to you especially in this heat! So a wander through a park as it was cooling down is just what we needed. The park is a great place for the local people to go to as well - there was a running path through the park which shows you how far you have run and loads of the local people were running along (many were walking too which kind of defeats the object). There were people playing football, doing yoga and even giving Thai massage. It was the most random place! And then we came across the funniest thing - a massive aerobics class! There were about 100 people just all jumping about to the music and a few instructos dotted around the place shouting and motivating them! We were going to join in but even at 5.30pm it was too hot and humid for us to even think about exercise!

After walking through the park we went to Suan Lum Night Plaza which we had been told was a good place to get some food in the evening. It's another huge night market with a food court and live band which had the best atmosphere. We tried to find Matt some shorts in the market but ended up buying me two dresses instead (he he!), still no shorts :-( after getting frustrated about shopping for the second time that day, we went to the food court where you buy tokens (a bit like the card I described earlier) for your food. Again, there were loads of options, mostly Thai food this time but they served beer too so Matt took advantage and the fresh smoothies and juices were really nice too. A Thai band was playing whilst we ate, they played some English songs but mostly Thai so we didn't understand but it was great to her live music and really added to the atmosphere. We then took the Skytrain back to our guesthouse and went to bed early as Matt wanted to get up at 2am to watch the Man United game on TV!

Today we have spent far too long already in the internet cafe so we are going to venture outside now and amuse ourselves (probably in a shopping mall!). We will have another full day in Bangkok tomorrow as we don't need to get the train until 7.30pm so we aren't really too bothered about doing too much - we've really noticed it's a lot more expensive here than in the other areas so we are trying to save some money. We will write again when in Chiang Mai - think of us on a 15 hour sleeper train on Friday night, not really the most glamorous way to spend an evening!!!! Lots of love Holly & Matt xxxxxx