So we arrived in Bangkok after a very emotional journey. "What are we doing?" We eventually found each other in arrivals where Carly had found herself a new Dutch friend called Robin who persuaded us to take the sky train into Bangkok rather than our original plan of getting a taxi. This turned out to save us about 400bht. Nice work Carly! After a few hours sleep (BAD) idea, we ventured into Bangkok in search of food. A short walk, and a lively street market later and our bellys were stuffed... All on 42p!
28th August
The rain!
Today we headed back into Bangkok and visited Wat Pho, the reclining Buddha. Hannah was right, the Thais certainly don't do things by halves! It was spectacular and absolutely huge! After this we walked through a quirky market towards the ferry, on our way Carly picked herself up some BBQ pork from a street vendor, yes Morgane even had some too! We were on our way to visit a night market recommended to us by a lady at our hostel called asiatique. This turned out to be beautiful and full of amazing trinkets but definitely aimed towards the higher paying tourist! Back onto the boat for us then!
The ferry taxis are an absolute necessity when in Bangkok, if anything just to see people going about their daily business on the side of the river. We headed up towards the Khao San road for some drinks and just took in the madness of it all- it's definitely crazy down there!
29th August
Woke up jet lag free this morning, it is a good feeling! We have established by now that Carly is in charge of the funds and that I am chief navigator (spot the teachers). We started our day visiting china town. Hannah's friend Jane had told us to visit Sampeng lane market. The goods were a little it like wellesbourne but the situation completely different! We spent some time just walking round the streets soaking everything in, the smiley people, the incredible shrines on the corner of streets and in shop foyers,and the amazing smells of incense and food.
In the late afternoon, we headed towards the pier to get the ferry to the other side of the river to see a temple called Wat Arun. The trip cost us a grand total of 6p each! Wat Arun was another spectacular sight but apparently the highlight is the view from the top. Carly, ever the P.E teacher set the challenge of climbing the incredibly steep stairs to the top with me trundling behind tripping over my skirts trying not to die. The views were definitely worth it though and the cool breeze was even better! We spent our evening experiencing our first green curry in Thailand and it was out of this world amazing, sorry Martin I couldn't get you the recipe!
30th August
Our last day in Bangkok and we decided to treat ourselves to a taxi journey to the Grand Palace. We found a lovely taxi man who would take us on the meter, good. During the journey we were told for an extra 45bht, we could experience bangkoks highway and completely avoid the traffic! What the man did not inform us of was the fact that the journey would take twice as long and cost twice as much! We dealt with this as we knew that we would be seeing an amazing sight at the end of it. The very naughty taxi man dropped us outside a very beautiful building saying 'king, king' and bowing his head. We got out, not recognising our surroundings and spoke to a lovely Belgian couple who informed us that this was not the Grand Palace but infact another sight about 20 minutes away from our desired location. Excellent.
Once we finally arrived at the Grand Palace, it was everything we'd hoped it would be, sparkly, golden and majestic. Definitely a must see.
Time for us to catch the sleeper train to Chaing Mai now, I think we'll avoid taxis and hit the subway instead!