We both didn't feel as rough as we thought we would this morning but we were so tired so kept snoozing. When we got up and got ready Nath started to feel really unwell and kept getting really dizzy which made him sick. He really didn't seem well at all so he had a lie back down and got another couple of hours rest. Better to miss one day of sights than it have a knock on effect and ruin the rest of the week or anything for him! He hadn't been that well for the past couple of days already but had been trooping through so he really needed the rest.
After a nap he felt much better so we chilled out and then headed out at around 3-4pm. We headed away from the main part of the city that we had already been to and went to see some of the other sights on the map like the royal palace in Dusit and the victory monument. We walked for ages and kept getting lost for a while but eventually found our way and walked around the Dusit district. This seemed to be the rich area with nice houses, that didn't have tin roofs and were actual houses. It was such a contrast from near where we were staying which had quite a lot of poverty and people living and sleeping on the streets. Dusit was definitely a rich area in Bangkok.
We walked past all the major government buildings, which were all guarded by armed security or army. We also passed Dusit zoo, but we couldn't see any animals, and another palace grounds, which was heavily guarded- as well as some other important looking buildings that were guarded! Apart from the guards who refused to smile, this area seemed very friendly and everybody who walked past was smiling at us. It wasn't really a tourist area to walk around unless you were visiting a sight, so it was nice to take in this Thai way of living, which was completely different to the poor side of Thailand that we had seen.
We walked down to another district, where we were looking for a sky view point building that was on the map. Once we got to this part of town, this was where the real Bangkok was which we had imagined. There were thousands of people walking in all directions to and from the different transports, buses, sky trains etc. There were so many cars on the road and from looking down at the top of a bridge, we could see the hustle and bustle of Bangkok. It was great to visit this area of town as it really felt like we were in Bangkok and again gave us a different experience. There seemed to be some many totally different sides to Bangkok which was great!
There were still shops and stalls everywhere in this area and this is where all the major huge shopping malls are. We saw all the skyscrapers and some seriously tall looking hotels. We found the building that was on the map with the viewpoint, but it didn't really seem like you could go up to the viewpoint, only unless you had booked to go to the restaurant so we didn't bother. After taking in this side of Bangkok and been in awe for a while, we got a tuk tuk to china town.
As this part of town was much more busy and rammed with traffic, the tuk tuk experience was even more fun! He weaved in and out of traffic without a care and kept having to stop, turning his engine off to wait ages for the lights to be our turn to go on the massive roads. The driver tried to point out some of the sights to us on the way, which was nice.
China town was brilliant. It was a long main road with Chinese shops and restaurants all the way up, with the china town gate at the bottom. Nath thought that this street looked like off the hangover film, which we later found out some of it was filmed there. The main road was lined with street restaurants and you could hardly walk on the path there was that much going on. The street was really busy with people and cars and it had loads of different choice.
We obviously took ages to find somewhere to eat and walked up and down a couple, buying some nibbles on the way- which we didn't know what it was. It was something deep fried anyway. After taking it all in and enjoying all the stalls and the long street, and numerous side streets, we stopped and found a street restaurant and both had Chinese noodles with duck, which was lovely!
China town wasn't that far from our accommodation so we walked back and saw loads of people queueing on the street just up the road from ours. We realised it was where they sold the apparently best pad tai. The queues were ridiculous! Our hostel also had turned into a bit of a place to go on a night and was pretty busy with people eating and drinking.
It wasn't too late and the streets were still busy so we decided to walk down to kohsan road and find the stalls with the bugs to get it over and done with. We first walked to see the golden mount lit up on a night which looked lovely, all brightly lit gold. When we got to kohsan road we spent a while walking up and down trying to find the right scorpion for us to eat! They all looked soo big! Kohsan road was also a lot busier than the other night so it was quite annoying trying to get through the crowds.
We eventually picked up the courage to buy one and decided to share a big scorpion as we couldn't find any little ones. The guy at the stall snapped the sting off the tail and seasoned it with some spray and pepper and told us to power through! On our walk home we stopped and took the plunge! Nath opted for me to go first and bit the head and claws and some of the body off and he would have the rest of the body and the tail- unlucky for him! Mine wasn't actually that bad, the head and claws were crunchy and the body was a bit chewy but it wasn't horrendous, it just took a while to eat. The seasoning helped anyway. Nath had his and started moaning about how awful it was- it took him ages to eat it! I didn't get what all the fuss was! He told me that as he had most of the body it was really chewy and squishy and kept squirting green goey stuff. Didn't sound pleasant at all! But at least we had done it anyway! We can say now that we have tried a lot of things, including a scorpion!! Never again though!!
After this we headed home, got a hot chocolate from the restaurant downstairs and crashed out!