Our flight from Mumbai was at 1am, due to get into Bangkok at about 7am local time, so we were both shattered by the time we boarded the plane. We both managed to get some sleep, and woke up just as we were landing…a new country!

Passed through immigration no trouble at all, picked up our bags straight away and headed out into the unknown…as we were both a bit dazed and confused after not much sleep, we opted to take a taxi to our hostel, rather than navigate the trains and metro and it worked out quite well. We settled back in the taxi, bracing ourselves for the onslaught of traffic and mayhem…….but it was oh, so quiet! And clean!

The hostel we'd booked was just next to the main train station as we were leaving from there on the night train the next evening and it was in a nice quiet residential area. Unfortunately, when we arrived, our room wasn't available, so we hung around for a bit drinking tea and working out our plan of attack for our 48 hours in Bangkok. First mission was to pick up our train tickets for Chiang Mai, which we accomplished with no trouble at all. In fact the hardest bit was working out how to cross the main road! We were used to just walking and hoping for the best, however it didn't seem quite right here…faced with a big 4 lane highway with rather orderly traffic, it took a while to work out. It's rude apparently to put your hand up to say thanks, so instead we opted for a big smile and a nod of the head when someone stopped to let you pass. Once passed the first lane, wait for the net gap or kind person stopping! Then all again to cross the second half of the road. We stopped into one of the many supermarkets and picked up some brunch and got back to the hostel pretty much in time for our room. We had planned to have a shower and go out for an explore…well we succeeded in the first part of that plan. A few hours later we woke up feeling groggy and hungry….all we were fit for was an early dinner and back to bed for a few episodes of breaking bad and an early night. It was the Kings birthday on the day we arrived (which could account for it being so quiet), so not much was open. Not far from where we were staying, we came across a little food market and as it was quite a nice quiet residential area, there was nothing in English at all! No worries, we could just about work out what most things were…first we had a kind of pork and basil cold stir fry, super fresh and with a nice red chilli kick - it came just by itself though and there wasn't any sign of rice, so we gobbled that up and went in search of our second course! Duck noodle soup…delicious! And finally pudding - some kind of fried dough pancake with egg in the middle, slathered with condensed milk and sugar - heaven! It was so nice to sit down somewhere to eat, being the only two foreign faces and not be the star attraction! Already, we're falling in love with Thailand.

We were still pretty wiped out after the excitement of the Taj, not feeling great and then a late journey the previous day, so we slept in a bit. We had to check out of our room at midday, but our train was not until 10pm that evening, so we knew there was no rush to get out, so we picked up some brekkie and had a leisurely morning. Just about the time that everyone came back to the hostel saying how hot it was, we headed out! Maybe India prepared us for the heat, but we didn't find it too bad at all. We took a slow walk through Chinatown and stopped for some random street food (pick anything (spring rolls, some kind of sausages, fritters etc) and the lady chops it all up and puts it in a takeaway bowl with some chopped peanuts and a sauce…). We are amazed with Thailand so far - all the street feed seems to be on a stick! Food on sticks everywhere! Also, everything in a takeaway plastic bag - even fizzy drinks (although obviously no stick with those). Anyway, it was delicious, and we managed to find some more of those fried pancakes for afters. As we weren't a million miles away, we continued walking up to the famous Khao San Rd. It was all rather subdued to be honest! Not quite what we expected, but then it was middle of the afternoon on a Sunday…after a quick drink stop, we started back towards the hostel.

Thinking that we had this 'crossing the road' thing down to a T, we started across a rather big road, seeing that the lights were red, we started to walk rather quickly across the road before the lights changed…about halfway across the road, a man starts shouting and whistling at us…we thought it was because the traffic was about to start going, so started to run faster across the road! He caught up with us, still shouting and whistling (and smiling!) and gestured for us to follow him back to the other side! We were confused, but followed….at this point, we noticed that no traffic was moving at all….and then we saw why…as a motorcade - possibly the king? Drove past! As soon as they passed, the man gestured for us to cross the road, for the 3rd time! I guess you kind of had to be there, but we did laugh…especially at the thought of all the Thai's laughing at us in their cars as we are being chased across the road!

Although we'd checked out, they were good enough to keep hold of our bags, although they closed their doors at 8pm, so we had to be back and in by 8pm (we could leave after that, just not get in!). After a shower, we went back to our little food market for another early dinner and then back before the doors closed!

As the train station was only a 5 minute walk away, we had plenty of time to sort ourselves out and get ready for our first thai train experience! We were a bit unsure about what to expect, but time would soon tell. So, for the last time until the new year, we ventured out into the oddly quiet Bangkok night to catch our train. We were slightly concerned by all the doors to the train station being locked however…hmm. We should learn by now not to get the adrenaline pumping straight away as there is always a simple answer to these things…and there was, just around the corner!

We found our train no problems and settled in for a 14 hour journey - for once not being in the minority - white people everywhere!!