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The bus dropped me off at 6am at Khao San Road the famous tourist road in Bangkok, full of market stalls selling fake designer goods and touristy souvenirs. Only problem was that nothing really opens til 8ish so managed to find somewhere open at 6.30am to grab a banana smoothie and wait for a bit until things started opening.
After depositing my bag with a tourist booking office and arranging a bus to the airport to catch my flight to Sydney I was free to wander around the sights of Bangkok! Didn't get very far down the road when a guy noticed me with a tourist map and pointed at several key places to visit, I was grateful as I'd left my guidebook behind in Laos thinking I didn't really need to carry it around with me any more! So he circled a few things and hailed a tuk-tuk and explained that he should take me to each of the places for 20 baht, he agreed and we were off to the 40m high Buddha then to the Lucky Buddha and then the tailors…yes, in Bangkok the tuk tuk drivers get coupons from retailers when tourists visit their stores and buy stuff. I said I didn't mind helping him out to get a coupon but when I didn't buy anything from the tailors he didn't get one so he asked if it would be ok to take me to a jewellery outlet with beautiful products where he knew he could get one instead. Off we went and I couldn't really afford any of the jewellery there so the same thing happened again, no coupon. This time he was sure he knew where to take me so off we go to the Chinese jewellery factory where he said 'very cheap' and it was but I wasn't interested in buying any gemstone jewellery instead I bought a nice scarf but still no coupon as apparently I hadn't spent enough in the store!! Then he took me to the Marble Palace and said his wife had called and was nagging him to come home so this was the last stop, I didn't complain as I really didn't want to go to another retail place!! The Marble Palace was very beautiful but it was just too hot to really walk around, I managed 20 mins before I had to get somewhere else. After a tuk tuk refusing to accept 10 baht for the short ride back to Khao San Road I ended up getting a taxi ride, bit more expensive for the journey but the a/c was very welcomed.
After a bit of Bangkok shopping and some lunch it was time to check out the Grand Palace and Emerald buddha but unluckily for me I hadn't realised how much it cost to get in and being my last day in Thailand I only had limited funds and they wouldn't accept my card so…no Emerald buddha for me. I wasn't too disappointed though seeing as during my time in Thailand and Laos I've seen a lot of buddhas and it leaves something to do if I ever find myself in Bangkok again.
Getting to the airport was easy and at the Emirates check in desk I was surprised to be asked whether I had anything to cover my legs with (I was wearing shorts) and decent footwear (flip-flops) as I had been upgraded to business class!!! I quickly ran to the ladies and luckily I'd thought to pack warm clothes for the arrival in Sydney so had trousers and trainers in my hand luggage. The entire journey to Sydney about 8 hours I was grinning my head off, I had an enormous chair which had reclining buttons and a massage panel to ease the tension of flying! We were served starters of smoked salmon on French bread and a main of lamb tagine with cous cous and then pudding was a banana cheesecake followed by coffee and godiva chocolates- literally giggling inside! Fantastic experience and I think I'll be very disappointed by my flight all the way back to the UK after that!
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mum Wow Impressed with your free upgrade! now thats lucky! xxx