Day 30 - Nearing the end :)

Not the worst nights sleep ever on the sleeper train. I did have to change ends and move the mattress around and Alice was comfy up top.

As we neared Bangkok from the north at about 6am we witnessed some places that had been affected by the flooding. We had seen the news stories but we didn't actually believe it was this bad. The train line is higher up but we could see houses that were half submerged and families have had to move their homes to the train line next to ours which they are obviously not using. Whole roads were just under water and cars and trucks abandoned in the water. We passed a major intersection of roads and there was a massive water pump in use and from here on into the train station, the place was dry.

We arrived at the station and jumped in a taxi to our hotel. We are staying at the On8 Hotel in Sukhumvit, central Bangkok. As it was about 8:30am we couldn't check in so we left our bags there and went for a wander around. It was unbelievable how hot it was at that time and it was so humid and muggy. The hotel was right next to the sky train station so we jumped on and headed for MBK which is a shopping centre that we had heard about. The sky train was fantastic. It runs up above the city so you can look out, air con to keep it cool and no dirt or graffiti, so much better than the London system. The only issue with it was that as the train comes to a halt, you can't see through the windows. At that time we thought it should be quite quiet but no, it was like a rugby scrum but actually ok due to the air con etc. We arrived at 09:30 to see the sign saying MBK didn't open until 10:00. A Thai woman approached us and asked if we were looking for shopping. We said yes so she drew us a map to another shopping place nearby. It was called, 'the gem centre'. Alice instantly thought this must be a scam but it washed straight over my head. We headed in that direction on the pavement which were full of market sellers. At the turning to the place, a guy pointed and said, "shopping, this way". Them it hit me, as we weren't overly close to the shopping place. We returned to sit outside MBK and as we did, the guy we had seen came up the steps and met the woman we had spoken to originally. Something was passed between the hands so whether someone had been conned by these people, who knows.

MBK opened up, hard to explain really. Think Bluewater, times it by 5 but times the number of shops and stalls by about 50 and you may be close. The place is huge, it is basically a massive market but all on the inside and most with a shop set up. 90% of the stuff you can buy is fake but they make no qualms about this and openly admit it. We just walked around, almost in a daze due to the size, and it is so easy to get lost.

After looking at quite a few watch shops we stumbled across a place that had the kind of watch I was looking for. A bit of good haggling later, with the old, money in the pocket, open the wallet, "that is all I have" trick. Worked though as we started at 2,500 baht and I ended up getting it for 1,300. After having another look around for what seemed like hours, we finally manger to find the exit!

Back to the hotel on the sky train to check in. Really nice room with an amazing shower which is just what we needed after the sleeper train an the temperatures in Bangkok.

After a shower, it was time for a real eye opener. We ventured out again for a general walk around. I'll be completely honest and say I have never seen anything like it. People have told us that Bangkok is bad for westerners and Thai women but I never imagined this, it was literally everywhere. After about an hour enough was enough so we decided to try and find a bar to just sit and have a drink. We wandered down a busy looking side street. I have made some mistakes in my life but this ranks up there with the best of them, so much so that I had to make a grovelling apology to Alice when we got out of there. We wandered down this side street about 100 yards and passed about 15 bars, all nearly full of westerners and Thai women. They were all sitting on the terrace bits looking out onto the street, not the most inviting of feelings! It was pure relief when we got out of there. We eventually found a half decent looking bar. So good in fact that they had beer lao on the menu. Then we had a proper look around and nearly all the people in there were couples as mentioned before. We escaped back to the sanctuary of the hotel to 'plan' our attack for dinner as we really didn't want to be subjected to that again. So much so that we almost decided to have dinner in the hotel!

We found the courage to head out for dinner, this time heading east from the hotel. Admittedly tripadvisor had played a part in where we headed. We looked at a few places before stumbling across another large shopping centre. Tired of looking for a place to eat we decide to have a look around here first. The name of it was Terminal 21 and it was set up like an airport on about 5 levels. Each level had a different theme, Caribbean, Tokyo, London.......Truly an amazing place, a world away from what was outside. The top floor was dedicated to food, which was an added bonus. We walked around all the restaurants and settles on a Thai place. I had a thai green curry with pork and rice and Alice a nice duck dish. Let's just say it's lucky I had a cold drink to hand as it was the hottest (spicy) dish I have ever had, literally sweating out of every pore! As the liquid reduced, I found out why, it had about 6 or 7 large chillies in it, with seeds!!!

A bit of walk around the shopping centre again and then walked back to the hotel. Still about 30 degrees out and there were some 'interesting' characters on the streets!