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An eventful start to the day, a cheeky bit of shopping, snacking on scorpions and a guaranteed Chang
Khet Phra Nakhon, Thailand
So it was time for us to head back to Bangkok, we were up and ready at 11 for the bus to pick us up anywhere from 11:15-11:45, knowing what the thais are like we were expecting more like 12! But to our surprise, just after we had checked out of U Dee the mini van pulled up. The front seats were taken to our disappointment so we had to go sit at the back like the cool kids, the bus driver secured our bags at the front and we set off. We thought are luck was in as the bus was already pretty full and our bags were secured nicely, things soon changed.
The bus driver stopped at his little booth and seemed to be checking for more pickups, we were right. We drove around the corner and picked up 3 more people. It suddenly got quite interesting and aggressive between a few passengers. We were picking up a german couple and a single girl, all with big backpacks. There was hardly any room for the people let alone the bags. A few harsh words were exchanged between the driver, an older thai man and the german. They called each other 'monkeys' 'idiots' and kept banging on about talking human. In the end everyone squeezed in, the bags were piled up. Ours were now longer secure after the ruckus! So now majorly uncomfortable with zero leg or head room we thought the only way to survive was to get out the mac book and watch Captain America!
2 hours later we arrived in Bangkok and were dropped just off Khao San road. We had no clue where we were so decided to jump in a taxi to our hotel. This was a big mistake, the hotel was less than a 5 minute walk away and we got stung for 140 baht for the privilege. Taxi driver had our pants well and truly down!
When we arrived, the place was tucked away on a quiet little street and looked great for what we paid. Checked in and were shown to our room. Had all the essentials we needed, a little on the small side but along as we have somewhere to crash at night were sorted. So we quickly put our bags down, freshened up and decided to go take on the delights of Khao San road, via McDonalds to fill our belly's. James took on the Shogun burger, double pork burgers, egg on top and some crazy gravyish sauce. It was amazing but sooooo messy!
All refreshed and belly's nice and full we took a short walk into Khao San road, what an awesome place! Its like camden, without the lock and full of crazy thais. James apparently looks like a suit man and was told this countless number of times whilst we looked around. We bought ourselves some badges, a few vests (tie die for James) and some funky bracelets to add to our collection. Were turning into travelling hippies!
We found a great bar where we ordered some Chang and spent some time relaxing and doing a good bit of people watching. After a pretty hectic start it was turning into a good day, now just to head back to the room. Drop off our purchases and get ourselves to China Town for some grub and to take in the sites.
We got a little tuk tuk to China town, 100 baht (£2) later and he was off whizzing through the streets. China Town was crazy, street sellers everywhere. Seafood restaurants on every corner and tuk tuk and taxis everywhere. The food smelt amazing and looked good too. There was a restaurant on the corner where people were literally sat on tables and chairs on the pavement, in the road, literally wherever there was a space! Food was tempting but I didn't fancy being mowed down whilst tucking into China Towns finest seafood surprise. We ended up in a place called Texas Suki, a nice little restaurant with indoor seating (always handy).
So we ordered the good old chicken and noodles and James had seafood and noodles in gravy. His came out with only chopsticks! This was hilarious watching him try to master the art of picking up food with them. He got there in the end after having two of the waiters stand by and having a laugh at his expense. But one of the waiters did bring over a fork and spoon which made things a lot easier.
After this we had a little walk through China Town, shop after shop full of goodies, food and little souvenirs. We found a stall which sold the biggest fruit ever. Apples the size of footballs and strawberries the size of oranges! As you can imagine the strawberries were rather tempting. We hopped into a tuk tuk and shot off back to Khao San Road, the place really comes alive at night. Streets sellers everywhere, from ping pong shows, to vodka buckets and local delicacies (more about this later).
We had a little look through the shops, then settled at a little bar with ideal people watching from the roof top. We met a couple from Oman, he started talking to us about the GoPro and then telling us all about his country and the things you can see there, were actually quite tempted to get involved! They have this week long music festival in the desert, cant imagine its the ideal location, that has sun stroke and dehydration written all over it, but intriguing none the less.
We left and headed for the next bar, along the way we stopped at a stall selling all the local delicacies, cockroaches, maggots, grass hoppers and Scorpions! We got talking to a couple and the girls mum, they were quite tempted by trying this so we all pretty much dared each other and got involved! James had already picked out the biggest one there, an the women was straight on it getting it prepped for consumption. The mum didn't mess about and bit one of the pincers straight off, she compared it to crackling…. hmmmm were weren't so convinced! James ended up with the tail and head, Kara had the bum section. It actually wasn't that bad, texture was like crackling, taste was ok but the after taste of burnt scorpion was horrendous. Not even the several Chang's we had after washed the taste away! We got chatting to the couple and they had been in Australia for a year, working and travelling around Melbourne. They were on there way back to Belfast to spend Christmas at home with the family.
After this we stopped at a little bar just down from the stall, ordered some Chang and took in the views. There was a group of lady boys, few random couples and us sat right in the road being attacked by each and every street seller. We ended u having personalised bracelets made, our collection is filling up! The woman had her little girl with her, she must have been around 5 or 6 in ages. She pointed our various bracelets to us and would laugh, mainly saying 'I spread aids', 'Im a c*** and 'I love sex' to her mums horror! lol this was quite amusing and after our bracelets were made, a few high 5s were exchanged and off they went. There were some lads next to us who we seen had just bought a scorpion, we had to get involved for encouragement and tell them its not that bad! They were Rich from London and god knows who from Netherlands, all I can remember about him really was that he loves Amsterdam! ha ha we all had a good laugh and went to a few different bars, after a few more drinks we were all quite tempted by taking on a Ping Pong show (safety in numbers we thought), by this point the strip was quite dead and they wanted silly money to take us to one. Didn't fancy getting ripped off and stranded somewhere at 3am so we all decided to call it a night.
Sorry for essay but its been an eventful day :-) Tomorrow we plan to take on some temples and check out some of the Buddhas, lets hope the Changover isn't too bad!
J&K over and out!
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