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Day 33 ctd - We weren't in India anymore and it soon showed, with everything in Bangkok being spotlessly clean. We caught the new sky train (it opened last week) changing at Phaya Thai and lots of lovely people gave us nice and truthful directions to help us find The Urban Age Hostel, though attempting to sell us EVERY imaginable item and show on the way! Despite our dorm's 6th floor location, free tea and cocoa, air-con and lovely staff and fellow guests certainly made up for it. We went for dinner of chicken and duck noodles, our first meat in a month, with two girls from the hostel and started to notice the huge differences between India and Thailand before getting some much needed sleep.
Day 34 - Breakfast / lunch was our first street food (an India taboo) of pork noodles - yum! We walked down the busy Silom Road to the King Rama VI statue and Lumphini Park which was almost empty bar a few water lizards and joggers in flat caps, the pagodas proved a nice break from the blazing sun. After a month of Indian buildings the massive new skyscrapers were an awesome sight. Stopping at the Red Cross Snake Farm, sadly only for a drink, we continued after a brief mall stop, to Chulalongkom University to find Tim. After a brief rest at a secondary school, who gave us a drink and promised to find us Tim Hughes, we found Tim at the elementary school and met some of his lovely students. That evening he took us to the shops in the north of Bangkok and we ate a delicious market dinner including a tasty catfish as we watched the monsoon rains pour down past incredible lightening bolts and heard all about living in Bangkok.
Day 35 - Getting the sky train to Silom Square we explored the area's amazing shopping malls filled with crazy decorations and beanbag seating - the Brunel Centre will never seem the same again! With every possible cuisine available we had lunch before walking to Jim Thompson's House (note to Catherine's Mum - the wealthy American who traded in silk before randomly disappearing, not our personal friend!). The six Thai traditional houses he had put together were beautiful and had some impressive pieces inside and pretty gardens outside with terrapins as well as an art gallery with rice growing in books. Back at the mall we found the TV show The Young Bachelors and Single Ladies filming and had yummy chocolate milk pudding drinks. The Bangkok Art and Culture Centre provided a nice wander round interesting art works and an impressive spiral building. Back on Silom Road we walked around the night market - being haggled with, grabbed onto and yelled at every step of the way! Skewers of chicken, hot dog and unknown fish from street vendors and fluorescent green jelly and tea pudding provided a great snack dinner.
Day 36 - Skytrain and town ferry up the river with all its sights and a short walk later we found the massive National Museum with its Royal Barges, exhibition on Thai crafts and golden temple and spent hours walking round its halls. After a browse of local stalls selling coins and statues we caught the ferry back before getting a choppy ride in a traditional wooden boat to River City - the exciting new shopping centre where one could purchase every imaginable tacky Thai household item. The most delicious chocolate cake and milk pudding crepes came that evening with another browse around more shopping malls.
Day 37 - With Olivia feeling unwell we had a quiet day before a LOT of shopping at the night market for presents - resulting in a night of attempting to squeeze all our purchases into our backpacks!
Day 38 - We were sad to leave The Urban Age with its lovely staff and free tea but our backpacks were on and we got the skytrain and ferry to pier 13 and with directions from locals eventually found the Sawasdee Inn where we were to start our I-to-I tour. We found our cute purple room (complete with air-con!), left our bags and headed out. Olivia finally got her much desired tuna sandwich before an afternoon at the National Gallery, though sadly the Bangkok Centre had shown half the same pieces and many galleries were shut. Walking back we met some of our tour group, Adam, Steph and Ellena, and ate (our second) lunch with them, and some restaurant rats, before strolling back. That night we met all the group from Real Gap and our team leaders for dinner and started getting to know the 16 others before a rainy walk down Kho San Road.
Day 39 - Starting with a great mini-cooked breakfast and welcome briefing we left for the Grand Palace. The many temples around the site were very intricately decorated and covered in gold. Work seemed to be constantly done to keep them perfect. We witnessed the changing of the guard outside the huge palace and admired the random statues before our meeting up time. We all ate lunch and found Adam shared our love for chocolate desserts before catching the shuttle boat to the Temple of Dawn (Wat Arun). We had seen it lots of times from our ferry rides but up close the temples was vast and we struggled to climb its steep stone steps; however, the views over Bangkok from the top definately made it worthwhile. After slowly clambering down we went and admired the fish in the river. Back across the river was Wat Po the reclining Buddha, one of Thailand's biggest, covered in gold and mother of pearl. In temples on the sight we saw Buddhas having their gold redone and breathtaking Buddha shrines. Our activities for the day done we headed for a traditional Thai massage for thiry minutes of being pulled and bent in every direction - an interesting experience! Shakes in the street with the girls continued our relaxtaion, only disturbed by croaking wooden frog saleswomen and a plastic nurse handing out plasters! Our first welcome dinner that night was a mix of tofu, spring rolls, chicken in cashews, prawn soup and much more. An evening at Gazebo with live music and awful drinks gave us more time to chat with the rest of our group.
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