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After a short 3 hour mini-bus we arrived in the chaotic city that is Bangkok. Immediately you realise this is a non-stop city with extra-ordinary levels of pollution from the always crammed roads. You truly see thai driving in all it's glory where the weak will be bullied off the road.
It must of took 30mins and 9 taxis and tuktuks stopping before we found one that knew where our hostel was or wasn't trying to charge a ridiculous amount.
We were dropped off round the corner from our hostel on the infamous Khaosan Rd (backpacker central) and plodded along in search of what I thought was going to be a terrible ordeal. The thought of bunking in a 10 bed mixed dorm was daunting to say the least but on arrival we were very surprised at how laid back people were and generally kept themselves to themselves. Also it was an eye-opener in the fact that although everyone was aware of their belongings there was a kind of mutual trust as people left laptops, phones and their belongings laying around for short (sometimes long) periods of time.
As it was still late afternoon we headed straight out into the madness and enjoyed a quick bite whilst taking on this boisterous road. After we'd gone to the bottom and seen the repetition of bars, clothes stalls, food stalls etc we decided to stop off for a drink in one of the busiest and most lively watering holes lol.
Well one drink ended up as 4 jugs of San Miguel (on offer) and we'd made friends with these two Australian guys (well one was black and originally from South London) and got rather merry. With Laurah still not feeling a 100% we decided to have an early night as I was starting to get in party mode with all the alcohol consumed and thought it best we were on point for our 1st night sharing a room. Typically British we ended the night with a kebab each and went indoors.
Not the best nights sleep as Laurah was coming down with a cold n felt bad plus the dorm filled up during the night until all beds were taken so was constantly woken.
The next morning was weird having to wait for the one toilet and two showers we were sharing then continue to cream up in the dorm but its part of travelling and we soon were like ducks in water.
We found a tuktuk driver doing a government run tour for only 20baht taking you to five different points around the city and he received free petrol at the end as long as he could take you to a jewellers or tailors. Expressing we wouldn't be buying anything we jumped on board and visited a few temples, drove past the palace and were taken to a government licensed tour operator which turned out to be so useful. There we booked a tailor-made tour consisting of everything we wanted to do for our remaining time in Thailand at a very good price and with peace of mind we weren't been ripped off.
Our tour consisted of:
- an overnight sleeper train to Chiang Mai
- 3 nights accommodation at a nice backpacker place with a pool
- a 3 day 2 night trek in the jungle staying in a jungle village then a remote place out there on 2nd night
- 2 nights in a beautiful town called Pai with accommodation
- travel by bus and catamaran to Kho Tao to do a 4 day Padi diving course
-travel back to Bangkok to get Indian visas
We were truly blessed yet again to come across this agent as if we hadn't took the tuktuk we would have paid a lot more to do all these things individually.
After returning to the hostel everyone seemed more sociable and we exchanged stories and spoke of cultural differences with everyone for about an hour before we all got changed and headed out to do separate things with the intention of possibly meeting for a drink on the main road later. We took a country girl from Americas deep south called Lacey with us to dine at an Indian restaurant close by we'd read great reviews on. The food was actually very good, authentic and the staff were very friendly and accommodating.
Laurah had soldiered on throughout the day sniffling like mad and with a constant headache but it had become unbearable so we walked Lacey down Khaosan Rd in the hope of finding someone from the dorm so we could return and sleep. We didn't but she was adamant on staying out so we left her wandering into a bar and went back.
The next morning was excitement as we were getting out if this crazy, heavily tourist focused place and heading to the more laid back and chilled Chiang Mai. Quickly packing our things and checking out we had time to spare so went back to the Indian (rude not to) before catchin a tuktuk to the busy train station to continue our travels. 1st time since been in Thailand we witnessed the national anthem been played and everything came to a stand still with everyone standing in silence til it finished
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