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Hi everyone,
So we're starting our Thai adventure in Bangkok. We landed at 8.00am in the morning on June 30th after a night of flying. We got to the hotel in spite of all the rush hour traffic heading into the city. We got our first glimpse of Bangkok through the safety of the taxi windows, it was exactly you would imagine, busy busy busy. As we couldn't check in until midday we had a walk down Khao San Road, where most of the backpackers head. We did a bit of shopping and tried our best not to get hassled by all the tuk-tuk drivers wanting to take us round the city!
We checked in at 12pm and then after a bite of lunch walked down to have a look at the outside Grand Palace and Wat Po, as we weren't wearing the correct clothing to go inside. We found it very hot and humid. We went to sit in a park nearby and cool down, while lots of Thai people jogged around us.
In the evening we decided just to eat in the hotel because it was pouring with rain and there was an electrical storm outside. Bad idea, as they were understaffed and after waiting over an hour for our food and it turning up cold we decided to head for subway for dinner instead...not the best end to our first day here.
Woke up fairly early on the second day (1st day of the trip) and decided to head to the MBK, one of the big shopping centres in Bangkok with over 200 shops under one roof! Bascially shop after shop selling the same things, too many to choose from really. Picked up a few bits and had our first go at bartering. Ate in the food court for lunch, another interesting experience as we didn't know what anything was.
In the afternoon we walked around Banglamphu market and Khoa San road for yet more barganing, very tiring. Late in the afternoon we had a meeting with our tour leader, Tony, and the rest of our group. There's 12 of us in all, 11 girls and 1 guy! After that we headed to a cafe near the hotel and had our 1st group meal. We even got to watch some Wimbledon on TV as a Thai girl was playing Venus Williams!
On Tuesday we visited Wat Po and the Grand Palace. Both are very important places to Thais in Bangkok. Tony took us to Wat Po. We travelled on the water taxi to get there. Wat Po is home to the reclining budda, which was huge. We spent just over an hour wandering around Wat Po and then the rain came down! A few of us that hadn't been to the Grand Palace then went there. We got rained on but we grin & beared it and took some pictures anyway! It was very impressive it was just a shame we couldn;t see it in all its glory. We sought out a few bargains on Khao San Road and bought a bag and sarong each.
At 4pm it was time to make our way to Bangkok train station, we had to leave amble time because of the traffic. At about 5.30pm we boarded the overnight train and then we were off on our way to Chiang Mai. We sat and watched the world go by for a while and then we were served dinner, not the greatest but still edible. At 10pm it was bedtime, a lady came around to transform our 2 seats in to bunk beds, its all very clever. Rocking to sleep (or not) on the train ended our second day of the trip.
Love
Hayley and Rose
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