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Today we were off... Again! We woke very early at six thirty and chucked our clothes on and brushed our teeth. Edd and B were up early too for work and it wasn't long be it was time for goodbyes! We were very sad to be going and had really enjoyed the weekend. It was so nice catching up and reminisng with B about primary school (didn't realise I was such a mischievous child...) and it was lovely getting to know Edd who's lovely. We will hopefully see them both in Melbourne when we will return the favour and spoil them.
We left at about seven and headed for the airport bus... After a long and bumpy journey (mostly standing) we arrived at the airport and proceeded to the "express bag drop" line which after a good twenty mins or so turned out to not be that express. After an age we eventually dropped our bags and headed through security, this was all pretty painless and we were soon at the departure lounge. Steven was hungry so we headed for a Maccy Ds which was filling but gross lol... We wandered around and the whole place bought back horrid flashbacks, just over two weeks ago we were heading from this very lounge to Tokyo and I was feeling vile... In fact that day of travelling was one if the roughest I have ever felt. Today thankfully I felt much better and headed to the magazine shop and bought a closer and a heat, cost almost double but hey I was very behind on the gossip! In fact in the mere eleven weeks we have been away Jordan has managed to find a boyfriend, get married and was supposedly pregnant with twins... how she knows that when she merely "thinks" shes pregnant is beyond me. Anyway we sat at the gate awaiting the call when Steven suddenly shouted (something a little colourful) we forgot the memory cards... Damn damn damn... Although not the end of the world, just a massive hassle! I said I would message B and Edd and beg them to post them pronto and hopefully we could collect the from my uncles in Bangkok. Turns out no begging required ...because they are just that lovely.
We boarded our flight with Air Asia who are pretty much the Asian easy jet and we were off... I happily read my mags (as did Steven who loves a bit of heat magazine) and munched on some skittles... No meals on this flight! By early afternoon we were landing in Bangkok. As soon as we stepped of the plan the heat hit us, it was about 29 degrees and boy did it feel like it... We headed into arrivals and through immigration where we tried not to make eye contact with anyone or touch anything in fear of getting arrested or scammed. The whole immigration process was actually very painless and in a matter if mins we were in the arrivals lounge. We drew some money, bought some water and headed out into the sun, in front of the terminal was a bus link to one of the sky train stations in Bangkok so with our huge bags we heaved them on board. The lady conductor was really friendly and informed everyone of their stops.
On the thirty odd minute journey we passed through the streets of Bangkok and it felt like we were back in India. The same heat, smell and chaos although minus the cattle. It wasn't long before we were at our destination and headed up to the famous sky train.... This is basically like a subway but built over the city rather than under it... Not as pretty but a hell of a lot cheaper to build I'm sure. The ticket buying system is simple and we purchased our tickets and headed on the train... A few stops, a line change and a few more stops and we were at our destination. By now big beads of sweat were appearing on Stevens forehead and I too was feeling the heat... Especially in my tights. We walked off the train and followed the directions of the hostel (which were very good) and before long we were at the mile map hostel.
The hostel is located down a side street close to the Sri Mariamman Temple, which is a large Hindu temple built in the 1860s by Tamil immigrants. This made us feel even more like we were back in India with the fragrant smell of incense and flower garlands that were being strung on numerous stalls outside. The decor is also very much... Well actually identical to the Hindu temples we saw in Tamil.
The hostel itself was nice with a big open reception and airy bathrooms although we had a huge palaver on checking in. Firstly we were told please sit down and wait a min... This was said many times, followed by apologies. Then eventually a women came who said there wasn't a twin room available for the full five nights... So we would have a mixed dorm for the last two. We didn't mind and the bill was tallied up (you pay hostels on arrival). Then the bill was a good tenner above what we agreed... What followed then was "the websites keep putting the wrong prices" ... Probably because they are discounted websites and that's why people book them. Then they wouldn't accept that the price was wrong, by now I was tired, hot and very sticky... Plus a little premenstrual and politely said that we had agreed a price with the owner, had an email to prove it and wanted our room. They then tried to say that their was no private shared bathroom rooms only a private room with television etc and that's why price is higher.
I then reminded them of good customer service and politely, through gritted teeth explained that it wasn't my fault they had not saved our room and that they should in theory give us the upgraded room at the same agreed price as its their fault. Anyway after another twenty min discussion, various attempts at reading the email we were given the room at the price we agreed... And they somehow found a private room with a shared bathroom, although it had a bunk bed as well as a big double bed so that was probably why they didn't want us to have it. We cancelled the last two nights and went to our room.
The room was nice and big and very cool... But had no window. It was fine though and we dumped our stuff before heading out to explore, well after Steven showered.... We are back to his three showers a day lol. The surrounding area is busy and has an abundance of shops everywhere, there are numerous subways, McDonald's, burger kings and pizza huts with a million local restaurants tucked in amongst them and street venders everywhere... It would be impossible to diet here. We wandered around and found a supermarket, bought some snacks and headed back... The afternoon was spent planning Bangkok. We messaged Bianca and Edd and my uncle and then planned the next few days here... We were both hoping to skip out of Bangkok after a few days of seeing my uncle and his wife and exploring a few sights but it was appearing this wouldn't be the case due to those damn memory cards.
After a busy afternoon of planning we settled for a relative,y chilled day tomorrow as we wanted a long lie followed by a crazy sightseeing day Thursday, then we fell into bed....
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