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Hello!! First post from Bangkok :) We were dreading the 13 hour flight but it was actually pretty comfortable. Nice Indian-themed journey with Air India and a stop off in Mumbai, where I took my first excited steps on ground outide Europe. Our highlight of the journey was definately watching a Bollywood movie/soap/comedy/mucial about an unlucky man who kept finding himself in strange but hilarious scenarios... check this one out for a laugh! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQWo7uSJBLM hehe :D
We arrived in Bangkok at 7am and got a taxi to Khao San Road (backpacker central) with two girls we met on the plane, Jess and Sarah. We were surprised to find Khao San quiet with only a few people on the street... however this all changed within a few hours, by midday it was getting busier and busier. You find yourself walking in the road as theres more space and less market touts, but then you have to mind out for taxis, motorbikes and tuktuks all scrambling for a piece of road, for which you have little priority! Saying that its not as scary or dirty as you hear from some people, if you learn your way around and are confident then its pretty easy.
Khao San Road at night is insane, all the clothes stalls turn into street food vendors and foot massage set-ups, and the bars really come alive with neon lights and 90's techno music. We decided to return next time we're in Bangkok, figuring we would get more out of it when we had more time to kill and wern't massively jet-lagged. Highlight of the first day was discovering "Young Coconut", which we naively thought would be a coconut flavour milkshake of some kind, only to find it was literally a massive coconut that had been shaved, cut open and had a straw put in it. Awesome. Going to have to start leaving western assumptions behind!
Friday started off with a mammoth toast queue and the loss of my underwear off the balcony, where I had precariously laid them out to dry the night before... lesson learned! After I bid farewell to my knickers we checked out and made our way to the train station. It was hard to find a taxi man who agreed to use the meter and didn't insist on taking us to the 'tourist information centre' (aka. his friend's travel agent/restaurant/jewellery shop) instead. The taxi driver we found was nice but didn't speak very good english, and for a while we wern't sure whether he even knew the way to the station, let alone that we wanted to go there. Thankfully we got to Hualamphong Station, where there seemed to be some kind of disco going on. Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn" was blaring out of the speakers at full volume and we all had a little sing-a-long. We booked our overnight train tickets to Chiang Mai, and Jess and Sarah booked their coach to Ko Samui, and the lovely man from the tourist info box got up out of his box to walk us over the road to a hotel (I know it was obviously his friend's hotel but you can't help but think how helpful people are here - plus the room was actually very nice :)
Our first tuk-tuk experience was one to remember... the driver insisted that 4 of us would fit into this two seater vehicle, and so Jess ended up on the small patch of floor space reserved for feet, clinging on for life as this crazy man darted about the roads like a maniac. From the port where he dropped us off we got an express boat up the river to the Grand Palace to start seeing some sights (and it was Jess alone that fell over, underneath a small cheeky thai man, when the boat rocked) The walk to the Grand Palace was a mission in itself... FOUR people dressed in official looking uniforms saying "Tourist Police" stopped us to say we were too late, the palace was closed, we wouldn't get in wearing shorts, and that we should try again tomorrow - and instead today we should go to the giant buddha statue that is open one day a year and is very lucky and they will take us on their tuktuk. I think not!! It's a good thing we knew about these scams already; I almost beleived the fourth guy who pointed to a sign saying "beware of wiley strangers" haha.
The Grand Palace was amazing (when we finally got there), so many massive gold temples and ornate statues everywhere, and an emerald buddha which the actual King comes along to change its little outfit every season, no wonder it is the holiest temple in Thailand. See pictures for amazing-ness. Wat Pho is a smaller temple just south from the Grand Palace and it is lovely and peaceful, plus it is home to the "Reclining Buddha" which is about twice the size of my house and gold and just plain awesome. So awesome I bought a little version of it as a souveneir :)
Much love, Jaime and Naomi x x
- comments
mum Hi Jaime, Glad to hear that you got there safely and that you are enjoying it so far. I'm looking forward to hearing lots about the places you visit. (Would love to go there sometime.) Lots of love for now, Mum xxxx
aaron hey babe sounds absolutely amazing. did you get my message about its a wonderful life? sorry i couldn't talk earlier had band practice, just wrote two new songs already ha. making you proud of me. love you so much its ridic. keep having fun and stay safe and be happy and nice. x
Laura Baaabes! Sounds amaze, can't wait to hear more! Also, I rang the airline today, Seems like your flight home is now fully booked but tbh it's not the worst thing in the world, there's a few flights that leave Bangkok around the same time anyway. I'm thinking of coming out on the 23rd April, let me know what you think/where you might be and we'll arrange something :) Love you both, let me know. Stay safe :) xxx
Sam hey guys! glad you got there safely and are settling in nicely :) that picture of the tuktuk makes me chuckle, bring me back one? hahaa! enjoy your weekend, can't wait to hear more about it all :) love you xxx
Izzi Oooh sounds so exciting! What's the protest gunna be about? So happy for you, keep having lots and lots of fun :) lotsa loveee xxx
Sarah-Jane Missing you both already! Sounds as though you are both already having a lovely time! Take lots and lots of photos! :) love you! xxx
andy nice to hear you have arrived safetly missing you at work the singing the most and laughing take care love andy
Alex Jackson SISTER!!! The travelblog link thingy isnt working, I had to search it out on your profile!! So, glad to hear your having fun, skype me or email or call me sometime, i'm so excited to hear what your up to! lotsof love Xxx