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We arrived in Bangkok after an 11 hour flight and a very emotional goodbye to family and Andrew! We were greeted in the airport for our transfer, she was a little thai woman and was darting about all over the place trying to sort us out into mini bus groups. We then drove 110mph to bangkok through the crowded and crazy traffic with people crammed into the back of open air trucks, i couldnt resist taking photos and i had'nt even reached the city yet!. Bangkok is very busy and polluted, some people walk round wearing masks! Its very quirky though and the people have a sense of charm and innocnece about them. After checking into our hotel, which has a balcony and a river view we headed out to explore the city where we found 100's of stalls cooking food on the streets, and the smell of the spices gets to the back of your throat, the city is just as lively at night as it is day.
The next day we got up early, the jet lag hasnt seem to have affected us. We met some of the girls we met in the hostel the previous night , 2 from ireland, 2 from england and explored the city more. We got on a tuk tuk which was so fun and he took us all round the city including the standing buddah statue and the sitting buddah temple for 16p! I loved it with the wind blowing in my hair and seeing all the sights! At the standing Buddah temple we bought a cage of birds each and released them in front of the statue to bring us luck and happiness- Gemmas bird unfortunately went straight into the mouth of a stray cat- least the cat got some happiness! It was satifying releasing the birds into freedom as it was cruel in them cages! We watched the local thai people give offerings of innsence and flower garlands to buddah and saw where the monks live and work- I dont think women are meant to speak to, go near or touch monks but I didnt realised when i joked with him that we were both wearing orange!! After this we went to a gem factory where we saw the jewels being polished and made and the final product in the shop, i made the misake of showing interest in a pink diamond ring and the staff wouldnt leave me alone!!
Our tuk tuk driver was called Joe and he found it amusing that it was my name too and also that I was tall!! After this we caught a river boat taxi to the modern part of the city where the big shopping centre is. It cost us 16p and we got to sdee how people live alongside the river, it was scary getting off as we had to climb along the boatside using a rope. I enojyed using the public trnasport with the locals rather than just getting taxis everywhere. At the shopping centre we ate in a modern oriental restaurant called sumo (this was the first thing id eaten since the plane, we were scared of eating from the cooking stalls in case we got ill!) i had spicy chicken noodles and a lychee juice drink, it was lovely. People walk throught he traffic trying to sell you flowers and banannas through car windows, our driver bought three flowers, prayed on them and decorated his car with them. In the evening we went out for tea i had thai green veg curry with roti and a chang beer.
Today we went to the grand palace, it was spectacular, it is where the thai king lives and the Thais are very proud of their royal family. The palace was filled with gems and mirros and gold paint, it was very grand. we saw the guards march too. I had to wear a long ethnic skirt to cover my ankles, i wanted to keep it it was pretty! Tonight we are going to chaing mai on an overnight train. will update this blog as soon as i can, i have missed out so much but ive run out of time!!!! sorry if theres any spelling mistakes or bad english, im rushing! miss you! xxxxx
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