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We arrived in Bangkok late at night and set off the next morning to meet Jo at the airport. We had some communication difficulties with the taxi driver and he took us to the wrong airport which was 40 minutes away from the airport Jo was arriving at! Luckily we had left in plenty of time and Jo landed a little late, so we probably got there about 5 minutes before she got through from immigration. Jo was feeling a little tired but with limited time in Bangkok we took the sky train to the river and took a long tail boat through some of the canals. We saw the local houses on stilts along the edges and a few women in boats selling souvenirs and fruit and vegetables. We experienced some typical Thai hospitality when a young Thai girl on the boat wanted to stop at Wat Arun and insisted on paying for us also. We took Jo for some Thai food before she fell asleep and she chose a Panyang curry which must have been the hottest one on the menu, it certainly kept her awake until we got back to the hotel! We all suffered from jet lag a little and generally found ourselves wide awake at 3am for the first couple of nights!
The following morning we took a taxi to Siriwan's house and stayed with other friends for a lovely lunch. In the afternoon we took a tuk-tuk to the Grand Palace and Temple of the Emerald Buddha complex and spent some time looking around there ourselves. The buildings there are impressive, covered in gold and tiny mosaic detail and orange robed monks stand out from all the tourists. We were lucky both days to have hot weather and blue skies rather than the grey smog we've encountered in Bangkok before.
Monday morning we flew to Phuket, this was our chance to have some relaxing time after being on the move so much recently and took advantage of massages for £6 a hour. Having 8 nights without having to pack up and go was bliss, that's the longest we've stayed in one place since leaving home. We spent time relaxing around the pool and on Patong beach, having a go at parasailing one day which we had never done before and was lots of fun. We did a morning trip one day going Elephant Trekking which we had done before but was a first for Jo.
The evenings were spent sampling enormous quantities of delicious Thai food in different restaurants around the town, followed by shopping at all the night market stalls. Just about all of Martin's clothes were in holes by the time we got to Thailand so this was the opportunity to get new stuff really cheaply. It was always entertaining to try and spot the lady-boys at night, some were so convincing they were only given away by their Adams apples!!
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