So after a ver very long day of travelling and a scare of not being able to enter (apparently u only get a 30 day visa and u need proof of your outward journey otherwise you have to buy an extende visa), we landed at Bangkok airport at the horrid hour of 5am. We got a taxi which cost 550THB(£11.40) which is a lot but we were all too tired to test our barter skills. We stayed in a hostle called udee in pradiphat which was nice and very clean, we had a 6bedded female dorm but luckily there were only two other girls there. I don't think they appreciated us coming in at 6am and with gem and Tas being gem and Tas suffering from emotional lability they couldn't stop lauging and had to run to the bathroom for composure.
after a much needed nap we went to explore Bangkok. The hostel was a bit far from Bangkok, we had to get a train and a sky train to Siam. We done some shopping in the platinum mall which is about 5-10 min walk from Siam. Tha mall is an impressive 6 storey high building full of little stores selling cheap merchandise, a shoppers heaven, we also got to try our barter skills which were pretty good.
We were meant to stay in Bangkok for two nights however we had to get to koh phangan for the 19th so we ended up cutting our trip in Bangkok short. This meant that we had to try and cram in Bangkok highlights in to one day! We got a taxi to the golden palace which was amazing, the detail of the buildings and how gold everyrthing was made an interesting place to visit. The temple of the emerald Buddha was my favourite as it was so calm and there were locals praying. Once we finished we went to see the reclining Buddha which is apparently a short walk from the golden palace, but as usual the taxi drivers had other ideas. We only asked the driver what way the Buddha was but they hushed us into a taxi saying they will take us there and to the standing Buddha for 20THB. The ride in the tuktuk was a new experience, the driver a nice polite local(or so it seemed) said he would take care of us as he weaver in and out of traffic missing cars by milimeters. We made it to the standing Buddha which was tall and interesting but there wasn't much else there, Tas was more fascinated by the two year old riding around on his trike! When we got back to the tuktuk the driver made a quick get away to the toilet and another local started talking to us, he said that this time of year was the school holiday's for locals and that many of the islands get fully booked so we should book now, he told us about TAT which is apparently a goverment funded travel agent so that meant they do not charge comission. He also tod us that the reclining Buddha was closed for midday ceremonies so we should go to TAT now and told the tuktukdriver before we had a chance to think (looking back it all seems to coincidental).
The TAT wAs helpful and helped us to organise our 3 weeks in Thailand which included 3star accommodation all transfers from island to island, flights and a elephant trek all for a bout £600 each. This could have possibly been cheaper but we were kinda glad to be relived of organising responsibilities. After what felt like a life time in TAT we had to rush back to pack but that didn't stop our tuk tuk driver from asking us to browse a suit shop so that he could get a gasoline coupon. I had heard that this happens a lot but we felt bad for making the driver wait for us all day so we went in for literally 2 seconds beforemaking a quick escape. The tuk tuk driver didn't seem to impress and definitely drove like a mad man, to make things worse it was chucking it down with rain so the girls(I was sat in the middle) got soaked. Gem decided it would be a good idea to sort out her bank as her card was blocked, the lady got a noisy phonecall with the occassional swear word and dear Jesus as we narrowly dodged traffic.
When we finally got back to the hostel we had to frantically pack so that we could cat h our overnight train to surat thani. Tas decided to attach her small bag to her big rucksack, she looked like a pack-horse who was a bout to buckle under the weight she nearly knifed gem out just by turning around.
We made it to the train station with plenty of time, and in true Thai traditionnthe train was late. We got on the train and where slightly confused on the sleeping arrangements as the were only small train chairs which were to bi for kne but too small for two definitely too small to sleep in! Me and Tas were bewildered as we soon discovered that the top bunks folded down and the. Chairs made the bottom bunks. The ride was rocky but quite relaxing but I didn't like the fact that there were only two thin straps about 3 foot apart stopping us from falling out the top bunk. The train is set to take us to Surat thani were we will get a bus and a boat to koh phangan.