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Our VIP bus arrived in Bangkok at 7am and we didnt have the best of starts. Two taxi drivers refused to take us to our hotel after we showed them it on a map. Then the driver who did eventually take us got completely lost, so we ended up just telling him to let us out so we could walk - he didn't discount the fare though. The first thing we noticed about Bangkok as we walked was the horrible smell of the sewers, it was so strong and made us feel a bit sick. The streets and roads are crazy with the amount of cars, motor bikes, street stalls and people it was such an effort to walk through it all.
After a very long walk (and a Subway break) we finally arrived at the Radisson. As we approached the hotel the man on security looked quite confused and asked us if we were staying there, he must have thought we took a wrong turn to a hostel. I must admit we didn't look like the typical people that stay in the Radisson, we both had our huge backpacks and our other bags (I now carry four) and didnt look our best after being on a ten hour bus!
They let us check into our room straight away and we couldnt't believe how nice it was, it even had two tv's. For the rest of the day we used the gym and the pool, then watched TV in the room as they had a Granada channel which showed loads of ITV programmes it was like being at home.
The next day we took the Sky Train to the MBK shopping centre. It was huge and had about five levels of shops and stalls which mostly sold fake items. There were different grades of fake items, so some are quite expensive but are virtally the same as the real thing. You could spend all day in there, especially if you enjoy haggling.
That night we had arranged to meet up with Jane's friend who she lived in student halls with called Leela. She is Thai and lives in Bangkok so we thought it would be nice to meet up with her. She took us to a Thai restaurant to we could try some traditional food. Most of the food we had was a little too spicy but was really nice. It was good to be with someone who spoke Thai, as the language barrier here can be quite a problem.
It was finally the day for Mark and Dan to arrive. They had sent us a text earlier in the morning to say that they had decided to stay a few nights in Dubai as there plane stopped there and so would meet us a few days later. We didn't believe them, but did start to get slightly nervous when they were late, thankfully they were only joking. The hotel had upgraded our rooms which were now more like apartments than a hotel room. Our room even had it's own office, it was amazing! That night me and Mark went out for tea and Mark had his first Thai curry and loved it, then we met Jane and Dan and we went to a lovely roof top bar which had views over Bangkok.
The next day we did some shopping and spent some time at the pool, (backpackers have the best life) then made our way to Khao San Road. It's basically a long stretch of bars and shops in the centre of Bangkok. It is so busy with tourists and locals it felt a bit crazy, and it became slightly annoying the amount of times you had to say "no thankyou" to people trying to sell you things, but i'm sure we will have that problem in most places that we visit. One stall which I was expecting to see was the stall that sold insects to eat. It really was horrible, they even had sea horses cooked on sticks. The crowd around the stall was quite big so couldn't get a picture, will have to wait till next time.
Bangkok has been an experience, and i'm sure we will have to visit it again at some point on our travels, but for now it's onto Phuket!
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