Thailand: Bangkok

After Cambodia we ventured West, into Thailand and its capital Bangkok. The bus journey was not quite as well organised as our previous ones and we found ourselves dropped at the border, with a small sticker on our luggage and told (by way of pointing) which direction to walk in. After the process of "checking out" of Cambodia, we walked the 300 meters or so across the border and into Thailand, where luckily our Thai visas were legit (despite the dodgy looking conslate in Birmingham) and we began our adventure in country number 8 so far this year.

After sitting in a very hot and uncomfortable minibus for 5 hours, we arrived in Bangkok and the famous Khao San Road, which is the centre for backpackers in the area. The street is manic - full of street vendors selling food, clothes and souvenirs, hawkers pushing their guesthouse, people offering a multitude of fake ids, bars advertising cheap 'strong' cocktails and no checking of id and a lot of tourists! knowing this would be a manic place to find accommodation, especially with our levels of patience, we had pre-booked a hotel just off this street, which turned out to be just about bearable, despite an incredibly uncomfortable bed and a loud terrace just outside our window! (Called the Swasdee Bangkok Inn - one to avoid in our opinion)

We spent three days in bangkok in total, and our first day was spent exploring the city. We met Chris and Clare (friends of mine from london who were at the end of their holiday) for lunch in siam square, the commercial heart of Bangkok. This was quite overwhelming with three huge shopping complexes and everything you could want - we saw Starbucks and McDonalds for the first time in a month! We walked back via Chinatown to explore some more of this huge city, stopping on the Khaosan road for cheap street food before retiring to the bliss of our air conditioned room! Getting around bangkok is quite tough - the skytrain serves some of the city, but on our first day we also used the river ferry and the canal barge, quite an experience with its movable roof for low bridges and tarpaulin sides that you lift up when the water from the dirty canal splashes too much!

The next morning we headed to the Chatuchak market, one of the largest markets in the world with over 15000 stalls.... needless to say in the heat and with so many shoppers we didn't last long, but it was interesting to experience it, and see that you could pretty much buy anything you could think of. Both of us were struggling with stomach problems (damn that cheap street food) so we took a detour on our way home and took comfort in the dark air conditioning of a movie theater (Valentines Day - a kind of American version of Love Actually). The highlight was probably before the movie began when everyone in the theatre had to stand while a short film played about the King. We're not in Kansas anymore...!

Our last day we took in some culture, visiting the Grand Palace and its associated Wats (temples), which were old and very ornate, and saw some amazing Buddhas. We're glad we visited Bangkok and experienced the crazy busy madness of it, but it was a shame we were both not feeling well for most of it, and after three days we were both glad when we borded our night bus to the next leg of our adventure.