For those of you who aren't already aware by now the big trip started extremely smoothly when we missed our first bloody train to London!! So, I was standing at the platform at 13.55 as the train drove off thinking that Amanda had got cold feet and ditched me when she came hurtling over the bridge 30 seconds late cos of the stupid Macclesfield traffic - a perfect start!! Luckily our lovely parents bailed us out and stuck us on the next train for the small sum of 65 quid each - ooops.
We eventually made it to London Heathrow with plenty of time to spare, got to the check-in desk where Little Hitler proceeded to tell us they wouldn't let us board the plane unless we paid for a ticket out of Thailand in the next 30 days for Visa reasons (reasons that I don't understand). Luckily a nice little lady at the reservations desk mocked one up for us and we managed to check in eventually.
We arrived in Bangkok on Tuesday afternoon, checked in to our nice, little posh hotel (probably the only posh hotel we'll ever stay in) had a few beers and decided to go out and explore. Somewhere along the way we took about a million wrong turns and ended up in a random night market with about a million thai people and two white people - us. Given that things so far were going so smoothly we shouldn't have really been shocked when the heavens opened and the rain came pooring down! We eventually gave in and got a tuk-tuk to Koh San Road (aka bar street in Faliraki) and had a few more well deserved 80p beers before admitting defeat and going to bed.
The next day we got up early and spent the first half an hour trying to figure out how to cross the fricking road! After playing a game of chicken and weaving in and out of the cars, tuk tuks and 50,000 motorbikes we made it to the other side to be approached by about a million people telling us it was a special holiday and that the Big Buddha was free and MUST be seen, after the third complete stranger told us the same story we thought they may be telling us the truth so got in a 10 baht tuk tuk and proceeded to be drove around Bangkok to stop at various places as they attempted to rip us off! After a stop at a shoddy travel agent we threw some money at the driver and decided to walk instead, it turns out Bangkok is a pretty massive place and despite the three maps we had we were lost within about 30 seconds. So, admitting defeat we got in another taxi and went to the Siam centre to check out the malls. We were wandering up and down the road looking for a bar or cafe to go to the toilet when a random passer-by suggested we go to the local bank - WTF??! So we got all over it and went for a wee in a bank which apparently is perfectly acceptable here.
That night we headed back down to Koh San Road and had a wander round, stumbling accross the road parrallel - Rambutri Road which was much more our scene, so we sat on a roadside bar for most of the night getting progressively drunk.
On the second day we decided after all the bloody walking we'd been doing we'd have a well deserved lie in so rolled out of bed at 11.30 and headed off (walking again) to the train station to book our tickets to Chaing Mai. After yet another hour of walking around aimlessly we got in a taxi and reached our destination in about 3 minutes. Unfortunately, the train for the next day was sold out so we were stuck in Bangkok for an extra day before we could get the hell out of there on Saturday night. At this point we finally figured out the public transport system and hopped on a tube to check out the delights of Patpong by dailight and then on to Jim Thompson's house (some random American silk importer that we were bored of after all of 10 seconds). We then jumped on a sky train down to Sukmumvit Road to check out Cabbages and Condoms as recomended by James and Kate. The meal was amazing (but well out of our budget) and instead of an after dinner mint or chocolate they give you a free condom. Random. We naively also followed James and Kate's recommendation and headed down to Patpong for a night of 'Ping Pong' entertainment, we got a bit lost and ended up down the Hooker Street where some guy kindly offered to take us round the corner for a show. Turns out, the show on offer was complete and utter shit and half of the women were bloody men who were trying to offer us Lesbian dances!!! Nice. So, we swiftly left, got in a taxi back to Koh San Road, not before we were driven round the whole of Bangkok about 3 times - bloody rip off merchants all of them!
The next morning we checked out of our nice little hotel to move somewhere cheaper, we found a place on Rambutri Road with a roof top pool so spent the day like typical brits abroad lounging around the pool eating crisps and random crap from the 7/11 - ahhh we deserved it!!!
Our last day in Bangkok was spent on a nice little boat trip to the Grand Palace wandering around taking pictures of big Shiny things before heading to the train station (in plenty of time after the last time) to catch our train north.
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