Bangkok and Ayutthaya, Thailand

During our time in Bangkok, we saw many different sides to the city. From the futuristic sky train stations, to the tranquil Lumpini Park, with its collection of labelled trees. My allergies made eating out tricky, so after a few days of eating fried rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I felt in need of something more substantial. After flicking through the guide book, we decided on Le Bouchon, a French restaurant with particularly good reviews. What the guide book didn't mention, was that Le Bouchon was situated in the heart of Bangkok's red light district, so I was quite surprised to hear all the calls for various 'shows' as we walked down the brightly lit road. Eventually, I realised that the name 'Patapong' was familiar from the series, 'Big Trouble in Thailand', where tourists are regularly scammed by lady boys.

The restaurant itself, was nearly hidden, midway down Patapong I, with an extremely dark interior. Somehow we could just about make out the moving wall of insects, and I spent my meal doing what must have looked like, thumping the wall with my umbrella, in an attempt to keep a stray cockroach at bay. However, we were greeted in French, (which felt like we were somewhere civilised), and the food was superb. I enjoyed a great tasting fillet of lamb, before deciding that it was time to leave, before we saw the cockroach again.

The next day, we took a trip to Ayutthaya, and headed for the old town center by tuk tuk, to visit Wat Mahathat. We wandered around the spacious temple complex, looking at the six hundred year old architecture. We stopped off for lunch at an eclectic Thai cafe, for more fried rice, and a break from the heat, even though the thunderstorm and heavy rain on our arrival, made it cooler than my previous visit. We also visited Wat Prah Ram and Wat Yai, before getting the train back to Bangkok. It was good to get away from the traffic noise and pollution of the capital for a while.

Arriving in Bangkok

I’m sitting by a pond of huge carp in the gentle afternoon sun, partially hidden by luscious palm trees. Today has been so much easier than anticipated. I arrived at the shiny new airport (they both use the same BKK code). So that turned out to be a useful surprise since I’d been preparing myself to go from the old airport, to the new one in order to pick up my tickets for I need tomorrow (before the ticket office opens) but all was well. I even left my larger bag in left luggage.

Getting the bus into Bangkok was easy and enjoyable, watching the colourful city pass me by. The ticket lady onboard has a clever bamboo cane like gadget which she would flick open in different ways according to the notes she wanted. So many quirky things here. I got to use the sky train also, which is lots of fun on a bright sunny day.

My guesthouse took a bit more finding, but its lovely with a nice garden and lots of ornate wooden furniture. I’m sleeping in a dorm with five others, so hopefully I get to sleep, but it’s only for one night. I have all the ear plugs I could wish for and it seems a pretty good place.

Tomorrow I shall get the bus back to the airport and board my flight to Hanoi. For now though, I’m off to find some dinner…

Final thoughts and recommendations...

The morning after we got back it was snowing, and having been back in the UK four days now I’ve nearly got used to the temperature and waking up at the right time. I’ve been looking at all the photos I took in Thailand and Cambodia, 2500 of them, and feel quite amazed at some of the things I saw and did.

The photos will be bigger than on here and there are more of them. At the moment I’m trying to fight a bad cold. Looking back at the trip, it does feel like an amazing journey where every day I experienced something new. I’m really glad I saw Cambodia and such a different way of life. I want to travel again, and will probably go along to Destinations 2006 for inspiration (2-5 Feb). It has been such an amazing experience and I want to see more of the world.

Recommendations and Advice

During our visit to Thailand and Cambodia we stayed at some great places, as well as some that weren’t so nice. I think that choosing a good guesthouse or hotel can play a large part in the enjoyment of a place, as we found out in Bangkok.

Bangkok:

I don’t recommend staying in the area Downtown of Thanon Rama IV, it’s fairly grim. Sukhumvit is a much smarter and more expensive area. We stayed at the SV Guesthouse (Tel. (0066) 22 531747) (just around the corner from the metro) which was 600 baht a night for a double room with ensuite. All the hotels in that area seem more expensive than other parts of Bangkok, but its definately worth it for the great public transport links and for a street free of rats and rubbish. Khoa San Road looks a fun place if you’re young, into hostels and willing to stay in the same place as all the other tourists. Chinatown looked another fun option, definately worth investigating.

Sukhothai:

We stayed at the Ban Thai guesthouse in New Sukhothai (Tel. (0066) 55 610163) which was the most enchanting guesthouse we came across in Thailand, and I completely recommend it to anybody. They have beautiful wooden bungalows with ensuites based in a pretty garden for 250 baht a night, and dorms in a separate building for less. There is also a lovely restaurant area which has a brilliant menu of thai food at good prices. We really enjoyed staying here.

Chiang Mai:

I don’t have anywhere to recommend for Chiang Mai, as the place we stayed was fairly basic and provided small, grotty blankets for the bed and wanted to charge extra for sheets. Despite being Western run they kept a poor dog in a cage and the staff weren’t overly friendly. However there are lots of nice looking guesthouses in Chiang Mai, so I think it would be easy to find somewhere that looked good when you get there rather than booking in advance.

Krabi:

The KR Mansion Hotel (Tel. (0066) 75 612761) was ok, but not brilliant. I booked it over the phone and they had said 300 baht a night for a double room with ensuite, but when we got there they were saying 350. They did accept 300, but I’m sure for their new price you could find a nicer place to stay. The food wasn’t great either.

Siem Reap, Cambodia:

I completely recommend The Two Dragons Guesthouse to anybody going to Siem Reap and visiting Angkor. Our room was lovely and clean with nice bedding and a hot shower. The guesthouse is Western run, with a helpful owner and friendly staff. They have a clean restaurant with lovely Thai and Khmer food at good prices. Our room was $12 a night for a double bed, air con and a hot shower ensuite. This guesthouse is popular and gets full quickly so I recommend booking in advance. Also we met our tuk tuk driver Sot’lar at the entrance when we arrived, offering to be our driver, and he was very likeable so I would highly recommend him also.

Bangkok, Thailand

Last night we were collected from the hotel and taken to Krabi bus station, where we waited an hour before boarding a coach. We were fairly tightly packed but for our 550 baht each to go from Krabi to Bangkok I hadn’t expected much else. The toilet on board was tiny and had no light, which seems a common feature of Asian busses, so for future reference always travel with a pocket torch!

Three hours later the bus pulled in at a little place with palm trees and a ‘cafe’. We thought it was just a toilet stop, but our luggage was being taken off the coach and everyone got out. Nobody knew what was going on or why we had been dropped here, but we had to go over to a desk and write down our names for Bangkok. Eventually we managed to get out of one of the drivers that we were going on a ‘big coach’. All of a sudden there was shouting of ‘quick’, ‘Bangkok’ and ‘coach one’ but for some reason that coach wasn’t for us and we were allocated on the next one.

We found a Canadian couple to talk to and waited for about an hour, in this swamp like, coconut plantation, surrounded by bull frogs and moths the size of birds. Eventually our coach did turn up, and it was more spacious with aircon, comfy seats and blankets. I was slightly concerned and puzzeled that for such a nice coach there were no toilets on board and we had ten hours ahead of us! However as it happened the coach made three stops at various service stations for us to get out, buy food or use the toilets, so that was a relief! I just found it difficult with the lack of communication from the drivers, that we didn’t know what was going on or whether we would have to sit on the coach for the entire journey and if so I shouldn’t drink any water, and after we did stop I wondered if we would stop again. However I managed to get some sleep and it was fairly comfortable - just a bit cold!

We arrived in Bangkok at six am, despite all the delays. The difficult bit was finding a taxi driver that would use the meter to take us for a short journey to the train station. The taxi drivers in Bangkok can be such idiots, as we said Hua Lamphong station, and the driver asked where we were going after, and we said the airport this afternoon and he seemed genuinely puzzeled as to why we wanted the train station if we were going to the airport, so we walked off and had similar experiences with a few more drivers, until finding one who would use the meter and take us where we wanted to go. We did have to tell him we were going to take the train to Chiang Mai, which he seemed happy with, as if our journey had to make sense, rather than us deciding where we wanted to go. The train was slightly delayed but we’re here now, having checked in with an hour or so before our flight.

Krabi, Thailand

Our last day in Krabi and we awoke to more monsoon rain. We walked down to a restaurant for breakfast which looked fine, except for the fact that when getting to the bottom of my fruit juice I noticed a worm! I was fairly horrified and we promptly left and went somewhere else. I suppose in all likeliness I probably didn’t drink any more worms as they are heavier than water and float to the bottom and it could have just been a worm from the fruit, but either way it wasn’t a pleasant experience.

At a restaurant we knew to be fine I drank a cup of boiling water in the hope of killing anything bad followed by breakfast. After that Al suggested vodka, which wasn’t particularly nice either, but hopefully it sterilised my stomach, and I’m currently drinking lots of bottled water. So its just a case of waiting to go to the doctors when I get back and maybe taking some antibiotics. As its so hot here I just though that a glass of tropical fruit juice would be nice, but in future its just a can of coke or bottled water!

We have a coach booked overnight back to Bangkok, which arrives early tomorrow morning and then our flight back to Jordan. I’ve enjoyed Krabi, it’s a relaxing seaside town.

Krabi, West Railey, Thailand

So much for our plans this morning to get up early and take a boat to the nearby beaches. We awoke to the sound of the South’s monsoon rain. A few hours later it had passed so we walked down to the pier and waited, for ages. The guys that ran the boats said we’d have to wait for 8 to 10 people but after sitting by the river for a long time we decided to walk upstream to the famous Krabi crags. We took a pathway through the mangroves and eventually ended up at a pier opposite one of the huge limestone crags. A local guy was offering boat trips to the crag and back for 100B for the two of us, and to start with I was a bit scared of the thought of going on this tiny wooden boat, but it was only 50 meters or so in calm water, and I even enjoyed the boat ride! We were really low down in the water, and it was amazing to see these big limestone crags towering above us. We arrived on the island, which had a small sandy area and explored a cave with interesting stalagmites and stalactites.

We walked back down the Krabi river passing the pier where the longtail boats go from, and this time we were in luck as there were enough people to leave for East Railay beach. Again the sea was fairly calm, as we followed the coastline around, passing interesting looking islands on the way. It probably took about half an hour. When we arrived at East Railay the boat came as close as it could to the sand and then we had to jump!

The beaches were beautiful. I felt really excited to see turquoise blue sea. However the weather still wasn’t that great and it spend most of the afternoon being cloudy. We had food at a restaurant looking out onto the beach when we arrived and then walked across to West Railey. The beach was very crowded and more popular than the guidebook suggested but it was still good to walk on lovely white sand and look out at limestone crags in the sea.

There were lots of stalls selling various beach clothing and jewellery and I bought an interesting bracelet with shells threaded on and some rings. We walked back to the bay where longtail boats were leaving to head back to Krabi and had to wade out quite a way into the sea before climbing onto the boat! At that point it was looking fairly stormy and soon after it started to rain. The journey back was fine and we had the boat to ourselves as the owner wanted to get back. When we returned I felt really pleased that I’d managed to do the boat trips today, as normally I’d do anything to avoid going by sea. I took a travel tablet and wore seabands which worked well. I quite enjoyed the experience of being on a longtail boat in South Thailand.

Leaving Cambodia, to Bangkok, then Krabi...

I’m currently hiding in an internet cafe from what feels like a semi-monsoon. The clouds started to go dramatically dark and all of a sudden it started. Our first afternoon in Krabi.

…

It’s been a long journey to get here. We left Siem Reap (Cambodia) at 6.50am in a taxi, and passed beautiful rice fields and palm trees glowing in the early morning sun. We were well on our way to the border, when in front of us was a long queue of cars. Our driver overtook them and got near the front. It was at this point we found out that the bridge was broken and there was a huge hole, where one of the metal plates had fallen in. Soon after the vehicles had caused gridlock in about three rows of cars on either side of the bridge for as far as you could see, so even if they did mend the bridge we were all blocked in!

It was really hot by this point and lots of people were trying to find shade behind cars. The dirt road covered us all in browny orange dust. Several hours passed and eventually people managed to botch up the bridge and eventually people moved their vehicles to let the other direction through. Some cars from our side tried to go across and it took a further half an hour of arguing before they decided who should go first and we were finally on our way again! I think I should be thankful that it was only five and a half hours to the border and not longer, considering what chaos the bridge was.

We passed through the border after a lot of queuing, and only just made the 1.30pm bus to Bangkok. We arrived at six and were in quite a hurry to get to the train station for 7.15pm. We must have looked confused but were very thankful when a German guy offered to translate for us and got us on the right bus to the nearest metro. From there it was another twenty minutes to Hualamphong station and we just made in time to buy food before the journey and get on the train!

I put my earplugs in and slept really well in the train. I woke about six am, and the bunks were made into seats. Soon after it got light and we started passing dramatic scenery with forests and limestone crags. From Surat Thani we got a coach to Krabi bus station, which was a further three hours, and finally a songthaw to our hotel.

It was really hot when we arrived here. After a lunch of fried noodles, veg and chicken we walked down to the river, from where the boats go to the Railey beaches. It doesn’t look to bad, and tomorrow we’re hoping to make a trip out to the beaches. Unfortunately there’s thundery showers forecast for the next day or so, and then its sunny when we go back home! I like the feel of Krabi, the atmosphere here is relaxed and quite different from other parts of Thailand.

Thailand / Cambodia Border

If the journey was easy perhaps I wouldn’t feel like I’ve achieved much, and in this case I feel like we’ve achieved a lot!

We woke at about 5am this morning in Bangkok, where the rain was torrential. Apparently it had only been raining three hours and some of the roads were covered in nearly a foot of water. We grabbed a metered taxi and asked to take us to the skytrain, which was just around the corner, but as usual we found a stupid driver who tried to take us to the train station which also had the skytrain. Eventually he turned around and dropped us at the nearest station, so we payed him for what it would have cost had he gone there to start with, and onto the sky train. This was the straight forward part as Bangkok does have a great metro and skytrain system. Clean, efficient and signs in English. We got off at Ho Chit, near the nothern bus terminal.

The guidebook says go to the northern bus terminal and there are busses every hour to Aranyprathet, the Thai border to Cambodia. So we carried the heavy luggage down the stairs and to the bus stops. It was all very complicated and different people told us different bus numbers. Everything was in Thai and nobody could speak particularly good English, and at one point I thought we were never going to make it. However eventually someone pointed us in the right direction and we got a bus to the bus station and bought a ticket for a bus to Aran.

We left at 7.45am and arrived in Aran at about 12.00. We didn’t have any problems getting a tuk-tuk to the actual border and were met on the Thai side with English speaking officials, specially to help tourists. I got the Thai exit stamp and have a Cambodian stamp in my passport. I was pleased as I got the visa for $20, no scams or ‘tea money’ requests. After taking another tuk-tuk to where the taxies departed from we found a German couple to share 3 hour ish taxi ride with.

As soon as we were driving out into the countryside I had a really positive feeling about Cambodia. I think I like it more than Thailand. Our guesthouse (Two Dragons) is luxurious compared to what we’ve been used to, and I’ve just had a lovely meal of freshwater fish with lemon grass and an orange sauce. Despite it feeling like such hard work to get here and travelling for nearly twelve hours it feels good. Tomorrow we shall see Angkor.

Ayuttaya, Thailand

After the previous post we took a tuk tuk to Chiang Mai’s train station and stocked up with bottled water, crisps and generous slices of banana cake which was only 10 baht! We got there early and found some seats to sit down on and were shortly joined by a couple from South Africa who were catching the same train as us. They had travelled from Singapore, up through Malaysia to Thailand, and told us about the lovely beaches and diving in the south.

As the time came for our train, we walked down the platform to where the sleeper carriages would be (the trains are very long) and sat down next to an American couple travelling with a young child. It was beginning to get quite cold by this point and the train still hadn’t turned up, and then there was an annoucement that the train was delayed and wouldn’t get in until after midnight. Somehow we chatted and waited for another three hours until the train eventually did turn up and they attached the sleeper cars.

Instead of getting to Ayuttaya mid morning, we didn’t arrive until early afternoon. At the station we were constantly hastled by tuk tuk drivers wanted to charge huge amounts to drive us around the temples. Instead we followed a map walked a km or so to Wat Yai Chaya Mongkol. It was so hot and Ayuttaya felt like just another modern city with ancient temples hidden away, around the edge of the old capital. The parts we saw were cleaner than Bangkok, busy and not particularly pretty.

The temple was interesting. Built in 1593, it was huge and well kept. I climbed to the top level of the main tower and looked down on rows of Buddahs and other temples. There seemed to be lots of local people who lived on the edge of the park and maintained the grounds. The temples were covered in pretty, blue butterflies.

In the evening we ate at noodle stands alongside the station and I even found a stall with cakes and tried some tasty coconut bread pastries. We took a train back to Bangkok and stayed at the SV Guesthouse in Sukhumvit. The area was a lot nicer, but more expensive and was filled with big tourist hotels and shopping malls.

Doi Inthanon, Rice Terraces and Hill Tribes...

Today has been amazing. We went on a tour to Doi Inthanon, about two hours to the west with a few other people. It started off in the normal fashion with half an hour at a huge waterfall, and then back in the minibus and up to the highest mountain in Thailand. It was quite cold and misty and all the Thai people were shivering although we found it quite mild. Our minibus driver was a lunatic and did some really doggy blind bend style overtakes but the roads were just about wide enough for three cars to pass! It was very scary though. The roads themselves were in good condition and no horrible sheer drops too close to the road.

We saw the King and Queen Pagodas which were each based upon a mountain with jungle in the surrounding area. It was very beautiful. After this we went to a village for lunch and had lovely Thai food. They brought out lots of nicely flavoured meat and vegetable dishes which we shared, followed by slices of fresh pineapple and melon.

Our next destination was The Royal Project, which was an agricultural place, with a pond, good view, pretty waterfalls and funnel web spiders webs on the trees! I wandered off ahead and saw several monks in bright orange robes gathered around one of the viewpoints, so I walked up and asked if they could take their picture too. After which they pointed me to a stone to sit on and gathered around asking if I could be in theirs! One of the monks was given four digital cameras and proceeded to take the photos. I found this so amusing. They were from a fairly remote part nearby and I suppose they didn’t see many white girls with curly hair!

Finally we got back into the minibus and drove to a Hilltribe village. We saw some girls weaving and they were selling beautiful scarves and drapes. I thought this was a really positive thing, as they were selling their products directly, which would encourage the local people not to grow opium if they could make money by other means. So I bought a gorgeous woven scalf. At this point I started chatting to an Australian lady on our tour, and we walked around the village.

The huts looked like wooden tree houses, except with TVs. We saw a path out into a rice field which was amazing. We asked the guide what time we were due back and he said it was the last stop and as long as we wanted, so we walked probably for fifteen minutes along the paddy fields, and said hello to the local people working on the land. They were polite but it’s hard to know what they thought of foreigners. I don’t think they cared too much. The paddy fields were huge, and we walked along raised areas with small sections of rice below and then followed a trail along the hill. Forested mountains covered the background and it was an incredible experience to see. I have really enjoyed today. Only a few times have I rememberd that its Christmas. Anyway we have a night train in a few hours and will be in Ayuttaya tomorrow morning, followed by Bangkok in the evening.

Doi Suthep, Thailand

After having a lie in this morning we took the songthaw to Doi Suthep, just out of Chiang Mai. The journey itself was a bit scary as we climbed a mile up along twisty roads and the drivers tending to go for the middle in either direction! But it was worth it as we went into the temple and took a lot of photos and saw monks and asked them if I could take their photo which I did. There were a lot of locals there making offerings of flowers and incense, practising Buddism.

A few hours later we walked along a steep road on the edge of some jungle which was amazing!

Last night we booked a tour for tomorrow, so I shall be spending Christmas day on the highest mountain in Thailand, as well as seeing hilltribes, waterfalls and countryside. I’m really excited. I never thought I would be doing something like that for Christmas last year. I shall write about that tomorrow as we will have a few hours to spare after getting back, before our night train.

Al got bitten on the night train when we came here so I hope that doesn’t happen again. Anyway Happy Christmas, will write something tomorrow…

Chiang Mai, Thailand

We arrived in Chiang Mai at just about six this morning after leaving Phitsanulok. The train itself was ok, the bunks were comfortable with clean bedding and it was a bit strange as all the sleeping bunks were packed in one after another. I had the lower bunk which was nice. I tried to sleep but got very little of it as every time I finally felt I was about to the train would pull into a station with about an hours interval, and for some reason when the train stopped moving I became awake. The tracks were really noisy too. For some reason I had this idea that trains were smooth since they could only travel on tracks but all night long you could hear the clickety-click. It wasn’t too bad though and next time I’ll be prepared with earplugs and an extra layer of clothing since there was mesh at the windows.

When we pulled into Chiang Mai it was just getting light. We got a tuk tuk to the guesthouse which took forever due to the driver dropping some people off on the other side of town, and then stopped outside the wrong guesthouse - ’seven sun’ instead of ’sarah’. Eventually we got out a map and he redelivered us to the right place. It’s quite nice. It’s clean and they do a good breakfast and we have an adequate bathroom and shower.

We took the day fairly slowly and walked around the city and saw a pretty white temple. Well, several white temples in a huge field.

We found the Hill Tribe Foundation shop which sold products made by the local tribes and they recieved part of the money. I personally think that’s better than going to see the local tribes as they parade outside their huts for tourists to take pictures of like a living zoo. So I bought a black fabric bag with colourful patterns woven in.

This evening we’ve just had fish and chips at a place run by an English guy. It was quite comforting, and a change from Noodle soup or curries that we’ve been having since arriving. The food here is really good though. We might go to the night market tonight, suggested to us by some people we bumped into on our way to the internet cafe, who we met yesterday at Sukhothai. Tomorrow, hopefully we’ll be going further north into the countryside of Doi Suthep to find waterfalls and to get away from the city.

Sukhothai, Thailand

It feels like I’ve been in Thailand for ages, despite it only being our third day here. On Tuesday we left Bangkok behind and took the train to Phitsanulok which took about six hours. We were a bit disapointed that the glass in the windows had a black mesh layer in the middle which made it really difficult to see anything, but the seats were comfortable and there was food included in the journey. The only really horrible part was the toilets, but I’ve survived!

I felt really overwhelmed when we arrived at Phitsanulok. Maybe part of it was to do with getting not much sleep, as my body still hasn’t completely adjusted to the time zone, and because it was so busy and confusing. We walked to the bus stop as we needed to get to New Sukhothai and were very thankful to find an English guy who knew which bus to get as the place names are in Thai writing and there was a lack of timetables. It was such a relief to get to the guesthouse after trying to navigate our way through unfamiliar cities in the heat of the afternoon.

The guesthouse is so beautiful. (Ban Thai, New Sukhothai) We stayed in a little wooden bungalow, with a comfortable bed and a clean bathroom with a hot shower! There was a restaurant area under cover and it has a very alternative feel to it. The area with the bungalows was surrounded by gardens and quite hippy-ish in a way. It was all very fun apart from in the night when there was a lot of rustling and scratching around the windows and roof, and I was slightly worried about whatever it was getting in. We weren’t sure whether it was a monkey, although there were also lots of cats at the guesthouse, but it was making a lot of noise! Eventually it went away and we went to sleep.

Today we went to old Sukhothai to see the temples. It was really amazing. Lots of Budhas and huge Wats with beautiful lakes with pink waterlilies. We got up just after six am and got to the temples fairly early so we were lucky to get beautiful photos without crowds of people in the way. It started off feeling quite cool but by mid morning it was very hot. Anyway I’ve really enjoyed today and getting to know the real Thailand because we both hated Bangkok. Although the people are nice there its pretty grim and I couldn’t get any positive feelings from the place. When we visited Koah San Road that felt more relaxed but it was just a tourist bubble.

People live in theses amazing wooden houses here and its been so interesting to see a different way of life. They are also really friendly and helpful. We came back to New Sukhothai this afternoon and took some photos of the streets and the caotic sense of travel. Which reminds me, we went on a Songthaw today, which is like a truck with open sides and bench seats so that was a fun experience. When we came back from the temples loads of school kids got on and I was amazed they could fit so many people in this vehicle.

Later tonight we are going to get the train north to Chiang Mai, which I’m looking forward to. We arrive at 5.35am! Anyway it should be good. Will write more then.

Bangkok, Thailand

I’m in Bangkok finally, after a long day of travelling yesterday. Despite what I’d heard Jordanian Airlines were fine and we had two good meals on both of the flights, which was a nice surprise as the ticket said no meal and I’d bought a donut specially! The airport in Amman looks so modern and again I don’t have anything bad to say about them. The second part of the flight went very slowly especially as there was only two hours of darkness before dawn and I found it hard to sleep when it’s light outside. However while it was dark I looked out of the window and saw the new cities that have been built in Dubai, so that was amazing. There were whole islands outlined with lights and long coastlines illuminated in artificial shapes. It was quite stunning to look down upon.

We arrived in Bangkok and headed to the train station only to find the next train to the city was in two hours time, so we shared a taxi with a couple from Holland. The journey was an experience, as the driver pulled over at various places to ask other drivers for directions and seemed quite confused to start with as to where we wanted to go, and we seemed to take a very indirect route but we arrived near our hotel in the end!

My first impression of the roads was caotic. Cars, busses, tuk-tuks and motorcycles swerve between lanes and there’s lots of beeping on horns and general madness. However despite the lack of road rules, drivers do tend to look out for each other and are patient with other vehicles, and even people pushing trolleys of fruit in the road.

This morning we had our first experience of a tuk-tuk, complete with a scam. We decided it would be a good way of getting to the Grand Palace. Originally I thought about getting a river taxi however one look at the waves and I decided against it! So we waved a tuk-tuk driver, thinking that it would be a cheap and quick way of getting around. We mentioned a Wat nearby instead of the Grand Palace and he seemed to understand where we wanted to go. The ride was enjoyable. Tuk-tuks are a bit like a motorbike with a raised carriage, and felt like a go kart with a chauffeur! However, the driver pulled over and a taxi driver talked to us - it seems all taxi rides involve stopping part of the way and chatting to other drivers. Our driver said he needed petrol and would drop us off at a shop near the station and would be back in ten minutes. It turned out that if we bought something he would get a voucher for free petrol, and then he would take us to the Wat for the price we’d agreed on… So we had arrived at the infamous gem shop. We found an English speaking assistant who explained about the petrol voucher scheme and continued to show us around the store. After a few minutes we said thank you and left with the intention of telling the tuk-tuk driver we weren’t interested in buying any goods, however he hadn’t returned and we weren’t very impressed with being dropped off somewhere other than where we wanted. We were also on the wrong side of Bangkok too. After asking other tuk-tuk drivers how much, and trying to find a bus we flagged down a metered taxi. Eventually we arrived outside the Grand Palace.

The Grand Palace was quite amazing and I took loads of photos. There were lots of monks in orange robes wandering about. When I went to Prague I was constantly in persuit of trams to photograph, but I think my new thing is Monks.

From there we have walked to Khao San Road which is much more relaxed than where we’re staying but seemingly fake, since there is nowhere else quite like it in Bangkok and none of the locals live like that.