Hi!

 

So as previously mentioned, we arrived very early off our night bus at 3.30am. For those of you who know Khao San Road's reputation, you will understand what a terrifying shock this is when half asleep. Below is the main tourist road in the day, so just imagine how 'in-your-face' it is at night. We had to find somewhere that was open 24 hours that we could sit in until we could check in somewhere. Now, the open bit wasn't a problem. Ordering tea and not beer, was. It was crazy to walk down the street towards the end of the night, seeing the dregs left!! Literally, people watching at it's best. Many a prostitute at work.

We eventually persuaded a guy to give each of us a tea, and willed it to be breakfast time somewhere. Cue McDonalds. At 5am. Sober and sleep deprived. Low point. Here we nested ourselves, with the help of free wifi until we could wait no more. Lu and Laura went on a lovely dawn stroll around no joke, 20+ hotels, begging one of them to take us in. After about an hour of looking, good news was shared and we fell into a bed at 8am, arranging to meet at 12am for some sightseeing! Nothing like being enthusiastic to explore your surroundings.

So after a nap and some brunch, to a temple complex we went. It housed 'The Reclining Buddha'. Was all very fancy and the attention to detail and architecture of these places is mind blowing.

 

Reclining Buddha.

Buddha impressions.

 

Love this picture of monks leaving the temple, tuk tuk at the ready.

We too left in a tuk tuk, 4 at a squeeze!

 

Bangkok is exactly as we expected it to be; very busy, very weird and very dirty. Having said that, we scratched the surface and only spent a day and a half there. We will go back again as we fly out of Asia from there. Hopefully we will arrive in different circumstances and be a bit more forgiving!

It is definitely a diverse city.

Boiling hot doggies that found a huge ice bucket! Genius!!

 

 

Sadly, Bangkok saw us bid bon voyage to the girls as they were flying back to England after 7 months. We stayed one more night and booked a night train up to Chang Mai. So we spent the next day, trapsing around a 8 floor shopping mall, packed to the square metre, asian style with rip offs of anything you could possibly think of. It seemed much more geared to them than tourists. We left empty handed except for a new camera for Kate, which was good for the purse and the backpack!

That night we got a night train up north to Chiang Mai leaving Bangkok at 7.30pm and arriving at 10am! The train was a new experience, which proved to be much more pleasant than the bumpy asian buses!

Chiang Mai and Pai blog to follow soon!!

Lots of Love,

Lu & Kate

XXX