Tuesday 17 July 2012

Arriving in Bangkok!

So after a very uncomfortable flight (11 hours of some guy elbowing me and leaning on my arm rest) I arrived in Bangkok on Sunday!

After a long taxi ride into the centre of Bangkok - Thai drivers are crazy and there is so much traffic! - I arrived at the guest house we are staying at while we are here. It's very simple but nice, with lots of buddha statues everywhere..

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After settling in I met the rest of the group and we all headed off to Kho Sarn Road - the main backpacker street to try some buckets of cocktails and listen to some live music, whihc was really cool. Some of the bravest of us also tried one of these from a street food stall.... 


I tried a very small maggot type thing that isn't in the picture because I'm not THAT brave but it tasted OK, just very salty....
There are loads of street food stalls everywhere around here and the food is amazing and SO cheap. It's great to walk around and see so many different things and smell so many different smells.

Monday was our first proper day and we spent it having a river sruise on a traditional long tail boat. There was so much to see but was very difficult to take pictures as we were moving, but intesting to see lots of temples etc (one of whihc I got a pic of below) . Also managed to see the Grand Palace which is amazing.


We also bought some bread from the floating market on the river to feed the fish from the boat. It's meant to bring good luck and they go crazy when you throw the bread in I thought they were going to bite my hand off!


After that I got a tuk tuk back to the guest house whihc actually wasn't as scary as I thought it'd be from all the horror stories I have heard. Maybe we got the only good driver in Bangkok. Saying that, we did drive on the wrong side of the road for a while, but can't complain as I got there in one piece!


That night we all went out for a group meal at an Indian restaurant (there are so many different types of food available everywhere). We had to take our shoes off before going inside the restaurant and we sat on the floor on cushions, it was really comfy. There was also shisha pipes and games to play so it was a really nice chilled out place apart from the very loud bhangra music!



This morning we got up and checked out of the hotel before heading to a Thai cooking class. I learned how to make Phad Thai and Panang Red Curry and tasted some mango and sweet sticky rice too. You will probbaly know how bad I am at cooking so am very impressed with myself! Not sure I will be able to remember how to do it when I come back home though, so don't get your hopes up!


This afternoon I've just been looking around all of the markets and trying out some bartering with the stall holders. I've bought a dress for 4 pounds and a little ornament for 1 pound so I think I'm getting quite good but have no idea how I am ever going to fit any more into my backpack it's almost overflowing!

Just chilling out now in an internet cafe with a green tea latte and am going to head back to meet everyone in a minute so we can all head off to get the overnight train down south. It's a 12 hour journey so should be an experience...

Will blog again in a week or so :)

Jem xx





1 comment:

  1. Hi Jem! Just arrived back from Uganda and have been looking forward to reading your blog as have been wondering what you have been getting up to on your travels whilst I was on mine! Sounds fantastic so far and that you have seen and experienced so much already, can't wait to hear more.. I will be following the blog regularly and encouraging others too aswell! Hope you are well, Love you so much! Amy xxxxx

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