2. Bangkok, Thailand

Well what a come down! After flying the last leg of the journey in business class we were down to living out of our hand luggage!! Sadly we didn't pack any clothes in there due to wishful thinking that it hopefully won't happen to us but hey remember this - THERES ALWAYS A FIRST TIME!! 

Day 1

We got the Sky train and the Metro to our hostel and due to it been 11.30pm (due to delays and a long queue at the lost luggage desk!) we didn't want to mess around and found it as quickly as we could. Let's just say we stayed in the 'real' Bangkok - it wasn't an area that you would want to venture out at night time so we kept in our rooms until light! 

Day 2

We found it quite easy to figure out what to wear as we had no choice in the matter! So off we went downstairs for breakfast - very nice and so cheap! 95baht (£1.75!) we then set off walking to Wat Traimit which was round the corner. What a sight! Bigger than expected! It was lovely but the best was yet to come....We saw Lee Ryan from Blue....Z list I know! Ha ha!




 

We went to the top and saw the Golden Buddha which was lovely - we got a real feel for it too as people were praying. 

Now for the near death experience! We pressed the button to cross the road at a marked crossing and the countdown until we cross started 3,2,1 go go go! A good few steps into it and I look right and think oh dear their not stopping!!! Rach was filming at the time and we laugh about it now!! The driving and traffic is crazy here! You really have to be careful!

We really have seen it all - dogs in pushchairs, 7 people in a 2 people tuk tuk and toddlers been held in front of the driver of a moped, not forgetting the ladyboys! Code word if one was spotted is HP hence the picture below!

Day 3

We were all prepared to get a tuk tuk at one point of the trip but no one came (it was a sign not too!!). We walked instead and enjoyed it - seeing the real side of life in Bangkok - families going about their daily lives and street food. 

The news back at England is showing a lot of protests camps and fighting etc but we only came across two protest camps and they were playing music and selling items on stalls - Rach thought at first it was a festival!  I quickly informed her of the truth.

 

We swiftly walked on to MBK - 8 floors and 2000 shops (bear in mind they are like little market stalls!). 

 

We felt safe walking the streets though due to seeing the Royal Thai Army at certain points and we soon got into the swing of things using the public transport and directing ourselves!

 

We couldn't get over how cheap certain things are though - a footlong subway 98baht = £1.80! Would be about £5 odd at home! 

We went to other shopping outlets (Siam Centre and Panagon - higher end shopping - a floor dedicated to selling super cars! Rolls Royce for 48million baht! Why not!! We also saw in there a Thai singer NúGun performing - they were going crazy for him so I think we should be honoured! 

We had a little break and went to Starbucks...I've opened Rachael's eyes to the taste of Frappachino's! She now hooked!

We kept crossing our fingers that we get our bags back and our prayers were answered by a knock on the door at 11.30pm..... This is what followed .....

 

 

...Bag love!! 

Day 4

Went to a nearby pier the following day to be a tourist on a ferry. We made our way up river to go visit the Grand Palace which was phenomenal! Especially as people were praying so it really made you feel the spirit in the air. There were so many photo opportunities! It really is so nice to see the Thai people think so highly of their faith and respect something so much! We don't do this with churches back at home!

 

 

We then walked by a street market which sold absolutely everything including knives which wasn't nice to see, this was on our way to The Reclining Buddha - it is absolutely massive!!!

 

We then went across the river to visit Wat Arun which was fabulous! We climbed the steps and by heck were they STEEP! The views were worth it though!
 

 

 

Day 5

We tried again to get a tuk tuk but failed - we wanted to go to the tallest building in Thailand, 'The Baiyoke Sky Tower' so we asked Mr Tuk Tuk driver. He said 300baht, we halved it and he said 250baht, we said no...he walked away and we walked to the Metro!!

 

We met two guys from Brazil, Francesco and Junior who were going to the same place as us so we all tagged along together - safety in numbers! The views were breathtaking! A free drink in the bar and a revolving floor at the top! Very nice! It was funny though...we have never been lost in a building before ha ha! We went down the wrong lift and got confused but we made it out alive!!!

 

We also managed to catch a ride in a very nice air conditioned tuk tuk...

 

 

We then went to Cabbages and Condoms Restaurant just to have a look due to it being near by! It was funny!! I've never seen condom flowers before!

 

We then made our way back to our hostel, collected our bags, had dinner and got the sleeper train to Chumphon! What an experience that was - details in next post... This one is long enough!!! 

Next stop....Koh Tao!!!

Take care, 

Nat! XxX (with help from Rach for pics)

1. The Adventure Begins! (Getting to Bangkok)

Helllllooo from Bangkok!!

We can't believe we're here, after years of planning, months of excitement, weeks of preparation...it has begun!

We started the trip in our house stressing over what to take, how to pack it and whether it needed to go into hand luggage or checked in baggage! We said our goodbye-for-now's to our family and friends and set off on our journey. Which NEARLY didn't go as planned due to a bus fire that literally just happened as we got to about 2 miles of it, resulting in long queues, motorway lanes to be closed and for our stress to rise...not too much...kind of!

After overcoming our motorway drama, we arrived at the airport only for me to find (after thinking I'd left it at home) a lovely extremely melted creme egg in my jacket pocket and due to me taking this jacket I had to wash it as obviously would be not allowed (not that a jacket is needed at this part of the trip!!!! its sooooo humid!!!). So this was quickly washed off and resolved!

Our flight left at 20.10 so we had plenty of time to relax and figure out where we had to go, after checking in, we went through security and got to the gate. We had a bit of chill time to eat some lemon drizzle cake (one for grandma!!)!

 

We then boarded our flight but before we could Puggles wanted a selfie with the aeroplanes in the background, what's he like!

 

 

For those wondering who Puggles is, it's a replacement of Nat's boyfriend which has his aftershave on, how romantic hehe!

 

So, the flight was with Emirates (economy of course $$$) but the standard that economy is at, makes you feel like you're in first class!! Pillow, headphones, machine in front of you to choose from hundreds of movies, songs and games too! The woman in front really did like that Inflight trivia game! Also comfy seats, sooo much legroom (very handy when got crazy long legs...), blanket and PROPER KNIFES AND FORKS...basically we love Emirates. We set off about 30 mins late but was all fine, then 7 hours later arrived at Dubai. Midway through however, we saw that outside the window we could see the turning of night into day and captured it :)

 

 

Upon arrival in Dubai, in the distance we saw the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, even when it was miles and miles and miles and miles away, it still looked magnificient!

 

The Dubai airport is crazily big, and ultra shiny with branded goods everywhere, shops with extremely expensive products in...we really could tell we were in Dubai!

 

We made it to boarding but when we got through we got a MASSIVE surprise. We had been upgraded to BUSINESS CLASS!!!! Here's the proof!

 

 

 

So this came with some amazing advantages; soft blanket, amazing eye mask, FULLY reclinable chairs, noise cancelling headphones, water and ridiculously nice food! I unfortunately felt really rough about the first flight so annoyingly had to decline the food and settle for iced water (in a proper glass!).

 

So we then arrived at Bangkok airport where we had a much shorter wait! Taking full advantage of our business class opportunity because it might not happen again (happy for it too thought!).

 

 

So after getting our visas stamped, we went to collect our baggage.........

 

However, after what seemed like forever, we saw a lot of people from our flight gathering at the lost or damages desk...made us scared. In a nutshell, even though we set off an hour late from Dubai due to a ''baggage handling problems'', none of the luggage had been put on the plane!! The image below is after the queuing up because it was so busy and tight around the desk.

 

 

So currently we are waiting to be reunited with our bags which have all our clothes in!! So safe to say, in this weather, we need more clothes!!

 

We then got the metro which have these AMAZING tokens instead of paper which fascinated us for a while...easily entertained. Made us think it was for a funfair ride...

 

 

After a little bit of wandering we finally found the hostel which is really nice and comfy! In a really central area (train station, shops, metro) however the downfall to that is traffic...it is completely mental but you avoid crossing roads (full of tuk tuks and mopeds) by using the metro entrances and exits. At each entrance there is a security sensor and guard, it's brilliant safety wise however is a pain because we have to open our bags every time (however today the lady let us through due to seeing us TOO many times).

 

So, hope you enjoyed our first post of our arrival to Bangkok, it's weird being 7 hours ahead of England however we have managed to get in the time zone surprisingly fast!

Feel free to comment below :)

 

See you on the next post!!

 

Rach x