Thailand | Bangkok

On the 27th May Bryony and I flew out to Thailand for an incredible adventure. Here are a few pictures and stories from our little trip!

After landing in Bangkok we made our way to the first hotel. One of the first things we did while we were out there is buy a local sim card which made contacting family and friends much easier - it wasn't expensive either. We explored the area around our hotel and visited a tourist office to get our bearings. We had a tasty dinner and tasted the night life on Koh San Road before heading to bed!

We decided we would explore the Grand Temple (500 Bahts, about £11) on our first day in Bangkok, which is home to the famous Emerald Buddha. The Emerald Buddha has three types of armour which gets changed by the king according to the season. The heavens opened and we ran for cover, and it was entertaining watching all the tourists scurry for shelter!

We had a tasty lunch before heading back to the hotel to meet the Ultimate Thailand tour group. There was a mixture of people from Germany to Australia and of course a number of us from the UK who we all got on with. I had my first taste of a Thai green curry which was tasty and very spicy. After dinner we explored Koh San Road and had drinks in a roof top bar and did the Macarena in the street - I'm not sure dancing on a night out is the norm in Thailand, we had quite an audience!

The next morning we grabbed some food from across the road before the heavens opened, I've never seen rain so hard! We waded through the streets, in our raincoats and ponchos before getting onto the ferry to explore Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn. We then made our way to the reclining Buddha, which was fantastic.

We then had a free afternoon to find our own way around Bangkok. Bryony and I jumped onto another ferry and onto the sky train to find the "super malls". These shopping centres were huge; one had a sea life centre and another an ice rink! Once we were full of yummy pancakes and sufficiently tired, we jumped into a taxi (making sure it was metered so we weren't ripped off...) and got back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. After eating we explored more of Koh San Road and had our first Thai massage.

Our last day in Bangkok involved getting up early to see the floating market. The boat ride was fantastic, a narrow boat with a car engine meant we were zooming around the canals. It gave us a real taste of Thailand. We got to the market and met a wonderful Thai lady who told us all about her business and the work of the king in the area. We then packed up our bits to go on the overnight train  to Koh Sok National Park.

Read the next post for the next part of our adventure!