Bangkok

Day 1

We have arrived in Bangkok! After an 11 and a half hour direct flight, we have landed! We decided to book a direct flight after last year on our holiday to Thailand, our bags were lost on the connecting flight (sad times!). But luckily this year, we apprehensively arrived into the baggage claim to find our backpacks sitting there – yay! Our flight went very well. We flew with Thai Airways and I could probably say (other than our random upgrade to business class last year) this was the best flight I’ve been on; multiple drinks, lots of food, good service and we had no one next to us!

Upon arriving at the airport, we got a taxi to our hostel called Nivas Siem. There was a mistake with the booking – even though we had booked and had the confirmation, the hostel owner couldn’t find it. Thankfully, she had a spare room though. We went for a private room with A/C. It was a nice hostel, very clean and great service. As Thailand is six hours infront, our bodies were telling us it was about 4am (UK time) and we hadn’t slept on the plane so we went for a couple of hours power nap.

When we woke up, we quickly freshened up and headed to Khao San road. We used a tuk tuk, which are the more popular way of travelling in Thailand. They go so fast and you can usually haggle the price with them. Khao San road is full of delicious street food stalls, plenty of cheap bars, lots of massage parlours and plenty of tourists! It is so busy! We ordered pad thai at a little street food place and it cost 50 baht each which is about £1.50. As expected, it started to chuck it down with rain so we we sheltered for a bit!

After, we found a tourist shop that sell excursions. There were so many. We booked a floating market for the next day. Then, continued to walk around and take pictures. We visited China Town, which is such a vibrant, cool place with again, many food and drink stalls. We snapped a few pictures then decided jet lag was still getting to us and we were feeling so tired so decided to call it a night.

Day 2

6.20am pick up time to the floating market! Feeling tired still, we pushed that aside and were both excited to start the day. I always have a coffee to start the day so I was thrilled to find little Nescafe coffee cans for about 40p each, bargain! It was about an hour and a half to the floating market and we both nodded off on the way. Once we arrived, we travelled down the river in a long tail boat. Many locals were rowing down the river trying to sell their products; food, drinks, snacks, souvenirs. We bought some coconut ice cream with sticky rice, which was amazing! Then, we opted for some fresh mango. You can buy fresh fruit in bags for so cheap here! It cost us 500 baht for the whole trip including transport. Well worth it! It was eye opening to see how some of the locals live and make money. It was such a good morning.

When we arrived back to Khao San road, we continued to explore. We visited temples, which were so beautiful. Last year, we paid a lot to go to the main temples so this year, we scouted out free temples to get into, which were small however just as good! It was so hot and the sun was actually out today – we could feel a little sun burn coming on. After more exploring and some food, we went back to the hostel and chilled for a couple of hours.

In the evening, we ventured back out despite still feeling tired. We were so excited to explore! We went to a bar and had a Chang beer – I don’t know why but beer tastes so much better here (I really dislike it at home). So we had a drink or two and had some more street food. The prices here are SO cheap!

Day 3

We had to check out of our hostel by 12pm so we set an alarm for around 10.30pm. Panicking, I woke up wondering the time and my phone had turned off in the night, which meant my alarm didn’t go off! Uh Oh! It was about 10 past 12. Lewis spoke to the owner and very kindly, she told us to take our time. Phew! So I washed my hair and we sat down and had a coffee. All of a sudden, torrential rain begun to hammer down! I haven’t seen rain quite like it! So we sheltered and waited for it to stop. An hour or so later, it was still raining so we popped on our jackets and borrowed an umbrella and out we went to find some food!

That night, we had a sleeper train to Chiang Mai. it was time to pack up our back packs and get going. It left the station at 7.30pm and arrived in Chiang Mai at 8.45am. We heard this was a popular way to get there and it saved on the price of a hotel for the night! We bought food beforehand to take on with us as it was quite expensive on there. Everyone had their own little bed with a curtain and it wasn’t too bad. The lights were left on but we had eye masks phew! There was a fair bit of snoring and A LOT of rocking from the train but we found it quite funny and amusing. It took a while for both of us to get to sleep but eventually, we nodded off! I think I woke up about 7ish as it was starting to get noisy and then waited for Lewis to wake up. Overall, we considered it to be quite a good experience!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We had a great few days in Bangkok. Such a crazy, busy place. Excited to get to the next destination, which we have never been before. Next stop… Chiang Mai!