Bangkok, Thailand

I'd heard so many bad things before we visited Bangkok - 'it's mental - fly in and then get out!' they said. But we were pleasantly surprised when we were met with a busy buzz mixed with interesting culture and by the end of our stay in Thailand's capital, we actually had a bit of a crush on the city. 

We booked our hotel in what we thought was  central Bangkok. Our taxi driver greeted us with 'Why you stay in Bang Na?' which is when we realised we were on the outskirts on the city. We dropped off our bags and went straight down to the cafe below to get some food. After all the Sri Lankan rice & curry you could dream of, we were happy to welcome some new flavours. We both went for the classic Thai green curry with a ice juice on the side. I can handle my spice but my god, am I glad I got that ice juice, my mouth was literally on fire. Jake said the chillies must have been grown in a volcano to be that hot! 

The following day we used google translate to ask the receptionist how to get to the Sky Train. We quickly realised that not everyone can speak fluent English - we were spoilt with easy translation in Sri Lanka. It was about a 20 minute walk to Bang Na station and we had no idea where we were going from there so just headed to the station that looked central on the map, Siam. The train was pretty cool and felt like a futuristic version of the tube, flying through the sky whilst everyone was glued to their phones. Once we got to Siam, we figured we were in the perfect spot for shopping, with 2 big malls located right next to each other. We had a wander round and got tempted by the westernised feel of it all. We treated ourselves to a few updates to our backpack wardrobes and then finished it off with what was labelled 'the best chicken in the Thailand'. 

We decided to move hotels on our third day, as Bang Na was proving to be a bit too far out of the city. Our taxi took about an hour and a half as there was SO much traffic, and we had to change cars as the first one broke down due to the overwhelming heat! Once we settled in, we head out to China town, and being the sensible pair that we are we thought it would be a good idea to walk there - a 20 minute walk in Bangkok heat is just unbearable. We managed to find our way there and directed ourselves down the windy whindy streets. Trying to make your way through whilst dodging the bikes and vendors bringing stock through the thin roads is a difficult task. We decided to stop for a drink in a lovely air conditioned bar to cool down and we chose not to head back into the madness. 

The following day we made our way over to the Grand Palace, another 20 minute walk away. Again being super sensible, we went at midday - it was swarmed with people and I don't think I've ever been so hot in my life. It was a really beautiful place, but I couldn't help thinking how much nicer it would be if there wasn't so many tourists there. They should have a capacity limit. The heat got too much and we decided to chill in the afternoon and visit the famous Koh San Road in the evening. We had heard a bit about it through friends and blogs, and the general consensus was that it was pretty crazy. We got there around 8pm and it seemed quite tame. It has that 18-30s European holiday type feel, (aka Magaluf) but still was quite cool to visit with scorpions and spiders on sticks and all the elephant printed clothes you could dream of. We had a wander round and as my feet were killing I treated myself to a foot massage while Jake got a back and shoulder massage. I didn't know so much force could come from a little, petite Thai girl - she literally beat me up, slapping and punching my legs and feet. At one point she had this stick she was jabbing into the bottom of my feet and when she asked if it hurt and I replied yeah, she just laughed and continued. After the 30 minutes of abuse was up, I was glad to hear I wasn't the only one who experienced the violence. Jake's massage sounded much worse than mine and he explained it as 'I think she thought she was doing origami and trying to turn me into a swan!' 

We packed our bags and made our way to our overnight 10 hour bus up to north to Chiang Mai.

Pav & Jake

xxx